Chapter Sixteen
San Diego, California
Kit had spent most of the night reading about Akiko’s biological father and her grandfather, the memory of her sister’s sobs disturbing her sleep. “Ito’s full name is Shigeru Edwin Ito.”
“Edwin?” Lennox asked.
“Akiko told me that a lot of Asian Americans have two names—an Asian name from their heritage and a more American name.”
“Does Akiko have an American name?” Sam asked.
“No, Akiko just has the one name, but she told me if she were to choose an ‘American’ name, it would be Raven.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, I once told her how much I liked her hair, calling it ‘black as a raven’s wing.’ She said that if she didn’t like her own name so much—because her mother had pinned it to her blanket—she’d go by Raven. So I’d still have”—Kit’s voice broke—”a bird. Since I’d lost Wren.”
“Aw,” Lennox said softly. “That’s lovely.”
Kit nodded, blinking rapidly. She was too emotional today. “It is. But I told her that I preferred her the way she was, that she didn’t have to be like Wren for her to be my sister. It was a nice day.”
“And you say that you don’t know how to do feelings,” Sam said. “You do, you know.”
“Meh.” She waved him off, even though his words warmed her heart.
“So I learned a lot of stuff overnight. I’ll start with Edwin Ito, because everything seems to come back to him.
He was born in LA in 1947, joined the Army when he was twenty, went to Vietnam.
Was in the Army for six years total. Was honorably discharged, returned to the US, then married one Sakura Yamamoto.
I found a copy of his marriage certificate and his divorce decree. ”
“Lots of vets got divorced after Vietnam,” Sam said. “What about his children? What happened to them?”
“Nothing good.” She found the notes on her phone.
“Bear with me. It took me several hours to uncover all this. I found birth certificates for twins Minako and Ichiro Ito, born in LA in 1973. Ito mentioned them in those few minutes he was lucid early yesterday morning. He called Minako ‘Minnie.’ However, there’s no birth certificate for Himari Ito. ”
“Aka Mary Sherman,” Sam said.
“Yes. I thought her mother might have gone back to her maiden name after the divorce, so I searched for Himari Yamamoto, but I found nothing. Then I checked Mary’s marriage license, and her maiden name was listed as Smith.”
“She changed her name?” Lennox asked.
“Apparently so. Mary Smith does have a birth certificate that lists both her mother and father as unknown. She was born seven months after Ito and his wife divorced. I figured I had birth certificates for all three of them, but I couldn’t find any other mention of Minako and Ichiro anywhere—not under Ito, Yamamoto, or Smith.
But my search did turn up a Minako and Ichiro Nakamura.
And that’s when things got complicated.”
“They’re complicated already,” Lennox muttered.
“Buckle up,” Kit said grimly. “It gets worse. I found an article from 1991 about both Minako and Ichiro Nakamura. I figure the likelihood of having more than one set of twins with those names is slim, so I’m assuming they’re Ito’s children.
Or were. The twins were in the news because they’d been murdered. ”
Sam sucked in a breath. “Oh no.”
Lennox clutched the steering wheel. “Fucking hell. I was not expecting that.”
“Neither was I, but that all three of Ito’s children were murdered has to be connected somehow. I don’t buy that they were just unlucky, not with all the name changes. Dawn’s theory of Ito being involved in organized crime is looking more plausible.”
Lennox exhaled heavily. “Was there a murder investigation for the twins?”
“Yes, but it went cold soon after for lack of evidence. I’ll come back to the murders in a minute.
I went back and searched for all three of Ito’s children but used the name Nakamura.
I found birth certificates for all three of them, all with the last name Nakamura, and all listed as being born in Henderson, Nevada.
That’s just outside of Vegas. The mother is listed as Sakura Nakamura, but no father was identified. ”
“So the twins and Mary each had two different birth certificates?” Lennox asked.
“That’s right. The twins as Ito and Nakamura and Mary as Nakamura and Smith.
” Which, Kit thought, was very sketchy. “There are also differences in their places of birth. The twins as Ito have both parents identified—Edwin and Sakura, with their birthplace as LA. The twins as Nakamura have Sakura as their mother and no father known, birthplace Henderson, Nevada. Himari Nakamura has Sakura listed as her mother and no father known, birthplace also Nevada. But Mary Smith has neither parent known and she’s listed as being born in San Diego.
