Rules of the Hunt (35 page)
Despite his words, Adachi was uneasy about the tapes.
Tape was a reliable enough medium if you used
it yourself and kept the evidence chain intact, but where a third party was
involved he was cautious.
There were all
kinds of electronic tricks you could play these days.
Also, the fact that some tapes were genuine
did not mean all were.
The sheer number
of tapes would tend to suggest authenticity, but what better place, when you
thought about it, to hide a couple of fakes.
He resolved to check the tapes further with a speech analyst.
But that would take time.
Meanwhile, they would have to go with what
they had.
The prosecutor closed his eyes, lost in thought.
He was wearing a lapel pin, Adachi
noticed:
miniature crossed silver
brooms; the sweeping out of corruption.
It had become associated with some of those who were working to clean up
Japanese politics.
So far, wearers were
in something of a select and extremely small minority.
The average voter knew the system was deeply
flawed but also knew the economic gains made by
individual well-being.
The system was
imperfect, but it worked.
So why change
it?
Power would always be a money
game.
That was human nature.
"Means, opportunity, and motive," said the prosecutor.
"I find it hard to believe that the
Namakas would turn on their
kuromaku
..."
"But," said Adachi, "There is the matter
of the evidence."
"Quite so," said the prosecutor.
"And the evidence is quite
convincing."
"Bring them in?" said Adachi.
The prosecutor shook his head.
"I think we should talk to the Namaka brothers fairly soon,"
he said, "but not quite yet.
Let us
see what we can turn up in the next couple of weeks.
The indicators are clear, but a successful
outcome will require more in the way of proof."
"We are working on it," said Adachi.
Despite some unease, which he did his best to
suppress, he could feel the case beginning to crack.
The feeling was that of exhilaration, the
lust of the hunter.
It would give him
the greatest pleasure to put the Namaka brothers behind bars.
"This is encouraging progress," said the prosecutor in
dismissal.
Adachi bowed
respectfully.
He felt tired but good.
*
*
*
*
*
Three days later, the Tokyo MPD forensic laboratory cracked the
encryption code which had prevented Hodama's security video from being viewed.
The encryption technology was similar to that used to prevent
unauthorized viewers from watching satellite TV without a decoder.
The principle was easy to understand.
Finding the key to the particular code used
by Hodama was another matter.
The
permutations seemed to be endless.
It
was a problem for a supercomputer, it seemed, the kind of thing that the
worldwide eavesdropping agency, the NSA, excelled at.
In the end, thinking laterally, old-fashioned police work rather than
technology was brought into play.
A
detailed examination of Hodama's business connections revealed a shareholding
in a company that manufactured decoders.
From then on, it was just a matter of talking persuasively to the
company president.
At first he was
unwilling to cooperate.
A trip to police
headquarters and a tour of some of the facilities for overnight guests worked
wonders.
The lab sent over several unlocked copies of the tape which could be
played on an ordinary video machine.
Adachi had an initial viewing in the squad room,
then
took a copy back to his apartment to study at his leisure.
Besides, he wanted Chifune's input; and he
wanted Chifune.
Surprisingly, she was available.
She tended to be elusive.
She
said that unpredictability stimulated ardor.
Privately, Adachi thought his ardor for Chifune did not need any
help.
He only had to think of Tanabu-
san
for his desire to become well-nigh
intolerable.
Other women no longer
interested him.
He had tried a few times
since he had started sleeping with Chifune, but the alternatives paled in
comparison.
It was a damn nuisance.
He was accustomed to a robust and uncomplicated sex life enjoyed in much
the same physical way as a bout of
kendo
— and now his whole being was involved.
It was a marvelous, awful, terrifying feeling; and a bloody
nuisance.
Running any murder
investigation required absolute focus and concentration.
And the Hodama business was not just any old
slice of mayhem.
Hodama's security videos were linked to the cameras directly in front of
the house and inside the main reception area.
There were cameras elsewhere, but these were merely connected to
monitors.
The lab had intercut the tapes
from the two cameras linked to recorders to give some chronological sense, but
had edited out nothing.
The video had a grim documentary quality about it.
There was no sound and the pictures were in black
and white, but nonetheless they were compelling.
Unfortunately, they appeared to be of little help.
"Dark business suits and ski masks," said
Adachi cheerfully, "and surgical gloves.
These are not particularly helpful
people.
And note the license plates are
covered with black cloth or something similar.
Very professional and unfriendly."
His voice was relaxed.
Chifune had
no sooner entered his apartment than he had taken her on the
tatami
floor, or maybe she had taken
him.
It was hard to know with
Chifune.
She now sat naked beside him,
the video controls in her hand.
They
were drinking chilled white wine and leaning back against beanbags.
