Hard Rain

stood up and dragged his body into the shadows under the
    awning, next to what was left of his buddy. Dragging him one-armed was
    a bitch but I managed it. The dog was easier. I took the cell phones
    out, wiped them down, and dropped them. Ditto for the shades. Last
    was the baton. I didn't want to be found walking around with a
    twenty-six-inch murder weapon bent into the shape of one of the
    victim's skulls. I shrugged off the leather jacket I had taken and
    dropped it on top of the mess.
    Some of the buckets near the awning had collected rainwater. I used
    them to wash the area down and make the blood less obvious. I wiped
    them for prints when I was done.
    Last stop was the front of the building, where I found the cigarette I
    had spat out before taking out the second guy. I stubbed it out and
    pocketed the butt.
    I walked over to Naomi's building and pressed a knuckle to her
    apartment buzzer. A moment later I heard her voice. Her tone was
    fearful. "Who is it?" she asked.
    For a second I couldn't even remember what I'd told her to call me when
    I'd first met her at the club. Then I remembered: my real name.
    "It's me," I said. "John."
    I heard her breathing. "Are you alone?" she asked.
    Yes."
    "All right. Just come up. Hurry."
    The door buzzed and I opened it. I kept my head low so that whoever
    would surely be reviewing the building security tapes later that
    morning wouldn't get a good look at my face. I took the stairs to the
    fifth floor and knocked softly on her door when I got to it.
    I saw the light blotted out for a moment behind the peephole. Then the
    door opened. Her mouth opened wide when she saw me.
    XA1
    "Oh meu deus," she said, 'meu deus, what happened?"
    "I ran into them on their way out."
    She shook her head and blinked. "Come in, come in." I walked into
    the genkan and she closed the door behind me.
    "I can't stay," I said. "Someone is going to find them out there soon,
    and when that happens there are going to be cops swarming all over your
    neighborhood."
    "Find them ...," she said, then recognition hardened onto her features.
    "You ... you killed them?" She shook her head as though she couldn't
    believe it. "Oh merda."
    "Tell me what happened."
    She looked at me. "They came for me at the club tonight. They told me
    I had to leave with them but wouldn't say why. I was really scared.
    They made me take them back here, up to my apartment. Murakami had a
    dog with him. He told me he would sic it on me if I didn't do exactly
    what he wanted."
    She looked at me, afraid, I thought, of what I might be thinking.
    "It's okay," I said. "Keep going."
    "He told me he knew I'd been seeing you outside the club, that he knew
    I had a way to contact you. He told me to call you and ask you to come
    over."
    "He was probably bluffing," I said. "Maybe the bugs picked it up when
    you gave me your e-mail address that first night, and he played on
    that. Or maybe Yukiko sensed something and told him. It doesn't
    matter."
    She nodded. "He asked me what language we used when we were together.
    I told him mostly English. His English isn't so good, but he told me
    if he heard anything wrong, anything that sounded like a warning, he
    would feed me to the dog. He was listening right next to me. I was
    afraid if I tried to warn you, you might say something back and he
    would know what I had done. But I tried to tell you, in a way you
    wouldn't notice or comment on right away. Did you notice?"
    I nodded. '"Would love to," I said, pronouncing it the way she had.
    "Sim. I'm sorry I couldn't do more. I was too scared. He would have
    known."
    I smiled. "That was perfect," I said. "It was good thinking.
    Obrigado."
    I was cradling my wrist in front of me and she looked at it. "What
    happened to your arm?" she asked.
    "Murakami's dog."
    "Jesus! Are you all right?"
    I looked at my forearm. The leather jacket had kept the animal's teeth
    from breaking the skin, but the area was purple and badly swollen and I
    thought something might be broken.
    "I'll be okay," I said. "It's you I'm worried about. There was a
    triple murder outside your building just now. As soon as someone finds
    one of the bodies, which isn't going to be hard to do, the police are
    going to subpoena the security tapes from every building in the area.
    They'll see you getting escorted by a guy with a white dog, the same
    white dog that's getting cold now with its master a few meters from
    your building. You're going to have a lot of questions to answer."
    She