Treachery

David Smith turned to his best friend said, “You’ll know what I’m talking about when you see the state of this place.” Then he opened the door and led Tom Bell into the apartment.

Tom Bell knew what to expect for he had been to the apartment many times while David had been at work, and Tomiko had told him that she had let it get into such a mess as a reaction to David’s constant nagging.

According to Tomiko, everything she did was wrong: the meals were never right, she always took the wrong suit to the cleaners, there was dust on the top of the wardrobe, or she forgot something when she went shopping. There was no way she could ever please him. But, she admitted, it hadn’t always been like that.

David and Tomiko had been married for eight years. They had met when she was studying English in London and David was working as a copywriter for an advertising agency. She had been trying to make a telephone call and was having difficulty understanding how to use the telephone when David had rapped on the window of the box and gesticulated. Tomiko had opened the door and explained the problem. David had placed the call for her and then invited her for a drink. The next day they were in love, and three weeks later they were married.

For Tomiko, London was a dream: everything was new, exciting, and glamorous—and David was the man she had always yearned for. At six-foot-two, with his curly blond hair, he looked like a god. And he acted like one, too. He knew all the trendy restaurants, all the clubs, and, it seemed, all the interesting people. Whenever there was a party, which was almost every weekend, David was always invited.

Tomiko would have been happy to have stayed in London forever. After all, she had found a good job as chief buyer in a department store that catered for Japanese tourists, so she had the best of both worlds—the emancipation that a Japanese woman feels living in Europe, and the opportunity to return, expenses paid, to Japan each year.

David had also moved up in the advertising world and had found a position as senior account executive at one of the biggest ad agencies in the world. They were childless, and with a double income, life was good for them.

The day David came home with the good news of his promotion to senior manager of the Tokyo office, was the day their marital problems began. They had argued until four in the morning, and then slept in separate rooms. David had gone to the office in a trance; Tomiko had called in sick. When he arrived home at seven o’clock, Tomiko had been waiting for him, fully refreshed, to start the fighting again. She would never give up her job nor her freedom in London to live in Tokyo again, she had told him. He could go alone if he wanted. And it went on and on until late into the night again. David called in sick the next day.

After months of arguing Tomiko had finally relented and agreed to move to Tokyo for the two years of this contract, providing that they could return to London when it was over. He had promised her they would.
But it was not only his promise that had persuaded her. Tomiko was very highly evaluated by the department store, so they were more than willing to transfer her to the head office in Tokyo for two years. It was, after all, everyone agreed, a practical arrangement. Tomiko would build up stronger working relationships with the personnel from head office and get more experience which would be advantageous
when she returned to London.

It had been a happy couple that had arrived in Tokyo four years earlier. But things had not worked out as planned. Perhaps the worldwide recession was in part responsible for their marital problems. Just before reaching the end of his contract in Tokyo, David’s company had announced massive losses, and had to restructure its global operations, and this meant severe cuts in the Tokyo office.

David’s position was safe, but he would have to stay on in Tokyo for a few more years as the cost of replacing him would be too high. He would also have to enhance the efficiency of the Tokyo operations, and this meant putting in extra hours himself.

When he had informed Tomiko of the situation, she had gone berserk, trashed the kitchen, and stormed out. She didn’t return home for two days, and when she did, she refused to say where she had been. And from that time on the relationship had gone downhill. Tomiko’s behaviour became so erratic that she eventually lost her job, and things got so bad that David had decided to seek a divorce. Tom Bell was the only person he had told about his problems.

Unfortunately for David, Tom was more familiar with his problems than he should have been for he was also a confidant of Tomiko. He was, in fact, her lover. And he was not at all in favour of David and Tomiko divorcing. For one thing, although he was passionately addicted to the excessive sexual demands Tomiko made of him, he was also aware of her wild disposition. He had heard from David of her outbursts and, he had himself occasionally been on the receiving end of her temper.
Tomiko had actually a lot to lose if David were to divorce her. He had recently come into an inheritance, which was reputed to be quite substantial, and he had no desire to share this with her after all she had put him through. At their last tryst, Tomiko had even told Tom that she would be better off if David died because she would inherit everything. She had talked about how they would be free to go back to live in London, and that neither of them would have to work again.

As soon as she began to discuss the possible ways that a wife could kill a husband, Tom decided that it was time for him to get out of the scene. He had asked for a meeting with his boss at the bank and explained that he had some serious personal business to attend to and that he needed to go back to England for a few weeks. His manager had reluctantly agreed saying that his absence would be a great
strain on their resources, but he accepted the situation.

Now he was fully packed and ready to leave the next day. At the very last minute, he had called David to tell him about the emergency that had cropped up and that he would be away for a few weeks. David had insisted on meeting him for a drink and a chat. They had met at the station and David had begged Tom to take something back to England for him, so before going for a drink they had gone back to David’s flat.

