Authors: P.D. Martin
“She's the right age to be Saito's daughter, you know,” I say.
“I wondered about that, too.” Ramos leans forward in the backseat.
“Well, if that's the case, either she doesn't realize Jun Saito is her Daddy, or she doesn't want us to know.”
Petrov starts the engine.
I sink lower into horse stance, hoping better technique will help me turn the tide. I'm in a dark, secluded alleyway, fighting a man who only appears as a silhouette against the night sky. He's trained, and trained extremely well, and I have to move my arms at lightning speed to defend myself and block each incoming strike
.
He lunges forward and turns his waist at the same time, using the momentum to gather extra force for a punch to my rib cage. I can't block it in time and I crumple in pain, but after another strike hits me I fight the pain and concentrate once more on blocking and protecting myself. I manage to block another onslaught of punches, followed by a flying kick, before I see a small opening. I lunge forward and deliver a punch to the man's solar plexus, momentarily winding him. But like me, he quickly resumes the fight, blocking my next strikeâa side kick aimed at the ribs and meant to shatter bone. I just manage to withdraw my foot before he grabs it. I need to be faster, stronger, to beat him. I have to face it: he's better than me
.
After blocking another series of punches, I process my optionsâfight or flight. I tried fighting; now it's time to flee. I turn and run, but I can hear him closing in behind me. I urge my legs to go faster, run harder, but they don't respond. I turn a blind corner and come to a dead end
.
The man behind me laughs
.
I
wake up covered in sweat and look around for my attacker. Where am I? That's rightâ¦I'm in my bed, in my apartment. I instinctively reach for the gun I keep under the pillow next to me. Gun in hand, I take the safety off, but within a few seconds I shift from dream reality to actual reality. I'm in my apartment, safe. Popping the safety back on, I put the gun on my bedside table and check the timeâ5:55 a.m., five minutes until my alarm goes off. I flick on the light and can't resist a second look around the room to make sure I'm truly alone.
I think back to the dream and remember running down a dark alleyway with someone behind me, but I can't recall anything else. It's possible the dream is a premonition, or it could just be my subconsciousâlots of people dream of being chased. Apparently it's supposed to signify anxiety in your life. Or that you're running away from something or someone. Still, this dream did have the sense of reality that my premonitions usually doâ¦plus I'm covered in sweat, and physical symptoms are also a sign that what I've seen has already happened or will happen in the future. I write down as much of the dream as I can remember. I try to shake the fear and sense of being trapped as I get myself ready for the day and I go through my plan of attack. First off is the task-force meeting and then my ViCAP search.
I get in my twenty-minute pilates workout, some push-ups and a few stretches before eating breakfast and hitting the road. I arrive at the office at 7:40 a.m., giving me time to start my computer and check my e-mails before heading up to the briefing room.
When I arrive, Petrov is already sitting at the front of the room, flipping through his notebook. Next to him sits Agent Joe De Luca and a young Asian woman.
Petrov looks up as I enter. “Anderson.”
Once I'm closer, Petrov says, “You met Special Agent De Luca yesterday, and this is Special Agent Hana Kim from the DEA.”
I shake De Luca's hand and then turn to Agent Kim and shake her hand. “No relation to Mee Kim?”
“Who?”
“You'll find out all about her in the briefing, Agent Kim.” Petrov turns to me. “Agent Kim is Korean, and about thirty percent of Koreans have the last name Kim.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Yup, there are loads of Kims.” She crosses her arms. “I still can't believe that our operation was taking pictures of the son of the legendary Saito.” She seems to be genuinely excited by the victim's identity. I probably don't fully appreciate the enormity of the victim's ID, because unlike Petrov, De Luca, Kim and perhaps the rest of L.A., I haven't been living and breathing organized crime and gangs for years.
“Take a seat.” Petrov motions to the chair next to Agent Kim.
