Back to normal speed. A blond woman in an Armani silk suit shaking hands with the bald-headed man we had seen a few moments before.

"What is it?" Jenny said, looking at me.

"That's his wife," Connor said.

The woman leaned forward to kiss the bald man lightly on the mouth. Then she stepped back and made some comment about the suit he was wearing.

"She's a lawyer in the D.A.'s office," Jenny said. "Lauren Davis. She's assisted on a couple of big cases. The Sunset Strangler, the Kellerman shooting. She's very ambitious. Smart and well connected. They say she has a future if she stays in the office. It must be true, because Wyland doesn't ever let her get air time. As you see, she makes a good appearance, but he keeps her away from the microphones. The bald guy she's talking to is John McKenna, with Regis McKenna in San Francisco. The company that does the publicity for most high-tech firms,"

I said, "We can go forward."

Jenny pushed the button. "She really your wife, or is your partner kidding?"

"No, she's really my wife. Was."

"You're divorced now?"

"Yeah."

Jenny looked at me, and started to say something. Then she decided not to, and looked back at the screen. On the monitor, the party continued at high speed.

I found myself thinking of Lauren. When I knew her, she was bright and ambitious, but she really didn't understand very much. She had grown up privileged, she had gone to Ivy League schools, and had the privileged person's deep belief that whatever she happened to think was probably true. Certainly good enough to live by. Nothing needed to be checked against reality.

She was young, that was part of it. She was still feeling the world, learning how it worked. She was enthusiastic, and she could be impassioned in expounding her beliefs. But of course her beliefs were always changing, depending on whom she had talked to last. She was very impressionable. She tried on ideas the way some women try on hats. She was always informed on the latest trend. I found it youthful and charming for a while, until it began to annoy me.

Because she didn't have any core, any real substance. She was like a television set: she just played the latest show. Whatever it was. She never questioned it.

In the end, Lauren's great talent was to conform. She was expert at watching the TV, the newspaper, the boss - whatever she saw as the source of authority - and figuring out what direction the winds were blowing. And positioning herself so she was where she ought to be. I wasn't surprised she was getting ahead. Her values, like her clothes, were always smart and up-to-date -

"...to you, Lieutenant, but it's getting late... Lieutenant?"

I blinked, and came back. Jenny was talking to me. She pointed to the screen, where a frozen image showed Cheryl Austin in her black dress, standing with two older men in suits.

I looked over at Connor, but he had turned away, and was talking on the telephone.

"Lieutenant? This of interest to you?"

"Yes, sure. Who are they?"

Jenny started the tape. It ran at normal speed.

"Senator John Morton and Senator Stephen Rowe. They're both on the Senate Finance Committee. The one that's been having hearings about this MicroCon sale."

On the screen, Cheryl laughed and nodded. In motion, she was remarkably beautiful, an interesting mixture of innocence and sexuality. At moments, her face appeared knowing and almost hard. She appeared to know both men, but not well. She did not come close to either of them, or touch them except to shake hands. For their part, the senators seemed acutely aware of the camera, and maintained a friendly, if somewhat formal demeanor.

"Our country's going to hell, and on a Thursday night, United States senators are standing around chatting with models," Jenny said. "No wonder we're in trouble. And these are important guys. They're talking about Morton as a presidential candidate in the next election."

I said, "What do you know about them personally?"

"They're both married. Well. Rowe's semi-separated. His wife stays home in Virginia. He gets around. Tends to drink too much."

I looked at Rowe on the monitor. He was the same man who had gotten on the elevator with us earlier in the evening. And he had been drunk then, almost falling down. But he wasn't drunk now.

"And Morton?"

"Supposedly he's Mr. Clean. Ex-athlete, fitness nut. Eats health food. Family man. Morton's big area is science and technology. The environment. American competitiveness, American values. All that. But he can't be that clean, I've heard he has a young girlfriend."

"Is that right?"

