Peter Lovesey: Diamond Solitaire

"Mrs. Tanaka?"

"Right. There was no question of letting her adopt, but we were willing to let her care for the kid. In fact, she could take her on a vacation. It worked out quite neatly in theory. Mrs. Tanaka knew the kid a bit. I put up the money for a trip to England, to get-what name did you give her?"

"Naomi."

"… to get Naomi right away at the time I was planning to unseat Manny Rexner. PDM3 was going to be the resignation issue and it had to be watertight"

"But why. Why go to so much trouble over a little girl?"

"Because she was the living proof that Dr. Masuda quit researching in 1985.1 could buy Dr. Masuda's silence, but I couldn't explain away the child if someone did some digging."

"Who did you fear? Manny?"

Leapman shook his head. "He was unlikely to make the connection with Jantac, even though he dumped it himself. He wasn't really a scientist. No, the people I feared were outside the company. The medical press, the stock market analysts, our rivals in the drug industry. They're damned quick in dredging up anything adverse they can find on a new drug. Nothing was published on Jantac, but somebody somewhere could have heard a whisper."

"So you sent Mrs. Tanaka to London with Naomi."

"It seemed like a neat solution, but she fucked up everything. Everything. Maybe those adoption agencies knew something, because Mrs. Tanaka couldn't cope. An autistic child was all too much, and one day she panicked and abandoned her in Harrods. The next thing it was ail over the British press and on TV. It was a news story. There was even an item in the New York Times. Far from hushing up the child's existence, we'd got it all over the media. Our billion-dollar project was about to blow up in our faces, all because of one small girl."

"But nobody knew the child's identity," Diamond reminded him.

Leapman erupted. "For God's sake! Every tabloid in England and Japan wanted to know who the dumb kid in Harrods was. It was a great human interest story. Our papers carried it. The only question was which smart-ass reporter would be the first to trace her mother."

"Through Mrs. Tanaka? You're telling me that's why Mrs. Tanaka had to be murdered?"

"Listen, I was facing annihilation myself. Soon as one of those guys got to Mrs. Tanaka she would blow the whole project. She'd tell them about the arrangement with Dr. Masuda. The connection with Manflex would be out in the open. All those wiseguys looking for some flaw in PDM3 would be alerted. I had to act fast, and I couldn't do it alone."

"So you explained the problem to your mafia friends and they put out a contract on Mrs. Tanaka."

"Not my friends. And I was never a party to murder,"

"But you kept them informed. She must have got in touch with you before she flew to New York with Naomi."

"Listen, you've got to understand that these people were breathing down my neck. When Manny committed suicide and nominated David to succeed him, my plans went-"

"Out of the window?" said Diamond with the suggestion of a smile, but he could hardly have expected a laugh from Leapman at this point in his story and he didn't get one.

"I was horrified when I heard what they did to Mrs. Tanaka. Appalled. And, you know, first of all, I thought the kid must be dead as well."

"I never heard of the mafia killing a child."

"Well, no."

"But they didn't object to throwing me in the Hudson and leaving me for dead," Diamond added.

"You were too close to the truth. When you fixed that meeting with David Flexner, they had to act."

"Yes, how was that done? Am I right in thinking Flexner's room was bugged and you tipped off your mafia friends?"

"Listen, by that time, I was being threatened too. Those people don't forgive anything."

"But that's how it was done?"

"Essentially, yes." He hesitated. "Should I apologize?"

Diamond shrugged. He could be magnanimous now. "And what exactly was the purpose of coming here to Yokohama?"

"Quite simply, to liquidate Dr. Masuda. I want to make it clear that I came under coercion. I was under constant threat of being murdered myself. Those two who traveled with me were mafia hit men. I was to lead them to her and Naomi would be used as bait. They planned to drive into the country, kill Mrs. Masuda and abandon Naomi."

"Do you really think they would have let you live?"

Leapman pondered this for a moment. "Maybe not. Like I said, I'm glad it's over. I don't mind giving evidence when all mis comes to court. I've been a damned fool, Mr. Diamond, but I was never a willing party to the violence."

Diamond felt a twinge in his back as he got up to leave. He wasn't quite the fighting machine he'd appeared to be earlier. "You say that, Mr. Leapman, but you were blithely prepared to sentence untold numbers of Alzheimer's patients to serious liver damage and maybe death so that you could be rich and successful. In my book, that's on a par with murder."

"Are you leaving?" Leapman asked, sidestepping the accusation.

"As soon as I can get a flight."

"What will happen to me?"

"You'd better ask a lawyer. I daresay they'll extradite you in time to give evidence against Massimo Gatti and his hit men."

Leapman twitched.

"You'll be safe behind bars for a while," Diamond reassured him. "After that, there's always plastic surgery."

On the way out, he was stopped by one of the clerical staff and invited into another office, where, unknown to him, Yuko Masuda and Naomi had been waiting. The interpreter followed him in.

Dr. Masuda was standing hand in hand with Naomi. She bowed and delivered a little speech.

"She says that she has learned of all the trouble you took to help her daughter and the danger you faced. She says that you saved both their lives."

"Mr. Yamagata did that," Diamond said.

"She insists that she owes her life to you. She would like to repay you in some way."

"That isn't necessary."

"Excuse me if I take the liberty of speaking myself," the interpreter said. "It is our way in Japan. If you can think of some small service she can perform, it will ease the burden of debt that she has to carry now. A token of gratitude. Small thing, but very important"

He glanced towards Dr. Masuda. "In that case, what I would really like is to hold her daughter's hand for a moment."

"I think that would satisfy decorum."

After it was explained, Dr. Masuda nodded.

Naomi was standing beside her, gazing at the wall.

Diamond took a step closer and offered his hand.

Dr. Masuda said something in Japanese.

Naomi placed her hand in his. She didn't look up, or do anything else, but that was enough. It satisfied decorum for a Japanese lady and it brought a lump to the throat of an unsentimental Englishman.

The ceiling still wanted decorating in the basement flat in Addison Road.

"I'll get some more paint tomorrow," he promised.

"A bit of a comedown after all your globetrotting," Stephanie said.

"Not at all. Domestic life has its attractions."

She smiled faintly. "That doesn't sound like the man of action I read about in the paper this morning."

"Man of action? With my figure?" He dismissed the idea with a laugh.

"You don't fancy yourself as a sumo wrestler, then?"

"No chance."

"The paper says you tossed an armed man over your back. It says you're Britain's sumo champion."

"Get away!"

"Really. Do you want to see?"

"No, it's rubbish, and we both know it. I'm just glad to be home with you."

Her smile became more definite. "Did you, by any chance, remember the sneakers?"

Big he may have been, but he felt himself shrinking.

"There just wasn't an opportunity. Sorry, my love."

She said, "I wouldn't have mentioned it, but you did phone me from New York to check the size."