I put my case file and notebook on the table before sitting down. The room is large and has been set up in typical briefing style with one long table at the front and then single chairs with flip-out desks attached. This is my first time in this particular room, but I guess it's used by the Gang Impact Team and other task forces on a regular basis.
“How many coming in for the briefing?” I ask, looking at the number of seats.
“Thirty.”
I nod several times. “Wow.”
Petrov extends both arms out, hands up. “What can I say, L.A.'s got a lot of organized crime and gangs.”
“Obviously.”
“We've got twenty-four people in the L.A. Gang
Impact Team and I've also invited some of our Long Beach counterparts.”
When Ramos arrives, I introduce him to Agent Kim before he takes out his flash drive and starts setting up on the laptop. By eight o'clock Ramos is ready to go and the room is full of law-enforcement personnel from FBI, LAPD, LASD, ATF, DEA, Customs, the City Attorney's Office, the D.A. and the US Attorney's Officeâenough acronyms to confuse the best of us. Some are in casual clothes, and some wear uniforms or informal attire branded with their agency's logo. There are also a few men and women dressed in suits, and I peg them as the local, state and federal prosecutors. Lawyers always wear suits, right? The Gang Impact Team has been operational for several years, and the task force is well and truly commingled; no one sits in agency cliques.
Petrov kicks off the briefing. “Good morning, everyone. And thanks for your punctuality.” Petrov nods at a few of the faces before continuing. “Four days ago a body was found in Little Tokyo, in the parking lot bordered by Second Street, South Los Angeles Drive and South San Pedro Drive. Yesterday, the male victim was identified as one Jun Saito, a forty-five-year-old Japanese national. Saito arrived in the States on November 24, and was caught on film by members of this task force entering what we believe is a Long Beach meth lab. The property in question has been under surveillance for several weeks now and we've made initial links to the Asian Boyz, with several of the males frequenting the house being identified as members of the Long Beach arm of the gang.
“I don't know if any of you have heard the name Saito before, but Jun Saito's death is significant to us not only because of his involvement with the Asian Boyz, but also because he's the son of key Yakuza figure Hisayuki Saito. Hisayuki Saito was the first Korean to make his mark in the Yakuza. Korea was under Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945, and while most Koreans hated their occupiers, Saito embraced the opportunities presented to him, namely
becoming part of the Japanese Mafia. He moved to Tokyo and founded one of the Yakuza's most notorious gangs. From 1946 to 1958 he was arrested ten times and although he received three prison sentences, all were minor convictions and his time in prison was limited to less than two years. He was linked to murder, fraud, extortion, prostitution, illegal gambling and the booming meth trade in Tokyo in the fifties.
“Hisayuki Saito married a Japanese woman and had three sons and one daughter. His wife died while giving birth to their fourth child, and while Saito did remarry two years later, he didn't have any more children. His eldest son was killed by the police during a raid, and his second son was murdered a couple of years later.
“Jun, Hisayuki's youngest son, got into trouble early, and his first recorded offence was drug possession at the age of fourteen. For that offence he didn't get jail time but in 1984 he was charged with moving stolen goods and spent four years in prison. From 1988 to 1993 he was suspected of drug trafficking and even linked to a couple of underworld murders, but the police were unable to get any charges to stick. He was also linked to the death of his girlfriend, who was found stabbed to death in the apartment they shared in Tokyo. The last known sighting of Jun Saito was 1993, the night his girlfriend was murderedâ¦until his body turned up in Little Tokyo four days ago.”
A petite redhead wearing an FBI T-shirt raises her hand. “Do they have the equivalent of our Witness Protection Program? Is it possible he turned on the Yakuza and was relocated?”
“Japan doesn't have a formal witness protection program, but it's possible he cooperated and officials helped him disappear.”
Another agent asks if Jun had any children.
“Not that we know of. However, we visited a young woman last night who Saito was making regular payments to, and she would be about the right age to be his daughter.”
