The Key to Midnight

a point.'
        Mariko frowned.
        'He should give them a description of the car and the men in it,' Alex said, 'but he shouldn't tell them about the file he was carrying from Chicago. He'll have to pretend he's just an ordinary tourist. He hasn't any idea why they were trying to steal his suitcase. Nothing in it but shirts and underwear. Got that?'
        Mariko's traditional Japanese upbringing had instilled in her a respect for authority that was as much a part of her as grain is a part of wood. 'But wouldn't it be better to tell the police everything and have them working for us? They have the facilities, the manpower-'
        'If Joanna is really Lisa Chelgrin, do you think her forged passport and phony identification are so convincing that no one's ever doubted them? Not for a minute? No one?'
        'Well, I don't know, but-'
        'Japan is insular. It doesn't welcome non-Japanese immigrants with open arms. Yet the authorities have allowed this woman to take up residence and open a business, evidently with no serious check of her background.'
        'You're saying this is some big international conspiracy? That the Japanese government might be involved? Alex-san, excuse me, but isn't this paranoid?'
        'Joanna… Lisa isn't just an ordinary missing person. This is a damned strange situation. We're dealing with the daughter of a United States Senator. We don't know what political forces and interests are at work in this.'
        'In Japan the police are-'
        'Do you want to take chances with Joanna's life?'
        'No. But…'
        'Trust me.'
        She hesitated. 'All right."
        Alex got to his feet. 'I've arranged a private room for Wayne. You'd better go up there now. They'll be transferring him from the recovery room in a few minutes.'
        'Is it safe for you to leave here alone?' Mariko asked.
        He picked up the suitcase that contained the Chelgrin file, having left the other bag in Wayne's room. 'They think they've scared me off. For a while they'll be lying low, just watching.'
        Outside the hospital, the night was cold, but the snow flurries had long ago stopped. Backlighted by the moon, fast-moving trains of clouds tracked west to east.
        Alex took a taxicab to the hotel, packed his bags, and checked out of his suite. From the hospital to the hotel, then from the hotel to the Moonglow Lounge, he was followed by two men in a white Honda.
        By seven-thirty at Joanna's place, he had unpacked. The spare bedroom was cozy, with a low, slanted ceiling and a. pair of dormer windows.
        Shortly before Dr. Mifuni left, Joanna went into the kitchen to check on dinner, and the physician took advantage of her absence to draw Alex aside and speak with him. 'Once or twice a night, you should look in on her to be certain she's only sleeping.'
        'You don't think she'd try it again?'
        'No, no,' Mifuni said. 'There's virtually no chance. What she did last night was strictly impulsive, and she's not really impulsive by nature. Nevertheless…'
        'I’ll watch over her,' Alex said softly.
        'Good,' Mifuni said. 'I've known her since she came to Kyoto. A singer who performs more evenings than not is bound to have throat problems once in a while. But she's more than a patient. She's a friend too.'
        'Right now she needs all the friends she can get.'
        'But she's an amazingly resilient woman. She's got that going for her. Last night's experience appears to have left only minor psychological scars. And physically, she doesn't seem marked at all. Untouched. It almost seems a month has passed, not just one day.'
        Joanna returned from the kitchen to say good-bye to the doctor, and indeed she did look splendid. Even in faded jeans and midnight-blue sweater worn to a smooth shine at the elbows and frayed at the cuffs, she was a vision, the golden girl once more.
         'Arigato, Isha-san.'
         'Do itashimashita.'
         'Konbanwa.'
         'Konbanwa.'
        Suddenly, as Alex watched Joanna and Mifuni bowing to each other at the apartment door, he was caught in a powerful wave of desire that swept him into a strange state of mind. He seemed to be looking back and down at himself, somewhere between a condition of heightened consciousness and an out-of-body experience. He saw the familiar Alex Hunter, the carefully crafted persona that he put on view to the world - the quiet,