Fishing for Stars (49 page)

The next evening Konoe Akira arrived in his powder-blue Cadillac, and Anna, dressed in a formal black silk kimono, was concealed in the room next to the black room at the furthermost end of the establishment. Anna’s entry was timed precisely from the moment the light went out, when she was to go and stand in the complete dark in the open doorway of Konoe Akira’s black room. She would be required to count in a practised cadence to five hundred, by which time the first of the ropes would be in place and she could enter, Lee-Li giving a short staccato cough as a signal.

From her position in the doorway Anna heard the familiar moans and sudden indrawn breaths as the ropes wound and tightened, and almost as she reached the end of her silent count she heard the slight cough, more a clearing of the throat, from Lee-Li. She entered the room, skirting the ebony table as she had practised blindfolded so often over the past week, proceeding silently on bare feet, counting the number of paces. She reached the raised platform and found Lee-Li’s hand to take up the rope. It was a near faultless exchange and in case Konoe Akira picked up any sudden disharmony in movement she pulled the rope a fraction tighter, causing him to wince and focus his attention back on himself.

Anna applied herself steadily for half an hour, her pliant fingers massaging and coaxing, working the rope with such subtlety that Konoe Akira cried out in ecstasy or moaned in despair as she punished and rewarded him and after almost an hour built him up gradually to a shattering climax.

When the last ecstatic moan had died to a whimper she began to count, but then realised that Konoe Akira was weeping. She began to undo the ropes, massaging his joints and working his slack penis intermittently until it stood erect once again. He had stopped crying and was now panting, irregularly gasping for breath. She had almost removed the last of the ropes when she heard the distant siren of the approaching ambulance, whereupon she twisted the rope in a configuration around his left hip and scrotum, twisted it, then jerked it so violently that the sudden stab of pain shot up through his thighs and into his chest, causing agony so intense that Konoe Akira screamed as he ejaculated the second time. Anna switched on the light just as he experienced a second excruciating pain, this one brought on by a severe angina attack. Anna had judged it to perfection. He would believe he was dying, whereas she had simply punished his heart sufficiently to bring on the attack. Outside the ambulance siren died and Anna listened for the sound of running footsteps approaching. The ambulance had been a safeguard in case she had misjudged his medical condition.

The honourable General Konoe Akira stared up at her, his eyes filled with panic and disbelief. He pointed, his hand shaking violently, to the table at the centre of the room upon which rested the small aluminium box. ‘T . . . t . . . tablet,’ he stammered.

Anna smiled down at him. ‘Ah,
Konoe-san
, such a great pity. You have overestimated the strength of the heartwood, the core within that, come what may, cannot be broken,’ she said softly. ‘Remember this night when you could so easily have been left to die.’

Moments later three ambulance medics burst into the room. ‘He requires a nitroglycerin tablet,’ Anna said to one of the medics. Then turning on her heels, she left the room.

‘Jesus, a heart attack!’ I exclaimed when Anna came to the end of the scene at the Jade House. ‘Is he okay?’

‘Yes, it was only acute angina.’

‘You’ve talked to him in hospital?’

‘Yes, the day after, and every day since. This morning before you arrived I went again, and I will go again tomorrow.’

I waited for her to explain further but she remained silent. ‘Is that all? A few days ago you saw the bloke for the first time in twenty-five years, you’ve seen him every day since the angina attack and that’s all you have to say – you’re going back tomorrow!’

‘Nicholas, he’s had an angina attack! He’s been wired to a monitor, sedated, he has a drip in his arm, and he’s a frightened old man. The first day I gave him back the fob watch and showed him the photos of the persimmon trees.’

‘And the other three days? What, catching up on old times?’

‘Yes, sort of. I’ll see him tomorrow – it’s his last day in hospital – then perhaps we can get down to business.’

‘Business?’

‘You know . . . stuff.’

‘Why? Why won’t you tell me?’ I begged.

‘It’s not how it must seem . . . it’s not like before.’

‘Oh?’

‘He’s profoundly sorry.’

