The Killing Hands (41 page)

A woman? Could this woman be the leak and not Hana?
Someone else from the Gang Impact Team? Mee obviously doesn't recognize Hana, but it's possible the Yakuza kept Mee away from the mole.

Mee wrings her hands. “Please let her be okay.” Despite her situation, Mee's worried about the physical well-being of this woman—she feels guilty.

“Can you take us back to the house from here?” I ask.

She nods.

De Luca starts the car and Mee Kim directs him, only motioning a couple of lefts and rights.

A bit later, we pull up at the house, and just then a woman staggers out the front door and onto the lawn.

“No! No!” screams Hana.

“Oh, shit.” De Luca slams on the brakes and reaches for his gun, while Hana leaps from the car, even though it's still rolling.

“Jae!” Hana runs forward and I suddenly realize what's going on. The woman is Jae, Hana's sister. Jae's the mole. And just like Hana and the woman from my vision, she has long, dark hair. It was her on that park bench.

Jae holds a gun, which she brings up.

Hana stops dead. “Jae, it's
me
.”

Jae's badly beaten, and seems out of it. Still, there's recognition on her face and the gun wavers, ever so slightly.

Hana moves closer. “Jae, put the gun down.”

De Luca jumps out of the car. “Put the gun down now, Jae.”

I hold my ground in the car. The situation is heated enough without me adding to it.

Hana holds her hand in a stop sign behind her to De Luca. “I've got her, Joe. Get back in the car.”

But De Luca stands his ground.

I think Hana's right, the situation is much more likely to defuse if it's just her and her sister, but De Luca's protective streak is showing.

Jae brings her gun up again, and her swollen eyes dart from Hana to De Luca.

“It's all right, Jae. It's my old partner, Joe. You remember Joe. He's not going to hurt you. Just put the gun down, Jae.”

Jae looks confused, but she keeps the gun up.

Hana puts her own gun down on the front lawn. “It's okay…I know you didn't mean it.”

A tortured sob erupts from Jae's lips. After a few seconds she says, “You really thought I wanted to follow in your footsteps?”

“Jae, no.” Hana's voice is full of pain.

Jae staggers a few steps closer to Hana.

“Don't take another step,” De Luca warns.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. I can see the situation escalating and someone getting shot. “Get down, Mee.”

Mee does as she's told, bobbing down in her seat. The last thing we need now is for Jae to see her attacker. If she wasn't so badly beaten up she'd probably already have realized that Mee is sitting in the backseat. Besides, I want to make sure Mee isn't on the receiving end of a stray bullet.

I undo my holster and take my gun out. Jae can't see it, and I keep it under the line of the car's windows and out of sight.

“Everything will be okay, Jae. Just put the gun down.” Hana tries again and Jae wavers. “Please, Jae,” Hana begs.

Jae shakes her head. “Takeshi's right about you.”

“Takeshi?”

“My lover. He's right about all of you.” She waves the gun at De Luca and toward me in the car. “You're sheep. You follow The Man. Do what you're told. Right and wrong, it's not that black-and-white.”

The behavioral analyst part of me is dying to step in. I know what to say to calm Jae down, but does Hana? Does De Luca?

“It's never black-and-white, Jae. We both know that.”

I find myself nodding my head at Hana's response.

“This was justice.” Jae's trying to defend her actions, defend Suzuki's actions.

“Justice? You mean because Jun Saito killed Takeshi's sister fifteen years ago. That's revenge, Jae. Not justice.”

Jae shakes her head. “Sometimes the justice system doesn't work. You tell me that all the time, Hana.”

“Yes. But no one should take the law into their own hands. And Takeshi? He's using you.”

Another bitter sob. “To get to you, I suppose?”

“Jae, look at what he's made you do! This isn't you. You're holding a gun, for Christ's sake! You used to hate guns.”

She looks at the gun in her hand, her resolve wavering again.

“It's all right, Jae. Put the gun down and it ends here.”

We all know that strictly speaking, that's not true. Jae's an accessory to kidnapping and an accessory to a murder-for-hire plot.

