Chapter Twenty
Los Angeles, California
“Okay,” Kit said once Sam, Lennox, Desoto, and Burroughs had joined them in the observation room.
“At least now we know who Joe is.” She held up her phone.
“Joji Fujioka works for Takahashi Corporation. He was their vice president in charge of security until he stepped down ten years ago. He’s still on the payroll as Kenzo’s personal assistant and advisor.
He’s worked for Takahashi, according to their website, for nearly sixty years. ”
“He was friends with Kenzo’s father,” Sam said, “so he probably started working for the company from an early age.”
“But Ito was friends with them, too, at least when this photo was taken.” Desoto set a copy of the graduation photo of the three young men on the table.
Navarro flipped the album pages until he got to the one of Joe and Mitch by the pool, their tattooed skin exposed. “I think we can assume, from the tattoos, that the three men were part of an organized crime family. And, for the moment, we can assume that Ito somehow got out.”
“He escaped by joining the Army,” Kit said. “That’s what he told Akiko and me, at least. Basically, he couldn’t stomach the killing.”
Burroughs shook his head. “Very few men wanted to join the Army in 1966. He must have been desperate.”
“Normally it’s not that easy to escape,” Navarro said. “He came back to LA after the Army. How did he keep his fingers?”
“That’s a good question to ask him,” Kit said.
“But it seems that Ito trusts Joe, at least enough to meet with him, Nicchi, and Mary.” She swiped to another open window on her phone—a photo of the other man Danny had named.
“Bob Fujioka is fifty years old. He’s Joe’s son.
He was a passenger on my sister’s fishing boat twice.
The first time was five years ago when she first started her business.
The second time was back in October. Both times he gave his name as Akito Jones. ”
“What does he do for Takahashi?” Sam asked.
“He became their vice president of security when Joe stepped down. I’m sure being Joe’s son helped a lot.” Kit rubbed the back of her neck. She was tired and felt a headache coming on. And her arm hurt. She was relieved when Sam put a bottle of ibuprofen in her hand. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
She took a couple of the pills. “I think it’s been Bob pulling Danny’s strings.”
“Why do you think that?” Navarro asked.
Kit took a moment to gather her spinning thoughts. “Bob was there at the beginning, posing as Akito Jones on Akiko’s first charter. That’s got to mean something.”
“What about Joe?” Desoto asked. “How does he fit in? What do we know about the Takahashi Corporation?”
Burroughs skimmed his notes. “I looked up the Takahashi family after I left Ito’s condo—while Desoto was arresting Danny, actually—and found an article written about Kenzo when he took over his family’s business after Mitch died in 2003.
There was a bit of the family history at the beginning and some Q and A with Kenzo.
In 1964, when that graduation photo was taken, Mitch’s father Osamu ran the company.
The tats on Mitch and his friend Joe point to organized crime, but so far there’s been no hard evidence.
But even if the Takahashis were an organized crime family back then, Mitch wasn’t the boss when Ito joined the Army to escape.
Osamu was. Ito kept his Army discharge papers in his safe.
He was discharged honorably before Osamu died, but he didn’t come back to LA right away.
He took a job in New York City, where he met and married Sakura, Mary’s mother.
He only came back to LA after Osamu was dead and Mitch had taken over. ”
“So maybe Mitch was okay with Ito leaving the family business because they were friends, but his father wouldn’t have been,” Sam said.
Burroughs nodded. “That’s what I thought, too. Also, there was a wedding photo in his safe. Joe was his best man.”
“Huh.” Kit considered that, because it felt important.
“That means Joe knew Ito’s wife. Maybe even his children.
Either way, it seems like Ito and Joe remained friends over the years.
” She brought up the photo of Bob Fujioka.
“What do we know about Bob? Because Ito trusted Joe, but Bob wasn’t in the group of four that started meeting in October. ”
“Yet Bob knew about Akiko,” Navarro said. “From the first day of her charter business, at least.”
“Exactly. So who was Ito trying to protect Akiko from? Bob or Kenzo? My gut’s telling me that it’s not Joe, since Ito won’t tell us about him. He’s protecting Joe, too.”
“Danny said he’d just told his father how to ‘clean his damn house,’ ” Lennox said. “Are both Bob and Joe working against Kenzo?”
Kit nodded. “Good point. But if Joe was the one who went back into Laurette Curry’s house and posted those photos where we’d be sure to see them, he led us to Akiko’s passenger lists.
If we’d had long enough, we could have used facial recognition to get Bob’s name from that lead alone.
