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Co
“Yes, of course.”
I flipped open my pad.
Co
“Shinichi,” she said.
Co
“Who?”
“Eddie. Did he kill Cheryly
She was a pretty girl but I could see the excitement in her eyes. She was looking at me with a steady gaze. Her eyes were shining. It was creepy. I said, “Why do you ask?”
“Because. He was always threatening to. Like this afternoon, he threatened her.”
I said, “Eddie was here this afternoon?”
“Sure.” She shrugged. “He’s here all the time. He came to see her this afternoon, real worked up. They put extra soundproofing to the walls in this building when they took it over. But even so, you could hear them scream at each other in her apartment. Him and Cheryly
“I don’t know.”
“But she’s dead?” Her eyes still shining.
“Yes.”
“It had to happen,” she said. She seemed completely calm. “We all knew it. It was just a matter of time. If you want, call me. If you need more information.”
“Yes. I will.” I gave her my card. “And if you think of anything else, you can call me at this number.”
She slipped it into the hip pocket of her shorts, twisting her body. “I like talking to you, Peter.”
“Yes. Okay.”
I walked down the corridor. When I got to the end I looked back. She was standing in her doorway, waving good-bye.
10
Co
“That’s right,” Co
We walked outside to the car.
I said, “Checking your contacts?”
“Contacts?” He looked puzzled. “Oh. Graham said something to you about my ‘contacts.’ I don’t have any special informants. He just thinks I do.”
“He mentioned the Arakawa case.”
Co
“And what did you do?”
“The Arakawas were staying at the New Otani Hotel. I got the phone records of the calls they made to Japan. I called those numbers, and spoke to some people in Osaka. Then I called Osaka and talked to the police there. Again, in Japanese. They were surprised to hear we didn’t know the whole story.”
“I see.”
“Not quite,” Co
“That’s why you went to Japan?”
“No. That’s another story.”
We came to the car. I looked back at the Imperial Arms, and saw Julia Young standing at the window, staring down at us. “She’s seductive,” I said.
“The Japanese call women like that shirigaru o
I started driving south, toward the airport. Co
“Why do you say there’s a pattern you don’t like?”
Co
“You said yourself, they’re in a hurry.”
“Maybe. But you know the Japanese think American police are incompetent. This sloppiness is a sign of their disdain.”
“Well, we’re not incompetent.”
Co
“So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that a crime occurred here with the expectation that it won’t be solved. And I want to solve it, kōhai.”
Co
I just drove the car, and listened to him breathe.
Finally, he said: “Ishiguro.”
“What about him?”
“If we knew what made Ishiguro behave as he did, we’d understand this case.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s hard for an American to see him clearly,” Co
“But Japan is different. Everything works in Japan. In a Tokyo train station, you can stand at a marked spot on the platform and when the train stops, the doors will open right in front of you. Trains are on time. Bags are not lost. Co
“Uh-huh…”
“And tonight was a very big night for the Nakamoto Corporation. You can be sure they pla
“Okay.”
“But there is our friend Ishiguro, the official representative of Nakamoto, standing in front of a dead girl, and he’s clearly not in control. He’s yōshiki nō, doing Western-style confrontation, but he isn’t comfortable—I’m sure you noticed the sweat on his lip. And his hand is damp; he keeps wiping it on his trousers. He is rikutsuppoi, too argumentative. He’s talking too much.