In the living room David threw a pile of clothes and newspapers from the sofa into the comer. “She’s a filthy, lazy bitch,” he said. She hasn’t cleaned this place up for weeks. I’ll be glad when I move out into something a lot cleaner.”

“She’s just depressed,” said Tom. “What has she been doing since she lost her job?”

“How the hell would I know?” snapped David. “I know she doesn’t clean the place up, and that she leaves around noon and comes back when she feels like it, and she never tells me a damn thing. I can sense her just waiting for me to ask, so she has an excuse for a fight; so I never bother. And, quite frankly, I couldn’t give a fuck! The sooner she is out of my life the better.”

“It’s up to you, sport, but my advice is to talk it over. “You never know, you might be able to sort things out.”

But David wasn’t listening, he was heading for the kitchen. “Want a beer before we go to the pub?” he called over his shoulder. “Bloody hell,” he shouted from the kitchen. “Wonder’s never cease !”

Tom went running to see what was up, and he found David staring in disbelief at a few bowls on the kitchen table. There was a note from Tomiko informing David that she had been taking cookery classes and that she had made the chicken tikka masala, his favourite Indian dish, and sag aloo specially for him. She would be back late, but all he had to do was put it in the microwave and get a beer out of the fridge.

“I told you so,” said Tom. “When she comes home tonight have a good talk with her, and I’m sure that things will be al1 right. In the meantime, let’s get these into to the microwave. I’m starving.

While Tom went at the food as if he had not eaten for a week, David sat at the table with a beer complaining about his life with Tomiko.

“You should try this, it’s delicious. It’s much better than the lunch time service menu at the Taj Mahal, I’m telling you.”

But David did not touch the food. “I couldn't eat right now,” he said. “Come on, Let’s go out the Cherry Blossom, I fancy a few more beers tonight.”

Tom wanted to clear the table, but David wouldn’t hear of it. “Just leave it, let’s get out of here.”

They went out to the pub and when David returned, totally drunk, at midnight, Tomiko was already in bed. He went into the kitchen to get a one last beer and was stunned to see that the kitchen had been cleaned from top to bottom. There was not a dirty cup or plate anywhere. But he did not dwell on that. As soon as he had finished his beer, he went to bed in the spare room, as he had done every night for the past two years.

The next morning he left for the office before Tomiko got up. The morning was sheer hell: his head was splitting, his eyes aching and he had a meeting with an important client who chain-smoked and seemed impervious to the serious lack of ventilation in the office. Once or twice he lost concentration and had to struggle not to yawn, which was considered ill manners by the Japanese.

The afternoon was a little better. He had taken his lunch hour in a park, dining on fresh air and a large bottle of mineral water, so he was ready for the afternoon, but not for the first telephone call.

“David, this is Barry, Barry Vine, Can I have a word with you as soon as possible.” It was Tom's boss and, although they had met a few times at parties or the British Club, it was the first time that Barry had called.
David was startled. “Of course, Barry,” he said. “What’s it about.”

“It's about Tom Bell.”

“He went back to the UK today,” said David.

“That's just it,” replied Barry, “He didn’t. He's dead!”

“What? Tom, dead? He can't be! I was drinking with him just last night. He was in great shape. He didn't even drink very much because he had an early flight.”

"Can you come over to my Office, immediately?” It wasn’t a question, and David knew it, so he left the office without saying anything to anyone, and by the time he arrived at the Tokyo branch of the National Cooperative Bank he was a bundle of nerves.

He was led straight in. Barry Vine pointed to a seat and started questioning him immediately. “What time did you meet Tom yesterday? Which pub did you go to? What did he eat there? What did he drink? The police have been here all morning and I expect that they will be coming to see you soon.”

David was at first too stunned to speak. “What happened to Tom?” he asked when he managed to pull himself together.

Barry Vine looked long and hard at David before answering. “According to the police, he was poisoned,” he said.

“But that’s impossible,” said David, “he ate at my place yesterday before we went out drinking. He ate a curry that Tomiko had prepared for me.”

Barry Vine shook his head sadly, “But you look OK, David. Did you eat the curry, too?”

“No, I didn’t. Wait a minute!” David got to his feet. “Are you accusing me of poisoning Tom? That’s absurd. He was my best friend.”

"He was also your wife's lover, said Barry putting as much malice as he could into the sentence. “Apparently she was planning to divorce you and return to the UK with Tom. And don’t tell me you didn’t know that. It is, after all common knowledge at the British Club.” Barry Vine seemed to be relishing the revelations he was making, and David was puzzled as to why.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said David. “It’s common knowledge that Tomiko and I don’t get on and that she maybe sleeps around, but Tom and Tomiko? That’s crazy!”