She shrugged. "The story is, his staffers are trying to break it off. But who knows what's true."

The tape ejected and Jenny pushed in the next one. "This is the last, fellas."

Connor hung up the phone and said, "Forget the tape." He stood. "We've got to go, kōhai."

"Why?"

"I've been talking to the phone company about the calls made from the pay phone in the lobby of the Nakamoto building between eight and ten."

"And?"

"No calls were made during those hours."

I knew that Connor thought that someone had gone out of the security room and called from the pay phone - Cole, or one of the Japanese. Now his hopes of following a promising lead by tracing the call were dashed. "That's too bad," I said.

"Too bad?" Connor said, surprised. "It's extremely helpful. It narrows things down considerably. Miss Gonzales, do you have any tapes of people leaving the party?"

"Leaving? No. Once the guests arrived, all the crews went upstairs to shoot the actual party. Then they brought the tape back here to make the deadline, while the party was still going on."

"Fine. Then I believe we're finished here. Thanks for your help. Your knowledge is remarkable. Kōhai, let's go."

Chapter 14

Driving again. This time to an address in Beverly Hills. By now it was after one in the morning, and I was tired. I said, "Why does the pay phone in the lobby matter so much?"

"Because," Connor said, "our whole conception of this case revolves around whether someone made a call from that phone, or not. The real question now is, which company in Japan has locked horns with Nakamoto?"

"Which company in Japan?" I said.

"Yes. It is clearly a corporation belonging to a different keiretsu," Connor said.

I said, "Keiretsu?"

"The Japanese structure their businesses in large organizations they call keiretsu. There are six major ones in Japan, and they're huge. For example, the Mitsubishi keiretsu consists of seven hundred separate companies that work together, or have interrelated financing, or interrelated agreements of various sorts. Big structures like that don't exist in America because they violate our antitrust laws. But they are the norm in Japan. We tend to think of corporations as standing alone. To see it the Japanese way, you'd have to imagine, say, an association of IBM and Citibank and Ford and Exxon, all having secret agreements among themselves to cooperate, and to share financing or research. That means a Japanese corporation never stands alone - it's always acting in partnership with hundreds of other companies. And in competition with the companies of other keiretsu.

"So when you think about what Nakamoto Corporation is doing, you have to ask what the Nakamoto keiretsu is doing, back in Japan. And what companies in other keiretsu oppose it. Because this murder is embarrassing to Nakamoto. It could even be seen as an attack against Nakamoto."

"An attack?"

"Think about it. Nakamoto plans a great, star-studded opening night for their building. They want it to go perfectly. For some reason, a guest at the party gets strangled. And the question is - who called it in?"

"Who reported the murder?"

"Right. Because after all, Nakamoto controls that environment completely: it's their party, their building. And it would be a simple matter for them to wait until eleven o'clock, after the party was over and the guests had left, to report the murder. If I were preoccupied with appearances, with the nuances of public face, that's the way I'd do it. Because anything else is potentially dangerous to the corporate image of Nakamoto."

"Okay."

"But the report wasn't delayed," Connor said. "On the contrary, somebody called it in at eight thirty-two, just as the party was getting under way. Thus putting the whole evening at risk. And our question has always been: who called it in?"

I said, "You told Ishiguro to find the person who called. And he hasn't done it yet."

"Correct. Because he can't."

"He doesn't know who called it in?"

"Correct."

"You don't think anybody from the Nakamoto Corporation made the call?"

"Correct."

"An enemy of Nakamoto called?"

"Almost certainly."

I said, "So how do we find out who called the report in?"

Connor laughed. "That's why I checked the lobby phone. It's crucial to that question."

"Why is it crucial?"

