Chinatown - Part 6 - Another Client

Two Asian men and a black limo were waiting outside my apartment this morning when I stepped out. One of them opened the door to the limo, and the other motioned for me to get in. Neat. I pulled back my coat revealing my holstered gun.

"This a problem for anyone?" I asked.

They shook their heads. I climbed into the limo and realized that the woman who'd attacked me in Natalie's apartment was seated across from me. We stared at each other for a bit, then I took the throwing star I'd been carrying around out of my jacket pocket.

"I think you lost this," I said. "In my arm." Her face remained absolutely motionless as she stared at me. I put it away. "Where are we going?"

"Our employer would like to have a word with you."

"Tanaka?"

She shook her head. The limo started and we took off heading towards the Battery. Any talking during the ride came exclusively from me. I tried to get her to answer a few questions, but she remained quiet. We finally arrived at a large skyscraper at the southern tip of Manhattan. The woman and one of the two men escorted me into the building. We brushed past the security guard with a nod and took the elevator to the 45th floor. There, we walked out into a reception area. The name of the business was something very generic, along the lines of "Venture" or "Endeavor."

We walked past the receptionist down a long hallway to a pair of double doors at the end. They knocked, and at the sound of a gravelly voice saying "enter" they opened the doors and motioned me inside. They didn't come with me, and closed the doors behind me.

The office was positioned in a corner of the building and had a beautiful view of the harbor and the Lady Liberty in the distance. It was the typical office of someone important: huge mahogany desk dominating the room, a large leather executive chair, numerous officious looking books on the wall, and a few framed pictures of wifey and the kids.

The man in the exec chair looked to be Japanese, tall and chubby, with carefully combed hair and manicured fingernails. He was wearing a very nice black suit, and I immediately became conscious of the scruffy, wrinkled clothing I had put on without much thought this morning. He stood up and extended his hand. We shook.

"My name is Saito," he said. "Do you know who I am?"

"I think so," I replied. "You're trying to blackmail Tanaka with a certain videotape."

He nodded, but the nod was slow, and didn't seem to imply a "yes" answer.

"You've met with Mr. Tanaka then." I kept quiet. "And you're working for him, either looking for the girl, or trying to recover the videotape." Still quiet. "I wish I had found out about you first. It could have saved a lot of trouble."

"Could've saved you a lot of trouble if you hadn't tried to blackmail Tanaka," I remarked.

"I didn't do anything to Tanaka," he replied slowly. "Tanaka is trying to blackmail me."

"Bullshit. Prove it."

"Very well." He pressed a button on the intercom system. "Nancy, will you send in my guest?" The receptionist said yes, and several moments of silence followed as Saito and I eyed each other.

Then the door opened, and Natalie came in.

She looked absolutely gorgeous, as good as she had in the Village Voice ad. As I said before, a total knock-out, even without the airbrushing. She came up, shook my hand, and introduced herself. I smiled and nodded, then dropped the smile and turned back to Saito.

"So this girl brought you a tape of Tanaka to blackmail him with."

"So you have spoken with Tanaka," he continued. "Have a seat, my dear," he said to Natalie, who was being quiet. "Let me try to clear a few things up. First of all, Tanaka told you the correct story, but with the names reversed. I have been the one meeting with Natalie for some time now. It is I, and not Tanaka, who rented the apartment in Chinatown for us to meet. We had this arrangement for a number of months. Natalie?"

"I got a call to go to the apartment one night," she said. Her voice soft, but at the time suggested a lifetime of experience that had completely vanquished any hint of innocence. "I got there, and Tanaka was waiting. He had found out about the apartment, called as Mr. Saito, and met me. They strapped me to the wall and...tortured me." My mind thought back to the star I'd found in the wall. "They told me they'd kill me unless I helped them get a video of Mr. Saito and myself, and I believed them. I'm not in a position to protect myself. I can't go to the police, and Tanaka made it clear that he could kill me at any time and no one would know. I was given a camera to make the video and met Mr. Saito. And like an idiot I went through with it. I made the video. I called Tanaka the next day to confirm that I had a copy, as well as several duplicates. But then I got scared, and came to Mr. Saito and told him everything.."

"I have a special affection for Natalie," Saito continued, "and understand the position she is in. I know my colleague very well, and am sure that he will make good on his threats out of sheer spite. It's not like anyone will miss a Chinatown whore for more than week." I thought Natalie would hit him for that, but she only smiled and he smiled back, as if it was some sort of inside joke. "She's been with me ever since, keeping a low profile both from Tanaka and my wife." He chuckled at this last line. I kept a straight face.

"I had sent my employee, Kameko, to gather a few of Natalie's belongings. I knew that Tanaka would try to hunt down both Natalie and a copy of the video tape, and made sure Kameko had taken the necessary precautions. And this is where we first encountered you. I must apologize for what happened to your arm, and will gladly pay any medical expenses you incurred." I shook my head.

"Just a paper cut."

"Very tough front you put forth," he said. "Kameko is trained in numerous fighting styles, and I am glad she didn't feel more threatened by your presence. You could have been killed." If that wasn't a blow to my manhood, I don't know what is. "She left, but followed you after. She reported back to me, and I've since had you followed to try and learn who you were working for. We were worried you had been employed by Tanaka to find the tape, but then again, we knew you weren't the first to visit the apartment. Tanaka's men arrived before Kameko and yourself, and ransacked the place. Also, to be frank, you don't look the part."

"I'm not working for Tanaka," I confirmed. "At least, I wasn't. I was working for your friend Ruby." Natalie looked at me with a big question mark across her face. "You don't have a friend Ruby who works in the business with you?"

She shook her head. "I don't know any of the other girls. I've kept my distance." "My guess is that Tanaka hired her to put forth a believable story in trying to locate you," said Saito.

"He also hired me directly a couple days ago," I said.

"Probably to steer you in the direction he wanted you to go in. Let's put it this way: when you came in this office, Saito was the bad guy in your mind, right? Hopefully, I've cleared this up."

This was the overstatement of the year. I'd been told all the details, but at this early in the morning and without a cup of coffee, my mind was spinning faster than a Turkish Twist.

"So you've been seeing Natalie," I said to Saito. "Your rival Tanaka learns this. He threatens Natalie and forces her to film you. She does, contacts him, then goes to you for help. You hide her. He hires me through Ruby to find her. I'm moving too slow, so he hires me directly to push me in the right direction. And he tells me a bullshit story that makes him sound like the victim and you the enemy."

"Probably so that if the name Saito came up, which it inevitably would, you would have negative preconceptions."

"And the one who attacked me - "

"Kameko."

"Kameko, she was just at the apartment to collect some of Natalie's thing?"

"Precisely." It all seemed to check out.

"So what do we do now?"

"I'd like to hire you." Wow. Three different clients on one case is a bit unusual for me.

"What for?"

"I will pay you the money that is owed, and most likely will not be paid, by Tanaka and Ruby, for your services. I would like you to come up with something on Tanaka, something we can use to even the score and make it safe for Natalie to walk the streets again."

"Any leads? Does Tanaka go to a prostitute of some kind?"

"Almost definitely, but I do not have specifics. That is why I'd like to hire you."

I took the case. It's clear at this point that I won't be able to deliver to either Tanaka or Ruby, and it's equally unlikely that they'll pay me for the work I've done so far. And in the end, I hate being taken for a ride, so there's a bit of revenge in here too.

I'm back in my office now, and I've been trying to figure out what plan of action I can take against Tanaka. But I've got nothing as of yet, other than to follow him and hope to dig something up. Any easier suggestions? Otherwise, my weekend looks shot.