“It’s always the same, isn’t it?” said Barry. “Head in the sand, and the problem might go away. But it never does.”

“And as the notion that Tomiko was going to divorce me and run away to London with Tom, all I can say is that it’s ridiculous. She’s got no money. Since she lost her job, she’s been completely dependent upon me. And Tom knew that. He also knew that I was planning to divorce her.”

“Yes, and he probably told her. So she planned to preempt you. He also knew about your inheritance. He told me about it. It looks to me as if you had got wind of what they were up to and planned to even the score. But you fucked up, didn’t you? What happened? Didn’t measure the dose correctly? Amatoxin, in the right quantity would have worked. You expected Tom to fall sick when he reached the UK, and to die in a week or two. That would have been neat. Who would have thought that he had been poisoned in Tokyo? Nobody! That would have been the perfect murder. But you’re not a toxicologist, are you? You had no idea how much of the dosage to use, had you?”

“That's not true,” screamed David. “l didn't do it. It was Tomiko who made the curry. She must have been trying to poison me. It was just lucky for me that Tom ate it. No, what am I saying? It was just bad luck for Tom that he ate it. You've got to believe me, Barry,” David was almost pleading.

“I’m sorry,” said Barry, “but I can only tell the police what I know, and that is that Tom and Tomiko were planning to marry and live in London, after the divorce, that is. Why do you think he resigned?”

“Resigned?” gasped David. “He told me that he was only going away for a few weeks to attend to some personal business.”

“You can tell that to the police if you want. But I have his letter of resignation here.” And Barry picked a sheet of paper up from the desk and waved it at David, who snatched it from his hand and quickly scanned it. It was typewritten on letterhead of the bank and Tom's signature was at the bottom of the page. David sank back into the chair.

“I don't understand,” he said feebly. “David and I have been friends since we were at boarding school. He would never cheat or lie to me. Why, he even asked for the transfer to Tokyo after I was sent here by the agency. I can't believe he was planning to run off with Tomiko, especially as he knew exactly what he would be letting himself in for. Tom was not that stupid.”

“The police certainly believe you did it, and don’t forget that over here a man is only innocent until the police force a confession out of him, then it's the rope. If you want my advice, you'll…”

David didn't wait to hear the rest of the sentence, he bolted for the door and ran all the way to the subway, his head spinning. Everyone seemed to be staring at him. When he arrived home, the flat was crawling with police wearing white gloves, dusting and checking everything in sight, and carefully going through the drawers and cupboards. One of them, a senior detective, David assumed, was talking to Tomiko. She nodded in David’s direction and the detective turned around.

“Ah, Mr Smith, I would like to talk to you.”

“David,” Tomiko screamed, “why did you do it?”

Before he could respond, a uniformed cop approached from behind and grasped him firmly. “Take your hands off me,” he screamed. “I didn't do it. I'm innocent.”

He tried to struggle free but another policeman grabbed his other arm and they started bundling him towards to the door. He turned around to look at Tomiko, but she just smiled then turned into the kitchen.

David knew enough about the Japanese police system to know that if they got him to the police station nobody would see or hear of him until he confessed; so he resolved to make a break for it and head for the British embassy, where he would at least have an opportunity to explain his case. As they left the building, a policeman on either side of him, he looked for an opportunity to break free and it came when one of the cops let go of his am to open the squad car door. David knocked the other cop out of the way and bolted across the road.

Unfortunately he did not see the limousine that was travelling way above the speed limit, and when it hit him he was thrown clean over the bonnet and right into the path of a parcel delivery van that went straight over him.

At the inquest Tomiko, dressed in black, sobbed throughout. She blamed the police for David’s death, saying that they should not have arrested him on the anonymous and false tip off that he had been dealing drugs. If they had searched the house thoroughly before arresting him, they would have found nothing, and he would still be alive.

Tom Bell, who had returned from London as soon as he heard about the death of his friend, expressed astonishment at the police behaviour. He testified that he had eaten a curry with David the day before the incident and they had then gone to a pub. He hadn’t drunk too much because he was flying back to London the next day, but David had really downed quite a few. He swore that he had known David for more than twenty years, and he had never dabbled in drugs, either as a user or a dealer. It was totally out of character.

The detective inspector in charge of the investigation and the raid on David’s flat had testified that there had been a ‘misunderstanding’ which had let to David’s arrest and the consequences of that. And the verdict was death by misadventure.

Two months later, in the cocktail bar of the Shangri La Hotel in Hong Kong, Tomiko turned to her companion and said, “They were a pair of fools. It was so easy to manipulate them.”

Barry Vine agreed and raised his glass in a toast, “To the pair of them for playing into our hands and to the Japanese justice system for the additional bonus of the compensation.”