Danilov and Strachan climbed the stairs leading to the Japanese Club. It was an impressive five-storey building, fashioned in the English Renaissance style, with arched red and white brick porticos and a grand covered entrance.
As the two detectives neared the double doors, they swung open. Two girls in flower-patterned kimonos bowed, their hands resting on their knees. ‘Irasshaimase.’ They sang the Japanese welcome in unison. A dapper man in a frock coat and extravagant goatee rushed to greet them in Chinese.
‘This is the manager,’ Strachan translated. ‘He says he is happy to welcome the Western gentlemen, but this club is reserved for Japanese members. Entrance is by invitation only.’
Danilov reached into his pocket and pulled out his warrant card. ‘Here’s our invitation.’ He pushed it into the manager’s face.
‘I’m afraid that is a waste of time, gentlemen. Mr Mitsui is not au fait with the English language. It would be like asking the manager of an English hostelry to read Japanese.’
The speaker was a tall, stiff-backed man wearing a dark uniform and smoking a cigarette in a short ivory holder. Turkish from the smell, thought Danilov, a pungent aroma. His mind travelled immediately to the tin of tobacco in his pocket.
‘And you are?’ he asked.
The heels of the man’s highly polished boots came together, his body angled slightly from the waist at a thirty-degree angle, his head just dropping a shade more as he spoke. ‘Ihanaga, Colonel, Imperial Japanese Navy, Marine Division.’ The head came up and smiled, as if this had been a tiny performance for the ignorant Westerner. ‘To whom do I have the honour of speaking?’
Danilov wasn’t going to play his game. He stepped past the manager, looking around him at the picture of the emperor, Hirohito, in its specially created alcove. ‘My name is Danilov, with the Shanghai Municipal Police. This is Detective Sergeant Strachan.’
Strachan waved his hand. It happened to have his trilby in it.
‘There has been a murder in the building site behind the club. I’d like to question the members of staff.’
Colonel Ihanaga smiled. ‘That would be extremely difficult, since none of the staff speak any English. But I would be happy to help you in any way I can. Please, come this way.’
He extended his arm to the left and led them into an elegant lounge off the main lobby. The room was decorated in a soft plum colour, with pastel prints of flowers on the walls. The colonel sat in a leather armchair and gestured for Danilov and Strachan to take the chesterfield opposite. The manager closed the door behind them and stood to one side with his arms clasped behind his back.
‘Would you like tea, gentlemen?’ Ihanaga asked. ‘I often take tea at this time in the late afternoon. I somehow acquired a taste for black tea with milk in the English style when I was the military attaché in London. An unfortunate habit, but I find it does refresh one after a long day. You, of course, will have tea with lemon, Danilov. And my guess is you would prefer green tea, Detective Sergeant Strachan.’
Without waiting for their answer, he snapped his fingers and a kimono-clad woman shuffled out from nowhere. He spoke quickly in Japanese.
After he had finished, he crossed his legs, making sure the creases in his uniform trousers remained as straight as a battleship’s bow. ‘Now, where we?’
‘You were going to help us question the staff.’
The colonel raised an eyebrow slightly at Danilov’s bluntness, but carried on speaking in his refined British accent. ‘I was going to help, wasn’t I? When did this incident occur?’
‘Two days ago, between five and six o’clock. And it wasn’t an incident.’
The colonel sucked in breath through his teeth. ‘Two days ago, Inspector. You should have come earlier.’
Danilov glanced over at Strachan, then continued speaking, ignoring the colonel’s comment. ‘The mutilated body of a young boy was dumped on the building site next door to the Japanese Club. I noticed that at least one of the windows of the club on the east side overlooks the site. Did any of the members of the club or the staff see anything during that time?’
The colonel placed a fresh cigarette in his ivory holder. ‘The east side? I doubt if any of the members observed anything. The only window overlooking the site is on a servants’ staircase. No members would ever go there.’ He pulled out a gold Dunhill lighter from his pocket, lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply.
‘This afternoon, we noticed a trail of blood leading to the alley behind your club.’
‘The members definitely don’t go behind the club, Inspector.’ Ihanaga laughed to himself.
‘That may or may not be true, but we need to investigate.’
The colonel snapped his fingers once again. The dapper manager rushed to his side, bowing deeply while he received his instructions.
