Guilt|Pleasure

Chapter 10: Prologue

A grimace that was already on Kanizawa’s face became even more pronounced, when he was told a name that meant nothing to him. He was interrupted; the two guests in his office waited patiently as Kanizawa cursed at his receptionist.

“He is very insistent -” the young woman said, her voice hitched and panicked.

“You forgot how to call for security? You must be more worthless than I thought.”

The young woman’s voice wavered, as if she was trying to hold back a burst of tears then. Her voice dropped again.

“He said to tell you it’s about Sakiyama and…Kagura…and S.D.I.”

Kanizawa’s features changed; his interest stirred by the names that he hadn’t heard for a long time.

“Really,” he said.

“Sir – he…WAIT --!”

There was a sound of the phone receiver clattering onto the desk. Kanizawa heard the echoes of the receptionist shouting for someone to stop, with her heels clacking noisily to hurry after that person. Kanizawa hung up the phone and dialed another extension. It was picked up after one ring.

“If you haven’t been informed already, there’s a commotion on the first floor. Take care of it. Bring up whoever it was that Keiko is probably chasing after now. He’s probably heading toward the elevator.”

“Yes, sir,” the voice answered him and hung up.

Kanizawa replaced the receiver and looked at his guests with a forced smile.

“There are some issues I may have to handle,” he said. “Emergency. Let’s continue our discussion tonight over dinner at the Ritz-Carlton. My secretary will phone your secretary shortly with the details.”

The men only nodded, although they didn’t look happy as they did so. One of them gathered the papers that had been spread on the glass table-top while the other thanked Kanizawa for his time. Formalities lasted for a few minutes, until the door opened and Yohei Yamaoto came through the double doors with two similarly garbed men.

“Please escort Ougi-san and his associate out,” Kanizawa said as he stood from his desk.

There was a brief confusion at first, but the security did as they were told. After the men left, Kanizawa’s forced smile returned into its usual grimace. He walked around his desk and pulled a chair out from where it was tucked into the glass-top conference table.

“You took a helluva chance coming here and interrupt my business,” Kanizawa said. “You would know what’d happen if this turns out to be a poor excuse of a job interview right? Barging into my building isn’t a proper way of getting employment. Especially here.”

Yohei only smiled as he took a seat near Kanizawa. He lifted his leather portfolio onto the table top.

“Of course, Kanizawa-san,” Yohei said. “I would never think to waste your time. I do apologize for the lack of appointment. I have a later flight to Italy.”

“I am not a very patient man,” Kanizawa said, keeping his voice steady. “If what you say in the next two minutes don’t interest me, you won’t be able to make your flight or other plans you may have in the next few weeks.”

A corner of Yohei’s mouth pulled up. He nearly laughed.

“Of course, sir,” he said as he unzipped his leather portfolio. “I have something that will interest you.”

An elbow arched up over one of Kanizawa’s eye.

“There’s not that many things that interest me,” Kanizawa said.

Yohei opened the folder, in it – two manila folders were in the side pockets. There were pens tucked into the holders.

“I understand S.D.I. cost you a lot of money,” Yohei said. “I looked into it after Sakiyama-san mentioned it in passing long ago.”

Kanizawa said nothing; a finger tapped on the table top impatiently.

“The President of that company, Takeuchi Shouchiro had borrowed considerable amount of money from you and subsequently took the debt with him when he committed suicide.”

Yohei pulled out one of the folders from one side of his pocket.

“There were no active leads on Takeuchi’s family. At least, what was known, they were already sent overseas with names changed. Disappeared among the paperwork that he had paid with your money to hide them. There were no one you could collect from.”

Kanizawa looked annoyed. His eyebrows knitted together.

“Sakiyama had me investigated?”

“Sakiyama had all his potential business partners investigated,” Yohei said. “But he had knowledge of this even before the collapse of his former employment. He was Orion’s Chief of Security after all. He had access to a lot of information.”

Kanizawa pushed himself away from the table and made his way toward a small wet bar at the far end of the office.

“I am afraid Sakiyama-san had kept something rather dangerous that didn’t belong to him and paid for it with his life.”

“Oh?”

Kanizawa selected a half-bottle of Whiskey from the cabinet and pulled a glass from beneath the counter.

“The person that murdered him?”

“Yes,” Yohei said.

