Rainfall

although I would have to be careful once we were inside. I couldn’t let anything stupid happen — more stupid than the time I had already spent with her and the things I had already said.

    On the other hand, if she wanted to go home alone, it would be hard for me to escort her without seeming like I was angling for a way to get into her bed. It would be awkward. But I couldn’t just turn her loose alone. They knew where she lived.

    We thanked Satoh-san for his hospitality and for the delicious introduction to the rare Ardbeg. I paid the bill, and we took the stairs down into the now slightly chilly Omotesando night air. The streets were quiet.

    “Which way are you heading?” Midori asked me. “From around here, I usually walk.”

    “I’ll go with you. I’d like to see you all the way home.”

    “You don’t have to.”

    I looked down for a moment, then back at her. “I’d like to,” I said again, thinking of Benny’s write-up on the bulletin board.

    She smiled. “Okay.”

    It was a fifteen-minute walk to her building. I didn’t observe anyone behind us. Not a surprise, given Mr. Bland’s departure from the scene.

    When we reached the entranceway of her building, she took her keys out and turned to me. “
Jaa . .
.” Well, then . . .

    It was a polite good night. But I had to see her inside. “You’ll be okay from here?”

    She looked at me knowingly, although she didn’t really know. “I live here. I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

    “Okay. Have you got a phone number?” I already knew it, of course, but I had to keep up appearances.

    “No, I don’t have a phone.”

    Wow. That bad. “Yeah, I’m a bit of a Luddite myself. If something comes up, send me a smoke signal, okay?”

    She giggled. “Five, two, seven, five-six, four, five, six. I was only teasing.”

    “Right. Can I call you sometime?” In about five minutes, for example, to make sure there’s no one waiting for you in your apartment.

    “I hope you will.”

    I took out a pen and wrote the number down on my hand.

    She was looking at me, half smiling. The kiss was there, if I wanted it.

    I turned and walked back up the path toward the street.

    She called out after me. “John?”

    I turned.

    “I think there’s a radical in you trying to get out.”

    Several ripostes came quickly to mind. Instead: “Good night, Midori.”

    I turned and walked away, pausing at the sidewalk to look back. But she had already gone inside, and the glass doors were closing behind her.

11

    I SLIPPED INTO a parking area that faced the entrance. Hanging back beyond the perimeter of light cast from inside, I saw her waiting for an elevator to her right. From where I was standing I could see the doors open when it arrived but couldn’t see inside it. I watched her step inside, and then the doors closed.

    No one seemed to be lurking outside. Unless they were waiting in her apartment or nearby, she would be safe for the night.

    I took out Harry’s unit and activated her phone, then listened in on my cell phone. Silence.

    A minute later, I heard her door being unlocked and opened, then closed. Muffled footsteps. Then the sound of more footsteps, from more than one person. A loud gasp.

    Then a male voice: “Listen. Listen carefully. Don’t be afraid. We’re sorry to alarm you. We’re investigating a matter of national security. We have to move with great circumspection. Please understand.”

    Midori’s voice, not much more than a whisper: “Show me . . . Show me identification.”

    “We don’t have time for that. We have some questions that we need to ask you, and then we’ll leave.”

    “Show me some ID,” I heard her say, her voice stronger now, “or I’m going to start making noise. And the walls in this building are really, really thin. People can probably already hear.”

    My heart leaped. She had instinct and she had guts.

    “No noise, please,” came the reply. Then the reverberation of a hard slap.

    They were roughing her up. I was going to have to move.

    I heard her breathing, ragged. “What the hell do you want?”

    “Your father had something on his person around the time that he died. It is now in your possession. We need it.”

    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

    Another slap. Shit.

    I couldn’t get into the building without a key. Even if someone entered or exited right then so that I could slip inside, I would never be able to make it into her apartment to help her.