‘I have asked Mr Mitsui to question the staff. Shall we have our tea while we wait for his response?’
The waitress knelt down, placing teacups and teapots in front of all three of them, pouring the three different types of tea, completing the ceremony by placing a small jug of fresh milk in front of the colonel.
‘Bottoms up, chaps.’
‘You speak excellent English, Colonel.’
‘Learnt it from the best. The Prince of Wales was one of my tutors, as was a Miss Dolly Trent of Finchley. Miss Trent taught me a few words – and deeds – useful for a sailor not found in the Oxford English Dictionary. Whilst the prince taught me how to enjoy myself.’ He took a long drag of the cigarette, expelling the aromatic smoke in a thin white tail towards the ceiling. ‘Your own English is not at all bad, Danilov; for a Russian, I mean.’
‘Like you, I spent some time in London. At Scotland Yard. My teachers were William Shakespeare and a certain Chief Inspector Albert Boot. He didn’t teach me how to enjoy myself.’
‘Ah, Mr Shakespeare.’ The colonel paused as if trying to remember an exact phrase. ‘“I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.” A very Japanese sentiment if ever I heard one.’
‘From Richard II, I believe.’
‘Correct, Inspector. We Japanese have a strong love for Shakespeare; he appeals to our sense of the dramatic.’
‘I much prefer something from Hamlet.’ Danilov sipped his tea, enjoying the aroma and the tartness of the lemon. ‘“Conscience doth make cowards of us all.”’
‘Is that how you catch your criminals, Danilov, by making them fear a guilty conscience? How Russian you are. Dostoevsky would be proud of you. However, in the same play, Shakespeare contradicts himself: “I must be cruel only to be kind; Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.”’
Danilov sipped his tea again. Strachan looked on, his green tea going cold in the white porcelain cup.
‘We all live our contradictions, Colonel Ihanaga. It’s what makes us human.’
‘“To err is human; to forgive, divine.”’
‘Alexander Pope?’ Strachan spoke for the first time. Neither Danilov nor Ihanaga acknowledged his words.
‘It is difficult for a policeman to forgive. It’s not in our nature.’
‘So you believe in punishment, Danilov, for every crime. Again, Dostoevsky would be proud of you.’
‘Not punishment, Colonel, but justice. My job is not to punish criminals; merely to catch them so that ordinary people, the common man and his family, can see justice being done. The courts administer the punishment.’
The clock above the fireplace chimed five o’clock. Danilov caught a worried glance from Strachan.
There was a light tap on the door.
‘Enter,’ called Colonel Ihanaga.
The door opened quietly before the clock had finished chiming the hours. A younger officer stood in the entrance.
‘This is Captain Tanaka, my aide-de-camp.’
The captain brought his heels together and bowed in the direction of the two detectives before striding over to the colonel and speaking quietly in his ear.
‘Tanaka tells me the manager has completed his interviews with the staff. None of them saw anything.’ Ihanaga stood up. ‘I’m afraid I have to leave you now, gentlemen. I have an appointment with an admiral. It’s going to be a frightful bore, but needs must.’
Danilov and Strachan rose to their feet. ‘Thank you for your time, Colonel Ihanaga.’ Danilov looked at the other Japanese officer. ‘And for your help.’
‘It was my pleasure, Inspector,’ answered Tanaka, in perfect English.
‘Do not look so surprised, Danilov. Tanaka was my aide-de-camp in London too. I’m afraid he was less than enamoured of the English, though. Thought they were effete, didn’t you, Tanaka?’
The officer said nothing.
Colonel Ihanaga pulled on his white gloves. ‘You’re welcome to stay in the club as my guests, gentlemen. The sushi is sublime and they have an excellent sake cellar, probably the best in Shanghai.’
Danilov placed his hat back on his head. ‘Thank you for your offer, Colonel, but we should leave now. I also have an appointment.’
‘Tanaka will show you out.’
As they left the club, the same two kimono-clad girls bowed once more, followed by the manager, who had appeared by their side. All three sang, ‘Maido arigato gozaimasu’ as the doors were closed behind the two detectives.
‘That didn’t get us far, sir.’
‘No, the scythe ran into a stone.’
‘An idiom from the Caucasus, sir?’
‘No, from the Ukraine actually. Come on, Strachan, I have a hunch we need to follow up.’