A Lonely Resurrection

blank.”
    “And you got called on it.”
    “Right. Which is weird. No one should be taking an interest in these things before a meeting. They’re for post-meeting contingencies. In fact, half the time, we don’t even bother filling them out until afterward. It’s too much of a pain. And you never hear anything about it.”
    “What are you thinking?”
    “That someone is observing these meetings.”
    “For what?”
    “I don’t. . . I don’t know.”
    “Then I don’t see how I can help you.”
    “All right. It’s possible someone is trying to gather some kind of evidence that I’ve been running Crepuscular by myself since it was terminated. Maybe in case it comes out, that way Biddle or whoever could just blame me.” He looked at me. “As their fall guy.”
    Maybe the kid wasn’t so naïve after all. “You still haven’t told me what you want from me,” I said.
    “I want you to run countersurveillance tonight and tell me what you see.”
    “I’m flattered, but wouldn’t you be better off going to the CIA Inspector General?”
    “With what? Suspicions? Besides, for all I know, the IG and the Station Chief went to Yale together and they were buddies in Skull and Bones. Remember, as of six months ago, Crepuscular was shut down. At which point it effectively became illegal. And all this time I’ve been running it. Before I go through channels, I need to figure out just what is going on.”
    I was quiet for a moment. Then I said, “What are you offering me in return?”
    “I’ll tell you what I know about your friend.”
    “If what you tell me is convincing and valuable, I’ll help you.”
    “You won’t renege?”
    “You’re going to have to take that chance.”
    He pouted like a kid who thinks he’s made a reasonable request and is hurt that he isn’t being taken seriously.
    “Okay,” he said after a moment. “The last time we met, I told you we identified Haruyoshi Fukasawa as an acquaintance of yours by intercepting a letter from him to Kawamura Midori. All we had from the letter was his first name, which is spelled with an unusual combination of
kanji,
and a postmark for the main Chuo-ku post office.”
    That tracked pretty much with what Harry and I had come with ourselves. “Keep going,” I said.
    “There was a lot of information to sift through if we were going to make effective use of those two small bits of information. Local ward domicile records, tax records, things like that. We’d have to work outward in concentric circles starting with the Chuo-ku postmark. That meant manpower and local expertise.”
    I nodded, knowing what was next. “So you outsourced it.”
    “We did. To a Station asset named Yamaoto.”
    Christ, they might as well have just put out a contract on Harry. I closed my eyes and thought. “Did you tell Yamaoto why you were interested in Fukasawa?”
    He shook his head. “Of course not. We just told him we wanted to know where a person with that name lived and worked.”
    “What happened after that?”
    “I don’t know. Yamaoto got us the addresses we wanted. We tailed Fukasawa as closely as we could, but he was surveillance conscious and we never managed to stay with him long enough to follow him to you.”
    “You’re not telling me much that I don’t already know. What about Fukasawa’s death?”
    “I went to his apartment the other day with diplomatic security to try to surveil him as usual. I told Biddle I didn’t think this was a good idea after our previous encounter, that it was personally dangerous for me, but he insisted. Anyway, I saw a lot of unusual activity. Police cars, and a. . . a cleanup crew for the sidewalk in front of his building. I looked into it and found out what had happened. When I told Biddle, he got totally pale.”
    “Meaning?”
    “Meaning my impression was that he was both surprised and upset. If he was surprised, it means someone else was responsible for this. I’m assuming it wasn’t an accident. That leaves you and Yamaoto. Since you’re here and seem to care, I’m also assuming you and Fukasawa didn’t have some kind of falling out. That leaves Yamaoto.”
    “Let’s assume you’re right. Why?”
    He swallowed. “I don’t know. I mean, at a general level, I would guess it would be either because Fukasawa posed some sort of threat or because he was no longer useful, but I don’t know more than that.”
    “You ever see Fukasawa with a woman?”
    He nodded. “Yes, we saw him coming and