‘Jesus, Anna! You’re the one who is supposed to take no prisoners! The one who waits, knowing the time will always come to even the score. Remember? It’s a central tenet of your business philosophy.’ I paused, gathering steam. ‘It’s been twenty-five fucking years and all you can say is that he’s
profoundly
sorry!’

‘It’s not what you think, Nicholas. It didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to. You know . . . revenge. I’m frightened you won’t understand!’

My heart missed a beat. Oh Jesus, was she back under his spell? ‘Try me.’

‘Nicholas, you may not like it,’ Anna warned, averting her eyes.

On the morning after Konoe Akira’s ‘heart attack’ Anna woke very early, showered and put on a pair of jeans, a white cotton turtleneck sweater and knee-high stiletto boots. She did her hair in the style she’d worn as a sixteen-year-old, applied a light-coloured lipstick and a smudge of green eye shadow. At a distance she could have been mistaken for a woman no older than twenty.

She arrived at Tokyo’s University Hospital and had to wait until eight before they would allow her into the recovery ward where Konoe Akira, still sedated, was asleep. She took the chair beside his bed and sat down to wait. Around mid-morning he eventually opened his eyes and stared at her, momentarily confused and fearful, not sure whether she was real or simply a return of the hallucination, part of the blinding pain of a severe angina attack, when she’d suddenly appeared to him out of the darkness. Then his eyes left hers and travelled slowly around the hospital room as if he were still trying to orient himself, pausing momentarily on the heart monitor, the drip bag above his bed, the tube entering the back of his hand and finally returning to her face.

‘Second . . . Vase?’ he asked, not yet entirely sure, clearing his throat between the two words.

‘Good morning,
Konoe-san
. Yes, it is me, Anna,’ Anna said in a cheerful voice, her insouciance deliberate.

‘Last night?’ Konoe Akira croaked. ‘It was you?’

Anna laughed, then looked at him, her right eyebrow slightly raised. ‘One kidnapping deserves another . . . don’t you think?’

Konoe Akira did not react but instead reached for the plastic cup at his bedside and swallowed several mouthfuls of water, pausing after each, his eyes fixed on Anna. He replaced the cup and when he spoke his voice had lost its gravelly, tentative quality. ‘You could have killed me.’

‘Yes,’ Anna answered in a cheerful voice, ‘very easily.’

‘Then why didn’t you? It would have appeared to be a heart attack.’

‘It was an angina attack. There’s a big difference,’ Anna replied, deliberately avoiding his question. ‘All it needed was a little bit of encouragement from me and it could well have been a heart attack. The sublime rope has its dark side. Is that not why you come, knowing that it can kill you as well as serve your atavistic needs?’ Although her voice was light, she was determined to maintain the initiative.

‘You were marvellous, Second Vase. I could not believe it was Lee-Li, but it was too good to question, to stop and find out. You have progressed remarkably since last we knew each other in Tjilatjap. I have never experienced anything quite like it.’

‘Thank you.’

Konoe Akira smiled. ‘Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be a bad way to die. I have not galloped the celestial plains twice in ten minutes since I was a young man.’

Despite herself Anna was forced to laugh. The fearless old soldier was back in control. ‘And nearly died as a result! You must be more careful in future whom you choose as your dominatrix.’

Konoe Akira fell silent, thinking. ‘When I foolishly had you kidnapped . . . it was an unfortunate experience,’ he said clumsily.

‘For whom, you or me?’ Anna asked.

Konoe Akira looked surprised. ‘I have learned my lesson, it was a salutary experience for me.’

‘Do I take that as an apology?’ Anna was speaking in the Western way with none of the courtesies that might have been affected by a Japanese woman in her speech to a man of Konoe Akira’s status.

‘It was remiss . . . yes, remiss of me.’

‘Remiss! Five men died horrible deaths, my partner was badly injured from the accident with the vase and spent two nights in a police cell . . .’ Anna was lost for further words.

Konoe Akira appeared not to be listening. ‘The vase . . . very regrettable. The stitches will heal but the celestial beauty of a thousand years has gone forever.’