“The cops can’t prove who did it but you could?” Kanizawa said, shaking his head as he filled half of the glass.

“I have liberties that the police do not,” Yohei said. “While I have access to their files.”

Kanizawa scuffed and drank, emptying the glass in one swallow.

“To summarize what you might have already known,” Yohei said. “The woman who was with Sakiyama, claimed to have been with Kagura …while he was with you and two other distinguished guests. I was also there.”

Kanizawa shrugged, pouring himself another drink. This time, he filled the glass up to the brim.

“She was both right and wrong,” Yohei said. “It was Kagura that was with them both that night…and with certainty, the only one that murdered Sakiyama-san.”

Yohei tapped at the manila folder with an index finger.

“It was a theory that the police could not prove,” Yohei said. “Mainly because Takeuchi had erased almost every record that’s known pertaining to his family. Even illegitimate ones.”

Kanizawa came back toward the table, carrying the Whiskey bottle with him in one hand and the glass in another. He looked amused.

“There was a birth certificate that we did find for a Kousaka Kagura,” Yohei said. “It was until I located the doctor in Kyoto who had made the delivery himself and signed the certificates. It took seven hours to locate the hardcopies in the hospital archive.”

Yohei opened the folder and flipped to photocopies of two birth certificate. The two identical copies had similar information typed inside the blocks with only one difference.

“Twins…” Kanizawa said, looking at the papers.

“While one was with you, establishing alibi,” Yohei said. “The other one –“

Yohei's hand circled in the air, finishing the rest of his sentence with the gesture. Kanizawa only nodded as he took another swallow of the drink.

“Kousaka twins. The older one had been the one who had felled Orion. Since Sakiyama-san had escaped the collapsed and made enough fortune from it to buy the leftovers, the twins came back to finish the incomplete job.”

Kanizawa continued to study the copies of the birth certificates. Kagura had been the older twin – born minutes before the second one, Kaguya. The block where father's name would be was left blank. The twins had taken the mother’s surname.

Kanizawa looked at his empty glass, trying to decide if he should pour himself another glass. After a short moment of consideration, he pulled the bottle to him.

“And?” Kanizawa said, refilling his glass. “What does that have to do with me?”

“Why would the twins make a concerted effort to ruin Orion completely? Even coming back to Sakiyama-san after two years to finish off his 25% holding of the company?”

Kanizawa didn’t reply. He took a pull from his filled glass and waited for Yohei to say the answer to the rhetorical question.

“The twins were upset by S.D.I.'s collapse,” Yohei said. "And of course, their father's suicide that followed. Both of which they blamed Orion."

“Sakiyama knew this,” Kanizawa said after awhile.

“Kagura had confessed to him when he was caught by Sakiyama-san years ago, inputting the virus into Orion’s mainframe.”

Yohei turned toward the pages in the back. Pages of fax, all gathered in a binder clip with numbers in several columns.

“It’s easier to find records from its source when you know what names to look for,” Yohei said. “This is just a sample of one year’s financial record to Takeuchi’s mistress. Quite a bit of money to support just a woman he’s fucking on the side. However, it’s just the right amount to help her raise two children. Two sons that Takeuchi took great interest in having them go to expensive private schools. An investment, perhaps, possible heirs. Takeuchi and his legal wife only had a daughter.”

Kanizawa looked at the columns of numbers. Gradually, he broke out into a smile. He laughed – the sound of it echoed in the room with the vaulted ceiling.

“The sonuvabitch Sakiyama deserves it,” Kanizawa finally said. “Asshole who kept my things. You knew also, didn’t you? All this time. Even as you watched me fuck one of them that night – you knew I was fucking what already belonged to me.”

Yohei shrugged. He pulled out the second manila folder. It was thinner.

“Sakiyama-san was paying my salary,” Yohei said. “Nothing personal.”

“And this is your way to make your money now that Sakiyama’s no longer around to sign your paychecks?”

“I suppose you can say that,” Yohei said. “After this, I want to wash my hands of this entire thing and make my retirement somewhere that no one knows me and I don’t know them.”

Yohei flipped open the second folder. In it were several color glossy pictures. The top one was the one with the twins sitting at a small sidewalk café table with two small porcelain cups of coffee. They were talking – the twin with the glasses was smiling, listening while the other looked serious as he spoke. There were foreigners all around, occupying other small café tables. Behind them, there’s a fountain. He wasn’t certain where the place was at a glance but Kanizawa knew they weren’t in Japan.

