there for coercion? We put people in a position where their interests align with our own. They only need to do what they always do. What they inevitably do. Then they do our work for us.”
“What if I’m stubborn? What if I refuse?”
“You won’t, or else you and I would never have met. Do you think I would allow you to see my face if there were any possibility that you could arrest me? Do you think I would put myself in a room with you if I thought you could actually kill me? No. I placed your captain in a position to suspend you. I placed you in a position to indulge your own impetuous curiosity. It is no different than playing billiards. Apply the right impetus from the right angle and the balls will do exactly as you bid them.”
Mariko glowered at him. She hated that he’d read her mind so easily, that she’d allowed herself to be so easily read. She never would have shot him unless he presented a lethal threat, but he didn’t have to know that.
A glint of triumph glimmered in his eyes when he saw he’d struck the bull’s-eye. Mariko recognized that look, and all at once she understood that ineffable similarity she’d seen in him all along. She’d known one other person who had that maddening knowledge of her own affairs, someone who was always a step ahead of her, who stood in judgment over her like a stern grandfather. Not many people could make her feel like she was always catching up, but Furukawa did, and one other man did too: Yamada Yasuo.
“You did know him,” Mariko said. She’d harbored a healthy skepticism about that before, but now there was no doubt. “You two are so alike. So why was he a good man, and why are you such a corrupt son of a bitch?”
There was that wince again, as if her words stuck him like a needle. The attack on his character didn’t seem to bother him at all; it was her discourtesy that rankled. “We both know you’re not going to shoot me, Detective. Would you be so good as to lower your pistol?”
She did as she was told. Her thumb automatically groped for the safety, but there wasn’t one. Glocks weren’t built that way. But Mariko’s brain was running on autopilot, coasting on its default position that this was her favored SIG P230. The sight of the Glock in her hand made her realize something she should have registered already: she was now illegally in possession of a firearm. If this were a legitimate police operation, she’d call in the cavalry, turn over the weapon in the course of processing the crime scene, and that would be that. But now she was on suspension and trapped by a criminal syndicate. She didn’t have to think long about whether she planned to turn the Glock over to Investigative Division. She spent more time thinking about how much she didn’t like the prospect of stuffing an unsafetied weapon into her waistband, and what a hassle it would be to run Norika down and steal the holster the crafty bitch must have had on her.
Since she didn’t have anywhere safe to put the weapon, Mariko just held the damn thing. Her trigger finger tapped irritably on the outside of the trigger guard. “So? What now?”
“Now you accept my offer. Join the Wind. Bring an end to the reign of Joko Daishi.”
“Bring an end to—?” Mariko didn’t like the sound of that at all. “You can’t be serious. You want me to kill him?”
“It’s the only way to stop him.”
“Okay, first of all, no, it isn’t. Prison works just fine. Second, do you understand what happens when I follow you down this road? Do you have any idea how often I run across a perp who I know is guilty, but I can’t prove it yet? It happens every week. If cops start taking the law into their own hands, there is no law. I’m not crossing that line. Not for you, not for anyone. Go sell your ninja suits someplace else.”
Furukawa deflated with a sigh. He had the air of a disappointed schoolmaster. “Ninja suits! I suppose you’d like that. I could wear the black shozoku and you could wear a white cowboy hat. Quite the appropriate garb for your movie theater moralizing. The world is not black and white, Detective.”
“If you don’t like how I see it, find someone else.