Despite multiple scrubbings under a hot shower, blue dye from the fake water at Disneyland clung to his skin, stuck in the cracks of his fingers, and gave his face an eerie glow. He thought the water inside the park was from the bay, but it must have been processed and colored to create a brightened, animated idea of a river. The leather of his wallet turned an odd mix of blue and brown. His clothes had a creepy blue tinge. He threw them out.
After he toweled off, he found a thin robe in the cabinet by the showers, but no slippers, not even the throwaway kind. He’d gone barefoot often enough in Boston and nothing bad happened. The hallway floor of headquarters couldn’t be worse than the dirt and grass along the Charles River. Or maybe it could.
Osaki and Sugamo waited by the vending machines in the hallway outside the shower locker room. Their pants and shoes were still damp from when they stepped into the water to drag everyone out. They stared at Hiroshi’s bare feet but didn’t say anything.
“Your skin doesn’t look that blue,” Sugamo said.
Osaki patted Hiroshi on the back. “Sakaguchi’s waiting for you to interrogate the American guy.”
Sugamo said, “We’ll do Nozaki’s guys. They’ll break quickly. You can tell.”
Hiroshi nodded. “Where are the girls?”
Osaki dumped his empty can in the recycle bin. “Ishii took them to the shower and got clothes from the child abuse section. The mother wasn’t too happy about that, but they always have extras.”
“I think I’ll change before the interrogations.” Hiroshi padded off to his office.
Akiko welcomed him back to his office with a double espresso and a deep bow. “Nice robe.”
“Breezy.”
“Ayana called.”
“Did she send an address?”
“Back of the monitors.” Akiko frowned at him. “You’re blue.”
“There was some kind of dye in the water.”
“Didn’t you wash it off?”
“I tried.” Hiroshi checked the address on the sticky note on the back of his monitors. It was a wedding hall not too far away. He’d finish the interrogations quickly and go.
Two bright-colored tickets were taped among the notes. He peeled them off—two free tickets to DisneySea. He held them up.
“Someone left those for you.” Akiko turned away, chuckling.
He taped them back to the monitor with a sigh. He was too tired and cold—and too undressed—to laugh.
“I’ll let you change.” Akiko shut down her computer. “Meet you at the interrogation rooms.”
The warmth of the double espresso restored him. He pulled a change of clothes from his filing cabinet. Because he never slept in his office anymore, he barely remembered the button-down shirt and summer khakis in dry-cleaning wrap, wrinkled but serviceable. There were socks too. A pair of running shoes from a failed attempt at lunchtime jogging still waited by the coatrack.
He checked the sticky note for the exact time of the wedding. He had two hours. Ayana would meet him there. He buttoned his shirt, pulled an old jacket from the back of the coatrack, and walked off to the main building.
Sakaguchi was waiting in the hallway. “How did this case move from child abduction to murder to a shootout on the bridge at the most popular tourist site in the country? I see endless meetings.”
Takamatsu reached up to pat him on his huge shoulder. “That’s going to be your life from now on, Chief Sakaguchi. I like the sound of that.”
Hiroshi turned to Takamatsu. “I see you stayed dry this time.”
Takamatsu growled. “You should have let him drown.”
Sakaguchi frowned. “If Hiroshi hadn’t dragged him to the bank, we’d be on the hook for shooting him and letting him drown. You know how many meetings that would involve?” Sakaguchi dropped a hand on Hiroshi’s shoulder. “It’s good you brought him in. We’ve got a prize to show off.”
“For the outgoing chief to take credit for.” Takamatsu shook his head. “That’s all the retirement gift he gets.”
Hiroshi headed for the door. “Let’s get this over with. I’ve got a wedding.”
Takamatsu and Hiroshi stepped into the interrogation room.
Nozaki had his leg wrapped and splinted, propped on a chair. He hadn’t had a shower, so the blue dye stuck to his skin even more than to Hiroshi’s. His hands were cuffed through an eyebolt in the table.
Takamatsu peered at Nozaki’s leg. “That’s it? I told the markswoman to get a headshot.”
Nozaki stared at him with dull eyes.
Takamatsu looked back at the observation room and made a gesture at his throat to cut the video. The red light turned off.
Takamatsu backhanded Nozaki across the face.
Nozaki took the blow and turned his face back ready for the next. The cuffs had a short chain, and unless he took his leg down, there was no way to move.
Takamatsu grabbed Nozaki’s head and popped him square in the nose. And then did it again.
Nozaki shook his head and leaned back as far as he could in the cuffs. Blood flowed from his nose and he blinked the water from his eyes. He tried to wipe his nose but couldn’t reach it. The blood dripped over the table, the cuffs, and his clothes, and splattered over his leg splint.
Nozaki turned his eyes back to Takamatsu’s and reset himself in the chair. Hiroshi saw one shiver run through his body and then the soulless menace honed by years of brutality returned to his eyes.
