“I do not know. She said it funny. Mary-ko. I said to her in English, no, no! I am Esmerelda! I threw out my purse with the alien worker’s card on the ground. Then she kicked me so I fell. While I lay there I heard her pick it up. She kicked me again and told me to count to one hundred or she’d kill me. Then she left.”
“Do you think it was a woman?” I asked carefully. Japanese people speaking English sometimes mixed up “she” and “he”; I didn’t know whether the same was true for people from the Philippines.
“I cannot say for sure. The hands were rough, rough like a man, but the voice was maybe a woman. I am not sure. I just say it because…” she batted her eyes.
“Yes?” Richard breathed.
“When I was pulled against this person’s body, I felt—” Esmerelda gave a coy smile and gestured to her breasts. “How do you call them politely in English?”
Hugh choked. I refused to look at him, but noted that Richard’s eyes were sparkling.
“Breasts,” I said in a no-nonsense voice. “What happened to the pillowcase?”
“I left it there.” Esmerelda shrugged. “I think the garbage man removed it later.”
I threw up my hands. “You lost important evidence.”
“I could not return it! It would only cause questions.”
“Where would you return it?” Hugh asked.
“A hotel,” Esmerelda replied shyly.
“What makes you think of hotels?” His voice was casual.
“It was foreign size, big enough to go over my head and shoulders. And good white cotton, like they have at the New Otani. I once spent an afternoon there. So know.”
I thought of Joe Roncolotta and his familiarity with the hotel. He could have padded his chest to resemble a woman’s, and his Southern accent could have confused someone not fluent in English. “What happened to your purse?” I asked.
“The person did not take it. I still have it here.” She patted the expensive little bag.
As Hugh asked Esmerelda to describe the scene once more for him, I turned my attention on Richard.
“I tried to talk to Mariko in the back alley,” Richard whispered. “I apologized for…some awkwardness that happened. Then the bouncer came out and told me to get going. Mariko had to beg him to let me back in the club.”
“What do you mean, awkwardness that happened? Did you make Mariko leave the apartment?”
“That’s not it.” Richard looked nervously toward Hugh and Esmerelda, who were paying us no attention.
“I tell you everything!” I hissed in my roommate’s ear.
“Okay.” Richard sounded miserable. “When you were gone this afternoon, she tried to convert me.”
“Oh, no!”
“She couldn’t comprehend I wasn’t interested, so she split.”
Keiko passed our table, slapping the check in front of Hugh. “If you go now, you won’t miss the last train.”
“No worries. I drove.” He looked up and smiled.
“Really? Is your car the black Windom I called the towing company about?” Keiko said in a mock-concerned voice.
“Will you give me your card?” Esmerelda looked forlorn as Hugh started counting out cash for the bill.
“With pleasure.” Hugh handed her his card and a five thousand yen note. “Please keep Mariko safe. And yourself, of course.”
“You shouldn’t be so kind. It’s really not necessary,” she beamed, tucking the tip into her little bag.
“Oh, it’s just a token of a Scot’s gratitude. Remember, I’m not English.” He laughed as if that were an old joke they shared.
“Not English,” she repeated, as if trying to memorize that. “Come back soon!”
25
I pulled a parking ticket off the windshield and handed it to Hugh before getting behind the wheel.
“I promise I’ll pay it. Sooner or later.” He stuffed it in his jacket and slid into the passenger seat. Richard was curled up in the back with his feet against the window.
“Where do you want to go?” I was filled with a crazy energy.
“Let’s drop off your roommate first, then decide.” Hugh looked over the seat at Richard. “He’s sleeping like a baby. Now can you tell me why I had to entertain that junior Joan Collins by myself?”
I told him about how Keiko had grabbed me and how I’d turned the tables on her enough to learn something about Mariko’s parentage.
“So she’s the violent type.” Hugh clicked the door locks shut, as if there were some danger in the streets of brightly-lit Kabuki-cho. “She could have easily gone after Mariko and Esmerelda.”