Rules of the Hunt (69 page)
Arrogance to the point of stupidity.
Adachi thought not.
He had worked with Fujiwara long enough.
No, Fujiwara was very far from stupid, but he
had certainly not thought too highly of the powers of observation of his fellow
men.
Adachi's eyes had snapped open.
A
horrible thing had occurred to him.
Fujiwara was a baseball fanatic.
Adachi swung his legs off the sofa and looked above his desk.
One year after the formation of the squad,
there had been a wild squad party, and the
presentation by Inspector Fujiwara, on behalf of the team, of an inscribed
baseball bat symbolic of the striking down of wrongdoing.
All the squad had signed it, and it was
mounted proudly beside a group photo directly behind Adachi's own desk.
Not in the squad room; not on the wall behind where Inspector Fujiwara
sat; but in the private office of his very own squad commander, the very man he
was deceiving.
The memory had come back:
Fujiwara
working in Adachi's office on that Sunday and the rest of the squad watching
the baseball game.
Could it be?
Adachi had tried to remove the bat, but a screwed-in brace held it in
place and the signatures to the front.
This was a symbolic presentation.
It was not meant to be used.
He
remembered the ever-efficient Inspector Fujiwara himself screwing it to the
wall.
Very thoughtful.
Adachi had looked closely.
The bat
looked solid, but it was made of some composition material.
He put his hand on the base and turned
it.
Nothing happened at first.
Perhaps it was solid after all.
He tried once again, and suddenly the base
turned and a line of screw thread appeared.
The join was virtually invisible inside a red and black decorative
ring.
He went on unscrewing.
Seconds later, he inserted two fingers and
extracted a long, taped package.
He
opened it and slid eight microcassettes onto the table.
He felt a warm glow of satisfaction at the discovery itself and then a
sense of mounting excitement at what it might signify.
"Inspector-
san
," he said to himself.
"You have been true to your spirit."
Adachi's discovery of the tapes had
occurred
only a couple of hours before his meeting with the Spider, and he still had to
listen to most of them.
He roused
himself from his reverie, pushed the remains of his food aside, and drained his
beer.
A certain amount of private
gloating was in order, but now there was work to be done.
He debated getting another beer, but decided that a clear head was the
priority.
The quality of the recordings
was variable, and he had found he had to concentrate to understand some of what
was said.
The tapes were labeled clearly
enough with names and dates and sometimes the subject matter, but the names
were in code.
Still, that was only paying
lip service to security.
Most of the
speakers were identified by name on the tapes as they were shown in to Hodama
by one of the servants.
Untangling the
identities of the others was something the Tokyo MPD could do with ease.
Adachi loaded the third microcassette into the tape recorder.
He was just about to press the play button
when the phone rang.
He picked it up
with irritation.
This was no time to be
interrupted.
His salutation was abrupt.
It was the Eel, and he sounded very frightened.
"Superintendent-
san
,"
he said.
"Many apologies, many
apologies, but I must see you immediately."
Adachi modified his tone.
The Eel
had to be kept in line, but he was a good informant and a little friendliness
toward him did not go amiss.
"Origa-
san
," said Adachi,
"I am busy this evening, but I can drop by to see you tomorrow.
An early lunch would be pleasant."
"Superintendent-
san
,"
said the Eel, in a voice of desperation, "I must see you now.
It is vital.
But you must not come to the restaurant.
It is being watched."
Adachi looked at the tapes.
It was
annoying, but they could wait another couple of hours.
"What do you want to see me about?" said Adachi.
"What's wrong with the phone?"
"Please, please, Adachi-
san
,"
beseeched the Eel, "this is not something we can discuss on the
phone.
It concerns the man we were
talking about."
Adachi's mind went back to their conversation.
The Eel meant Katsuda, the real murderer of
Hodama.
First the
tapes and now a breakthrough on the mysterious Korean.
Matters were looking up.
"The Korean connection?" he said.
"Yes, yes," said the Eel frantically, "but,
please,
no names."
Adachi debated having the Eel come around to his department, but he had
never had an informant there before and did not feel like starting now.
"Origa-
san
, where are you?"
"
san
," said the Eel, "hiding in
the aquarium."
Adachi was amused.
"Very
appropriate," he said, laughing.
He
then looked at his watch.
"But it
must be closed by now."
"Superintendent-
san
,"
said the Eel desperately, "this is no laughing matter.
Members of the Korean's gang are hunting for
me, but no one would suspect the aquarium and I have a cousin who works here
who is helping me.
I am safe here until
I can work out what to do.
But I need
help, Superintendent-
san
, and I can
help you.
I have documents and other
evidence.
But you must come to me.
It is too risky for me to move."
Adachi thought for a moment.
The
Eel had been a good source in the past.
It was worth the effort.
"Very well," he said.