Hiroshi held his hand up to Takamatsu. “Isn’t that enough? Let’s get this over with.”
Blood trickled down Nozaki’s upper lip. He licked it clean.
Takamatsu tucked his shirt in, straightened his jacket, and waved for the camera to be turned on. “I was just speaking his language. He’s not going to give us anything.”
Hiroshi turned to him. “Is that right, Nozaki? You’ve got nothing to say?”
Nozaki stared at Hiroshi, then focused his eyes on the tinted observation window on the back wall.
“So tell us about you and Nine Dragons. Did they handle your money?”
Nozaki stared dully at Hiroshi and Takamatsu in turn. It was not the first time he’d been interrogated. And it wouldn’t be the last. Hiroshi knew Takamatsu, and whoever he enlisted to help, would be dragging Nozaki back for questioning over the next three weeks before they charged him. They wouldn’t let him sleep.
Hiroshi turned to Takamatsu. “What did his little buddies have to say?”
Takamatsu let out a deep chuckle. “They’ll start blabbering soon enough. Like I told you, Nozaki, you should have hired old-school guys. These young punks will say anything to save their own asses.”
Hiroshi tapped the table. “If we work it that way, it’ll be worse for you, Nozaki. It’s better to talk a bit. Maybe the money wasn’t yours? You were protecting someone? Give us something.”
Takamatsu leaned forward and stared into Nozaki’s eyes. “Just tell us who you were fronting. Just a couple of names. All that money wasn’t yours, was it?”
Without dropping Takamatsu’s gaze, Nozaki let his tongue move across his upper lip to wipe the blood dripping from his nose. He sucked in through his sinuses and Hiroshi pictured the blood flowing down the back of Nozaki’s throat.
Takamatsu put his hands in front of him. “After the day you killed Shibutani’s cousin, we searched for you everywhere. I found all the doctored photos, the blackmail letters, I even got into your office files and boxed up every bit of incriminating evidence. You had that set up pretty well, didn’t you? Shakedowns were easier back then.”
Nozaki’s tongue snaked out to lick off the stream of blood. He turned his eyes to Takamatsu’s.
“You were the big sokaiya back then, but now, you couldn’t even get your money back from Nine Dragons. Sounds like they were extorting you! That’ll happen. Be careful who you trust. You must have believed everything Leung said.” Takamatsu laughed.
Hiroshi leaned forward. “Sounds like you made a big mistake. You didn’t even know who to kill to get your money back, did you?”
Takamatsu laughed. “Those photos? That kind of thing doesn’t work anymore. No one gets embarrassed like in the sokaiya days. You need to update your methods. Too bad you won’t get the chance.”
Nozaki kept staring without a word. The blood dripped along his lip.
Takamatsu pointed at Nozaki. “We’ve got you down for Leung’s murder. And that grandmother? That’ll be what keeps you inside for the rest of your life. Judges don’t like grandmother killers. And we can add on extortion, blackmail, kidnapping, carrying weapons in a public area, and whatever else the prosecutors can find. Not sure what will happen to your money. We’ll see if the kid can get into the accounts. ”
Nozaki blinked slowly.
Takamatsu folded his arms. “So, why don’t you tell us whose money you lost? We’ll reduce the sentence for cooperation. And I’ll toss in a bonus. The file about your stabbing Shibutani’s cousin? Shibutani has it. It’s why he was fired. Missing case file. Lucky for you we didn’t find you back then. We wouldn’t have been so forgiving.”
Nozaki licked off the blood dripping from his sinuses and raised his chin to look at Takamatsu.
Takamatsu leaned forward. “Think it over and see if you can’t come up with a few names for us.”
Hiroshi thought he heard something from the observation room and looked back to see the one-way mirror from the observation room turning the three of them into shadowy reflections.
Takamatsu stood and leaned over the table
Hiroshi tapped his arm to remind him the camera was on.
“Did you plan it? The big fight in the meeting hall? The chance to kill a cop? Something to brag about, boost your reputation? You were never man enough to do it face to face. Did you come up from behind him? Reach around for the abdominal aorta?”
Nozaki snuffled back more blood, swallowing it. He looked at his leg and shivered again. Blood was soaking the gauze.
Takamatsu slammed the table with both hands.
Hiroshi pulled on Takamatsu’s sleeve to go, but Takamatsu kept his hands on the table and leaned toward Nozaki. “Shibutani’s cousin was just twenty-five when you killed him. I used to think that was a weakness, to think about him and light incense at his grave. But it’s a strength to remember, and remember well. He’s still here as long as you are. You’re keeping him alive.” Hiroshi pulled Takamatsu toward the door. “Shibutani will come see you soon.”
Nozaki kept his unflinching gaze on Takamatsu. Blood flowed from his nose, over his lip, and into his mouth, but he didn’t bother to lick it off.
Hiroshi pulled on Takamatsu’s arm. “Let’s go.”