That’s the first mention of San Diego in Mary’s background. ”
“When did Mary go from Nakamura to Smith?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know, but the police report says they talked to ‘Himari Nakamura.’ So Mary didn’t change her first name to Mary and her last name to Smith until sometime after her siblings were murdered. Maybe because they were murdered.”
“That makes sense,” Lennox said. “Especially since Mary Smith was supposedly born in San Diego and none of these name changes were legally done. Sounds like Mary wanted to hide. Did Ito’s wife do a legal name change to Nakamura after the divorce?”
“Not that I could find.”
Lennox frowned. “That means she got fake IDs for herself and her children. Hella sketchy.”
“I came to the same conclusion.”
“Either way,” Sam said slowly, sorting through the details in his mind, “both Sakura’s name change and her taking her children from LA to Henderson, Nevada, indicates a desire to completely disassociate herself from Edwin Ito. Why? What did he do?”
“That’s a good question.” Kit had already noted it on her phone app. “I found Sakura Nakamura in the property records. She bought a house in Henderson, Nevada, shortly before Himari’s birth. That house was where Minako and Ichiro were later murdered. They were seventeen.”
Lennox looked shocked. “How were they murdered?”
“They were both shot in the head and ballistics showed it was with the same gun. It was deemed a robbery gone bad. The autopsy noted that Minako had just given birth, but there was no baby on the premises. The police in Nevada searched for the child, but never found her. Unfortunately, the detective who caught the case died a long time ago, so we can’t ask him. ”
“Okay,” Lennox said slowly. “So Mary’s brother and sister were murdered when she was…how old? Fourteen?”
“Yep. And guess the date?”
“Akiko’s birthday or thereabouts,” Sam said.
He was smart. Kit really liked that about him.
“Very good. The police report says the twins were murdered in Nevada the day before Akiko was left at the firehouse in San Diego.”
“Which is why the Henderson cops never found her,” Lennox said. “Akiko was transported over state lines and back then, that would have been much harder to track.”
“Exactly,” Kit said. “Akiko was a newborn when she was abandoned. They estimated she was only a few days old. So it seems Minako—or Minnie—gave birth to Akiko and, a few days later, she was murdered, along with her brother.”
“Minnie couldn’t have dropped her at the firehouse,” Sam said. “It had to have been Mary.”
“She must have been so frightened,” Lennox said. “But what about Mary’s mother? She could have left Akiko on those firehouse steps.”
“Nope. Sakura Nakamura died the year before, in a car accident.”
“How did a fourteen-year-old like Mary get a baby from Nevada to San Diego?” Lennox asked.
“That,” Kit said, “is a damn good question. I already noted it.”
“Wait,” Sam said. “The twins would have been sixteen when their mother died. Mary would have only been thirteen. You said a year later that the twins were murdered in the family home. How were they still there a year after their mother died?”
“The police report says a family friend, Nancy Sayer, came to live with them. Their mother made Nancy the kids’ guardian in her will.
The property records show that Nancy owned the house next door to Sakura’s.
She doesn’t live there anymore, though. Both houses were sold a few months after the murders.
I don’t know where the money from the sale of Sakura’s house went, but finding that out is on my list. I wasn’t able to track Nancy down, but I’m going to keep trying because she might be able to fill in a lot of gaps. ”
“I’ll ask Navarro to find her,” Lennox said. “I hope she’s still alive.”
“I didn’t find any death certificate on her.
” Kit studied her notes. “Now, Mary’s daughters said she grew up in foster care, but as of the time that Minnie and Ichiro were murdered, Mary was living with Nancy.
I don’t know if she continued living with her or not.
Mary might have entered the system. If so, she’ll have a social service file somewhere, but those are often sealed. But, and here’s the interesting part—”
“I thought all the other stuff was pretty damn interesting,” Lennox interrupted.
Kit’s lips twitched. “About six months later was when Ito opened his second dojo—in San Diego.”
“Oh,” Lennox breathed. “Mary went to her father for help.”
“Or Ito somehow found out that his other children had been murdered,” Sam said.
“Since they were living under a new name, he wouldn’t have been contacted as the next of kin.
But clearly Mary and Ito met each other long before the night she talked to Ito outside the restaurant with Leo, just before their wedding.
Remember, that’s when an ‘older Japanese man’ saw Mary coming out of the restaurant and he called her Mari, which made her angry.
She told Leo afterward that the man was a friend of her mother. In reality, he was her father.”
“Do we know that Leo was telling the truth about meeting Ito outside the restaurant that night?” Lennox asked.