The Case of the Russian Diplomat

bring Ana back to you today. I promise that.”

“And will you stop what you are doing? Will you listen to them?”

“I will find Ana.”

“How can you find her?”

“I will find her. I promise you. Now I want you to leave us alone. We must talk.”

“What shall I do?” she asked woefully.

“I think you should lie down for a little while. You’ve had a bad shock. Lie down and rest. There’s nothing else you can do for Ana.”

She nodded and left the room. Beckman looked at Masuto thoughtfully, and said, “There’s been a kidnapping, Masao. You know what the procedure is. We notify the Culver City police, and then we bring in the F.B.I.”

Masuto didn’t answer. He poured two cups of tea, and Beckman noticed that his hand did not shake.

“Do you want anything in your tea?”

“No.”

Masuto lifted the cup to his lips in what was almost a formal gesture and sipped at the tea. Then he put the cup down.

“You heard me, Masao.”

“I heard you, Sy. Here is the way it’s going to be. We do not notify the Culver City police and we do not call in the F.B.I. This is for me. If you want to help me, I’ll be grateful. Otherwise, you can have out of it.”

“That’s a lousy thing to say.”

“I apologize. I’m sorry. We’re in this together.”

“And you’re making that same stupid mistake that the parents of every kidnapped child make. Ana’s seven years old. If she saw them, she can identify them. Do you think there’s a chance in the world that they’d let her go alive?”

“Not much chance, no.”

“Then what?”

“We have to find her.”

“How? Where? If you think this Binnie Vance was involved with the drowned man, then she had help. Is that it? Does she know where the kid is?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. We can’t even place her at the Beverly Glen Hotel. She only fits with a lot of guesswork- and there’s no reason, no motive, no sense in the whole thing.”

“We could pick her up and sweat it out of her.”

“Pick her up for what?”

“We could try to sweat it out of her.”

“She’s not the kind of a woman you could sweat anything out of. You know,” said Masuto, “there was something damned strange about that voice on the phone.”

“What?”

“Adverbs.”

“You just lost me.”

“Adverbs. They’re part of what makes English an impossible language. An uneducated man faults his adverbs. So do foreigners. The man on the phone said, ‘you will listen to me very carefully.’ Why didn’t he say, listen careful? Then he used the word unavailable. That’s a fancy word. He could have said, get lost. Stay away. Forget it. Drop it. But he said unavailable. Then the adverb again. Leave it completely alone or something like that. But he said completely.”

“What does it add up to?”

“It was a young voice, high pitched. I’ll tell you what it adds up to. It adds up to a student.”

“And there’s got to be maybe ten thousand foreign students just in L.A. alone.”

“It’s a game!” Masuto blurted out. “It’s a crazy, sick, monstrous game. The games children play-the bloody, stupid games! Sy, there’s only one way to go. We have to find the drowned man’s clothes.”

“Why? For Christ’s sake, why?”

“For the same reason that they were hidden. Because they make a connection, and right now we have no connection. None. I could make guesses. I could put the whole thing together-or at least I think I could-but now they’ve pulled Ana into their insane game, and I want my child. I want her alive.”

“All right, Masao. It’s a quarter to eleven. We have eight hours.”

“No. We have five hours.”

“Why only five?”

“Four, five, six-somewhere in there, believe me.”

“All right, five hours. We got the second largest metropolitan district in the United States. Where do we look?”

“In the hotel. Those clothes never left the Beverly Glen Hotel.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m not sure of anything, but that’s where we look.”

“And right now Mr. Arvin Clinton, the pride of the F.B.I., is sitting in his office downtown waiting for you to show up and kiss his ass.”

“We’ll just let him wait.”

Masuto went into the bedroom, where Kati lay huddled on the bed. He sat down beside her and touched her cheek gently.

“Kati.”

“Masao, if anything should happen to her-”

“Nothing will happen to her.”

“Or to you. Then I would surely die.”

“Nothing will happen to me. I will find Ana and bring her home. I promised that. I want you to stay here. I still have a son, and he will look for his mother when he comes back from school. He is not to know anything about this. No one is. Even if Captain Wainwright calls, you must tell him nothing, except that you do not know where I am. And you must say that to whoever calls.”

“Then you will do what they ask?”

“I will do what has to be done.” He bent over and kissed her. “Lock the doors. Remain in the house. If the man who took Ana calls again, you must tell him that I am carrying out his wishes.”

“And Uraga?” she asked. “What can I tell my son? He will see my face.”

“Then you must compose your face. Ura is nine years old. He is old enough to behave like a man and accept the fact that his mother is not always smiling and laughing.”

“He will ask about Ana.”

“I took her to the doctor. Tell him that, and also tell him that he must remain in the house.”

“How do I know he’s all right?”

“He’s all right. If you wish, call the school, but don’t let them know that anything is wrong. I’m sure he’s all right. I’ll call you later. From here on, Kati dear, every minute is precious to me. Let me depend on you.”

She sat up and nodded, her face tear-stained. “Yes, I will do as you say.”

9

THE DARK MAN

Masuto was himself again as they got into his car. He said to Beckman, “You drive, Sy. I want to put it together.”

“The hotel?”

“Yes, the hotel.”

“You know, Masao, when I spoke to Freddie Comstock, he said that he cased every empty room in the hotel, and those that were vacated too.”