After an hour of examining bloodstains and broken furniture, Takamatsu told Hiroshi to let the local police and crime scene crew finish Kyle’s apartment. If the three guys beat up people for a living, they were unlikely to leave clues.
In the car, Takamatsu lit a cigarette. “How can they understand each other if they don’t speak the same language?”
“Who are we talking about?” Ishii pulled out into traffic.
“That couple. Do you speak another language, Ishii?”
Ishii nodded. “I studied criminal law in America.”
“Why did you come back?”
“A long-time relationship ended, and my degree wasn’t much use there. Maybe no use here, either.”
“Your boyfriend was American?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but yes.” Ishii looked at Takamatsu until he rolled down the window and concentrated on smoking.
“Isn’t that lighter heavy?” Ishii asked.
Takamatsu held it up. “It is heavy, but it reminds me to smoke.”
“You need reminding?”
“Sometimes.”
Ishii kept the car weaving through traffic. It was only a twenty-minute drive to West Shinjuku, the skyscraper side of the station opposite the host club side.
Hiroshi called Akiko, listened closely, and hung up. “Akiko called ahead for us. The chief now wants her to call every airport and boat entry port in Japan. There are about a hundred of each.”
Takamatsu tossed his cigarette out. “The smaller the entry points are, the less they follow procedures. You can come and go as you like if you’re rich enough.”
Ishii pulled into the ramp for the underground parking lot of the triangular skyscraper housing Pacific Investments. On the lobby floor, they checked in at reception and took security passes. A guard pointed them to the right elevator.
In the elevator, Takamatsu started flipping his lighter. “It’s harder to get in and out of this building than Japanese ports or small airports.”
The elevator opened to wide windows that framed Tokyo. Ishii and Takamatsu lingered a moment at the spectacular view, but Hiroshi walked quickly to the reception counter of Pacific Investments. He’d had enough of heights on another business-related murder case just six months before. He’d nearly fallen stopping a girl from jumping. The memory, and the anxiety, had yet to subside.
A neatly dressed woman bowed deeply and led them along a corridor with offices on both sides. Unlike Nine Dragons, the company had offices with walls and doors. The door to the CEO of Pacific Investments was open.
From inside, the view was again stunning, as if the entire city had been positioned for just that view. Hiroshi kept his attention on Kamiya’s face. He was sixty-something, in good shape, with lively eyes and a calm manner.
He stood for introductions. “I’m Kamiya. Thank you for taking the time to come here and update me on Kyle Shawcross. I’m very concerned. Shocked, actually. Is he all right?”
Hiroshi nodded. “He’s in a protected hospital and we stationed extra guards there. They are used to injuries of that sort.”
“Of what sort?”
“He was beaten pretty badly.”
“I was told he wasn’t found for several hours.” Kamiya eyed each of the detectives. “So, who did this? I want him found.”
“We’re working on it. We think it wasn’t about him, but about his friend, Patrick Walsh.”
The receptionist brought in tea, and Kamiya found his manners and asked them to sit down. Hiroshi moved his chair to face the wall instead of the window.
Kamiya’s eyes closed tight, as he sat down, thinking. “Kyle has never been any trouble. I worried he’d be lured away too. Patrick always overshadowed him, but when he left, Kyle came on stronger.”
Hiroshi nodded. “Patrick stopped by Kyle’s and stayed the night.”
Kamiya frowned, thinking about that with his hands together. “They were the first two foreigners I ever hired. I had to brush up my English to work with them. The other employees learned, too. Japan was opening to the world economy, kicking its Galapagos syndrome, trying to be like other countries. All this old wealth was stagnating, so we wanted to put it to work for investors. Those two were pivotal in making that happen. But they were naive too, never quite understanding what kind of wealth was here.”
“The kind that gravitates to Nine Dragons.”
Kamiya nodded. “It was like trying to untangle a century or two of tightly knotted connections. There were a lot of unexpected opportunities.”
“There’s profit in that.”
Kamiya smiled. “We still get high-risk clients every week. They’re good at covering their trail, but after getting burned a few times, we started to screen them more carefully.”
“Nine Dragons welcomed those types of clients.”
Kamiya shrugged. “Some of the clients we rejected went there.”
“Can you give us their names?”
“I can pull a list together.” He called one of the staff, told her what he wanted, and asked her to hurry, explaining why.
“So, your clients are always—”
“High-net-worth individuals, yes, but Leung aimed for the ultra-high-net-worth clients. Patrick bought into it.”
“What’s ultra start at?”
“Thirty million US or so. At Pacific, we tend to work with the next tier down. They’re more grateful, more mature, and safer. At whatever level, clients require a lot of personal attention.”
“Patrick was good at what he did?”
“He had the knack of evaluating portfolios, enhancing tax efficiency, planning financials, establishing goals. He communicated well to clients. That’s invaluable. But I warned him against going to Nine Dragons.”
“Because?”
