you see what I'm driving at?' he said when he'd given the gist of the phone call. 'Jantac was discredited here. It's dangerous, and shouldn't have been used again. We now know that another team of researchers, headed by Professor Churchward, worked independently with the same compound and came up with sensational results in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. I'm not going to speculate whether Churchward knew that he was working with a dangerous drug, but someone at Manflex headquarters certainly knew, which is why all mention of Jantac was erased from Yuko Masuda's computer record.' He waited for mis to be translated, and he had to repeat it more slowly. In his eagerness he'd strung too many sentences together. Also he suspected that Miss Yamamoto was distracted by Yamagata.
Yamagata said recognizably, 'Leapman.'
'Yes, it had to be Leapman. All his actions confirm that he's responsible. And something else was altered on the computer. Dr. Masuda's project was stopped in 1985, but the computer record was falsified to make it appear that her research continues. Some other group of drugs is mentioned, but that's just a smoke screen. On second thought,' he said quickly, 'don't try translating that last bit.'
After Miss Yamamoto had filled in, Diamond resumed, 'It isn't just a matter of falsifying the records. Leapman is in deep with organized criminals, who are set to make big profits out of PDM3. Manflex was on the slide at the beginning of this year.' He mimed the downward slope of a sales graph. 'Before Manny Hexner committed suicide, there was a big fire at one of their plants in Europe. Milan. Manflex dropped even lower on the stock markets. There's a police investigation still going on into a possible arson attack. To me, that suggests this plot was being hatched many months ago.'
He paused for the translation. Yamagata nodded gravely. He seemed to be following what was said.
'If they're capable of doing that, they're capable of murdering Yuko Masuda, who could have exposed them. I can't say for certain yet, but I very much fear that she is dead. I believe her little daughter-the child I know as Naomi-was given to Mrs. Tanaka, a woman desperate to adopt. Maybe they drew the line at killing a child. Mrs. Tanaka was ordered to get the child out of Japan, to Europe. She was horrified to discover that Naomi was autistic. She couldn't cope and she abandoned her. I'm sorry, I'm not giving you a chance,' he admitted to Miss Yamamoto.
'It's all right,' she said, launching into a translation directly, looking up earnestly at the wrestler.
'As you know,' Diamond picked up his thread again, 'in England we did all we could to publicize Naomi's plight. After I went on television, Mrs. Tanaka panicked and snatched Naomi back. She was in trouble now. She couldn't possibly stay in Britain, so she phoned her contact for orders. They told her to fly to New York, and she obeyed, a fatal move, if only she'd realized. Obviously the people behind this scam had decided Mrs. Tanaka was unreliable and dispensable, and they hired a man to meet her and murder her.'
He stopped. He'd told most of it now. It all hung together so well. And yet…
Yamagata listened to the Japanese version and then spoke a few words that, translated into English, pinpointed the problem. 'If Dr. Masuda is dead, why has Leapman come to Japan with Naomi and two American strongmen?'
Diamond was about to admit he was stumped for an explanation when someone interrupted in Japanese. It was Dr. Hitomi, speaking in the modulated tone he had used before.
Modulated it may have been, yet it brought a swift, excited response from Yamagata.
The translation followed for Diamond's benefit. 'Dr. Hitomi says he thinks you are mistaken in saying Dr. Masuda is dead. He saw her here on the campus only last week.'
He made an effort to stay calm. 'Is he certain? When the police checked her last address, she was missing.'
Now one of the librarians chimed in, using imperfect, but perfectly comprehensible English. 'Is true. She alive. She sometimes use library. If you like I show you her name on computer.'
'No need,' said Diamond. 'I believe you, both of you.'
He loosened his lips and blew out, making them vibrate. It eased his tension, somehow. 'And now we know the answer to Mr. Yamagata's question. Leapman and his friends are in Japan to do the job properly this time and silence Dr. Masuda for good.'
'With the child?' Miss Yamamoto said spontaneously.
'They'll use the child as bait. The point is, have they found her mother already?'
When this had been turned into Japanese, Yamagata spoke.
'He says the real point is, where to look for Dr. Masuda.'
He was right. They did the obvious thing first, and checked the library records for an address. It proved to be the same place that Diamond had been informed by the Yokohama police was now let to someone else. A phone called confirmed this.
'So where in the whole of Japan do we turn now?' he said aloud, but speaking more to himself than anyone present, so that he was caught by surprise when Miss Yamamoto translated.
This time, no one had an answer.
And this was the nadir, the most depressing moment of the entire quest. To have come this far and be thwarted was hard enough, but to know for sure that every minute of inaction made it more likely that Naomi and her mother would die- that was intolerable.
He asked them to call the police. He was told that they had been notified hours before, apparently by the zealous young man in Immigration.
'Then we'll call and ask if they have any information yet.'
A call was made and the police had nothing to impart. Not even a sighting of the Americans.
Someone suggested coffee. Diamond wasn't interested.
'What else do they have on the library computer?' he asked Miss Yamamoto.
Only the titles of the books borrowed.
'What are they?' he asked, more to give an illusion of activity than anything else.
Yuko Masuda had one book out. On comas.
He wondered.
'Is there a hospital in this city, or in Tokyo, that specializes in treating alcoholics?'
Three.
'Would you phone each of them and ask whether Dr. Masuda carries out research there?'
The second hospital they called said Dr. Masuda was a regular visitor.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Diamond had been told that the hospital was south of the city, in the foreigners' quarter, Yamate-Machi, known as the Bluff. For about a mile the taxi driver took a route along the north bank of the Nakamura River. He drove fast, with the horn blaring most of the time, on orders from Yamagata, who kept urging him to overtake more vehicles; you didn't need Japanese to understand. And there was no complaining from the driver. He was obviously a sumo worshipper having the trip of a lifetime. If he lived to tell the tale, he'd be the envy of every taxi driver in Yokohama.
In the front passenger seat, Diamond ground his teeth and braced himself for a collision. This kind of traveling, he reflected grimly, shouldn't be inflicted on the middle-aged. It was a bit much when the quickest you normally experienced was a bus up Kensington High Street. But he still hoped to God that he would get to Yuko Masuda before Leapman and his two gorillas.
They screeched right, the mudflaps rasping on the road, forced lower by the weight on the rear seat. They crossed a bridge, zigzagged along a busy stretch beside Ishikawacho Railway Station, and then onto the access road for a stretch of expressway. God help us, Diamond said to himself, he can really put his foot down now. But the taxi was close to its optimum speed anyway. They fast-laned under a tunnel and all the way to the next exit which took them into the Yamate-Machi area. Not a moment too soon, the hospital came up on the left, dominated by four high-rise blocks, a huge, modern site with its own system of roadways.
Yamagata had his door open well before they braked outside the main reception hall. Gesturing to Diamond to remain in the cab, he moved inside at impressive speed for a big man. It would have been interesting to see the
