06 Second Skin by Eric van Lustbader

Author:Eric van Lustbader
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery, Thriller, General Fiction
ISBN: 9780787103972
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1994-12-31T17:00:00+00:00

Book 3 Doppelgänger

One has not watched life very observantly if one has never seen the hand that-kills tenderly.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

7 Tokyo/South Beach

Kisoko's town house looked stark and bare in the early morning light. All the huge warehouses near the Sumida River loomed over it, as if frowning in disapproval. The rain had stopped, and as Nicholas dismounted his Kawasaki, sunlight, pink as the inside of a seashell, streamed through a break in the clouds. Green leaves, blown off the trees during the night, skittered along the pavement like the footsteps of unseen spirits.

A young woman in uniform opened the door and Nicholas introduced himself. She let him into the vestibule with, he felt, some reluctance.

"The mistress is not yet seeing guests." Her voice was a mere wisp, like a reed in the wind.

"No need to bother Kisoko-san," Nicholas said. "My business is with Nangi-san." "I'm afraid the old boy isn't awake yet," came a commanding voice from the far side of the foyer. "Perhaps I can be of assistance." Nicholas saw a man in his early forties wheel himself through into the vestibule. He had a long, brooding face, with large liquid brown eyes that seemed soft but soon proved otherwise. The muscles of his powerful upper body flexed as he swung into the room on the chrome wheelchair.

It glided across the marble with not so much as a whisper of its rubber tires. The maid gave him one look and vanished up the stairs.

"I gave Kisoko-san-" "My mother." As Nicholas continued to look at him, the man grinned.

"She didn't tell you anything about me, eh?" He shrugged his massive shoulders. "Typical. My name's Ken and I already know yours, Linnear-san." He did not bow or hold out his hand. In fact, he gave no sense of greeting at all.

"Even though I gave your mother my word, I must speak with Nangi-san. There are a number of business matters I don't understand." Ken laced his fingers together. Their calluses were like armor plate. "That is the prevailing creed of the human condition. Ignorance." He grinned again. "Some people are simply more ignorant than others." Nicholas stared at Ken. Whom did he remind Nicholas of? "I am concerned about Nangi-san." "I expect you are. Nasty disease, old age." Ken arranged his huge hands in his lap. "But he'll be fine, never fear." He cocked his head to one side. "You know that they were once-and future-lovers." He had the disconcerting habit, not unlike an expert interrogator, of jumping from one topic to another without using subject names as guideposts.

"I had no idea." This was a lie, but Nicholas had no difficulty telling it.

"Well, don't worry. Hardly anyone else does." He appeared to consider a moment. "They met in. 1948 at a toruko, one of those odd places-the Japanese version of a Turkish bath-that catered to American soldiers in the occupation years after the war." Nicholas felt a tiny thrill of recognition go through him at Ken's mention of the toruko. Honniko's mother had worked in such a place after the war called Tenki.

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