She looks at the gun in her hand again, and it shakes more.

Even though Hana's back is to me, I can tell she's crying. She walks forward, leaving her gun on the ground and out of reach. I think perhaps she's being a little too trusting of her sister. Or maybe it's De Luca she trusts.

“Jae, put the gun down.” This time Hana's voice is soft, but also firm. A big sister asserting her authority. It has the desired effect and Jae lowers the gun ever so slightly. “It's okay, Jae. I'll look after you.” Hana keeps moving closer to her sister, both arms reaching out to her. “Just put the gun down.”

And in that instant, Jae drops the gun and falls to her knees. “What have I done?”

Hana closes the distance and throws herself down next to her sister. She cradles her in her arms and strokes her hair as Jae sobs uncontrollably.

J
ae's face has been patched up and she sits in a hospital bed. Mee managed to crack two ribs, break Jae's arm and her nose, and split her cheek so Jae needed a few stitches. One eye is swollen and bruised and she's got a concussion—enough that they wanted to keep her in overnight for observation. Still, Jae's come out of this lightly…for a second there I thought De Luca was going to take her out.

“Jae, I'm going to leave you with Sophie and Agent Petrov now. It's best for both of us if I'm not involved in your questioning.” Hana looks down.

A few tears trickle down Jae's face.

“It's all right, baby sister.” Hana leans over and gives Jae a kiss on the forehead. “I'll just be outside.”

Petrov gets straight down to business when Hana has left the room. “Ms. Kim, are you sure you don't want to have a lawyer present?”

She shakes her head. “I just want this over with.”

Petrov nods. “When did you meet Takeshi Suzuki?”

“A year and a half ago.”

“Where?”

Jae hesitates. “He approached me in a bar. Bought me a drink.” She shakes her head. “I've been thinking about this a lot for the past few hours, but I'm sure he had no idea that
my sister was a DEA agent. I know it sounds bad, but—” she sniffles “—I love him.”

She won't be the first woman fooled into a life of crime by the promise of love. She won't be the last.

“I didn't realize he was involved in anything…untoward until we'd been seeing each other for a few months. And by then it was too late. I was in love with him.”

Again, I've heard that story before. “What was the first thing he asked you to do?” I ask.

She sighs. “He was worried that maybe he was being watched. That Hana would find out about us and she'd get in trouble. So he suggested I ask her if she was investigating anything on the Yakuza.”

“And you did.”

“I didn't want my relationship to get Hana into trouble.”

Takeshi concealed the manipulation, pretending to be concerned for the relationship and Hana's career. And it worked.

“Hana loves her job, loves talking about it, but at first she was very careful not to mention specific cases. So I made it a game. I'd say, ‘I know you can't tell me, but it won't do any harm to just nod or shake your head. Is it Asian Boyz? Mafia?' And that's how it started. As a guessing game. At first she just shook her head to everything, but after a week or two, when I told her I wanted to join the DEA but didn't feel I had a real understanding of the kinds of cases I'd work on…” She sighs again. “Then she started giving me little snippets of information. She liked the idea that one day we'd work together.”

“And you relayed anything she told you to Takeshi.”

“Yes.” She pauses. “And he'd pass them on to his boss.”

Suzuki was in the driver's seat—as far as Jae knew, Suzuki was passing information on to Moto, but he was probably being very selective about what his boss did and didn't know. Especially given Agent Young's discovery that Suzuki's been running drugs on the side.

“But then…it just spiraled out of control.” She rubs her hands over her face gently. “I don't know how it happened.
How I let it go that far. At first I thought I was doing it to help us. You know, to make sure Takeshi and I could be together and to keep Hana out of trouble. But now, now that I look back on it…I don't know what I was thinking.” She shakes her head. “About six months ago, I started going through her BlackBerry.” Tears of shame form in her eyes. “I'd check e-mails, phone calls, everything, and pass it on to Takeshi. And each time I gave him something useful, he'd buy me presents. Jewelry, clothes, payments on my student loan.”

