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  'And Cho-san,' he said, 'don't forget about the flowers.' As he watched her smile uncertainly in reply, he realised he would soon have to start looking for a better manager. The hostesses were a different story; they'd all been selected for their looks and youth and a certain class they gave the place. To Satake, they were so much living merchandise. But the manager was the one who had to make the sales.

  Leaving Mika, Satake climbed the stairs to another club on the floor above and stood at the door. This one was called 'Playground' and featured baccarat tables. Here, too, he employed a full-time manager, and Satake, as owner, put in an appearance only a few times a week. About a year before, the mahjong parlour above Mika had gone under. Satake rented the space and opened an after-hours baccarat club for the customers at Mika. Since he didn't have a gaming licence, he couldn't advertise, and he had never intended it to be more than a sideline. But somehow word had got around and the place had been a hit. He had started in a low-key way with two mini-baccarat tables, but when the crowds grew, he hired several professional dealers, added a full-sized table, and kept it open every night from nine until dawn. Now the money was rolling in.

  Satake carefully wound up the loose cord on the white sign and polished the brass doorknob with his handkerchief, but he resisted the urge to go in for a full-scale inspection the way he did at Mika. This was, after all, a gambling club, one of his pet projects, and it was also a gold mine. The cell phone in the bag under his arm began to ring.

  'Where are you, honey? I have to go get my hair done.' Anna's Japanese wasn't always perfect, but cute nonetheless. No one had taught her to talk like that - it just came naturally - but it was clearly a wonderful tool for getting men to do her bidding.

  'Sorry,' he said. 'Sit tight and I'll be right there.' He had almost thirty Chinese hostesses working for him, but Anna's looks and brains set her apart from the rest. And he was just on the verge of getting her the right kind of patron. All her previous customers had been hand-picked, and he wasn't going to let some pushy asshole with an empty wallet step in and mess up his plans.

  Satake made his way out of Kabuki-cho and back to the white Mercedes he had parked nearby. It was a ten-minute drive to Anna's apartment in Okubo. Though it was a new building, there was no security in the lobby. If this guy was really stalking her, she would probably have to move elsewhere. He rang the doorbell on the sixth floor.

  'It's me,' he said into the intercom.

  'It's open,' said a low, sweet voice. As he opened the door, a fragile-looking toy poodle came yipping around his legs. It had apparently heard him coming and was waiting for him. He disliked the dog, but Anna adored it, so he had to at least pretend to indulge it. He pushed it back with the toe of his shoe.

  'Don't you think you're being a bit too laid-back about locking the door?' he called.

  'What does that mean, "laid-back"?' Anna shouted from the bedroom. Satake decided against answering the question. The little dog was writhing with pleasure at his feet, so he teased it with his shoe while he waited for her. The hall of the apartment was filled with rows of shoes in various colours and styles. It had been Satake who had put them in some semblance of order so that she could find the pair she wanted when it was time to go out.

  Anna appeared at last, looking as flamboyant as usual. Her long, wavy black hair was pulled back in a pony-tail, her eyes concealed behind Chanel sunglasses. She wore a large T-shirt with lame embroidery over leopard-skin tights. Even behind the large sunglasses it was immediately apparent that her flawless skin needed no make-up. Satake studied her face, noting again the thick, slightly curled lips that were so enticing to most men.

  'Same place as usual?' he asked.

  'Uh-uh.' She worked her bare feet into a pair of enamelled mules, the red polish on her toenails showing through the open toes. At this point, the dog, realising it was about to be left behind, stood on its back legs and began barking frantically.

  'Now, Jewel,' she said, as if scolding a child, 'you mustn't be naughty.'

  They left the apartment and waited at the elevator. Anna generally rose sometime after noon and went out shopping or for a beauty treatment. After that she would go to get her hair done, have something light to eat, and set out for Mika. Whenever he was free, Satake would chauffeur her on her rounds, just in case someone else came along and grabbed her when he wasn't looking. As they stepped into the elevator, his cell phone rang again.

  'Satake-san?'

  'Kunimatsu? Is that you?' Kunimatsu was the manager at Playground. Satake glanced over at Anna, and for a second she returned the look before glancing away in apparent disinterest and busying herself with a bottle of nail polish, the same shade she wore on her toenails. 'What's up?' Satake said into the phone.

  'There's something I'd like to get your advice about. Do you have any time later today?' Kunimatsu's shrill voice echoed in the tight space of the elevator, and Satake held the phone away from his ear as he answered.

  'Sure,' he said. 'I'm taking Anna to the beauty parlour now, so I'll have time while she's there.'

  'Where will you be?' Kunimatsu asked.

  'Nakano. Why don't we meet there?' After deciding on the time and place, Satake hung up. The elevator had reached the ground floor, and Anna, getting off first, turned to look at him coyly.

  'Sweetie, did you talk to Cho-san 'bout that little problem?' she asked.

  'I told her not to let him into the club any more. You just do your job and don't worry about it.'

  'Okay,' she said, looking up at him over the top of the sunglasses. 'But even if he doesn't come to the club, he could still come here,' she added.

  'Don't you worry about it,' he repeated. 'I'll keep an eye out.'

  'But I think I'd still like to move,' she said.

  'Okay. If it keeps up, I'll think about it.'

  'Good,' she said.

  'What's he like anyway?' Satake asked. He rarely showed his face at Mika.

  'He gets so angry if they try to give him any of the other girls.' Anna grimaced. 'He's always making trouble, and then just recently he stopped paying his bills and asked for credit. I hate that! Everyone knows there are rules about that kind of thing, even in a place like ours.' She finished her little speech as she lowered herself into the Mercedes. Anna may have looked like a beautiful doll, but inside she was a sturdy young woman from Shanghai. She had come to Japan four years earlier to study Japanese, and even now her visa status suggested she should still be attending language classes.

  -

  After dropping Anna at the hairdresser, Satake headed for the cafe where they had agreed to meet. Kunimatsu, who had arrived first, waved discreetly from a table at the back.

  'Thanks for coming,' he said, smiling amiably as Satake settled into the deep sofa. In his polo shirt and golf pants, Kunimatsu, who wasn't yet forty, looked more like an instructor at a sports club than a casino manager. In fact, though, he had been in the business quite a while. Satake had recruited him from a mahjong place in the Ginza where he'd been an assistant manager for some years.

  'So what's up?' he asked, lighting a cigarette.

  'It's probably not that important,' Kunimatsu began, 'but I'm a bit worried about one of the customers.'

  'Worried how?' said Satake. 'You think he's a cop?' The old saying that 'the nail that sticks up gets hammered down' went double for this business. If word got out that Playground was making money, the police were likely to make it a scapegoat for all the other gambling clubs.

  'No, no, not that,' said Kunimatsu, fluttering his long fingers. 'It's a man who's been coming almost every night lately, and losing heavily.'

  'Nobody who plays baccarat every night wins,' Satake laughed. Kunimatsu, too, gave a laugh as he stirred the straw in his orange juice. Neither he nor Satake could drink. Satake took a sip of the iced caf£ au lait sitting in front of him. 'So how much has he lost?' he asked.

  'About four or five million in the last two months. Not all that much, really, but once they get started t