Saito would have been nineteen years old when Mee was born.
“Was she born here?”
“Yes,” Petrov says. “I'm getting a complete dossier on her this morning, including copies of her birth certificate to see if paternity is disclosed. We're also tracing her mother. This was Jun Saito's first time in the States, so we're looking into the movements of Mee Kim's mother. Perhaps she vacationed in Japan or in a third country where they met.” Petrov pauses. “Another possibility is that Mee Kim was blackmailing Saito, but we should know more when we get the full file on Ms. Kim.”
Petrov looks around the room, waiting for any more questions on Mee Kim before moving on. “As Special Agent Ronaldo alluded to, it is possible Jun Saito turned informant and was given a new identity by his government. However, he would have needed to offer up some significant information for that to take place and we haven't been able to track down any references to Saito as a prosecution witness.” Petrov takes a breath. “Another possibility is that Saito wanted out and went on the run from the Yakuza or that he actually managed to convince his father to let him leave the organization. It's possible, given his father's standing, that his exit was allowed.”
“So what are the Japanese police saying?”
“They had two theories. One was that he murdered his girlfriend and then went on the run. The other was that he was dead. Killed by the Yakuza. If they know any different, they're not talking. At least, not to us.”
When no other questions come Petrov's way, he introduces Ramos and me, explaining our roles and involvement in the case, before handing over to Ramos.
Ramos's part of the briefing takes fifteen minutes, as he takes the task force through the key elements of the case, using the projection system to show a selection of crime-scene photos and Hart's computer-generated re-creation regarding the parking-lot lights. He also shows them photos of Saito's hotel room and takes them through some of the bank statements recovered from Saito's laptop.
Once Ramos is done, it's time to assemble the Saito “mini” task force and start dishing out the leads. Obviously not everyone in the L.A. Gang Impact Team will be working on Saito's murder. In fact, Petrov will probably choose only a few. The others will continue with their current assignments, but now they'll be aware of another layer of organized crime in L.Aâ¦.and what might be about to happen. Payback in crime syndicates can go on for months, bouncing back and forth between the families or organizations. Even Melbourne, which is about one-third the size of L.A. County in terms of population and with one-fifth the homicide rate, had a spate of more than ten organized crime “hits” over a six-year period. And until these gangland hits, your average Melbournian was pretty much unaware that their city had such a thriving organized crime trade. While I doubt L.A. residents will be unaware of a war on the streets if that does come to pass, let's hope that no innocent bystanders are hit in the cross fire.
Petrov singles out De Luca, Agent Kim and an ATF agent called Louis Williams before dismissing the rest of the group. The six of us make our way into a smaller meeting room to begin the real work. As we sit around the table I can't help but notice that the group represents the racial diversity of L.A. While everyone except Petrov and I was born here, we've got the Italian background in Joe De Luca, Asians represented by Agent Kim, the Latino by Ramos and Louis Williams is African-American.
“Okay,” Petrov says. “I'll be officially in charge of the Saito investigation from now on. De Luca, Kim and Williams, you know where we're at from the briefingâany further questions?”
The three shake their heads.
“Agent Anderson, I presume you don't mind doing some regular investigative work on top of your behavioral analysis?”
“Not at all. I'm still gathering data for the profile anyway.” Even though we now presume Saito's killer is a hit man, I'll still be able to draft an individual profile. Some
elements will be characteristics of professional assassins, and some will be individual traits about our killer. The profile won't be as useful as it is in some cases, but it should still help the investigation. At least now I'll have access to enough information to complete a detailed victimology. I'd prefer not to have a fifteen-year gap in the victim's history, but it's a lot better than not even knowing his name.
“I'll get you to work on the victimology first, okay?” Petrov must be reading my mind.
“Sure. I want to complete that broader ViCAP search as a priority but after that I'll concentrate on the victimology. I'd like to look over that info on Mee Kim, too. And I might pay her another visit.”