Hard Rain

you
    met this woman at about the same time we discovered that you were being
    followed by the CIA?"
    He looked at me as though I'd finally come unhinged. "Are you saying
    Yukiko is mixed up with the CIA? C'mon."
    "Think about it," I told him. We know the Agency was tracking you to
    get to me. They got to you through Midori's letter. What did they
    learn about you from the letter? Just an unusually spelled name and a
    postmark."
    "So?"
    "So the Agency doesn't have the in-house expertise to do anything
    useful with information like that. They need local resources."
    "So?" he said again, his tone petulant.
    "So they know Yamaoto from his connections with Holtzer. They ask him
    for his help. He has his people check domiciles and employment records
    in concentric circles moving outward from the Chu-oku postmark. Maybe
    they access tax records, find out where an unusually named Hamyoshi is
    employed. Now they've got your whole name, but they can't find out
    where you live, because you're careful to protect that. They try to
    follow you from work, maybe, but you show them you're too surveillance
    conscious and it doesn't work. So Yamaoto gets your boss to take you
    somewhere to "celebrate," somewhere where you'll meet a real
    heart-stopper, someone who can find out where you live so they can
    follow you more often, hoping you'll drop your guard and lead them to
    me."
    "Then why is she still with me?"
    I looked at him. It was a good question.
    "I mean, if her job was just to get my home address, she would have
    been gone the first time I took her home. But she's not. She's still
    with me."
    "Then maybe her role was to watch you, learn your routines, find some
    information that would help her people get closer to finding me. Maybe
    listen in on your calls, alert her people if or when one of us got in
    touch with the other. I don't know for sure."
    "I'm sorry. It's too far-fetched."
    I sighed. "Harry, you're not in a good position to be objective here.
    You have to acknowledge that."
    "And you are?"
    I looked at him. "What possible reason would I have to distort any of
    this?"
    He shrugged. "Maybe you're afraid I won't help you anymore. You said
    it yourself: "You can't live with one foot in daylight and the other in
    shadows." Maybe you're afraid I'll move into the daylight and leave
    you behind."
    I felt a wave of angry indignation and willed it back. "Let me tell
    you something, kid," I said. "In a very short while,
    I plan to be living in the daylight myself. I won't need your "help"
    after that. So even if I were the selfish, manipulative piece of shit
    you seem to think I am, I wouldn't have any motive to try to keep you
    in the shadows."
    He flushed. "I'm sorry," he said, after a moment.
    I waved a hand. "Forget about it."
    He looked at me. "No, really. I'm sorry."
    I nodded. "Okay."
    We were quiet for a moment. Then I said, "Look, I've got an idea of
    what you feel for this woman, okay? I saw her. She's a
    head-turner."
    "She's more than that," he said softly.
    The dumb, sappy bastard. His only hope with that ice bitch would be
    that she'd recognize how helpless he was and have some scruples about
    whatever it was she was up to.
    I wouldn't count on it, though.
    "The point is," I said, 'it doesn't give me any pleasure to give you
    reason to doubt. But I'm telling you, there's something wrong here,
    Harry. You need to be careful. And nothing makes you less careful
    than the kind of feelings that have taken hold of you right now."
    After a while he said, "I'll think about what you've said. Okay?"
    He didn't look like he'd think about it, though. He looked like he
    wanted to jam his hands over his ears. Stick his newly coiffed head in
    the sand. Hit the Delete key on everything I'd told him.
    "Look, I'm going to see her tonight," he said. "I'll watch more
    closely. I'll keep in mind what you've said."
    I realized I'd been wasting my time.
    "I thought you were smarter than this," I said, shaking my head. "I
    really did."
    I stood and dropped a few bills on the table and left without looking
    at him.
    I walked to the train station, thinking about what I had told Tatsu
    earlier, about risk and reward.
    Harry had a lot to offer. I supposed he always would. But he wasn't
    being careful anymore. Keeping him in my life now entailed more risk
    than it had previously.
    I sighed. Two goodbyes in one night. It was depressing. And it's not
    as though I've got a whole Rolodex full of friends.
    But no sense being sentimental about it.