Although Louie had spoken to the oyabun on numerous occasions, he’d never met the man in person. After listening to Carlo’s conversation with Vinnie, he was really looking forward to it. Obviously Laurie Montgomery-Stapleton was acting as Paulie Cerino had warned: uncooperative, dogged, and too smart for her own good. Something had to be done quickly if Satoshi’s death was to remain an inconsequential natural death. Prior to learning this unpleasant exigency, Louie had assumed the conversation with the Yakuza leader was going to center on the lab books and how much money would be involved if they retrieved them. Now the conversation was going to be about Laurie Montgomery-Stapleton and how to get her to back off.

“The prick is not answering,” Carlo said, flipping his phone closed. He was twisted around, facing Louie.

“Well, give it a break for now,” Louie said. “I think we’re going to need his cooperation. You guys might have to make a second visit to OCME if he doesn’t answer over the next hour or so.”

When they reached the Four Seasons, all three men piled out, turning the car over to valet parking.

With Louie in the lead, they went though the revolving door and up the half-flight of steps to the reception area. Skirting the desk, they passed the elevators and then up more steps to the bar and dining level. Since only Louie had ever been in the hotel before, both Carlo and Brennan were impressed with the stone walls and soaring spaces. To Brennan, it reminded him of an ancient Egyptian temple.

As it was mid-morning, the bar to the left was empty, and even the dining side to the right was sparsely occupied. It was easy to spot Hideki and his crew, especially given the man’s sumo-wrestler proportions. He was hard to miss.

As Louie had dreaded, he had to go through the bowing and business-card ritual with Hisayuki Ishii while Hideki Shimoda made the introductions. Then they all sat down. Meanwhile, Carlo and Brennan wandered over to the left end of the bar. At the right end were Hisayuki’s lieutenants, one as large as Hideki but with muscle, not fat. There were no introductions among the enforcers, but it didn’t matter. They recognized one another other instinctively.

For a time Louie, Hideki, and Hisayuki engaged in mutually complimentary small talk, giving one another credit for the undeniable success of their business relationship, all admitting they had not imagined it was going to be so lucrative.

Then Hisayuki thanked Louie for his willingness to come to the hotel rather than making him travel to Queens. “It is a long flight from Tokyo to New York,” he said.

“It is my pleasure,” Louie said. He was favorably impressed with the oyabun. To Louie, Hisayuki made quite a statement in his expensive, fashionable clothes. But it was more than clothes and careful grooming that awed Louie. It was also the look in the man’s eyes, his quiet intensity, and his apparent intellect. From experience, Louie could tell intuitively that the man was shrewd and a born negotiator who always had the best interests of himself and his organization in mind. Louie actually respected that, but it also made him take pause with the understanding he was facing a forbidable opponent.

“As I’m certain you are exhausted from your flight,” Louie said, “perhaps we should get right down to business.”

“That is most thoughtful of you,” Hisayuki said, bowing yet again.

Louie found himself doing the same. It was the one thing he found trying when dealing with the Japanese. That and the fact that he felt he never quite knew what their agenda really was. “Let me be frank,” Louie began. “Up until recently, we have been, I thought, reasonably open with each other—that is, until very recently. Is that your sense as well?”

Surprised and taken aback at such an open and direct question, Hisayuki hesitated, looking briefly at Hideki for support, as Hideki had been living in America for a decade or more. When support was not forthcoming, Hisayuki blurted, “Hai, hai,” as if the Japanese word was a universal method of affirmation.

“But you guys, particularly my friend Hideki here,” Louie said, nodding at Hideki, “were far from being up-front with us over the previous several days. Now, I don’t want to beat a dead horse....” Louie paused, questioning himself whether the two Japanese had any idea what the phrase “beating a dead horse” meant. “Do you understand ‘beating a dead horse’?”

Both Japanese men nodded so quickly that Louie knew they had no idea.

“It means to talk about something too much, because Hideki and I already had this conversation. You see, the pickle we are now in has come from you people not telling us the truth—namely, that Satoshi was not a deadbeat and you weren’t asking our help for a shakedown, but rather it was going to be a hit, which we never would have agreed to, because we try to avoid that kind of violence these days. It’s an unspoken pact we’ve had with the police. We don’t whack anybody, and they let us professionals alone, meaning they can concentrate on traffic issues and the real bad guys, like serial killers and terrorists.

“Am I making sense here, Ishii-san?” Louie asked, looking directly at Hisayuki. “Or should I call you Hisayuki? You can call me Louie.”