"Suppose you work for a competing corporation, and you want to know what's going on inside Nakamoto. You can't find out, because Japanese corporations hire their executives for life. The executives feel they are part of a family. And they'd never betray their own family. So Nakamoto Corporation presents an impenetrable mask to the rest of the world, which makes even the smallest details meaningful: which executives are in town from Japan, who is meeting with whom, comings and goings, and so on. And you might be able to learn those details, if you strike up a relationship with an American security guard who sits in front of monitors all day. Particularly if that guard has been subjected to Japanese prejudice against blacks."

"Go on," I said.

"The Japanese often try to bribe local security officers from rival firms. The Japanese are honorable people, but their tradition allows such behavior. All's fair in love and war, and the Japanese see business as war. Bribery is fine, if you can manage it."

"Okay."

"Now, in the first few seconds after the murder, we can be certain of only two people who knew a girl had been killed. One is the killer himself. The other is the security guard, Ted Cole, who watched it on the monitors."

"Wait a minute. Ted Cole watched it on the monitors? He knows who the killer is?"

"Obviously."

"He said he left at eight-fifteen."

"He was lying."

"But if you knew that, then why didn't we - "

"He'll never tell us," Connor said. "The same way Phillips won't tell us. That's why I didn't arrest Cole, bring him down for questioning. In the end it would be a waste of time - and time is of the essence here. We know he won't tell us. My question is, did he tell anyone else?"

I began to see what he was driving at. "You mean, did he walk out of the security office to the lobby pay phone, and call somebody to tell them that a murder had occurred?"

"Correct. Because he wouldn't use the phone in his office. He'd use the pay phone, and call somebody - an enemy of Nakamoto, a competing corporation. Somebody."

I said, "But now we know that no calls were made from that phone."

"Correct," Connor said.

"So your whole line of reasoning collapses."

"Not at all. It is clarified. If Cole didn't notify anybody, then who phoned in the murder? Clearly, the source can only be the murderer himself."

I felt a chill.

"He called it in to embarrass Nakamoto?"

"Presumably," Connor said.

"Then where did he call from?"

"That's not clear yet. I assume from somewhere inside the building. And there are a few other confusing details that we have not begun to consider."

"Such as?"

The car phone rang. Connor answered it, and handed the receiver to me. "It's for you."

"No, no," Mrs. Ascenio said. "The baby is fine. I checked on her a few minutes ago. She is fine. Lieutenant, I wanted you to know Mrs. Davis called." That was how she referred to my ex-wife.

"When?"

"I think ten minutes ago."

"Did she leave a number?"

"No. She say she can't be reached tonight. But she want you to know: something has come up, and maybe she go out of town. So she say maybe she don't take the baby this weekend."

I sighed. "Okay."

"She say she call you tomorrow and let you know for sure."

"Okay."

I wasn't surprised. It was typical Lauren. Last-minute changes. You could never make plans involving Lauren because she was always changing her mind. Probably this latest change meant that she had a new boyfriend and she might go away with him. She wouldn't know until tomorrow.

I used to think all this unpredictability was bad for Michelle, that it would make her insecure. But kids are practical. Michelle seems to understand that's the way her mother is, and she doesn't get upset.

I'm the one who gets upset.

Mrs. Ascenio said, "You coming back soon, Lieutenant?"

"No. It looks like I'll be out all night. Can you stay?"

"Yes, but I have to leave by nine in the morning. You want I pull out the couch'?"

I had a couch bed in the living room. She used it when she stayed over. "Yes, sure."

"Okay, good-bye, Lieutenant."

"Good-bye, Mrs. Ascenio."

Connor said, "Anything wrong?" I was surprised to hear tension in his voice.

"No. Just my ex pulling her usual shit. She's not sure she'll take the baby this weekend. Why?"

Connor shrugged. "Just asking."

I didn't think that was all there was to it. I said, "What did you mean earlier, when you said that this case could turn ugly?"

"It may not," Connor said. "Our best solution is to wrap it up in the next few hours. And I think we can. Here's the restaurant up ahead on the left."

I saw the neon sign. Bora Bora.

"This is the restaurant owned by Sakamura?"