“I wanted him to stay, first of all. He made a big difference. When Patrick was headhunted by Leung, it must have flattered him. He was no doubt lured by Leung’s promise of larger portfolios, the selective marketing, and surely a bigger salary and bonuses. More freedom. Nine Dragons and Pacific have different philosophies. Here, we’re more conservative. Plenty of money to be made within the clear confines of the law.”
A well-dressed woman brought in the printout Kamiya asked for. He thanked her and asked her to stay, but she said she was busy with another client and Kamiya let her go.
Kamiya handed over a copy of the list. “So, this list is of appointments we didn’t follow up on.”
Hiroshi found the name on the list and showed it to Takamatsu and Ishii.
“Some were straight up about what they wanted—offshore investments far from the prying eyes of Japanese tax regulators. There aren’t many regulations in the first place, to be honest. Still, some of them want to avoid them just to prove they can. Others are used to working in the gray zones. In the bubble years, that was easy. Less so now.”
“How gray are the gray zones?” Hiroshi asked.
Kamiya shrugged. “For some clients looking for legitimacy and long-term strategy, we might overlook the sources of their wealth. I mean, we have almost every pachinko parlor company in Japan. Where does that fall? Legal, yes, but it’s still gambling. Others have money sitting around in obscure accounts going back to the war. Some are honest and easy to work with. Others lie and demand the impossible. The latter are just not worth it.”
“So, what happens to the demanding clients?”
“They go elsewhere.”
“To Nine Dragons?”
“It would be the next logical stop.” Kamiya nodded. “Some old-school sokaiya, for example, well, we just don’t want that kind of money. I left the firm where I started for just that reason.”
Looking out the window, Takamatsu chimed in at last. “The sokaiya were great at breaking up company meetings, hiring sokaiya to get rid of sokaiya, luring executives into compromising situations.”
Kamiya smirked and shook his head. “They’d follow you, learn your secrets, take photos of you, contact your wife. Cheap blackmail, most of it. It was how they did business then.”
Takamatsu sat up. “That was business as usual in the bubble years. But even now, wherever there’s money, there’s blackmail and extortion. ”
“I’m glad we’ve steered clear.” Kamiya hummed. “The shame of public exposure used to kill more executives than smoking. They were horrified of whatever the sokaiya found on them, which usually wasn’t that much. I’m glad those days are over.”
Hiroshi tried to get a read on Kamiya. “And those guys still have money to invest?”
“Sure. One guy, Nozaki, came with a group of them. He was leading them like an investors group. I checked up on him before agreeing to anything. Glad I did. Another investor, an old friend, told me they tried to pull that threatening stuff with him. I made sure Nozaki and his group never came back.”
“How did you manage that?”
“I called the police. They cooperated. Unlike in the old days. And I hired a security company, too. Not cheap but worth it.”
Takamatsu held up his hand. “Hey, in the bubble years, we were hobbled by regulations, codes of conduct, lack of budget. We’re trying to catch up. That’s why we’ve hired people like Hiroshi here.”
Hiroshi fidgeted. It was Takamatsu who was calm and patient at this interview. “What kind of investors group would someone like Nozaki put together?”
Kamiya put his hands together under his chin. “Back when I started, things ran on trust. One person would front a group of investors who wanted to remain unknown. An old-style firewall. As long as that person never divulged where the money came from, the others were protected. People like Nozaki worked that way, shielding others’ investments. The original shell company.”
Takamatsu nodded. “And they were people whose trust you couldn’t break and stay alive too long.”
Kamiya cocked his head to the side. “That’s how it used to work. Things have changed so much.”
Hiroshi shook his head, still not clear. “So, Nine Dragons welcomed clients of that ilk?”
“That’s what I heard.” Kamiya shrugged and smiled.
“You heard that from Patrick?”
“I haven’t seen him since he left for Nine Dragons.”
“From Kyle?”
“We don’t talk about other firms here in the office, and I’m too old to go drinking anymore, where the real info is exchanged. But you hear things about competitors and their methods. I’m sure that old-style investing still exists, but not with us. I focus on my company and let the rest go. We have enough to work on here.”
“Security must be a major concern.”
“Hacked passwords, intercepted emails, opened accounts…our security budget balloons every quarter. I’m sure you’re doing your best to catch up, but the criminals are always a few steps ahead of regulators and the tax office. They’re always quite a few steps ahead of us. That’s why we’re so cautious.”
Hiroshi thought of Watanabe. He wasn’t behind, the bureaucracy was. “I still don’t understand why Nine Dragons set up an office in Tokyo.”
Kamiya nodded. “When regulations started to be enforced, there was a rush to get money out of Japan and shelter it as soon as possible. Government regulators were scrambling, so there was a rush to tap into it while they still could. Japan changes slowly, so probably it was last on the list. Leung has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and the rest of Southeast Asia, so he must know what he’s doing.”
Hiroshi sighed. “He’s not doing anything anymore. Someone killed him yesterday morning.”
Kamiya didn’t look surprised.