“Hisayuki is fine,” Hisayuki said, somewhat overwhelmed but recovering from Louie’s forceful directness, making an effort to remember that Louie was not trying to be rude.

“Okay, Hisayuki, are you following me, or am I being a little too direct? From speaking with Hideki, I have a sense you guys are generally not quite so brusque. Is that fair to say?”

“Perhaps,” Hisayuki said evasively. He wasn’t exactly sure what brusque was but had an idea from the context.

“Well, here’s the current situation as I see it,” Louie continued. “From your side, there are the lab books that you guys are interested in obtaining. I’ll be happy to talk to you about them, provided you’re willing to let us have more information, because in retrospect, we feel that breaking into a firm on Fifth Avenue is more risky than we first believed. In order for us to be willing to help, we’d have to know more and be appropriately compensated. We’d also have to be convinced the books are actually there and available, if you know what I’m saying.

“From our perspective, we’re interested in going back to the status quo before the mayhem your two guys, Susumu and Yoshiaki, created by whacking Satoshi on a crowded subway platform and blowing away his entire family in New Jersey. Are you still with me?” Louie paused, looking directly at Hisayuki, waiting for a response. To Louie, Hisayuki appeared slightly shell-shocked.

“Perhaps you could speak a little slower,” Hideki suggested. “The oyabun speaks English well, but he doesn’t get the opportunity very often.”

“Sorry,” Louie said. “I will speak more slowly, but I believe speed will be playing a role in what we do to avoid a deteriorating situation.”

Hisayuki nodded but didn’t speak. He felt off balance, as he was accustomed to being prepared and maintaining control of meetings. At present, he was neither. Susumu and Yoshiaki’s disappearance had thrown him off balance. It was possible the Yamaguchi-gumi might already suspect that Satoshi and his family had been murdered by the Aizukotetsu-kai. If that were the case, then they were already involved in a very dangerous situation.

“Right now nobody seems to know what happened,” Louie said, forcing himself to speak slower. “What I mean is that the family has not yet been discovered, since they were living in what I’ve been told is a deserted area.”

Hisayuki assumed it was a location provided by the American Mafia partners with the Yamaguchi-gumi, but he said nothing.

“The family may or may not be discovered, which tells me that it’s not an emergency today. At the same time, I want you to clean it up and get rid of the bodies, since you guys made the mess. We will help, because if and when it is discovered it’s going to be just the kind of situation that I’ve been working to avoid. It will be recognized immediately for what it is, a gangland killing, and will make our communal professional lives miserable. So that’s tomorrow. Sunday we can have a meeting about the lab books. How does this schedule sound so far?”

Hisayuki didn’t move or speak.

Louie stayed quiet. He wanted some sort of response. He was beginning to think taking a meeting with Hisayuki was an exercise in talking to one’s self. All the man did was blink. His reticence also made Louie think that Hisayuki might somehow suspect that Louie and the Vaccarro organization had something to do with the disappearance of Susumu and Yoshiaki.

After several minutes of uncomfortable silence, Hideki said, “You’ve mentioned tomorrow and the day after, but what about today? And what about this deteriorating situation you’re referring to?”

“Thank you for asking,” Louie said without sarcasm. “I’ve talked about the Machita family issue, but I haven’t mentioned Satoshi. As you may remember, Hideki, last night we briefly discussed Dr. Laurie Montgomery-Stapleton.”

“Ah, yes,” Hideki said. “I mentioned what you said to the oyabun.”

“That is true,” Hisayuki said, suddenly breaking his silence. “This is something we are very concerned about. Has she responded appropriately to your warning?”

“Apparently not,” Louie admitted, glad to be talking directly to the oyabun. Louie leaned back with one arm over the rail of his chair and called out to Carlo. Carlo stood immediately with a questioning look on his face. Louie beckoned him over. As he approached, the oyabun’s men slipped from their barstools and stood at tense attention until the oyabun gave them a wave to stand down.

“Try Vinnie again!” Louie said to Carlo. “If he answers, find out what the situation is at the moment!”

Carlo tried. He waited until voicemail came on, then hung up. He shook his head for Louie’s benefit. Louie waved him away and turned to the others.

“We are having some difficulties with our contact,” Louie explained. “But here’s what we have learned. It seemed to our contact that our warning was not just ignored but might have acted as a catalyst toward greater effort on her part.”

“But the death was considered natural?” Hisayuki questioned with particular interest.

