think about it a lot. I guess I’m lucky I don’t have to. What’s this all about? What’s eating at you?”
She closed her eyes, steeled herself, and took the plunge. “You saw the medical examiner’s report on Joko Daishi?”
“I sure did. ‘Cause of death: massive blunt force trauma.’ Score one for the good guys.”
“Han, you and I both know what happened down there.”
“Yeah. We do. Is that what’s got you bent out of shape?”
Mariko didn’t expect to see legitimate surprise in his face. “Of course it is. That and everything that led up to it. All that shit with Furukawa, with the Wind . . .” She’d given him most of the general outlines by now. “Did I tell you about the Bulldog’s girlfriend?”
“No.”
“They killed her. Get this: I go to the Bulldog, looking for information about the kidnapped kids. He tells me to go fuck myself. Not his kids, not his problem, that’s what he says.”
“Sounds about right.”
“Neh?” Mariko cracked open another drink. “Except half an hour later, he calls me back. He’s the one who gave me the tip on the kids in Terminal 2. If not for him . . . I mean, we don’t know what would have happened, but it could have been pretty bad.”
“So why the change of heart?”
“He said his girlfriend was the latest case of ricin poisoning. Said she was pregnant and didn’t want to keep it, so she went to St. Luke’s.”
“Hm.” Han wrinkled up his face at that. “Pretty convenient timing.”
“Right. Ricin takes, what, four or five days to kill? She’s sick for days and he never hears about it until the minute I need him to?”
“You went and checked St. Luke’s, didn’t you?”
Mariko nodded. “I went to Organized Crimes first, and asked them for all the Bulldog’s known associates. They gave me the complete list: girlfriends, exes, all of them. I ran every name through St. Luke’s. No hits.”
“So what are you saying?”
Mariko’s hands were shaking now. “Furukawa killed her. He killed her and made the Bulldog think it was ricin. He didn’t even bother forging a medical record, Han. He could have hacked St. Luke’s computers but he didn’t bother, because he only needed Kamaguchi to believe the story long enough to help us.”
“Holy shit.” He thought about it a minute, scratching unconsciously at his cheek. “So what are we going to do about it?”
“What can we do? The guy is a ghost in the machine. Not just him; his whole damn organization.”
“There’s got to be something—”
“What? Call the cops? He is the cops, Han. He’s whoever he wants to be. I’ve seen how these people work. They can make and break people with a phone call. I have half an idea that they’re the ones who toppled Kusama.”
“Seriously?”
“Look at how it went down. Kusama’s as slick as they come. He dodged everything the media threw at him. No, he did more than just dodge it. They pelted him with shit and he turned it into snowflakes. He came away as clean as can be. And then the top brass push him out?”
“Mariko, I don’t know—”
“Okay, fine, I don’t know either. Call it a theory.” She took a drink. Focusing on how cold it was helped cool her flaring temper too. “But if that’s how it happened, it might be Furukawa’s way of thanking me. He knows I think Kusama was a sexist prick.”
“He was a sexist prick. Good riddance.” Han raised his beer in a toast.
Mariko obliged him; they clinked their bottles together. “You see what I’m saying, though, neh? I don’t think we have what it takes to burn down Furukawa.”
“We know he exists. That’s a start.”
“Okay, good point.” Mariko allowed herself a wry laugh. “It might be more than a start.”
“Uh-oh. What did you do?”
“I might have visited the Bulldog in prison.” Kamaguchi would be behind bars for a long time. That was what you got when you fired an AK-47 in a public park. It didn’t matter where the bullets went or how many soldiers you had to stand tall and plead guilty for you. “I might have let Furukawa’s name slip. Along with his description. And everything else I know about him.”
Han grinned. “You’re a bad girl.”
“See?” She smacked him. “This is what I’m worried about. We shouldn’t laugh about this. I shouldn’t feel good about it. I should feel guilty as hell.”
“Why? Because one bad guy is going to fuck over another bad guy? Let them. It’s what they do.”