Rising Sun

“You see,” Co

His voice echoed in the concrete stairwell. Co

Co

“That’s why you threw your pen away?”

“Yes. I didn’t want Phillips to know what I was doing.”

“And?”

“The trash was full of crumpled plastic wrappers. The kind that new videotapes come wrapped in.”

“I see.”

“Once I knew the tapes had been replaced, the only remaining question was, which set? So I played dumb, and looked in all the drawers. You probably noticed that set C, the set Phillips removed when he came on duty, had slightly whiter labels than the other sets. It was subtle, because the office has only been active two months, but you could tell.”

“I see.” Somebody had come into the security room, taken out twenty fresh tapes, unwrapped them, written new labels, and popped them into the video machines, replacing the original tapes that had recorded the murder.

I said, “If you ask me, Phillips knows more about this than he was telling us.”

“Maybe,” Co

“You think he’s the one who switched the tapes?”

Co

7

A line of party guests waited for valets to bring their cars. I saw Ishiguro chatting up Mayor Thomas and his wife. Co

I didn’t get really angry until that moment: until I saw the way he toadied up in front of the mayor. It made me so mad I began to turn red. But Co

“Thank you, Ishiguro-san,” he said, with a slight bow. “The investigation is going well.”

“You’re receiving all the help you requested?” Ishiguro said.

“Oh, yes,” Co

“Good, good. I’m glad.” Ishiguro glanced at the mayor, and smiled at him, too. He was all smiles, it seemed.

“But,” Co

“Just name it. If there is anything we can do…”

“The security tapes seem to have been removed.”

“Security tapes?” Ishiguro frowned, clearly caught off guard.

“Yes,” Co

“I don’t know anything about that,” Ishiguro said. “But let me assure you, if any tapes exist, they are yours to examine.”

“Thank you,” Co

“Removed? Gentlemen, I believe there must be some mistake.”

The mayor was watching this exchange closely.

Co

“I certainly will,” Ishiguro said. “But I must say again. I can’t imagine, Captain Co

“Thank you for checking, Mr. Ishiguro,” Co

“Not at all, Captain,” he said, still smiling. “It is my pleasure to assist you in whatever way I can.”

“The son of a bitch,” I said. We were driving west on the Santa Monica freeway. “The little prick looked us right in the eye and lied.”

“It’s a

“What burns me is he acted so confident.”

“Of course he did,” Co

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s fine, but the fact is he’s a lying son of a bitch.”

Co

“Of course not.”

“So you change according to context, too,” Co

“It sounds to me,” I said, “like an excuse for lying.”

“He doesn’t see it as lying.”

“But that’s what it is.”

Co

“The hell.”

“Look, it’s your choice. You can understand the Japanese and deal with them as they are, or you can get pissed off. But our problem in this country is that we don’t deal with the Japanese the way they really are.” The car hit a deep pothole, bouncing so hard that the car phone fell off the receiver. Co

Up ahead, I saw the exit for Bundy. I moved into the right lane. “One thing I’m not clear about,” I said. “Why do you think the man with the briefcase in the security room might be the killer?”

“It’s because of the time sequence. You see, the murder was reported at eight thirty-two. Less than fifteen minutes later, at eight forty-five, a Japanese man was down there switching the tapes, arranging a cover-up. That’s a very fast response. Much too fast for a Japanese company.”

“Why is that?”

“Japanese organizations are actually very slow to respond in a crisis. Their decision-making relies on precedents, and when a situation is unprecedented, people are uncertain how to behave. You remember the faxes? I am sure faxes have been flying back and forth to Nakamoto’s Tokyo headquarters all night. Undoubtedly the company is still trying to decide what to do. A Japanese organization simply ca

“But an individual acting alone can?”

“Yes. Exactly.”

I said, “And that’s why you think the man with the briefcase may be the killer.”

Co