“That’s what we understand.”

“Why would this woman then change her mind?” Hisayuki demanded.

“I don’t know,” Louie said. “Maybe it was the warning letter. The fact is, this woman is a very strong person, very determined.”

“And she’s just back from a yearlong maternity leave,” Carlo added. He’d not moved despite Louie having waved him away. Carlo called over to Brennan. “Isn’t that what he said?”

“Year and a half maternity leave,” Brennan called back. He walked over to stand by Carlo. “And Satoshi was her first case, and only case, for that matter, so she was trying to prove something. At least that’s what our contact said. It’s kind of a worst-case scenario.”

Louie turned back to Hisayuki and Hideki. “I had a conversation with my boss about this woman. When he talks about her, it is in almost mythical terms. He actually tried to kill her, as did another capo, without success. And adding to her mystique is that she’s got connections with the New York City Police Department, which is not a good thing, as you can well imagine.

“Now with all this background,” Louie continued, “we’re also up against a specific time constraint. According to our contact, this doctor claims to have made some progress with the case that she will reveal later this afternoon, and it involves proving that the case is a homicide.”

“How is she going to do that?” Hisayuki said with an air of disbelief.

“I think that’s for you to tell us.”

There was a silence.

“I think you owe us an explanation,” Louie added.

“It involves a special toxin,” Hisayuki said. “It is not something I am supposed to discuss.”

“Fair enough,” Louie said. “Do you think our Dr. Laurie Montgomery-Stapleton will figure it out?”

“It will be the first time, if she is able to do it. And we’ve used it before.”

“Well, I don’t think we should allow her to do that,” Louie said. “We have to think of a way to discourage her.”

“Perhaps we should kill her,” Hisayuki said.

“That’s not an option,” Louie said. “When I spoke with my boss, he said killing her would unleash from the police a decade of harassment ten times worse than what we are trying to prevent. That doesn’t make any sense.”

“But if it were the same toxin, her death would be considered natural,” Hisayuki proposed. “We have more of the toxin available.”

Louie thought for a moment. Such an idea had not occurred to him. It was a possibility, and somehow satisfying. But the more he considered it, the less promising it seemed. It was taking a chance it wouldn’t be discovered, yet Laurie seemed to be making progress. Louie didn’t like taking chances. Besides, how could it be done so quickly? He wanted to do something that very morning. Unless he could be sure Laurie would leave OCME for lunch on her own, which was not something he could count on. Given how dogged she was, she probably didn’t even eat lunch. The only other possibility was to get someone inside OCME and get the toxin to her that way. The only problem with that idea was that Louie’s estimation of the possibility of it working was near zero, and that was being generous.

“I have an idea,” Brennan said suddenly. “What about the kid? I mean, we threatened both her and her family with consequences.”

“What kid?” Louie demanded, irritated that Brennan had the nerve to talk without being specifically addressed. It was embarrassing to have one’s underlings thinking they could just speak out whenever they wanted. It gave the impression no one was in charge.

“The kid that caused the maternity leave,” Brennan said. “Why not snatch the child? I’m certain the doctor will drop whatever she is doing. If her child’s gone, she’s not going to care about whether some unknown person died naturally or unnaturally.”

Louie’s ire faded in a flash. A kidnapping! he thought. It was brilliant! It could be done right away. No one needed to die. And the police would have no reason to think organized crime was involved.

Louie turned to Hisayuki. “What do you think of kidnapping?”

“I think it is a very good idea,” Hisayuki said. “We ask for a ransom so there will be no association with Satoshi. Satoshi’s case will fade from significance.”

“Exactly,” Louie agreed.

“Will it be easy?” Hisayuki asked.

“I would think so. The hardest part will be taking care of the kid.” Louie laughed. “Actually, snatching the kid will be easy if he is staying in his house with a nanny. It will be more difficult if he’s in a childcare center. But with both parents being doctors, my guess is that it will be an in-house nanny situation.”

“Can we help?” Hisayuki questioned. “It is very important for us that Satoshi’s death continues to be considered natural and not a murder.”

“And why exactly is that?” Louie questioned. “I mean, we’ve told you why we prefer Satoshi’s death to be considered natural, but exactly why do you? If we are going to be working together, we have to be up-front with each other, as I mentioned in the beginning of our conversation.”

“It was the Yamaguchi-gumi who brought Satoshi to America. If they find out he was murdered, there is a chance they might blame us. We want to avoid that.”

