The Tooth Tattoo(112)

‘Did you make a run for it?’

‘No chance. It may have crossed my mind, but they each had a hold of one of my arms. I was marched back to the car and blindfolded again and taken back to my prison. That was a low point, believe me. I’d played my ace and lost. I’d had my first glimpse of freedom in weeks and now I was back in captivity having angered my captors.’

‘Do you think your carver had got wind that he was about to be visited?’

‘He must have. He would surely have let me know if he was changing his address. I was his best customer. Maybe the women with the silks were his own family, covering for him. Whatever it was, I was shafted.’

‘What happened then?’

‘It gets worse. The guy I called the don came back next day with his helpers. He said I was a murderer and a liar and his organisation had a time-honoured way of dealing with such people, to warn others what to expect. It was known as yubitsume. Do you know about it?’

‘No.’

‘It’s a form of penance or apology and generally the offender is expected to carry out the punishment himself. In my case, the don said, I couldn’t be trusted, so they would do it for me. They placed a square of white cloth on a table and grabbed me by the wrist and held my hand over it. Then the don himself took a knife from his pocket and cut off the end of my left little finger just below the top joint.’

Mel felt a crawling sensation along the length of his spine. ‘God – that’s cruel.’

‘Painful, anyway,’ Harry said. ‘The original idea of yubitsume was that it weakened your ability to use a sword. In Japanese martial arts the bottom three fingers are used to grip the hilt. So you become more dependent on your yakuza brothers defending you. And of course everyone who saw your maimed hand knew you had disgraced the family in some way. If you transgressed a second time they cut it to the next joint, leaving you with a stump … like this.’

He removed his left hand from his pocket and held it up. He had a thumb and three fingers. The mangled end testified to the truth of his story.

‘They took the second joint?’ Mel said in horror.

‘A few days later. I was considered a serious offender.’

‘But it means …’ Mel’s voice trailed away.

‘I can’t do the fingering on the viola. I won’t be asking for my job back.’

The cruelty of the punishment would have been savage enough for anyone. On a professional musician it was the loss of his life’s work. Mel understood why Harry had said earlier that he might as well be dead. There was no way he could ever play again. A few times in the last few minutes Mel had wondered if he was being strung along. This ugly stump was proof of Harry’s integrity.

‘When did they let you go?’

‘I escaped. I think they were planning to take the finger on my right hand. Certainly they showed no sign of letting me go. I pretended the wound had gone septic and asked to see a doctor. They drove me out to see one of their own doctors in the city. I was acting as if I was weak and delirious from blood poisoning. This put them off their guard and between the car and the surgery I made a run for it. They chased, but I managed to escape through the side streets. So there I was, a free man again, but with no money, no form of identity, and on the run from the yakuza, who were not going to hand me the keys of the city if they found me. Not much use throwing myself on the mercy of the Russian police either.’

‘What did you do?’

‘Lived rough, begged for food, joined the homeless community. Vladivostok is already full of beggars and not the best place to be a vagrant. I spent a few nights in jail, got ill drinking bootleg vodka, survived two Russian winters. I’m not proud of some of the things I did to survive.’

‘You were there as long as that?’

‘A broken man. Psychologically, it took a long while to get over the shock of not being able to play the fiddle any longer. If I got back to the west I couldn’t foresee any future. From all I’d been told by my captors, I was the number one suspect for Emi’s murder in Vienna. The Brits would hand me over to the Viennese police. I didn’t have the strength to face all that. In the end I got some money – don’t ask how – and smartened up enough to travel again. Worked my way slowly across Europe. Actually passed through Vienna and visited the place where Emi’s body was found. Bit of a risk, but I wanted to do it. I know she wasn’t totally truthful with me, but she was under duress as well and she was sweet.’ He shrugged. ‘And here I am.’

‘Why? Why seek us out again?’

‘I saw in the papers about the Japanese girl murdered here in Bath and thrown in the canal. The tooth tattoo. The interest in music. It seemed to link up with Emi’s murder and I want to find out the truth.’