A Lonely Resurrection

roof, grip one end of the plastic, and give a hard shove. The victim rolls out of the plastic and into the air. Very neat.”
    “Unless, somehow, the victim’s watch snagged on the plastic.”
    “Not impossible. But if that’s all you’ve got to go on, you haven’t got much.”
    “There was also an eyewitness. A bellhop, working late in the hotel where one of the victims died. At three in the morning, the same time the coroner fixed the time of death, he got a good look at a janitor with a large cart going up in one of the elevators. Exactly the scene you just depicted.”
    “He described your man?”
    “To the details. A crushed left cheek, from his Muay Thai days. Unusual scarring on the opposite side of his face, under the eye. These are healed dog bites. ‘A frightening face,’ he said. Entirely accurately.”
    “No such janitor employed in that building?”
    “Correct.”
    “What happened to the bellhop?”
    “Disappeared.”
    “Dead?”
    “Probably.”
    “That’s all you’ve got?”
    He shrugged. “And two similar deaths, outside of Tokyo. Each to a family member of a key player in Parliament.” His jaw clenched, then released. “One to a child.”
    “A child?”
    Clench, release. “Yes. One with no history of emotional or other problems in school. No evidence of precursors for suicide.”
    I had once heard that Tatsu had lost an infant son. I wanted to ask him, but didn’t.
    “If those deaths were intended to send messages to the principals,” I said, “they were being pretty subtle. If the principal thinks it was suicide, there’s no impact on his behavior.”
    He nodded. “I had the opportunity to interview each of the principals. Each denied there had been any contact from anyone claiming the deaths were other than suicide. Each was lying.”
    Tatsu had a nose for that sort of thing, and I trusted his judgment. “I’m surprised you didn’t suspect I was involved in some of this,” I said.
    He paused for a moment before answering. “I might have. But, though I don’t pretend to understand how you do what you do, I know you. You could not kill a child. Not that way.”
    “I’ve told you as much,” I said.
    “I am not talking about what you told me. I am talking about what I know.”
    I felt bizarrely appreciative of his confidence.
    “In any event,” he continued, “some of your movements, as recorded on the Osaka security camera network, provided you with an alibi.”
    I raised my eyebrows. “Your cameras are good enough to track me, but not good enough to spot someone wrapping people in plastic and dumping them off roofs?”
    “As I have told you, the networks are far from perfect. I do not have control over their operation.” He looked at me. “And I am not the only one with access.”
    I took a last sip of tea and asked a waitress for some more hot water. We sat in silence until it had arrived.
    I picked up the delicate china cup and looked at him. “Tell me something, Tatsu.”
    “Yes.”
    “These questions. You already know the answers.”
    “Of course.”
    “Then why are you asking me?”
    He shrugged. “I believe this man we are dealing with is a sociopath. That he is capable of killing under any set of circumstances. I am trying to understand how such a creature operates.”
    “Through me?”
    He nodded his head once in acknowledgment.
    “I thought you just said I’m not the right model.” My tone was more forceful than I had intended.
    “You are as close to such a creature as I have known. Which makes you ideally suited to hunt him.”
    “What do you mean, ‘hunt him’?”
    “He is careful in his movements. Not an easy man to track. I have leads, but they would need to be followed.”
    I took another sip of tea, considering. “I don’t know, Tatsu.”
    “Yes?”
    “The first guy, with the business fronts, okay, he was strategic. I understand. But this guy, the dog fighter, he’s just muscle. Why aren’t you going after Yamaoto and the other kingpins?”
    “The ‘kingpins,’ as you put it, are difficult to get to. Too many bodyguards, too much security, too much visibility. Yamaoto in particular has hardened his defenses, I believe out of fear that you may be hunting him, and is now as inaccessible as the Prime Minister. And even if they could be gotten to, there are many like them in the various factions, waiting to take their places. They are like shark’s teeth. Knock one out, and there are ten rows waiting to fill in the