They leaned forward to touch the rims of the cups and made kanpai. Alex saw the men’s arms as they raised them from the water. The faded blue ink of their tattoos, sleeves full of dragons and dancing girls and intricate patterns, dug deep into the skin across their shoulders and chests. There was no flesh below the neck left untouched. Alex had seen these kind of gang markings only in newspaper photographs of kidnappings and murders. He had to force himself not to betray any fear.
The old man spoke first. ‘Let us talk of the loan that was made,’ he said. ‘The money was delivered as promised. Five million yen.’
‘Yes,’ Alex said. ‘It was used to pay the jidan that was demanded from me.’
‘We all know the name of such a woman. One who values money so highly. If this is what she wants, then let’s hope that it makes her happy.’
‘I don’t care what Naoko does now. She’s not my concern any more. I have found someone willing to lend me the money so I can pay you back. I can have it for you tomorrow.’
The old man wiped his brow with a towel and fixed his hooded eyes on Alex.
‘How much can you pay?’
‘All of it,’ Alex said. ‘I can pay you the whole five million yen.’
He shook his head solemnly. ‘That’s not enough. The debt now stands at ten million with the interest you owe.’
Alex was stunned at the amount, his nerves howling in the steaming water. ‘I didn’t agree to this,’ he said. ‘It’s extortion.’
‘This isn’t a negotiation, Malloy-san. We are not a bank. You now owe ten million yen.’
‘I can’t afford to pay that much interest. Not on top of the money I already owe you. I won’t ever be able to get my hands on that much.’
‘You’ll need to find a way before the end of the week.’
‘That’s impossible. Even if I could find the money, I would need a lot more time.’
The old man sipped his sake. ‘Time is the one thing none of us have enough of,’ he said. ‘If you haven’t paid by then, the debt will increase even further. It will keep on increasing day by day.’
Alex remembered Saito’s warning. He’d heard the inspector’s words of alarm at the time but had chosen to ignore them. He felt their significance plainly now. The older man maintained a measured calmness but his bodyguard looked desperate to start throwing his weight around, as if the need for action was bred into him. Jun was casting his eyes from one to the other, breathing more deeply than usual, waiting. Alex had always known there was a good chance the night would come to this. His only comfort was that he had never had any other choice.
‘Whatever it is you are going to do to me, let’s just get it over with,’ he said. ‘There’s no way I can raise ten million yen. Even if I could, I have my pride.’
The old man glowered at him from the far side of the bathtub.
‘Pride is an expensive luxury, Malloy-san. Pride may end up costing you much more.’
‘I don’t care any more. I just want this to be over.’
The old man wiped the sweat from his brow. ‘What if there was another way?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Instead of paying back the debt, what if there was another way to work it off. Something more lucrative than teaching English?’
Alex felt all eyes turn to him, looking for his reaction. ‘What are you suggesting?’ he asked.
The old man rubbed the flesh sagging under his chin. He took a hand towel from the edge of the bathtub and soaked it in a bucket of ice water and wrung the towel out over his head.
His eyes on Alex, he said, ‘Tada hodo takai mono wanai.’
Then he lifted his hands and clapped them together quickly and the sound rang out around the room. The steam drifted before him like a haze of smoke. He motioned for Jun to pour more sake.
Alex looked at Jun in confusion.
‘Nothing is more expensive than that which is free,’ Jun translated.
Alex shook his head. ‘I don’t understand.’
‘Well,’ Jun said, glancing at the old man sitting rigid and unmoving in the scalding water. ‘It means we have a proposition for you.’
23
ALEX WAS WAITING in the stairwell that led up to Yukiko’s apartment. He told himself he would give Naoko exactly one hour and leave her alone for ever if she failed to show. That way, she always had a chance, he thought. He had been skulking in the shadows for fifty-four minutes when he saw her turn the corner at the end of the street and stroll towards him. She looked like she was deep in thought, her face clenched, as if some distant memory were still troubling her. When she opened the entry door and began to climb the stairs to the third floor, he called out to her, his voice cracking with nerves as he said her name. Naoko started in surprise as she saw him step forward from the gloom.
‘Alex?’ she said. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I need to talk to you.’
‘How did you know I was here?’
‘I took a guess.’
She peered up towards Yukiko’s door. ‘It’s not a good idea,’ she said. ‘Hiro is coming round later.’
‘Then let’s go somewhere else. Somewhere we can talk.’
Naoko furrowed her brow slightly. ‘Why now? I haven’t heard from you for weeks. I tried to call you and you wouldn’t pick up. I left messages for you and you never called me back.’
‘Hiro made me promise to stay away from you.’
‘And you agreed?’
‘He didn’t really give me much choice.’
‘It doesn’t sound like you needed a lot of persuasion.’
‘I was angry with you.’
‘Are you angry now?’
‘Yes. But I miss you.’
Naoko didn’t hesitate. ‘I miss you too.’
‘Then let’s go somewhere we can talk.’
They walked to the all-night restaurant near Senso-ji Temple. The owner remembered them from their last visit and greeted Naoko like a favourite niece. He showed them to the same table in the window where they had eaten before. The place still had the smell of spice and stewed miso ground into the furniture.
