Louie turned to Hisayuki. “What do you think of kidnapping?”
“I think it is a very good idea,” Hisayuki said. “We ask for a ransom so there will be no association with Satoshi. Satoshi’s case will fade from significance.”
“Exactly,” Louie agreed.
188
“Will it be easy?” Hisayuki asked.
“I would think so. The hardest part will be taking care of the kid.” Louie laughed.
“Actually, snatching the kid will be easy if he is staying in his house with a nanny. It will be more difficult if he’s in a childcare center. But with both parents being doctors, my guess is that it will be an in-house nanny situation.”
“Can we help?” Hisayuki questioned. “It is very important for us that Satoshi’s death continues to be considered natural and not a murder.”
“And why exactly is that?” Louie questioned. “I mean, we’ve told you why we prefer Satoshi’s death to be considered natural, but exactly why do you? If we are going to be working together, we have to be up-front with each other, as I mentioned in the beginning of our conversation.”
“It was the Yamaguchi-gumi who brought Satoshi to America. If they find out he was murdered, there is a chance they might blame us. We want to avoid that.”
Louie knew there were many more questions he could ask, but he was satisfied with the answer he got because it made sense to him, and he didn’t care particularly about the relationship between the Aizukotetsu-kai and the Yamaguchi-gumi. As far as he was concerned, that was their business.
“Okay,” Louie said suddenly. He looked up at Brennan. “Brennan, my boy,” he said. “Since it was your idea, you are going to be in charge. Do you know much about kidnapping?”
“I’m in charge?” Brennan questioned with happy surprise. He briefly glanced over at Carlo, unsure of what that meant or how he should feel, but then quickly returned his attention to Louie. He liked the idea of being in charge. He liked it a lot. “The first thing I need to do is get my computer and learn as much about Laurie Montgomery-Stapleton as I can, starting with where she lives.”
“We did a kidnapping over in Jersey a long time ago,” Louie said for Hisayuki’s benefit. “It went well, but it takes planning. There’s two particularly dangerous times: the snatch and the pickup of the ransom. The rest can mostly be improvised. The snatch is first, but it should be easy in this situation, because it’s an infant. There shouldn’t be a struggle, depending on the nanny’s reaction.”
“You will let us know how we can help?” Hisayuki asked, interrupting.
“You can count on it,” Louie said. He looked at his watch. “We have to move! I’d like to have the kid in our hands around noon, if it is at all possible.”
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“What will we do with the kid once we have him?”
“That’s another issue,” Louie said. “We have to find a place. But let’s not worry about that right away. We’ll bring the kid to my house! My wife loves babies.
Tomorrow we can find a place.”
“What about the warehouse at the pier?” Carlo suggested. He didn’t want to be left out in the cold completely.
“No heat,” Louie said, standing up. “We don’t want the kid getting sick. As I said, taking care of the kid might be the hardest part of this affair. We don’t want to make it more difficult for ourselves, and he’ll be no value to us dead. There’s something called ‘proof of life’ involved in kidnapping episodes, which they will be demanding as we keep Laurie Montgomery-Stapleton busy with negotiations.”
“Very nice to meet you, Ishii-san,” Louie said while thrusting out his thick-fingered hand toward the oyabun. “We’d best get to work. Tonight, if you’re up for it despite your jet lag, perhaps we could have dinner. Provided we get the kid, we can celebrate your arrival in our city and celebrate controlling our nemesis in OCME.”
“That would be my pleasure,” Hisayuki said, bowing and shaking Louie’s hand simultaneously.
Louie self-consciously bowed as well. He then quickly repeated the gesture with Hideki, who had managed with some effort to get to his feet.
Louie began to herd Carlo and Brennan toward the stairs while calling over his shoulder to Hideki that he’d be in touch within the hour.
“I’ll be waiting,” Hideki called after them.
“Do you want me to try Vinnie Amendola again?” Carlo questioned. He felt he was still being sidelined, as his previous suggestion had been so quickly rebuffed.
“Absolutely not,” Louie responded, heading down the stairs ahead of his two henchmen. “We’ll only involve him as a last resort. He could easily be forced into becoming a double agent. Brennan, are you confident you’ll be able to find out the woman’s address from the Internet?”