"Tell me how I can get in."
The Eel, sounding immensely relieved, gave Adachi instructions and hung
up.
Adachi contemplated his next move.
Up to the Fujiwara business, he would have telephoned for someone in the
squad to drive him over and provide backup if need be.
Now he hesitated.
Suppose there was another leak.
The investigation was still ongoing.
There was no one he could trust absolutely.
He settled for calling a uniformed patrol.
They could drive him up and wait outside
while he spoke to the Eel.
That would
keep the contact secure while providing some backup on call if needed.
He checked his weapon and then looked at the tapes.
He did not feel safe leaving them
anywhere.
Then his eye caught the
hideous parrot alarm clock given to him by Chifune.
He opened up the back and slid out the
battery pack.
There was room.
He inserted the eight microcassettes and
replaced the batteries.
Now, who would
think of searching a parrot?
His door buzzer sounded and he looked out the window.
The reassuring sight of a Tokyo MPD patrol
car was below.
"I'll be right
down," he said into the door intercom.
This is turning out to be an extraordinary day, he thought to himself, as
he descended the stairs.
He thought
again of the Eel hiding in the darkened aquarium with nothing but twenty
thousand fish for company and laughed out loud.
He was still laughing when the policeman showed him into the back of the
patrol car with a sharp salute,
then
leaped into the
driver's seat to await instruction.
"
trying to control his mirth, and then the thought of the Eel and his fishy
companions hit him again and he roared with laughter.
He was still smiling when he reached his destination.
He had not felt so good in years.
22
July 10 – 11
The telephone seemed to explode in Fitzduane's ear.
Muzzy from being arbitrarily awoken from a
deep and satisfying sleep, he looked at the bedside clock.
It was 2:20
A.M.
The telephone erupted again.
As he
picked it up, there was a banging on the door.
He ignored the door while his caller spoke.
Thirty seconds later, he replaced the
receiver slowly in a state of deep shock.
The banging on the door continued.
It was forceful but polite and very much in the style of Sergeant
Oga.
Fitzduane opened the door.
"I'll be down in five minutes, Sergeant-
san
," he said to Oga, then closed
the door and headed for the shower.
He
allowed himself two minutes of icy water under full pressure and then dressed.
The roads were quiet as, lights flashing, the convoy containing Fitzduane
headed toward
No one in the car said anything.
Fitzduane felt sick inside.
Access to the complex had been cordoned off.
There were dozens of uniformed police there,
and some wore the distinctive paramilitary uniform of the antiterrorist riot
police, the Kidotai, and carried automatic weapons.
Chifune arrived as they were about to ascend in the elevator.
Fitzduane touched her briefly on the arm in a
gesture of support, and their eyes met.
For a moment, Chifune's guard was down, and then the elevator doors
opened and some police he did not know entered with them, and her formality and
mask returned.
Much of the aquarium had been taped off, and inside the cordon a
white-overalled scene-of-crime team was at work.
They were guided outside the tape to a small group, and as the new
arrivals approached, Fitzduane saw the Spider and Yoshokawa-
san
and a tall, distinguished-looking
man in his sixties who looked familiar but whom he did not know.
All three men were in evening dress, and then
Fitzduane remembered Yoshokawa's saying something about a formal dinner of
Gamma's ruling council.
As he made the
connection, he realized who the third man must be:
Adachi's father.
The Spider made the introductions.
He looked devastated.
There was
little trace of the imperturbable Deputy Superintendent-General here.
His normally slicked-back hair was tousled,
and shock and grief were etched into his face.
The Spider acted as their guide.
He took them past the cashier's office to where the fish tanks started.
The floor was slick with fresh blood.
There was so much of it, the atmosphere reeked.
First there was an immense irregular pool of thick crimson, with a pile
of what looked like blood-soaked clothing to one side.
Then a long, broad streak indicated where
something had been dragged toward some tanks in the farther distance.
Floodlights had been brought in to supplement the aquarium's normal
lighting, and shoals of multicolored fish of every shape and size swirled and
pirouetted and flashed and glinted in the unaccustomed glare.
Bloody footprints marked other parts of the floor.
"We can reconstruct what happened, I think," said the
Spider.
"Adachi-
san
was going to meet an informant, a
man with criminal connections known as the Eel.
Adachi-
san
entered the
aquarium, and as he turned the corner here" — he pointed at the pool of
blood — "he was struck by an assailant with a sword.
The blow split his skull and cut deep into
his body, killing him instantly.
He was
then struck a second time.
This second
blow was not necessary, but it was made, I surmise, as a gesture of contempt
for the victim.
It opened up his torso
down to the groin.
Effectively, it
eviscerated him.
"Next, Adachi-
san
's clothing
was removed and his body dragged to the fish tank across there."
He pointed again.