‘Why? Why did you do it?’ Anna asked angrily, then unable to help herself added, ‘It was not worthy of you!’

Konoe Akira appeared to be reaching for the right words but then quite suddenly abandoned the attempt. ‘Yes, you are correct, it was the insecurity of a stupid old man. I wanted to be sure we met on my terms. I never intended that you be held for more than a few hours. I was doublecrossed by the Shield Society. We had agreed they would hold you only until the morning, but they saw an opportunity to get more money from me. I had seen the whole thing as little more than a warning not to attempt anything that might indict me, but it went horribly wrong.’

‘You did it to show me you were still powerful? Could still control me if you wished? Why, that’s pathetic!’

Konoe Akira, glancing down at his hands resting on his lap, was silent for some time, but Anna held her ground, insisting on an answer. ‘Yes, it was most reprehensible, Second Vase,’ he said finally.

‘Anna! My name is Anna!’ She looked at him scornfully. ‘Let me see now . . . we have
salutary
,
remiss
,
regrettable
and
reprehensible
, but we still don’t have the simplest word of them all. We don’t have
sorry
!’

Konoe Akira looked up and held Anna’s eyes. ‘Why did you not kill me? It would have been easy – a heart attack during
kinbaku –
 you would not have been suspected. I am fairly certain it has happened to someone before. Instead, you had the ambulance standing by.’ He smiled tiredly. ‘I could have you arrested for deliberately causing grievous bodily harm. It would not be a difficult case to bring to the prosecutor, eh?’

‘Would this then be another attempt to show me how powerful you are?’ Anna said lightly, refusing to take him seriously. ‘I had no desire to see you dead but you placed me in great danger without much thought and now you know how that feels. By the way, I am told you have had angina attacks before. You may need a heart bypass operation. It is a new technique, but very successful; your heart specialist is sure to know about it. They probably perform it at this very hospital.’

‘Aha, I see, so you are an expert with hearts then, a doctor maybe? That is why you knew what you were doing!’

‘Yes, I knew, but I’m not a doctor in
kinbaku
. At the highest levels it is a matter of knots and pressure. I know about the heart bypass operation from a friend who also suffered from acute angina and has undergone the new procedure with great results. If the ambulance hadn’t been so prompt I’d have given you the nitroglycerin tablet myself. You were never going to die,
Konoe-san
.’

‘So, why have you come here today,
Anna-san
? Is it to mock me?’

Anna flicked her hair impatiently. ‘
Titch!
I have brought you back your fob watch and chain and I have the photographs to show you of the twenty-four persimmon trees we have planted up to this time.’

‘And that is all?’

‘There is something else, but it can wait until you are feeling well again.’

Anna opened her handbag and withdrew the gold fob watch she’d given him as a farewell gift all those years ago. It had been her father’s and before that her grandfather’s. She placed it on the bedside cupboard beside the empty plastic cup, thinking that this time he might not see it as the loving gift she had bestowed on him all those years ago. After what had transpired between them he might not even want to accept it.

But Konoe Akira surprised her by saying softly, ‘Thank you. I have always cherished it. It has a special place in my life, more precious even than the lost vase.’ He picked up the watch and chain and laid it on the sheet covering his stomach, then closed his hand around the beautiful old chronometer.

Next Anna took out four colour prints. Selecting the first she leaned over and showed it to him, saying, ‘This is the first one. I had to wait five years to find the perfect place on a beautiful island in the South Pacific. See, it is already a mature tree and fruits abundantly – beautiful golden orbs – even though, as you know, there is no winter in the tropics, only the dry season.’ She selected the second photograph, a depiction of a seedling no more than a few centimetres tall, standing twin-leaved against the dark soil. ‘This is the latest, number twenty-four. It was planted on my birthday last year. I always plant the seed myself and say something in Japanese, then we open a bottle of champagne.’ The third photograph showed the driveway at Beautiful Bay with all the trees in leaf in descending size, and the fourth showed the same view but with those trees large enough now in fruit, their leaves having dropped, the branches witch-broomed against a pewter-coloured sky.