‘I went to your apartment in Mejiro,’ Alex said. ‘The concierge said you moved out a few weeks ago. What happened? I thought you loved living there?’
Naoko tried to look casual but her disappointment was obvious. ‘I lost my job. I could only live in the apartment as long as I worked at the gallery. That’s why I’m staying with Yukiko.’
‘Did you lose your job because of me?’
‘No. Some other things happened.’
‘Like what?’
Naoko gave a resigned smile. ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ she said. ‘You’re not the only one who prefers to be silent when it suits you.’
‘I lost my job too. After they found out I had been locked up in Ushigome, they didn’t want me teaching at the school any more. I can’t say I blame them.’
‘What was it like in there?’
‘Most days were boring and others absolutely terrifying. The worst part was finding out I had to pay you a year’s salary to get out of there.’
‘The jidan payment was suggested by Saito’s assistant, Officer Tomada. It was supposed to be a way for you to avoid prosecution.’
‘Prosecution for something I hadn’t done.’
Naoko looked away guiltily. ‘I don’t have any excuse for that, Alex. I’m sorry. I didn’t plan any of it. I was trying to protect myself, that’s all. I never meant to hurt you. It all got way out of hand.’
‘I thought you were trying to get back at me for causing you trouble.’
Naoko reached a hand across the table and touched her fingers to his. ‘Of course not. I’m sorry for everything, Alex. I really am. I was worried I was never going to see you again.’
‘But you said it was over between us. When I received your text just after I was released from Ushigome, you told me that you never wanted to see me again.’
Naoko looked puzzled. ‘That�
��s not what I wrote at all.’
Alex took out his phone and showed her the message she had sent.
‘“I have your money. Now it’s all over,”’ he read from the screen. ‘I was devastated when I saw that. How else was I supposed to react?’
‘I meant that the ordeal was over. I was waiting for you to get in touch. Then I called you and some random woman answered your phone. You must have gone straight from prison to stay with her.’
‘It wasn’t what you think. She’s a friend of Hiro’s.’
‘I know all about Hiro’s friends.’
‘I swear to you, Naoko. Nothing happened. All I could think about was losing you, not getting together with anyone else.’
‘Honestly?’
‘Of course. Look at me. You know I’m telling you the truth.’
Naoko’s face softened. ‘This has all been like a nightmare. I wish I could erase the last month and start again. I regret every moment of it. I wish we were able to go back to our life as it was before.’
‘That’s what I want too,’ Alex said. ‘That’s why I came to see you tonight. I think we should go away. Get out of Tokyo for a while so we can think straight. Relax somewhere together and put all of this behind us.’
‘Is it really possible to do that?’
‘We have to try. Don’t we?’
‘Where will we go?’
‘Where do you want to go?’
Naoko thought for a moment. She looked excited at the range of possibilities. Eventually, she said, ‘Somewhere far away. Somewhere no one knows us. Somewhere hot.’
‘Okay. Let me make the arrangements.’
‘Do you think this will work after all that’s happened?’
Alex watched her over the table. ‘We’ve got nothing to lose,’ he said.
24
ALEX LAID THE tray on the corner of the mattress and pushed back the mosquito net that hung over the bed. He knelt beside her and gently shook her shoulder. Naoko briefly opened her eyes and then turned away from him and curled her body up beneath the white cotton sheet. Alex watched her lying there, her black hair fanned out against the pillow in thick strands.
‘I brought you some breakfast,’ he said.
‘What did you get?’
‘Watermelon. I climbed a tree and cut it down myself.’
She turned over and looked at him, her face softened by sleep.
‘Watermelons don’t grow on trees,’ she said.
‘Don’t they?’
‘No. They grow on the ground.’
‘I didn’t say it was a tall tree.’
‘Does it have seeds?’ she asked.
‘Of course it does.’
‘I don’t like the seeds.’
‘If I have to take all of the seeds out, we will still be eating it for dinner.’
Naoko thought about it for a moment. ‘I can spit the seeds out,’ she said.
He handed her a slice of watermelon from the tray. ‘Come on. We can spit them out into the sea.’
He stood and opened the heavy teak door of the bungalow and a white brightness sliced through at a sharp angle. The warmth of a tropical morning flooded into the shadows and he stepped out on to the veranda and lay back on the hammock suspended from the roof beams.
The bungalow was built on rocks that had fallen from the cliff at the edge of the palm forest and slid down to the sea a thousand years before. It was in a group of huts built in the local Thai style, on tall stilts clustered at the point of the headland. Alex shielded his eyes against the morning sun rising over the cliffs and looked out over the bay. Beyond the headland the water was dark green and rippled by the island current. A horseshoe-shaped reef protected the milky calm of the lagoon and a slope of white sand rose up from the shore to a fringe of curved palms. The forested hillside steepened to the crest of the mountain, outlined against the sky. On the beach a single line of footprints ran the length of the sand to two long-tail boats side by side above the high-tide line. From the hammock, Alex could see the shoals of fish below him, magnified by the deep water, flashing colours as they swam. He felt like he was on a raft, coasting out to the open ocean of the gulf and on towards the South China Sea.
