CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER
LATER THAT AFTERNOON, NASH RODE the elevator to Hiroko’s apartment.
He had arranged for this visit immediately after his meeting with Steers in her personal art gallery.
Hiroko greeted him with enthusiasm and made each of them a cup of tea.
He had brought with him a box of Lindt chocolates and a bag of Ferrero Rocher delectables that he had picked up for her.
She thanked him profusely. They sat in the same chairs as before and had their tea and a chocolate and delectable each.
Nash said, “I’m sorry we were interrupted last time. And I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve been back to see you. You were talking about Ms. Steers and the competition with her siblings?”
She looked at him warily. “Dillon-san, you said that Victoriasan showed you her. . .injuries?”
“That’s right, she did.”
“Would you mind telling me where they are on her body?”
“You don’t believe me?” he said, feigning offense.
Her look deepened and in that expression Nash saw not a bubbly, cloistered, honored servant living out her retirement in quiet style. But rather he was observing an astute and cagey individual who had survived all these years in the Steers empire, which was no easy task, he well knew.
“I want to believe you, Dillon-san,” she said slowly. “But that is not the same as whether it is wise to. You see, there are reasons to mistrust people. I do not trust all of the people who are around Victoria-san.”
“Including her mother?”
“Just tell me where her injuries are, Dillon-san, if you can.”
“Both arms and her back,” he replied promptly. “Nowhere else that I could see. Frankly, I don’t know how she withstood the agony.”
“She must think very highly of you, Dillon-san,” she said. “To my knowledge, other than myself, no one has ever seen them.”
“I hope that means you can trust me, Hiroko-san.”
She gathered herself, sat forward, and said, “People believe awful things about Victoria-san, truly awful things.”
“Like what?
“That she killed her siblings.”
He acted surprised by this, “My God, why would they believe that?”
“Because people lie. People place blame on innocent people, like Victoria-san.”
“So she didn’t kill them?”
Hiroko shook her head fiercely. “No, oh, no.”
“Then what happened to them?”
Hiroko looked pained, and she took a moment to compose herself. “You told me before that you care for Victoria-san?”
Nash had to glance away for a moment. “Yes, yes, I did.”
“Well, she harmed no one. It was. . .it was . . .” The woman apparently could not bring herself to say it.
Nash had a sudden idea. “It was Masuyo?”
Hiroko burst into tears and left the room. Nash heard water running and a few minutes later the woman slowly walked back in, her face very pink and her eyes and nose reddened. He rose and helped her to sit down.
“Are you okay?” he said anxiously after retaking his chair.
She nodded and pressed her fingertips together. “You must understand that I have never spoken of this to anyone.”
“I understand. I hope you feel you can trust me enough to tell me about it.”
“I do, Dillon-san. I truly do after what you have told me. Because it is clear to me that Victoria-san trusts you.”
“Go on,” he prompted.
“Victoria-san was always her mother’s favorite. I have my thoughts on this.”
“What sorts of thoughts?”
“I have known Masuyo a very long time. I served her before Victoria-san was born. I know things about her that many do not. I have seen things—” She broke off and nervously studied her hands.
“What are you trying to say?” prompted Nash.
Hiroko seemed to summon up her courage. “Masuyo did not love her husband, Dillon-san. She is actually Chinese, not Japanese. I am Chinese like her. She came to Japan to. . .do her duty to her country.”
Nash had learned this from the FBI, but he acted startled. “You mean she was, what, some sort of spy?”
“I do not know the correct term. But what I do know is that she quickly turned to the bad. She did terrible things. She married and she began to do even more terrible things. I wanted to leave. I tried to separate myself from all of it, but she would not allow it. She would have killed me, I am sure of that.”
“My God, Hiroko-san.”
Hiroko wiped her eyes with a tissue and eyed him closely. “There is something else.”
“What?”
“I am not sure I can tell you. Even though I do trust you.”
Nash thought quickly. “Hiroko-san, you say that there are people here you do not trust. They may wish Ms. Steers harm. If I can prevent that, as her bodyguard, I need to know all you can tell me. Please.”
She considered this and finally nodded. “All right. What you say makes a great deal of sense. As I said, she did not love her husband. But she did love another man. A tall, handsome man from our country. And this man, and not her husband, was Victoria-san’s father.”
Nash nearly dropped his teacup. “Jesus, does she know?”
Hiroko shook her head. “Never one word has been spoken about it. You see, Masuyo believed her other children to be unpure, their father being a white man. But Victoria-san is wholly Chinese.”
“I wondered about that. From a picture I saw she didn’t seem to take after Masuyo’s husband, and now I know why. But I’m actually very surprised you’re telling me all this.”
