'Where from?' Janet encouraged.
The caretaker shrugged. 'It's a private booking. Try the estate agents.'
Brasher and Janet walked back to their car parked outside the flats. Brasher leaned on the bonnet.
'You go round to the estate agents, see what you can pick up there. I'll take a taxi back to the station and check on immigration,' he said as he pushed away from the car and opened the door for Janet in one smooth move.
Janet got in behind the wheel and wound down the window.
'What d'you think this Hisako woman's got to do with those blokes falling to pieces in the hospital?' she queried.
Brasher gave her a bland, humourless smile. 'Nothing probably, but she is interesting,' he told her.
Brasher stood and watched the car disappear into the traffic. Janet was right of course. Twelve young, fit men cut down in their prime took a lot of swallowing. And just because the Japanese woman had been seen to kiss them shortly before they became walking cesspits didn't necessarily mean that she had anything to do with it. Brasher wasn't keen on coincidences. He couldn't see how the two disparate facts knitted together, but visceral prompting told him the connection was there. He was lucky with a taxi and was back at the station within ten minutes.
A DC called to him as he opened his office door. 'Hi, Guv. You're on this rowing club thing, aren't you?' he asked.
Brasher nodded.
'Two more,' the DC said cryptically.
'Two more?' Brasher echoed.
'Two more er suspicious deaths.'
He placed a couple of sheets of paper in front of the inspector. Brasher scanned them and looked up in surprise.
'Why wasn't I told about this before?' he asked, a note of threat in his voice.
'They were just separate incidents. No follow-up for us.' The DC shrugged off responsibility adroitly.
'Okay. Get on to the Japanese Embassy. Ask them what they know about a woman called Hisako. Probably just arrived in London. Maybe with the Japanese trade delegation.'
The DC nodded and left. Brasher thought for a moment and was about to follow when the phone rang.
'Brasher.' He listened, nodded. 'Fine. Meet me at St George's Dock. We've got two more nothing to do with the rowing club as far as I can see.'
The large gwooden crate stood isolated by a cordon of Police Keep Out tape. Brasher walked slowly around the box. The front of the crate was slightly open. He pulled the lid wider and examined the interior. There wasn't much to examine. Just a crudely padded plank at sitting height and straps screwed to the wall. Janet was talking to one of the security men. Brasher called her over.
'See if you can get in there,' he said.
Janet couldn't come near to wedging her five-foot nine-inch frame into the space provided.
'I'd need to shed two stone and saw my legs off at the knees,' she volunteered.
Brasher helped her out of the case.
'What did you get from the guard?' he asked.
'Doesn't know anything,' she said as she straightened up. 'Jim Bailey has worked here for about twenty years. Retiring at the end of the year.' She thought and carefully corrected herself. 'Was.'
'And the seaman?'
Janet took out her notebook.
'Taki Takamura, twenty-eight years old, from Soma. Taken ill yesterday evening and died this morning,' she read.
'Anything else?' he asked in a negative tone.
Janet shook her head. Brasher's mobile rang and he hooked it out of his pocket.
'Brasher.' He listened intently without interrupting. 'You're sure of this ? Right, put out a bulletin and let me know if we get a break.' Brasher pocketed his telephone.
'We've had feedback from the Japanese Embassy,' he said. 'Hisako is not a member of the trade delegation and there is no report of anyone with her name or fitting her description entering the country in the last ten days.' He thought through his next words carefully before continuing.
'There is, however, a report about a Hisako who went missing from a military hospital in Soma. Her description fits and it could be her except for one thing. She has a rare lymphatic disease and has been living in an isolation bubble since shortly after she was born. The doctors insist that she would be dead by now. And you know what caused the disease?'
Brasher sucked in his breath and answered his own question. 'Fallout from the atomic bomb the Yanks dropped on Nagasaki.'
Janet frowned and walked to the edge of the jetty and stared out over the gently heaving water.
'She can't be that old,' she said slowly.
Brasher nodded agreement. 'She's not. It was her parents who were affected. They showed no ill-effects but
