there could only be one thing that tied all of them together in a way that they each would be targeted by this killer. With Dan Lansdale also a victim, I am now positive . . . but only now , Joe.’
I didn’t bother placating her. I’d been caught and was guilty as charged. Instead, I said, ‘I take it that neither Bruce Tennant nor Jed Newmark have any surviving families? You felt that your silence was justified in that there was no one in their lives you could hurt by talking. You were hoping the killer would end things there, that he’d be finished with the murders, that by keeping quiet it would all just go away? What about Lansdale? He has a wife, children?’
‘They still need protecting from the past, Joe. Daniel was murdered, but they need not learn what he did. It would destroy them: can’t you see that?’ She glanced at the door to the living room, and I knew what she was thinking. Whatever secret she held, it might destroy Rink too.
‘Nothing you tell me would change Rink’s opinion of his dad. He loved him dearly. He idolised him –’ I allowed a smile to slip into place – ‘almost as much as he idolises you. Nothing you can tell me will make him think otherwise.’ I leaned forward and took her hands in mine as before. This time she turned them over so that we could entwine our fingers.
‘Tell me,’ I urged, ‘then we can figure out who is responsible and stop him from hurting any one else. By saving them, you’re not betraying anyone, least of all Andrew.’
Yukiko looked once more to the closed door. Then she nodded, a gentle gesture, and I could see that some kind of peace had flooded over her. They say a problem shared is a problem halved, but even I had not steeled myself for what she soon told me, and to be honest I wasn’t sure how I was going to break what I learned to Rink.
Chapter 11
Hitomi Yukiko was afraid of the big men with knives on their guns. She tried to keep away from them, to avoid their cold stares. She was only a child, but even children weren’t safe, she’d been warned. It seemed like she had run and hidden from these men for as long as she could remember. Even the vague recollections of when she was a little girl held images of men with knives on their guns. She had been in her mom’s arms when the soldiers came, forcing them from their home. Her parents had begged to stay, proclaiming their loyalty to their new country, but their words had fallen on deaf ears. She had snatched memories of their belongings piled on the street outside their home in Japan Town, in San Francisco, and men in suits and buttoned down collars greedily hauling them away, their father staring in dismay at the pittance of dollars shoved into his hands .
Then there was the train journey. They had been crammed alongside hundreds into the carriages, small bags all they were allowed to carry. The soldiers were on the train, and others waited for them when they finally arrived at the sprawling camp that she later learned was in a place called Desha County, in Arkansas. The camp terrified her with its rigid conformity, the rows of barracks-like buildings ringed by tall fences topped with barbed wire. Her young mind had not made sense of why they must stay at this place and she had wept and asked her father to take her home. Her father had approached a soldier, seeking answers, but had been knocked to the ground instead. She still had nightmares about the man bending over her dad, aiming the long knife on his gun at her father’s chest .
Her dad was taken away. Yukiko had cried for his return and her mom had hushed her and told her he’d been taken to a place called Tule Lake. Yukiko thought that a place with a lake must be much nicer than somewhere called Rohwer Relocation Center. Four years later she was old enough to learn the truth, that Tule Lake was a segregation facility in the Rocky Mountains, where those deemed troublesome or dangerous were held. Her dad was a gentle man, not
I didn’t bother placating her. I’d been caught and was guilty as charged. Instead, I said, ‘I take it that neither Bruce Tennant nor Jed Newmark have any surviving families? You felt that your silence was justified in that there was no one in their lives you could hurt by talking. You were hoping the killer would end things there, that he’d be finished with the murders, that by keeping quiet it would all just go away? What about Lansdale? He has a wife, children?’
‘They still need protecting from the past, Joe. Daniel was murdered, but they need not learn what he did. It would destroy them: can’t you see that?’ She glanced at the door to the living room, and I knew what she was thinking. Whatever secret she held, it might destroy Rink too.
‘Nothing you tell me would change Rink’s opinion of his dad. He loved him dearly. He idolised him –’ I allowed a smile to slip into place – ‘almost as much as he idolises you. Nothing you can tell me will make him think otherwise.’ I leaned forward and took her hands in mine as before. This time she turned them over so that we could entwine our fingers.
‘Tell me,’ I urged, ‘then we can figure out who is responsible and stop him from hurting any one else. By saving them, you’re not betraying anyone, least of all Andrew.’
Yukiko looked once more to the closed door. Then she nodded, a gentle gesture, and I could see that some kind of peace had flooded over her. They say a problem shared is a problem halved, but even I had not steeled myself for what she soon told me, and to be honest I wasn’t sure how I was going to break what I learned to Rink.
Chapter 11
Hitomi Yukiko was afraid of the big men with knives on their guns. She tried to keep away from them, to avoid their cold stares. She was only a child, but even children weren’t safe, she’d been warned. It seemed like she had run and hidden from these men for as long as she could remember. Even the vague recollections of when she was a little girl held images of men with knives on their guns. She had been in her mom’s arms when the soldiers came, forcing them from their home. Her parents had begged to stay, proclaiming their loyalty to their new country, but their words had fallen on deaf ears. She had snatched memories of their belongings piled on the street outside their home in Japan Town, in San Francisco, and men in suits and buttoned down collars greedily hauling them away, their father staring in dismay at the pittance of dollars shoved into his hands .
Then there was the train journey. They had been crammed alongside hundreds into the carriages, small bags all they were allowed to carry. The soldiers were on the train, and others waited for them when they finally arrived at the sprawling camp that she later learned was in a place called Desha County, in Arkansas. The camp terrified her with its rigid conformity, the rows of barracks-like buildings ringed by tall fences topped with barbed wire. Her young mind had not made sense of why they must stay at this place and she had wept and asked her father to take her home. Her father had approached a soldier, seeking answers, but had been knocked to the ground instead. She still had nightmares about the man bending over her dad, aiming the long knife on his gun at her father’s chest .
Her dad was taken away. Yukiko had cried for his return and her mom had hushed her and told her he’d been taken to a place called Tule Lake. Yukiko thought that a place with a lake must be much nicer than somewhere called Rohwer Relocation Center. Four years later she was old enough to learn the truth, that Tule Lake was a segregation facility in the Rocky Mountains, where those deemed troublesome or dangerous were held. Her dad was a gentle man, not
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