My Yakuza

bullets, though, huh?”
Kono had no response to that. He still felt high from the mind-numbing orgasm.
“I’ll be back.”
Shiro smiled. “I’ll be waiting.”
Kono left him alone with fresh snacks from the vending machine down the hall, a few more bottles of spring water and the remote control for the TV.
“Don’t answer anything but the cell phone and don’t open the door to anyone but me.”
“Okay,” Shiro said. “Can I have another kiss?”
“You will, if you eat up all your fruit.”
Kono headed back out to Far Rockaway. He radioed ahead asking dispatch to let the Loo know that he was coming in and needed to see him right away. To expedite his return, he reached for his mobile light unit from the console beside him. Gone. Someone had stolen it. He was in his off-duty car, so no siren, either. Shit. It would have cut the time in half on his return. He floored it, running several red lights, parking the car beside Jerrell’s gleaming black Avalon. It was the only car that even the dumbest criminals declared off-limits.
Jerrell was in his office, re-tying a tie over his crisp, white shirt.
“Was just about to leave, I got me a hot date, so this better be good.”
Kono closed the office door and sat down. “I just met a man who was sent here from Tokyo to kill me so that I couldn’t testify in the Harada case.”
Jerrell gave up fighting with the tie and walked over to his bookshelf. He lifted a coffee pot and poured a cup of coffee.
“Want one?”
“Yeah, thanks.” How the hell had Jerrell gotten the coffee pot back? It was the same one, Kono was convinced of it. Outside the window, under the newly installed bright lights in the parking lot, he caught sight of a snivelling teenager soaping down Jerrell’s car. Ah, the plot thickened.
Jerrell handed him a cup. “This ought to be real good. Give me everything.”
Kono laid out the entire operation and ended with where he’d stashed Shiro. The Loo took a sip of his coffee, then exploded.
“You mean to tell me that you met with a guy tonight who’s been given the job of killing you and you had no backup? Is that what you’re fucking telling me? Are you serious? Did you just get out of the academy or something? You fucking bonehead!”
“Calm down, Loo, I knew what I was doing. I told the guy to meet me at eleven o’clock at this bar and I arrived two hours earlier than that and had the bar under surveillance. I saw him go into the bar about an hour before the meet. He had no one with him or waiting outside the bar. He walked and it looked like he was local. I felt it was safe and when I went into the bar, I took every precaution including removing the weapon he’d been given to do the job.”
Kono placed the empty nine-millimetre on Jerrell’s desk, along with the clip.
“They filed the number off but maybe forensics can raise it with acid.”
Jerrell looked stunned. He glanced down at the weapon and back up at Kono. “You met an armed suspect alone, with no backup in a dark bar. A suspect that was carrying a handgun with the fucking serial number filed off, which means it’s probably been used in a couple other murders. Kono, I outta put you on a desk until after the Harada trial. Maybe then you’d be safer.”
“Come on, Loo, it’s not that bad. I had a feeling the guy was on the level and my instincts proved me right. This guy is in one tough spot and if the Yaks are holding his mother, he’ll never see her again.”
“What do you propose?”
“That we make it look like Shiro carried out the hit. We’ll stage it in a public place so that there are witnesses, arrest him before he can leave the scene so we can put him into protective custody, which might save his mother’s life if they think he’s on the level, and I stay hidden until the morning of the trial where my testimony is needed. In the meantime, we get the cops in Tokyo to sniff around and see if they can get a lead on the two women they’re holding.”
“Two women? I thought it was his mother?”
“Yeah, her and a female friend who they sent a picture of showing her stashed in a cage. I saw the picture and to me, it was no fake.”
Jerrell picked up the phone and placed a call to the precinct’s watch commander. After several rings, the sleepy supervisor picked up the phone. Jerrell put him on speakerphone.
“Sorry to wake you, sir, but I need your okay. We need to stage a fake hit on Kono Takumi in order to save his life and possibly the lives of three others…”
After going over the entire scenario, the Lieutenant got his okay. Jerrell told Kono and the watch commander that he would take care of alerting the chain of command in the morning and securing their authority to proceed. The District Attorney, himself, would have to be notified of the plan since he was personally prosecuting Harada. The Yakuza had decimated parts of New York City where they operated and Saunders wanted the credit for personally putting their leader in jail for a long time. Besides, the race for Governor was only a year away, and Saunders wanted the top job in Albany come hell or high water.
When he finished the conversation he hung up and looked at Kono. “He wants a plan on his desk by morning so that he can brief the brass. Got something in mind for your demise?”
“It’s gotta be public and Shiro Kanake needs to be taken into custody right away. I figure he can gun me down while I’m eating lunch somewhere. We’ll use a nine filled with blanks. The ambulance will haul me away and the department can hold a news conference about my death. Once the