“Did you guys ever go out in public together?” Petrov asks.

She hangs her head. “Not exactly. Takeshi was paranoid. Paranoid that he was being tailed by the Feds, and worried that I'd get in trouble. So we used to meet in a little apartment he owns in Santa Monica. It's a beautiful place.” Tears start to roll down her face. “I imagined we'd live there together one day.”

I know Jae's only twenty-two, but part of me can't help but wonder if she really believed that lie. Men like Suzuki don't leave their wife and kids. But they do sleep around.

“Do you know if Takeshi took anyone else to the apartment?” I ask. Dan Young has already filled us in on the apartment's existence, and the existence of another mistress.

“What do you mean?”

I don't push it for the moment. Instead I ask her how often she saw him.

“Once or twice a week. We always met at the apartment on a Wednesday night, for dinner. I told Hana I was taking salsa classes. She was usually still at work when I left and in bed when I got home.”

“Jae, we have something to tell you.” I sigh, wanting to spare her feelings but knowing that there's no way I can. “Something you won't like.”

“Yes?”

“We believe Takeshi Suzuki did seek you out. He's been running drugs on the side, without his boss's knowledge, and he was worried we knew…or would discover it. You were his insurance.”

“No.” She shakes her head. “You're wrong. We're in love. If it wasn't for Hana, I wouldn't be telling you any of this. But I can't hurt my sister. Not even for him. Not anymore.”

I take a deep breath. “Suzuki has another mistress. There's his wife, you and another woman.”

She keeps shaking her head. “No. That can't be right. He's married, but he never loved his wife. They got married because their families wanted them to.”

I shrug. “I don't know about his wife, but I do know he's seeing another woman.”

“You're wrong. And how do you know that? Whenever I accessed Hana's files, there was never anything about surveillance on Takeshi.”

“We had an undercover agent in the Yakuza.” Petrov says it quietly, almost gently.

“No. There was nothing like that. I checked. Takeshi made me check!”

Petrov leans forward. “Your sister didn't know, Ms. Kim. Only a handful of us did.” Petrov takes a breath. “And our agent will look you in the face and tell you all about Takeshi's other mistress and the drug running.”

Her hands come up to her face and she gently rubs them up and down her bruised cheeks. “This can't be right. He loves me. And only me.” She falters. “No, I won't believe you.”

“I'm sorry, Ms. Kim.” Petrov leaves and returns a few minutes later with Agent Young. Like Jae, he sports many bruises and also wears a plaster cast on his arm, from his wrist to his bicep.

“Do you recognize her, Dan?”

Young looks closely at Jae. “No. He kept everyone in the dark about her. Not surprising, given who her sister is. I'd say only his personal chauffeur knows.”

Jae scrunches her face a little. “Takeshi did have someone in the car with him. Always the same man. And sometimes I would meet the driver at a park if I had information and Takeshi couldn't get away from his wife.”

Young gives her a single nod. “Ms. Kim, I'm Special Agent Dan Young and I've been undercover in the Yakuza for twelve months. Trying to find you, actually.”

“I…I don't understand.”

“I was brought in from New York to find the Gang Impact Team's mole.”

“Takeshi did mention one man from New York. A Miki.”

Young smiles. “That's my alias. That's me.”

“You're…you're DEA?”

“Uh-huh.”

“You work with my sister?”

“Not exactly. I haven't met Special Agent Kim yet.” He smiles, a gentle smile. “But I have been close to Takeshi Suzuki and I can tell you that he loves his wife and he has a mistress in Long Beach.”

Jae looks intently into Young's eyes. “You're telling the truth? This isn't some trick to get me to make a statement against Takeshi?”

“I'm telling you the truth. Swear to God.” He looks around at us before continuing. “But we do need you to make an official statement and we'd like you to testify down the track, too. Trust me, I've seen what Takeshi Suzuki is capable of—the man needs to be in prison, and with both of our testimonies, and Mee Kim's, we can ensure maximum charges and penalties. My testimony will only be half the story.”