It was a rather pleasant way, thought Adachi, to carry on an
investigation.
He was not naked.
Almost everything had come off in the
encounter, but he was still wearing his tie — his Tokyo MPD tie at that.
He lifted the mangled thing off his head and
threw it like a ring at the door handle.
It hung perfectly on the first shot.
"We've got the make of the car, the number and build of the
assailants, and the makes of several of the weapons for starters," said
Chifune.
"Don't be lazy.
You can't expect them to wear name tags."
"Whiz it back," said Adachi.
He was pleased with his VCR.
Matsushita, he considered, had done him proud.
It featured all the latest gadgetry, not the
least of which was resolution enhancement, freeze frame, and variable-speed
slow motion.
If there was something to
be seen, they would see it.
Chifune reran the video, and again, and again, and again.
And then she noticed Adachi's revived
tumescent condition and decided they both could do with some attention.
Afterward, they ran the video twice more.
By now they were concentrating on the figure
who
seemed to be giving the orders.
His face
and neck were completely concealed; his suit gave off no clues, except to show
that the wearer was a tall, powerful man.
The camera had caught his outstretched arms as he waved his people to
surround the building.
Here there was an
interesting detail.
Through the thin
surgical glove on the left hand, the outline of a heavy ring could clearly be
seen.
"Kei Namaka?" said Adachi.
"The build is right, the body language is right, and he wears a
ring something like that — I'll get the lab to do some photo enhancement.
But hell, would he do a hit himself?
He would be insane to.
These people never do their own dirty work.
They're insulated."
"Hodama didn't die any old way," said Chifune.
"This was personal.
And I think it may well be political — which
is interesting."
"What do you mean?" said Adachi.
"A conventional killing gets harder to solve as time goes on,"
said Chifune.
"A hit like Hodama
brings the beneficiary out of the woodwork.
I don't think we're looking closely enough at who benefits.
Think about it.
Power abhors a vacuum.
Kill a
kuromaku
and who is likely to surface?"
"Another
kuromaku
,"
said Adachi slowly.
"A
puppetmaster — and his puppets."
"Killing Hodama may be about revenge," said Chifune, "but
I think it was mostly about power.
Look
for a power shift."
Adachi stared at her.
"What
do you know?" he said.
"More than you," said Chifune, "but neither of us knows
enough.
I'm working on it."
"Politics!" said Adachi disgustedly.
"Not just politics," said Chifune.
"There are linkages here."
She stroked Adachi's cheek and then kissed
him.
"Powerful
interests, corruption, a lot of history, and terrorism.
This is a dangerous, bloody business, my
love.
So keep wearing your
hardware."
"‘My love’?" said Adachi, looking very pleased and rather like
a schoolboy.
Chifune ruffled his hair.
"Figure of speech," she said.
"Don't go getting ideas."
The rest of what Chifune had said slowly surfaced.
"Terrorism?" he said.
"What the hell is going on?
What ever happened to old-fashioned
murder?"
He was quiet for a
while.
"You know," he added,
"our killer may just have a sense of humor, and have made the most of the
moment when he found Hodama about to have his bath, but I don't think so.
I don't see this as a nice, clean political
assassination.
I think Hodama was meant
to die in agony.
The thing may be
political — given who Hodama was,
must
be political — but I think the primary motive was revenge."
"Nonetheless," said Chifune, "look at the politics.
Look at the realignments, the new alliances in
the toy box.
Look at where the strings
lead."
Adachi whistled a few bars of an old Beatles song.
The Beatles had been big in
kid,
he had once gone to see them in the Nippon
Budokan.
A memorable
evening.
He was not sure that the
present generation of much-hyped midadolescent pop stars could be defined as
progress.
Most Japanese singers had a
short shelf life and seemed to be considered geriatric by the time they were
twenty.
He had a feeling they were
assembled by robots somewhere and were simply replaced when they wore out.
Flexible production:
cars one day; pop singers the next;
computer-controlled, using fuzzy logic.
Your every need provided by half a dozen vast corporations and the state
— or
were
business and the state one and the
same?
It was a frightening thought and
not entirely fanciful.
Japanese
homogeneity was all very well, but like food needed salt, there was a lot to be
said for a useful dash of individuality.
Speaking of which:
He rolled over
onto Chifune and, the weight of his upper body taken by his arms so he could
look down at her, entered her.
She drew
up her knees to bring him deeper and returned his gaze steadily, scarcely
moving.
Then she reached up and stroked
his face before pulling him down to her.
*
*
*
*
*
The meeting took place in the twenty-story
keiretsu
.
The head office of the group was officially
in
of the founder worked out of
so the facilities there were lavish.
