'He may not have known it was valuable. Maybe he was looking for something else, but what could be more important than a Masamune sword? George asked.
'And how exactly did Tadeo Kurobashi come to be in possession of it?
George took a long drink and shook his head. 'I don't know. I just flat don't know. He couldn't have afforded to buy it, I'm sure of that, not even when he was making good money. It's a museum piece, Beau. We're talking about lots of money, a million, maybe more.
'That much?
George nodded.
'But he was going through bankruptcy. If he had an asset that valuable up his sleeve, why was he losing his house, his business? Why didn't he use it? I waited for a moment, giving George a minute to collect himself before I asked the obvious question. 'Could he possibly have stolen it?
'No. Absolutely not.
'Why else wouldn't he have unloaded it, then?
'I don't know, George answered.
We were quiet for a moment, both of us thinking. 'Well, I said at last, 'going back to the killer or killers, if they weren't interested in the sword, they must have been after something else. Tadeo was an engineer. What exactly did he do?
'He designed things, ways of putting microwave and computers together, and other things as well.
'Do you have any idea what specific projects he might have been working on in the months before he died?
'No. In the last few years, we haven't been that close, but maybe a new project is what they wanted.
'More likely, they wanted to destroy it, I said. 'Do you know anything about computer viruses?
'Who, me? I know they exist, George answered, 'but I don't know anything at all about how they work. Why?
'Remember that poem we saw on Tadeo's computer screen?
He nodded. 'Sure. What about it?
'It's a virus. We took Kimi by MicroBridge this afternoon. She wanted to go see if there was any sign of checkbooks or insurance papers there.
'Did you find any?
'No. We got the name and address of Kurobashi's personal attorney, but what we discovered from the receptionist is that those lines we saw on his screen are actually part of a computer virus that's invaded every file in every computer in the entire company. Most of the MicroBridge records are gone.
'Gone? George echoed. 'Surely they kept backup copies of everything in the computer.
'We asked Mrs. Oliver about that. She said that all backup copies of disks were missing this morning along with the other hard-copy documents that were removed from the files. She seemed to think they had merely been moved somewhere else in preparation for moving. My guess is that they've all been systematically destroyed.
'What makes you say that? Files don't just get up and walk away over night.
'I didn't say anything about walking away. Remember the bill on Tadeo's desk this morning? It's from a place called DataDump. Remember what it said at the top of the bill? If I remember right, their motto is Have shredder. Will travel.
'Damn, George said.
'Kimi told us that there was a guy there moving files when she was talking to her father.
'She must have told you that after I left, George said thoughtfully, 'but that means Tadeo not only knew about the shredding, but probably even hired it done. If he had most of those documents in his computer, though, it wouldn't have mattered.
'Until someone infected the computer with a virus.
'And now it's gone completely, George added. There was a long pause while he fingered his drink. 'Might they be in danger, too?
'Kimi and her mother? I asked.
He nodded. 'Maybe they should stay in a motel for a while. Or should we ask the Kirkland police to keep an eye on them?
I remembered how Machiko had summarily rejected that idea when, for another reason, Kimiko had suggested it. Still, now that George mentioned it, the idea that they too might be at risk bothered me more than I let on. 'They're not in Kirkland, I said. 'They left this afternoon to drive to Pullman.
'Pullman! George exclaimed. 'Why there?
'Beats me. As soon as the movers finished getting the auction stuff out of the house, they took off.
'But what about the funeral? Who's going to handle that?
'There isn't going to be one.
'No funeral? How come? Everybody has funerals.
'Machiko said no funeral, no memorial service. She was adamant. Big Al and I took Kimi downtown and had her sign all the necessary papers. Tadeo is to be cremated and the remains sent to them in eastern Washington.
'That witch! George murmured under his breath. 'She's got no right to do that.
'She has every right in the world, George, I reminded him. 'She's his widow, remember?
'As if I could ever forget. His voice was taut with emotion. There was something important lurking beneath the surface of his words, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
'What do you mean?
'She always acted as though she had married beneath her, instead of the other way around, as though his friends weren't good enough for her. And now she thinks she can lock us out by not having a memorial service for him? No way, not if I have to do it myself.
I had never seen George Yamamoto so uncharacteristically emotional. Machiko Kurobashi definitely pushed all his hot buttons.
'Tell me about her, I urged.
'Tell you what about her? he snapped back. 'What do you want to know?
'Tadeo wasn't her first husband?
'No. She got hooked up with some sleazebag during the occupation.
'Sleazebag? I asked.
'I kid you not. This guy was a real creep, a smalltime hood. When he got discharged from the army, he went back to his previous lines of work. He was into horses and Indian reservation cigarettes and whatever else he could lay hands on. And he wasn't very good at any of it. They were living in a run-down apartment down in the International District when someone took care of him. My guess is, he owed money to somebody who decided to collect the hard way.
'When was that?
'Forty-seven, forty-eight. Somewhere around there. It's a long time ago. I don't remember exactly.
'And how did Tadeo meet her?
'He was working his way through school delivering groceries for a little Mom-and-Pop store down in that same neighborhood. With her rat of a husband dead, she went looking for somebody to take care of her, somebody nice who'd pay the bills and look out for her. Tadeo was it. As soon as she found him, she latched on to him for dear life.
'And when did they get married?
'I remember that. Nineteen forty-eight for sure. Tadeo was only twenty years old, a junior at the university. I often marveled at what he managed to accomplish, dragging her around behind him like so much dead weight. He got both his B.S. and his Masters from the university here, and then he went down to Stanford and picked up a Ph. D.
'Smart guy.
'He worked down in California for a number of years, for Hughes or one of those other big defense contractor types, then he came back up here and went to work for Boeing. I figured he'd play it safe and stay there. They don't call it the Lazy B for nothing, but Tadeo couldn't handle the pace. He wanted to make things happen, wanted to be a mover and shaker. He quit Boeing to work for RFLink in the late seventies and has been off on his own for the last
