Read Online Japantown by Barry Lancet - Free Book Online

daughter until she fell asleep in myarms. I had lost a wife but still had Jenny. The man before me had lost children and grandchildren in one fell swoop. I relented.
    “All right, Mr. Hara. We’ll look into it.”
    I wondered if his research showed I was a soft touch.
    The mogul fell back in his seat, visibly relieved. “Thank you. Can you find him?”
    “Sooner or later. With enough money and man-hours. And unless the police get there first. But either way, we won’t kill him. There’s been enough of that.”
    “Use a freelancer if you don’t want to dirty your hands. As much outside help as you like. I will cover the additional expenditure.”
    Inwardly, I winced and his words gave me pause. From his tone of voice, I could tell that the course Hara suggested was one he’d taken before.
    I said, “Why are you so set on us? You could buy an army if you wanted to.”
    “Brodie Security has more than twenty people in Tokyo, excluding affiliates. You are an army. I’ve been assured the police department here is working around the clock. By adding private manpower and someone who knows both Japan and America, I believe I can significantly increase the odds of success.”
    His thinking made sense, but I remained skeptical.
    Hara read my mind. Moving to squelch my doubt before it won out, he pulled an envelope from his jacket, offering it with both hands and a bow. “Here’s half of the higher fee now, exclusive of expenses, of course.”
    Decision time. Silently, I debated the issue. Hara couldn’t force me to do what I deemed undesirable. We were not assassins. But if the Japantown kanji turned out to be Mieko’s kanji, I’d follow this thing to the end for her sake, and Renna’s. Two solid reasons to say yes. So I did. I stood, reached out, and accepted the envelope in the same formal manner Hara offered it, bowing and shutting the envelope in my desk unopened, as Japanese etiquette dictated, before retaking my seat across the table from him. “We’ll take the case,” I said, “and you’ll get a report. That’s all.”
    Hara sat and smiled grimly. “Unless I can persuade you otherwise. But let’s leave that for now. What can I provide you with to start?”
    “Your daughter’s itinerary. Basic bios on her and her husband. A list of friends and acquaintances in the States, including Hawaii. It should include old friends, new friends, business contacts, personal enemies, pen pals.”
    He stiffened. “You joke about such matters?”
    “It’s no joke. I want all American contacts, no matter how insignificant they might seem to you.”
    He relaxed. “Done. You’ll have it within twenty-four hours.”
    “Good. And Yoshida, the other male, he was a friend?”
    “A distant cousin.”
    I waited for more but it didn’t come.
    “Okay,” I said. “The same for him. Was he or your son-in-law involved in anything dangerous?”
    “No.”
    “How about your daughter?”
    “She was a housewife.”
    “Any major events in their lives recently? Death, a falling-out with a partner, lovers’ quarrel?”
    “No.”
    “Can you think of any reason why someone might want to kill them?”
    “None.”
    “How about you? You must have enemies.”
    “No one who would do that.”
    “You sure?”
    “Of course.”
    “Right. Why should this be simple?”
    Maybe one of the victims had an unpleasant secret, I thought.
    Hara drummed his fingers on his knee. “One more thing. I’ve asked my younger daughter to fly in from New York so you can interview her. She was close to her sister.”
    “Fine.”
    “Do you know her?” he asked casually, an odd mixture of pride and suspicion in his voice. The pride was there because Lizza Hara was a brat-pack-type celebrity in her home country, the suspicion because the ongoing feud between father and daughter made headlines regularly.
    “I read the papers.”
    “She’s not that well known in the West yet.”
    “Who said anything about Western papers.”
    “Excellent,” the