11:52 p.m.

Ashida wrote inside precut stencils. He cut them himself. He wrote with a fountain pen and red ink. The color symbolized Fuji Shudo’s psychosis. The Werewolf writes in simulated blood.

“You are the cowardly yellow dog of American fascism, Ryoshi. Our families have battled for centuries in the shadow land of our true nation—Imperial Japan. Now, I throw down the gauntlet to you here in Los Angeles, where the white oppressor seeks to make all Japanese his yellow slaves.”

He age-spotted the paper and envelope. He used a 1933-vintage stamp. He drew the postal cancellation mark perfectly. He based the text on Dudley’s interview with Fuji Shudo.

Shudo was out to fuck Nancy and kill Ryoshi. An argument at the Shotokan Baths blew out of hand. Shudo was delusional in 1933. The fraternal clubs were big then. His clan and the Watanabe clan had warred for centuries. Shudo wanted to impregnate Nancy and leave her to bear his wolf cubs. He communed with talking animals. This letter was his first formal statement of intent.

He impregnated Nancy on his nuthouse leave. His lunacy escalated during his loony-bin years. Nancy got an abortion and destroyed his wolf-cub litter. He left Atascadero and went on a terp run. His madness exploded on December 6.

Ashida worked in the lab. The station was a nuthouse. The Feds booked Claire and her coven. Four men escaped from Terminal Island. It put the PD in a siege state.

Phone buzz ran incessant. Calling all cops. Sheriff’s posse. Duty waivers and twelve scoots a day.

Then this rumor spread. It spread up through the heat shaft. He heard it through the get-the-Japs roar. Lee Blanchard’s girlfriend shanked Dot Rothstein.

Yeah, the Lake twist. Yeah, that big lez. What’s Dot weigh—240? I heard the Lake twist bit her fucking nose off. Dot’s getting transfusions at Queen of Angels right now.

He believed it. He didn’t believe it. It was late. He was tired. He was Jap-overdosed.

Dead Japs in Highland Park. Jap werewolf Shudo. Jap jail suicides. The dead Jap in the phone booth. The dead Jap at the beach. Cops out to get escaped Japs.

He was tired. He locked his forgery kit in his briefcase. He walked down the back steps and ducked rain to his car.

He took 1st Street home. He dumped his car and walked upstairs. An envelope was taped to his door.

He opened it. He read the note inside.

You will testify for the Los Angeles County Grand Jury in the matter of the State of California versus Fujio Shudo. You will state under oath that you discovered the bloodstained fingerprint on the morning of December 7, 1941, and that you neglected to mention that fact in your initial reports.

Your new photographic device is faulty and perhaps obsolete. The picture of Fujio Shudo was taken on December 7 at 3:19 p.m., not December 6. The agitated pedestrians are reacting to news of the Pearl Harbor attack. A newspaper headline pertaining to the attack can be minimally glimpsed in the photo.

The note was unsigned. A big heart was sketched below.

Replete with an arrow. Replete with initials: H.A. + B.B.

Ashida screamed.

He thought he heard a wolf howl, somewhere close.