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I helped her on with a fresh pair of jeans and her favorite T-shirt with Day-Glo butterflies fluttering over Day-Glo flowers, then nudged her out the door to summer school, where I hoped playground activities would remove any last strain of the morning’s trauma. But behind Jenny’s breathless buoyancy I saw hints of a lingering anxiety just under the surface. With her mother gone, she fretted about me, and this morning’s incident gave new credence to her fears. Even leaving aside Japantown and Renna, I wondered if Brodie Security and what it stood for was driving a wedge between us as it had between my parents.

The secondary strike was assured if the first missed, and designed to cripple. The next pass would be the death blow. I edged back as my assailant charged in low for a finishing gut shot. I stepped left, then feigned a half-kick with my weakened leg, an aggressive move he wouldn’t expect. He hesitated and I slapped the knife hand aside, connecting with a solid jab to the jaw, managing to put some weight behind the blow. He winced and stepped away. A fortuitous strike on my part. And pure luck that I connected at all.

Find out if anyone saw or heard anything and if any members of the family had contact with the staff. Talk to all shifts. Drag them out of bed if you have to. ” I wondered if the police footwork would ferret out any useful information. Should the killer prove to be even half as elusive as the kanji, Renna’s efforts would lead nowhere. “Good. Next, bring me the hotel bill, luggage, and a computer printout of any calls in or out. Order a full workup on the rooms for prints and fiber and get onto the Japanese consulate for a list of any friends the vics might have in town, the state, the country.