call him. Why, you want to tell him yourself?”

“No, no, go ahead and call him. I’m off the case. Officialy

“But you’ll pursue it on your own time?”

“Yes, but I’d rather Watanabe didn’t know that right now.”

“I won’t say a word.”

“What the devil is Fugisawa up to? Have you been able to get in

touch with him?”

“Not yet, ” said Kitano. “But he’s going to have a lot of questions

to answer. Assuming, of course, that he wasn’t one of those bodies

in the basement. I don’t envy Sakahara. He’s walking into one hell

of a mess. You’re lucky to be out of it.”

“I’ll never be out of it, ” Akiro said grimly. “Not until I solve it.

I’m not giving up on this one. See if you can find Fugisawa.”

“If he’s still alive, ” Kitano said. “We’ve got a bulletin out on

Cornwall and his party. Suspicion of murder. There’s no question

that necromancy was involved. But at least we’ve finally got an

idea who we’re looking for.”

“I wonder, ” said Akiro. “This seems too convenient. The killer’s

been very careful not to leave us any clues. He, or they, would have

to know that we could easily trace them through the rental of the

limousine. Why kill the chauffeur? If they were going to kill Kanno,

why take a limo to his shop? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe we’ll know more when we’re finished checking up on

Cornwall’s background.”

“Maybe. How long ago did Sakahara leave?”

“Ten, fifteen minutes ago. He went straight to Kanno’s shop.”

Akiro thought a moment. “I have a hunch. Before you call him

with this information, check the database and find out when

Cornwall and his party arrived in Tokyo.”

“I should have thought of that. Hold on, it shouldn’t take long. ”

Kitano sat down at his computer console and called up the data,

checking through the list of names of people who had recently

arrived in the country. After a few moments he said, “I’ve got it. ”

He groaned. “Your hunch was right. Cornwall and the others only