Naoko came out from the darkness of the bungalow. She was wearing a green bathing suit with a sarong tied around her waist. She took a bite of watermelon and walked slowly forward. The sun reflected from the surface of her eyes.
‘Does it still hurt?’ she asked, and touched a finger to the scar across his cheek.
‘Not any more.’
‘It looks worse than when we first arrived here.’
‘It doesn’t tan so it stands out more. That’s all.’
She rubbed her fingertips together. ‘Every time I look at you I’m going to be reminded of that night.’
‘Forget about it. It’s in the past now.’
‘You mean it?’
‘One day you won’t even notice it any more.’
‘That makes me sad,’ she said.
Alex reached out and took her hand. Her palm had healed but there were the remnants of past wounds on her skin, like old, dark bruises.
‘You have some scars of your own. Ones you’ve given to yourself.’
‘That’s over now,’ she said. ‘I’ve promised myself not to do that again. I need to solve my problems more sensibly in the future.’
Alex lay back as the hammock rocked back and forth over the edge of the balcony rail. Two pelicans flew along the edge of the reef, their shadows tracking beneath them on the rolling swell.
‘Climb up here with me,’ he said.
‘Are you sure it’s safe?’
‘Of course.’
‘I don’t want to fall in.’
‘What makes you think you’d fall in?’
She reached down and placed her hands on the side of the hammock. ‘This,’ she said.
Alex saw the look in her eyes and he could tell what she was going to do before she moved. She pulled the hammock towards her and then shoved it out over the railing with all of her strength. He felt her hand in the small of his back as the woven fabric slid out from beneath him and he hung, twisting in the air above the clear water. The low sun was on his skin and he heard her laughter as he fell through the surface and felt the fresh saltiness against him. He sank down and flexed his body and breathed out a lungful of air and opened his eyes. The sand on the sea floor felt cold beneath his feet and the fish darted around him in shoals. Through the prism of the surface he could see Naoko looking down from the balcony. He pushed up towards her, bubbles cascading to the surface as he swam.
‘Come in,’ he said. ‘It’s good.’
Naoko slipped off her sarong and climbed up on to the railing. She dived forward gracefully and arced over him, hitting the water without a splash.
After breakfast, they took a taxi across the island to the main town at the foot of the mountain. The road that wound up through the pass was a single-lane track and there were small turnouts in places to allow trucks and other cars to pass by. The turnouts were on the cliff edge, barely wide enough for the taxi to stop, and the sheer drop down from the road was dizzying. Naoko tightened her grip on Alex’s hand each time the driver edged over to allow someone to pass on the narrow track.
Where the road crested the spine of hills, Alex asked the driver to stop so they could get out and take some pictures of the view. The sky was almost violet where it met the horizon and the green atolls of the nature reserve floated in the distance, disembodied from the expanse of water. The land below them was lush and fertile and terraced with rice paddies on the lower slopes and vast forests of coconut groves on the steep banks of the mountain.
‘It’s beautiful,’ Naoko said. ‘I’m so used to seeing endless buildings every day I forget what the real world looks like sometimes.’
‘Imagine living in a place like this. Life looks so simple here.’
Naoko pushed her sunglasses up on to her head. ‘I’m sure, even here, life gets complicat
ed.’
They drove down the switchbacks that led into the town. Half-built huts and wooden shacks were mixed in among the whitewashed family homes and golden-roofed temples. There were small fires at the roadside where the villagers burned their refuse. Swarms of mopeds choked the streets leading down to the harbour. Alex paid the driver and they walked along the main avenue, where shops and restaurants lined both sides of the street. Stray dogs lay sleeping in the shade of the roadside stalls. They found a café with a covered patio and took a table out of the sun. Across the street, a billboard built on the rooftop of a pharmacy displayed a giant advertisement for a luxury fragrance. A grey-eyed young woman with a snake coiled tightly around her naked body. When Naoko noticed it, she gave a resigned laugh.
‘What is it?’ Alex asked.
‘The photo is one of Masakazu’s, the photographer you met at the gallery. It’s part of a campaign he shot last year. It feels like, everywhere I go, those people follow me around.’
‘I know how much your career meant to you.’
‘That’s the funny thing,’ she said. ‘Masakazu is going to defect to a new gallery in Osaka. He’s asked me to go with him.’
‘And will you?’
‘I’m tempted. I’ve never lived in Osaka before. I don’t have a lot of reasons to turn him down now. It’s a good opportunity for me.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me before?’
‘I suppose the right moment never came up.’
Alex straightened the linen napkin before him. He cleared his throat. ‘I’m happy for you,’ he said finally. ‘It looks like your life is taking a turn for the better.’
‘What about you?’
‘I’m not sure. The English-language industry in Tokyo is a small world. It’s going to be hard to find a job without a reference.’
The sun had given Naoko’s skin a luminous quality. She took a small bite at the side of her lip before she spoke.
Last Stop Tokyo Page 17