She looked at him wistfully. “Victoria-san visits me here, as you know. She speaks highly of you, Dillon-san, as I told you before. So very highly. I have never known her to speak of another man as she does you. And I am an old woman. My light grows dim. But since you proved to me that Victoria-san trusts you, I needed to reveal to you what I know. I cannot tell Victoria-san because I know it will break her heart. But I felt I could tell you, in confidence. I know you will do the right thing. And that you will never tell her.”
“I promise,” said Nash. “But you say Masuyo killed her own children?”
“Yes, they were the offspring of her English husband and thus unpure. She did not love him, and she did not love them.” She paused. “But that is not the worst of it, Dillon-san.”
“How could it get any worse?” Nash exclaimed.
In a trembling, halting voice Hiroko said, “Masuyo convinced. . .Victoria-san that she indeed. . .vanquished her siblings.”
Nash gaped. “What, that she killed her siblings? How is that possible?”
“Masuyo is very experienced in such things. In manipulating others.”
“What, you mean hypnotism?”
“No, that is foolish and ineffective. Masuyo used certain medicinal herbs.”
“You mean hallucinogens?”
“That is what Westerners call them, yes. But it was not only that.”
“What else?”
“Masuyo used her mind and her words to convince her daughter that she committed these terrible acts. Over and over she told Victoria-san lie after lie until my dear Victoria-san believed every word.”
“How could she do that to her?” Nash asked. “Ms. Steers is too smart.”
“I saw her do it, Dillon-san. I watched her destroy Victoria-san’s will.
I saw her rid her mind of all truth and logic and replace it with her lies, her cruel lies.
And that knowledge? It changed Victoria-san.
She was no longer the shy little girl that I knew.
And I simply stood there and did nothing to stop it. Nothing,” she added quietly.
“You could have told her later—the truth, I mean.”
“I was. . .afraid, Dillon-san. That. . .she would not believe me. And if her mother had found out I told her? I. . .I am ashamed at my cowardice.” She began to quietly weep.
He reached out and gripped her hand. “I understand how incredibly difficult that would have been. But what about her husband? How could he possibly—”
She interjected, “He was a kind man, but he did not have what it requires to stand up to a woman like Masuyo, Dillon-san. But after she went away, he came out of his shell. He began to be a better influence on his daughter. I believed things were turning for the good with Masuyo gone. And I also knew that Masuyo would not like that at all. Which is why I am so distraught that she has returned.”
“Why did she even marry him?”
“Because no one would suspect that she worked for the Chinese if she had an Englishman as a husband.”
“I see,” said Nash.
Hiroko said thoughtfully, “I believe Masuyo’s mother was Japanese. She knew the language and took after her mother in her physical features. That is why she was selected to go to Japan to do her duty. But then she became what she is. A. . .terrible, merciless person.”
“If what you say is true about Masuyo, why would she want her daughter, or anyone else, to succeed her?”
“In our culture, Dillon-san, we prepare the next generation for the responsibilities of family. Masuyo was no different in this. And she had many enemies and one of them could vanquish her. But she would not allow the empire, which she had so painstakingly built, to topple. She could name Victoria-san as her successor and still control her.”
“But then Masuyo went away. How did that happen? I know now that she ended up in a prison in Myanmar.”
“All I know, Dillon-san, is that she went on a trip and never returned. Soon after that, the plane Victoria-san and I were on fell from the sky.”
“So someone was trying to topple the Steerses’ empire. But you don’t know who?”
“No.”
Nash leaned forward. “Hiroko-san, I know that you say Ms. Steers would not hurt people. But I witnessed her kill a woman right in front of me. In her penthouse. Lynn Ryder. Did you know her?”
Hiroko gave him a whimsical look, unlike any she had expressed so far.
“Dillon-san, you are a very intelligent man, I am sure. But what you must always remember is that no matter whether a cow looks like a cow, and moos like a cow, and gives milk like a cow, there is no guarantee whatsoever that it is indeed a cow.”
Nash glanced at his arm where Steers had cut him and wondered how that was not a cow.
“She wants to have dinner with me tonight. As her guest. What should I know, Hiroko-san, before I sit down with her?”
Hiroko reached out and slid her soft, aged palm against Nash’s cheek.
“Dillon-san, in encounters such as that, you must follow your heart. No amount of pondering will provide you the guidance that you seek.” She touched his head.
“The mind thinks too deeply and will play you false when you most need it to be true.” She then touched his chest. “But your heart will lead you to where you need to go, Dillon-san. It always does.”
Later, as Nash got ready to go out with Steers, he wondered whether his heart was up to the task. Because no matter what had happened to Steers to change her, the fact remained that she had killed his daughter and destroyed his life. There was no going back from that.
That cow was indeed a cow.