Fuminori Nakamura - The Thief

Flattop casually moved nearer, brandishing his sword.

“Don’t get his blood on you. Cut his throat from behind.”

“Okay.”

The old man moaned.

“You really won’t kill me?”

“That’s up to you.”

“Six five two two one star star zero five.”

Buzzcut sat in front of the safe, which was built into a shelf in the corner of the room. He punched in the numbers and the door swung open. The tall man took out his cell phone, spoke briefly in Chinese and hung up again.

The safe contained far more money than the eighty million yen we’d been told. Tachibana made a noise like a cynical laugh in his throat. The tall man tossed a white bag to Buzzcut, who silently packed the money inside. When he picked up the bundles of paper and the envelopes, the old man whimpered.

“Wait! Just take the money.”

The tall man said something to him in Chinese.

“Huh?”

“Yes, we’re taking the stock certificates, title deeds and the other stuff too.”

“No. Those aren’t stock certificates. They’ve got nothing to do with you.”

Buzzcut peered at the papers.

“ Wo kan bu dong . I can’t read this. I can’t understand them.”

“Honest!”

“Shut up.”

The tall man gestured irritably to Flattop and the old man fell silent. The woman was still staring blankly into space. The old man struggled against his ropes, wriggling and swaying in confusion. When Buzzcut stood up with the bag he repeated over and over that they weren’t certificates. The tall man pointed towards the door, so we left. As I walked out I saw that the woman was in a daze, no longer sitting primly but with her long legs sprawled out to one side. Her blanket had fallen off.

Flattop opened the front door and looked around. The rows of houses were still quiet. The van approached slowly and when he gave the signal we moved outside. In front of the gate the car door opened quietly. It had all been too easy.

“What about the other guy?” asked Tachibana, slightly hysterical.

I guessed he was talking about the tall man, who had stayed behind in the room.

“Wait for a bit. He told you, didn’t he? He’s tidying up a few loose ends. If they called the cops straight away we’d be in trouble.”

As they were talking he came out of the house and climbed into the passenger seat. The van took off sedately, just as it had on the way here.

When I’d been in gangs before, after it was all over everyone would laugh from a sense of release. But these guys didn’t say a word. Calmly they took off their windbreakers, put their helmets and the money bag in the space under the floor and stowed the six swords inside the seat, as if it was all in a day’s work.

When they finished they sighed wearily. At that moment Ishikawa, who was sitting next to me, touched my fingers and slipped me a scrap of paper.

“Um,” said Tachibana. “If it was that simple, couldn’t you have done it on your own? I mean, why did you need us in the first place?”

I listened carefully for their reply, even though I was distracted by Ishikawa’s note in my hand.

The tall guy lit a cigarette and spoke without turning round, as though he couldn’t be bothered talking.

“We could have done it with three but it was better to have more, just to be sure. They’d feel outnumbered, and if the old man han’t cooperated we would’ve needed several men to carry away the safe. What was the other thing you asked about?”

“Why us?”

“Actually we already had three other guys lined up. Friends of ours. But the boss changed his mind when he heard that Niimi was leaving town. To put it bluntly, you guys are kind of extras. He likes handing out money to punks like you.”

I lowered my head, pretending to scratch my ankle, and peeped at the slip of paper. It read, “Get out of Tokyo fast. Tomorrow 7 P.M., Shin-Yokohama Station, north exit.”

“But still….” Tachibana said.

“Persistent prick, aren’t you? I don’t know what he’s thinking either. Anyway, you guys are lucky. Like he says, you should disappear and be grateful. There’ve been lots of things stranger than him hiring you for this. They were all his idea. One thing I know, though, when he tells us to use someone, they’ve never, ever screwed up. When I saw you I was sure you’d be okay. I guess he wanted to get Niimi to do one last job before he quit, give him a bit of money. Doing him a favor, you know? There’ve been guys like him before, but not that many. He likes young people. He’s not going to do anything to you. It’s not like he’s going to be crapping himself over a few two-bit hoods like you running round. Even when he helped Niimi in Pakistan, from his point of view that was just a game. The plan for this job was perfect from the beginning. Tying up some woman and making sure you keep your mouths shut isn’t exactly difficult. At any rate, you got lucky.”

He stifled a yawn and put out his cigarette. Soon the van passed through a dark alleyway and emerged at an abandoned factory.

“This is far enough. Pull over.”

They got out of the car and started changing their clothes. I saw ribbons of tire lying scattered like tender strips of meat, a rusting, tumble-down prefab, a white truck with broken windows. I moved slightly away from the men while I changed, but Ishikawa didn’t take the hint. Without a word he removed his disguise and put on his own clothes.

“I’ll pay you.”

When he said this, Buzzcut opened the van door, climbed in and came out again, casually holding a bundle of money.

“Five million yen. No objections? It was easy, eh? I mean, this is frankly a waste.”

He handed the money to each of us. The tall man yawned and the driver rubbed his eyes.

“We’ll drop you off on the road somewhere so you can grab a taxi or whatever,” the tall man said. “Niimi, would you mind taking over the driving for a while? He and I haven’t had any sleep all night. We’re likely to have an accident.”

The car passed through narrow streets lined with houses and came out on a highway. The tall man and the driver were dozing off, so Buzzcut gave directions and told Niimi where to stop. I had no idea where we were. Apart from a convenience store way off in the distance there were no shops to speak of, and the gaps between the street lamps were wide and gloomy.

“Hurry up and get out. Hide the money in your clothes. You’re pickpockets, so I guess you’ve got secret pockets and stuff. Anyway, I don’t think you’re stupid enough to be picked up by the cops.”

Tachibana climbed out and I followed. Ishikawa started to get out too, but Buzzcut stopped him.

“Sorry, could you drive for a bit longer? These guys are out to it. We’ve got to go to Shinagawa to get rid of the car. Could you take us halfway?”

“No, I—” began Ishikawa, but Buzzcut laughed.

“You guys are so jumpy. OK, just as far as Kannana. I’ll drive from there. Real pain in the butt, though.”

I looked at Ishikawa. He nodded slightly, so without a word I watched the door close in front of me. The van moved off, gradually picking up speed, and before long it disappeared into the darkness. The area abruptly went quiet.

Tachibana and I stood for a while in silence. I stared vacantly at the occasional passing car and smoked, thinking about Ishikawa. When I told Tachibana about the note that he’d passed me, he lit another cigarette.

“Get out of Tokyo, right?” He smiled faintly. “You know, he’s too chicken. It was all cool, wasn’t it? Anyway, I’m not hanging round here. I’ve got people to meet, women to fuck.”

“I think I’m going to leave.”

“Do what you like. But that was fantastic. It was easy and we won’t get caught.”