“Two million each,” Yohei said. “Plus expenses.”

“Four million for my own property to be returned?” Kanizawa said. He slid the manila folder toward him and leafed through the photos.

“Recovery cost,” Yohei said. “You’ve sampled one of them already. The twins’ worth a small fortune, wouldn’t you say? They could clear Takeuchi's debt easily and within a year. Four million’s easy.”

One of the photos had the twin with the glasses sitting by himself somewhere indoors. A fancy hotel lounge, from the looks of it. He was seated in one of the plush cream-colored sofas, dressed in a black fitted suit. There was a brief case next to his feet. He was reading a newspaper, his focus intense in it.

“Italian paper,” Kanizawa said, making out the text from the paper.

“Yes, the twins are in Italy,” Yohei said. “Last known location where Kaguya had told the police he would be at.”

“This one is…?” Kanizawa said, tapping at the photo.

“Kagura,” Yohei said. “The older one.”

Kanizawa’s smile widened.

“You already booked your flight back to Italy to fetch these two?”

“Yes and no. I would need private flight services to bring at least one back.”

“One?”

Yohei returned Kanizawa’s smile.

“I’ve spent over a month in Italy tracking them. I studied their comings and goings. Kaguya’s a student. His schedule’s set. Kagura’s different. He’s careful. He changes his routine every few days. And the older one is connected to several very wealthy and powerful men through what he does best.”

Kanizawa laughed.

“At least they won’t need to be trained."

“If I take Kaguya and bring him here to you,” Yohei said. “Kagura will come here on his own.”

“Knowing he couldn’t save his brother or himself once he is in my hands?”

Yohei leaned back in his chair. He laced his fingers together and rested it on his lap.

“To be honest, I can only tell you with expert opinion from what I learned observing them,” Yohei said. “There’s a remote possibility that he may flee, if he knew you know about Takeuchi’s leftovers. There’s a high probability that he will not abandon his brother. He will likely come to you, ask you to take him to replace his brother.”

“That easy, huh.”

“It could be,” Yohei said. “I will only have one chance to snatch Kaguya. If I miss this chance or be discovered, the twins will flee. Likely into the arms of the powerful men Kagura had been on friendly basis with. After that, it is not likely they will be found again. I have a solid plan but I need logistical support. This is why I am here.”

Kanizawa’s finger tapped at the emptied glass, the nail clicking against it. He was quiet for awhile.

“I will need to have a private jet ready to take myself and Kaguya to Heathrow from Rome. From that point on, Kaguya will be in your hands within 36 hours,” Yohei said after a while. He looked happy as he made the promise.

“If you lose them both and come back empty handed, I’d advise you to stay in Italy. I will have you dead as soon you step off the plane.”

Yohei’s cheerful exterior didn’t change.

“Of course.”

“You will get your four million when both of them are in my custody,” Kanizawa said. “So if the other one runs off…you’d better find that one to collect.”

Yohei nodded, running the thought through his head then.

“Fair enough,” he said. “Do I get a private jet on stand-by for me? I’d say to have it ready to go in three days.”

“If you are spending my money and using my resources, you are going to be doing so in company of my men.”

Yohei laughed.

“Of course, Kanizawa-san,” Yohei said. “As long as you tell them to stay out of the way and do as I say. I am rather pleased with the extra help. Now if your men get stupid and tip off the twins and allow them to slip away…I hope you know whose head to lop off.”

“No worries,” Kanizawa said. “I will only send you the best.”

Yohei stood and began to collect his papers, shoving them back into the folders. He left the photos on the desk.

“Something for you to look at until the real things are in your hands,” Yohei said. He pulled out a folded piece of paper that had been tucked into one of the pockets in the portfolio.

“My hotel and contact information,” he said as he left that on top of the photos. “I have to be at Narita in two hours. Have your men come find me within the next 24 hours.”

Kanizawa said nothing and poured himself another drink as Yohei excused himself and left. He looked at the color photos; the glossy prints reflected spots of light on its surface. He shifted the pictures with an index finger, looking at the ones on the bottom. He smiled.

“Twins,” he said to himself and laughed. “Sonuvabitch.”