“But you were so…,”
he started, casually reaching for her purse.
“What are you doing?”
It took only a second to find the
small transmitter.
“How crude.”
She looked pale, the skin on her face
even tighter. He dropped the 9 mm in her lap. She shook, but at
first he said nothing.
“Talk.”
“Please don’t hurt me.”
Her lip was quivering.
“You’ve got the gun, not
me.”
She held her hands up as if the gun
were a loathsome creature.
“My husband has very little,
just his government pension from the Senate. We have huge debts,
legal fees. Your assistant wanted to
test you. He wanted evidence if you failed
the test. He promised we’d get a little part of Amada. He
said there might be some discovery that would make Amada very
valuable: the details…I’m unclear.”
“All you had to do for the money
was seduce me?”
“There were other things…political
favors.”
“Ah, that would be after he
took over for me.” Kenji chuckled but felt only hatred.
“What do you know of this …discovery?”
“All Satoru would tell us is
it could involve a lot of money. There was a guaranteed minimum
of $50,000 cash no matter what happened.
therwise I never would have done it.”
“I assume the pictures were
to be given to my wife and father-in-law as an excuse to throw
me out.”