“You’ll be surprised at what I’ll be able to find out about her in two minutes,”
Brennan bragged confidently. “Especially with being a public employee.” Brennan was remarkably facile with computers. He had gone to a technical high school after having been thrown out of regular high school in his freshman year for 190
truancy. At the technical school he’d specialized in computers and electronics. On his own, he’d learned how to pick locks with world-class agility to round out his résumé.
Rebuffed again, Carlo hung back and watched the upstart Brennan go through the revolving door. Carlo sensed he was being upstaged, and he did not like it.
The three men waited in silence while the valet service went for the car.
Meanwhile, Louie was planning the details of the kidnapping and was enjoying himself. The previous kidnapping he’d done had been satisfying, and he had been dreaming of doing another someday. It was easy money, although still a challenge. Brennan was already mentally listing the websites he wanted to visit.
He was sure he could get things as personal as Laurie’s shoe size if he wanted.
Carlo was watching Brennan, wondering how he was going to wipe the self-satisfied smile off his face.
When the car finally came, Carlo crowded out Brennan and got behind the wheel. Brennan allowed it to happen, as Carlo was officially higher in the pecking order, and it was, after all, Carlo’s vehicle. Brennan settled for shotgun. Louie got into his usual place in one of the middle seats. Once they were under way, he said, “Okay, this is the way we are going to do it.”
23
MARCH 26, 2010
FRIDAY, 10:45 a.m.
B
en’s phone shocked him with a ring that sounded much louder than usual, causing him to jump.
“Wow!” Michael said, genuinely impressed. “You picked up before the first ring had finished. You must be expecting a seriously important call.”
“The phone scared the hell out of me,” Ben confessed. “It’s been tomb-like around here. I told my assistant not to schedule any meetings for me today, and she didn’t. It’s delightful.”
“No meetings, no phone calls,” Michael commented. “I’d be afraid I was dead.”
“It’s a great way to get some reading done. What’s up?”
“I just heard back from Dominick. I’d called and left a message about you 191
wanting the address and phone number where Satoshi’s staying. You have a pen and something to write on?”
“Go ahead.”
“The address is four seventeen Pleasant Lane, Fort Lee. Sounds charmingly suburban.”
“If it’s a safe house, it’s not going to be charming in the slightest. Although Satoshi never complained, I imagine it’s only a little bit north of being unlivable.
How about a phone number?”
Writing down the phone number, Ben noticed that it was the same area code as his in Englewood Cliffs.
“Any news on the company you are considering buying?” Michael questioned.
“Nope,” Ben said. “Carl is doing his due diligence. I don’t think we’ll have an answer yes or no for a couple of weeks.”
“I’m glad you told me,” Michael said. “I misunderstood. I thought it was days, not weeks. I’m going to have to call the prospective investor and tell him to hold his water. He thought it was only days away, as did I.”
“How well do you know this dude?”
“I’ve known him for a long time and have done work with him before. He’s an okay guy.”
“Would it be fair to say he’s in a similar business as the other angels?”
“That’s fair to say,” Michael answered. “He does well for himself, not in Vinnie Dominick’s league but respectable.”
After thanking the placement agent, Ben hung up and stared at Satoshi’s home address and phone number. Ben wondered if he should call or just stop in on the way home. The address was only a few miles from his own abode, which would make stopping by an easy proposition, but it would also put off his knowing Satoshi was safe and sound.
“Oh, what the hell,” Ben said to himself, picking up the phone. Although his paranoia was continuing to make him superstitious such that he now believed he’d be more likely to find someone home if he made the effort to drive, he’d decided to call. If the home was a Mafia safe house for a bunch of Mafia bums, it 192
was going to be dirty and depressing at the very least.
Ben dialed the number, sat back, and smiled to himself. He was acting so juvenile. But after twenty rings and no response, Ben had to admit no one was home. It seemed that a visit was in order even though he was convinced it was going to be as in vain as calling Satoshi’s cell. Obviously Satoshi and family were in Washington having a ball while he was stressing himself out.
24
MARCH 26, 2010
FRIDAY, 10:50 a.m.
W
hen Laurie got involved in a task, she often became oblivious to the world around her. Such was the situation as she worked through the histology slides of the previous day’s case. Instead of “John Doe,” she’d begun calling the corpse Kenji, given his genealogical resemblance to a medical-school classmate. And giving the man a name seemed to narrow her focus ever further.