It'd be nice to get Suzuki for Jun Saito's murder. He may not have pulled the trigger, or in this case delivered the fatal blow, but he did contract Park Ling to do just that. And the fact that Jae knows who Jun Saito is, knows about the history between the two…that's gonna put him away.

She hesitates. “I don't know. Are you sure about Takeshi and this other woman?”

I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. “We have photos, Jae. Photos of him with her.”

Her lip quivers. “I need to see them.”

Petrov gets a file out of his briefcase. “Are you sure?”

“I have to see for myself.”

He hands Jae two photos. One shows Takeshi kissing the other woman, and another one shows them holding hands.

Jae looks away. “I'll tell you whatever you need to know.”

“Jae, I think we need to get you a lawyer.” I can't hold my tongue on the subject any longer. “I assume you realize that you're an accessory to much of what Takeshi has done. A lawyer will cut you a deal.”

She shakes her head. “No lawyers. You tell me what you need and what my charges will be.”

Petrov leans back. “Do you know for sure that Takeshi contracted someone to kill Saito?”

“Yes.”

“And you'd testify to that?”

“Yes.”

Getting the second-in-charge of the L.A. Yakuza for murder-for-hire is a huge catch. One that I think Petrov, or anyone, would deal for aggressively. And like Young said, his testimony will only tell one side of the story.

“We'll only charge you with accessory to kidnapping Mee Kim.”

She nods. “Okay.”

A lawyer may well have been able to get her off scot-free, but I keep my mouth shut. Maybe down the track Jae's deal will get better.

“So,” Petrov says, “let's start with Jun Saito. Do you know how Takeshi Suzuki found him? Got him to come to L.A.?”

“Yes. Takeshi got a phone call from a friend who was on vacation in Singapore. He saw Saito, recognized him, and realized what the information would mean to Takeshi, what it was worth. So he followed Saito and contacted Takeshi. One day, when Saito was out, this guy broke into Saito's home and found out about Mee.”

“And Suzuki wanted Saito dead?”

“Yes. But he wanted to see him for himself first, so he lured him to L.A.”

“And do you know the name of the hit man?”

She shakes her head. “No. He told me that Saito was a bad
man, a murderer, and that the justice system had failed to make him pay. It's Saito's fault that Takeshi's even in the Yakuza.”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Takeshi knew his sister was seeing someone in the Yakuza, so when she went missing he immediately suspected their involvement. Takeshi offered his services in exchange for information. He got the information—found out his sister was dead, killed by Jun Saito. Then Takeshi had to come to L.A. to pay off his debt to the Yakuza. Like I said, if it wasn't for Jun Saito, Takeshi would never have gotten mixed up in the Yakuza or anything illegal.”

Even after finding out Takeshi's got another mistress, Jae's still defending him. It's hard to know how much of what Takeshi Suzuki told Jae is true. While it does gel with the Japanese cop's belief that Takeshi Suzuki wasn't involved with the Yakuza in Tokyo, Suzuki always had choices. And then there's Saito's girlfriend.

“Did you know Saito's girlfriend was killed?” I ask. “Presumably by Suzuki.”

Jae furrows her brow. “Takeshi never said anything about a girlfriend.” She shakes her head. “He wouldn't…couldn't…”

“Maybe he didn't want you to know that part of the story,” Petrov says. “Didn't want you to know that he organized the murder of Saito's girlfriend, a pregnant woman.”

Jae winces.

“So, you knew Suzuki hired someone to kill Saito?” Petrov brings Jae back to the here and now.

“Yes.” She hangs her head.

“And you'd definitely be willing to swear to that in court?” Petrov confirms.

“Yes.” Jae tears up. Her world is crumbling around her. She believed Suzuki, she loved him.

 

Our search warrant is exhaustive, covering Suzuki's entire property and his computers, so hopefully we'll find some damning evidence. Given my lack of field fitness, I'm not officially part of the raid team, but Petrov has allowed
me to “bring up the rear.” I wear my bulletproof vest just in case.