Louie knew there were many more questions he could ask, but he was satisfied with the answer he got because it made sense to him, and he didn’t care particularly about the relationship between the Aizukotetsu-kai and the Yamaguchi-gumi. As far as he was concerned, that was their business.

“Okay,” Louie said suddenly. He looked up at Brennan. “Brennan, my boy,” he said. “Since it was your idea, you are going to be in charge. Do you know much about kidnapping?”

“I’m in charge?” Brennan questioned with happy surprise. He briefly glanced over at Carlo, unsure of what that meant or how he should feel, but then quickly returned his attention to Louie. He liked the idea of being in charge. He liked it a lot. “The first thing I need to do is get my computer and learn as much about Laurie Montgomery-Stapleton as I can, starting with where she lives.”

“We did a kidnapping over in Jersey a long time ago,” Louie said for Hisayuki’s benefit. “It went well, but it takes planning. There’s two particularly dangerous times: the snatch and the pickup of the ransom. The rest can mostly be improvised. The snatch is first, but it should be easy in this situation, because it’s an infant. There shouldn’t be a struggle, depending on the nanny’s reaction.”

“You will let us know how we can help?” Hisayuki asked, interrupting.

“You can count on it,” Louie said. He looked at his watch. “We have to move! I’d like to have the kid in our hands around noon, if it is at all possible.”

“What will we do with the kid once we have him?”

“That’s another issue,” Louie said. “We have to find a place. But let’s not worry about that right away. We’ll bring the kid to my house! My wife loves babies. Tomorrow we can find a place.”

“What about the warehouse at the pier?” Carlo suggested. He didn’t want to be left out in the cold completely.

“No heat,” Louie said, standing up. “We don’t want the kid getting sick. As I said, taking care of the kid might be the hardest part of this affair. We don’t want to make it more difficult for ourselves, and he’ll be no value to us dead. There’s something called ‘proof of life’ involved in kidnapping episodes, which they will be demanding as we keep Laurie Montgomery-Stapleton busy with negotiations.”

“Very nice to meet you, Ishii-san,” Louie said while thrusting out his thick-fingered hand toward the oyabun. “We’d best get to work. Tonight, if you’re up for it despite your jet lag, perhaps we could have dinner. Provided we get the kid, we can celebrate your arrival in our city and celebrate controlling our nemesis in OCME.”

“That would be my pleasure,” Hisayuki said, bowing and shaking Louie’s hand simultaneously.

Louie self-consciously bowed as well. He then quickly repeated the gesture with Hideki, who had managed with some effort to get to his feet.

Louie began to herd Carlo and Brennan toward the stairs while calling over his shoulder to Hideki that he’d be in touch within the hour.

“I’ll be waiting,” Hideki called after them.

“Do you want me to try Vinnie Amendola again?” Carlo questioned. He felt he was still being sidelined, as his previous suggestion had been so quickly rebuffed.

“Absolutely not,” Louie responded, heading down the stairs ahead of his two henchmen. “We’ll only involve him as a last resort. He could easily be forced into becoming a double agent. Brennan, are you confident you’ll be able to find out the woman’s address from the Internet?”

“You’ll be surprised at what I’ll be able to find out about her in two minutes,” Brennan bragged confidently. “Especially with being a public employee.” Brennan was remarkably facile with computers. He had gone to a technical high school after having been thrown out of regular high school in his freshman year for truancy. At the technical school he’d specialized in computers and electronics. On his own, he’d learned how to pick locks with world-class agility to round out his résumé.

Rebuffed again, Carlo hung back and watched the upstart Brennan go through the revolving door. Carlo sensed he was being upstaged, and he did not like it.

The three men waited in silence while the valet service went for the car. Meanwhile, Louie was planning the details of the kidnapping and was enjoying himself. The previous kidnapping he’d done had been satisfying, and he had been dreaming of doing another someday. It was easy money, although still a challenge. Brennan was already mentally listing the websites he wanted to visit. He was sure he could get things as personal as Laurie’s shoe size if he wanted. Carlo was watching Brennan, wondering how he was going to wipe the self-satisfied smile off his face.

When the car finally came, Carlo crowded out Brennan and got behind the wheel. Brennan allowed it to happen, as Carlo was officially higher in the pecking order, and it was, after all, Carlo’s vehicle. Brennan settled for shotgun. Louie got into his usual place in one of the middle seats. Once they were under way, he said, “Okay, this is the way we are going to do it.”