The typical starting point when reviewing slides was where there was pathology, but in Kenji’s case there hadn’t been any. Instead, she started with the organ most closely associated with seizures, the brain. Knowing seizures could arise from very small lesions, or even from areas with no lesions at all, Laurie reviewed each slide methodically. Trusting Maureen and her careful supervision of the histology technicians, Laurie was confident she had representative sections from all sections of the brain. Beginning with the frontal cortex, Laurie worked backward into the temporal and parietal lobes. With each slide she’d start with low power, scan the entire slide, then move on to higher power. This took time and attention, so she was surprised when her phone rang, and further surprised it was Vinnie instead of Marvin, and that forty minutes had passed.
“You can come down now,” Vinnie said. “The corpse is on the table.” He spoke in the same perfunctory, emotionless tone that had irritated her earlier.
“Fine!” Laurie responded without sincerity. She was about to hang up when her curiosity got the better of her. “I was looking forward to Marvin calling. Why the change?”
“Marvin is busy on another case with the deputy chief,” Vinnie said. “Besides, Twyla Robinson told me I couldn’t leave until I was finished with you.”
His response had caught her off guard. When the deputy chief was doing a case, 193
it usually meant something interesting was going on; he rarely did autopsies unless there was a political aspect involved. She was also surprised that Twyla Robinson’s name had come up. Twyla Robinson was a petite African-American woman as lithe as a fashion model with high cheekbones and glorious raven hair.
As the chief of staff of OCME she was also a woman of steel. Laurie had always been impressed with her ability to run such a tight ship with such a varying mix of personalities.
“Need I ask why Twyla was involved in your helping me repeat an external exam?” Laurie questioned harshly. It was definitely not usual. “And what do you mean by you’re leaving?”
“I’m going on leave for a family emergency,” Vinnie said, now with some emotion.
“I’m so sorry,” Laurie said after a pause. She suddenly felt guilty she’d been selfish in her response to Vinnie’s unusual mood.
“Can I ask you to come down quickly? I really need to leave, and Marvin’s tied up with an added case after the one he’s doing.”
“I’ll be right down,” Laurie said. “Why don’t you just leave? I’m only going to repeat the external exam. I really don’t need any help. I’ll find someone to help me get the corpse on a gurney when I’m done. Really, it’s okay—you should just go.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Laurie said. She was tempted to ask what the family emergency was about, but she didn’t. Vinnie hadn’t given her an in to ask such a question.
“What about Twyla?”
“Don’t worry about her,” Laurie said. “I’ll talk to her if need be. You go and attend to your family emergency.”
“Thanks, doctor,” Vinnie said finally.
“You’re welcome, Vinnie,” Laurie said. For a moment she held the line open, hoping that Vinnie would be more forthcoming, but all she heard was a click. She hung up as well.
Laurie paused with her microscope in front of her, its light source still on. She shook her head. She knew it was human to view the world somewhat selfishly, 194
but she was disappointed in herself for not having given Vinnie a bit of slack rather than immediately taking his behavior personally.
She clicked off her microscope light, leaped to her feet, grabbed a Tyvek coverall suit from the bottom drawer of her file cabinet, pulled it on, and was out the door.
As the aged elevator descended and she watched the numbers reducing, seemingly slower than usual, she banged lightly against the door as if it would speed it up. If she thought she was excited earlier, she was now a quantum leap more excited. The case was suddenly blossoming in unusual complexity, for which she could take credit, credit for persevering even in the face of Jack’s attempt to quell her determination. Of course, she was not going to be critical of Jack, as she knew his motivation was her well-being.
Once on the basement level, Laurie ran, not walked, around to the locker room, quickly got herself appropriately attired, and pushed into the pit, which was in full swing.
Pausing just inside the door, she surveyed the scene. All tables were occupied with corpses surrounded by the personnel doing the cases, save for one, which Laurie presumed was her Kenji. Next she picked out Calvin Washington, mostly because of his intimidating size and because there were four people at his table rather than the customary two. The only other person Laurie could pick out from where she was standing was Jack, simply by the way he moved and laughed.