Casey scrabbled in her pocket to pull it out. “I just got this thing. I hadn’t even set a ring tone.”
The screen of the phone gave a number, but no name, seeing how Casey hadn’t actually identified anyone in her contact list yet. The only people who had her number—other than the phone company—were Detective Binns and Dylan, and she had no idea which one this was.
“Excuse me, please.” She rose, bowed to Asuhara, and left the room. “Hang on a minute,” she said into the phone. The paper walls would hide nothing, and her dinner mates would be able to hear everything she said, not that it would matter with Asuhara anymore. She walked briskly to the front of the restaurant, waggled her phone at the hostess, and went out to the sidewalk.
“Sorry. I’m here.”
“Somewhere far eastern, I take it?” It was Binns.
“Kyoto’s.”
“Ah. I know it well. Any chance you’re about finished with dinner?”
“I guess I could be, although we haven’t even gotten our main course.”
“I’m calling from the Flamingo. Ms. Parker’s folks are here, from Oregon, and they would like to speak with you.”
Casey sank against the brick wall. They would want her to talk about Andrea’s last moments. What she had said. How she’d been. What was Casey supposed to say to them? That their daughter had been gasping for breath? That she hadn’t sent them any last messages?
Or else the parents would be watching Casey, looking for signs that she had been the one to end their daughter’s life. She wondered if they had already seen Krystal, and been poisoned by her hatred.
Casey sighed. “Do I have to see them?”
“No.”
“It’s just I’m not sure how helpful it would be.”
“I understand. You aren’t required to talk with them. They wanted to speak to the person who found her, and I told them I’d ask. They’ll be around for several days, you know, so you’ll probably run into them at some point. But you might want to just get it over with.”
Casey looked up at the sky, which was beginning to show signs of the night to come. The blue was now tinged with orange, and the clouds stood out in stark relief. A seagull sat on the branch of a palm tree, its head cocked to the side as it eyed her.
“All right,” Casey said. “I’ll be there soon.”
“You could wait until dinner is over. They’re not going anywhere.”
“What’s the point? I don’t have an appetite now, anyway.” She hesitated. “Are you going to be there?”
“I’m not going anywhere. Gomez and I will protect you.”
Gomez. Great. The way Casey’s brain addled when he was around, Binns would end up protecting Gomez from her.
Casey hung up the phone without saying anything else.
Back in the room, she grabbed her purse and made her apologies to the sensei and Tamille. “The police need me back at the Flamingo.”
Death crooked an eyebrow, obviously wondering if she was stretching the truth.
“Of course,” Asuhara said. “Then you must go.” He rose and met her at the door, taking her hands in his. “Go, with the strength of a sensei. And of those who travel with you.” He bowed, his hands warm on hers.
Casey bowed back, then nodded at Tamille. “I’ll see you later?”
“Count on it.”
Asuhara let go of her hands and focused his eyes just over Casey’s shoulder, where Death stood. “Until we meet again.”
“I will look forward to that day,” Death said. “But I hope, for your sake, that it will not be for some time.”
Asuhara bowed again, and Death swept through the beaded curtain, moving it ever so slightly, as if a draft had caught the strands.
Chapter Twenty-one
“You all right?” Death still wore the kimono, but had replaced the slippers with sneakers, since Casey was in a hurry to get back to the Flamingo. Casey herself was glad to be in her regular shoes, but still felt off-balance from the way Asuhara had read her. It was like he’d known she was hiding something. Like he’d known her. Behind his giggle and his bad Japanese he truly was a sensei, testing everything she thought she’d learned since Reuben and Omar’s deaths. Asking those questions her own Master had put to her so many times before, before Omar, before her marriage, before she’d even met Reuben. He’d asked them about hapkido. About life. About living. What were the challenges? How did you overcome them? What were your options? And perhaps, most importantly, what would you change if you had to do it