It appears that Joe’s trying to help us find Bob, even though Bob is his son. ”
“Then let’s dig into Bob Fujioka,” Desoto said. “He seems to be the linchpin in all this.”
“If we could find Nicchi, we could stop all this guesswork,” Kit grumbled.
“We’ve got officers out there looking for him,” Burroughs said. “They’re talking to his coworkers in his protection business and at the dojo.”
“I’ve got people searching for him in San Diego, too,” Navarro said. “We’ve got airports, train and bus stations covered. We’ll find him eventually.”
“There’s more on Takahashi Corporation,” Burroughs said. “They’re not publicly traded, so the company’s worth is difficult to estimate, but they’ve had a series of business setbacks in the past few months. Starting in October.”
Kit’s pulse kicked up. “When Bob and Danny went on Akiko’s boat.”
“Yes. It’s been a lot of little things and one big thing.
Little things include lawsuits against their hotel chain—guests claiming they’ve been assaulted, vendors saying they haven’t been paid.
Clients saying that their conventions have been canceled at the last minute, breaking their contracts.
The one big thing is a financial scandal at Kenzo’s casino in Vegas.
A whistleblower claims that the tables are rigged and that they’re laundering money.
It might not be true, but the gaming commission is investigating. ”
“Someone is attacking Kenzo’s businesses,” Lennox said. “Both now and back when Kenzo took over the reins. Remember, Kit? You told us that, except for the casino, every business that Kenzo started has failed.”
“And now the casino has been targeted, too,” Kit said.
Lennox nodded. “Exactly. And if the casino’s getting investigated, it could lead to law enforcement digging into all their businesses. Any organized crime could be exposed.”
“That might be connected to the gun smuggling,” Burroughs said.
“If Kenzo’s already got a spotlight on him for gaming crimes and then both of his children—Danny and Akiko—are indicted for gun running, Kenzo could be investigated for that, too.
If he is involved in the gun running, he’d be smart to pull out until the heat dies down. Which means lost revenue.”
“If he’s involved,” Sam said. “Can we find out where the guns found in that storage unit came from? Were they stolen? We know Danny was involved, but who was the boss? Was it Kenzo Takahashi? Or Bob Fujioka?”
“I’ll take that,” Navarro said. “I’ll work with my contacts at the ATF.
I’ll start with Special Agent Brewer, but I know other people I can ask if I have to.
Brewer’s a showboating ass, but he’s a successful investigator.
He had enough evidence to get an arrest warrant, so let’s see what he’s got up his sleeve. ”
Up his sleeve. The words triggered a memory and Kit swiped through her phone until she came to the photos taken by Leo Sherman when he’d followed Mary to LA.
“Look at this.” She held her phone up so that everyone could see.
“In one of Leo’s photos, Nicchi is sliding an envelope up his sleeve.
What was in it? Was that what Danny was looking for when he trashed Ito’s condo? When he searched Mary’s house?”
“You’re right,” Lennox murmured. “We had Nicchi’s house searched when we arrested him, but we didn’t find anything like that envelope.”
Sam hesitated, then sighed. “Do we even know if Nicchi is still alive? He could be in a ditch somewhere with a bullet hole in his head, just like the others.”
Kit blew out a breath. “It’s possible. We need to step up our search for him.”
“I’ve asked one of our analysts to review the camera footage of the hospital’s parking areas,” Desoto said. “They’re searching for his past visits to find out what he was driving. Once we know, we’ll put a BOLO out on his car as well.”
“Good idea.” Kit pulled Joe Fujioka’s photo closer and studied the man’s face. “We need to talk to him where Kenzo isn’t around to hear. Let’s do that next.”
“I have his address,” Desoto said. “Burroughs and I will take that interview.”
“If we can find him,” Burroughs added dourly.
“If,” Kit allowed. “But he wanted us to see him earlier today. He wanted us to know he was with Kenzo. He also wanted us to check out Akiko’s passenger list, knowing we’d find his photo along with Bob’s and Danny’s. I’m hoping he lets you find him now.”
Navarro gestured to Kit and Lennox. “What are you going to do?”
“I want to find Umeko Takahashi’s sister,” Kit said. “She doesn’t like Kenzo and, if her sister confided in her, she might have information that no one else knows.”
“I found her,” Lennox said.
Kit blinked at her. “When?”
“Since we’ve been talking.” Lennox smirked. “I can multitask. Her name is Koharu Carlson. Goes by Haru. She’s seventy years old, a widow, and she lives in Santa Monica.”
Kit stood up. “Then let’s go.”
Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California