Nurse Venus

Mizuno--or Mrs. Suuri, as Crawford knew she also was--was a little mouse of a girl. Mr. Suuri was a fairly tall, skinny geek who made Bill Gates look macho in comparison; he was rich to buy not only Armani suits but Armani, if he'd cared to, but he wore mismatched sweats emblazoned "Mercurius" (his company), and trailed along behind his wife like the meekest of househusbands, fidgeting over the tiny toddler, a bold little sprite who had to be kept quite literally on a short leash. Crawford watched him take her off the restraint ribbon and give her to his wife, then get her back, set her down, and put the ribbon back on three times before they finally arrived before the lecture theatre, where the orientation for all new interns would begin. Crawford found he would only have a short time with her at best, because the dozen conversations had eaten up all but a minute or two of the time left before before the orientation would start. It had taken Dr. Mizuno nearly half an hour to cover the hundred feet from the far end of the corridor; she had doubled back several times because she had spotted people.

Finally . . . "Dr. Mizuno?"

"Yes, I am Dr. Mizuno," she replied sweetly. "How may I help you?"

"My name is Crawford, Jack Crawford," he said, bowing and handing her his card--he didn't speak Japanese, but he had picked up the basic ettiquette in his youth. "I am a journalist doing some investigation."

A small cloud passed briefly over her face, but she didn't show a hint of discourtesy. "You visited my friends some days ago. You wish to know more of the killer who was found dead?"

"Ah, yes." Friends? Crawford had kept his promise to Debbie so far; he hadn't poked around the hospital staff. "Excuse me, but which friends? Waiting here for you, I see you have so many."

She presented him with her card, and nudged her husband to do the same, again very Japanese. "My friends Mr. and Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Chiba."

"Oh . . . " He hadn't expected that connection.

"I am afraid I must go to the lecture in a few moments, Mr. Crawford, and I am very busy for the rest of this day. We can arrange a meeting later. But can tell you very little about the girl who was brought here. She was my patient first, so everything she told me is confidential. And I never met the killer you want to know of. I am just student, not police officer or detective." She gave her spouse and child final hugs and kisses, and, with a final bow to Crawford, excused herself to enter the lecture hall.

Crawford was left with the husband, but not for long. He activated his pager phone and started making and taking calls, mostly in other languages--at least six. One of them was Spanish, the one other language Crawford did speak passably, but the conversation was so full of techno-babble, he couldn't make a thing of it. A couple of very large bodyguard types (the larger was a woman) appeared soon after and kept edging him away from Mr. Suuri and his child; Crawford realized they must have been shadowing the couple all along--sure enough, now that he knew what to look for, looking back, he saw a couple more blending into the little crowd waiting for people to finish the orientation.

The only good question he got in to Mr. Suuri before he left was, "Why the guards?"

Suuri said, "I have become a wealthy man, Mr. Crawford. I worry about kidnappers all the time. And I worry about killers like this Smithfield you asked about. They always seem to take the very best ones, like Ami-chan and our daughter. Any good man would hire guards if he could afford them."

Crawford certainly hadn't gotten to ask very much or been told very much after his waiting. But, reflecting, as he always did, the few facts he had gleaned helped him decide what to look for next.

The unexpected connection between Dr. Mizuno and Jones through his wife was probably a coincidence, and not that much of one--there weren't that many recent immigrants from Japan; the grinding rural poverty that had fueled the earlier waves of emigration from Nippon was long gone.

Seeing the care Mr. Suuri was taking for his family, Crawford wondered if there had been guards shadowing her the night of the incident. Not promising; the ones he had seen were professionals of the highest standard. They were not likely to break a client's confidentiality. But worth checking into.

Any hope of getting a line on the Pinatabo girl from Dr. Mizuno had vanished; she was not going to say one word she might think would harm her patient, and she was very smart. But she might still tell him at least a little more about who had brought her in. She was so very polite, he was sure she would not have offered him another meeting unless she intended to help him in at least some small way.

Crawford used the number on the card. It turned out to be part of Mercurius (not a big surprise); he asked for a meeting with Dr. Mizuno. They asked which one, and it turned out her mother also had her American affairs handled through the Mercurius company. Once it was clear which one it was he wanted, they gave him a tentative time and place, and asked him how he preferred to hear about the confirmation: phone call, mail, or several choices in electronic mail. Since the next available appointment was in October, Crawford chose old-fashioned mail. They said he should have his answer within a week.

Crawford kept his promise to Debra Hornberger by not asking the staff anything about the case, but he decided it wouldn't be harmful to ask around a little more about Dr. Mizuno.

Every department head at Stanford Hospital wanted to get Dr. Mizuno into a residency in their specialty. She was the finest prospect any of them had ever seen, knowledgeable, thorough, and so personable. She was the cover girl, literally--on the annual report, with her mother; on recruitment flyers; on one of the books sold in the gift shop and the campus bookstore, alongside the first woman to attend the medical school. Headhunters from everywhere kept showing up asking to see her, or even sneaking in, trying to lure her away from Stanford. Even the Secret Service, still guarding a certain famous young woman in her last year of residency, knew about Dr. Mizuno--she turned out to be a friend of her, too. Good enough to have her own codeword, said Crawford's Secret Service contact.

One of the department heads was actually in love with Dr. Mizuno, according to hospital gossip. His name was Dr. Yawada, the head of oncology. That was such an interesting story that Crawford let himself be sidetracked for awhile chasing it down. His best sources were a couple of nurses Crawford dated for several weeks.

According to Alice and Penny, Dr. Yawada always acted differently around Dr. Mizuno, becoming more polite and shy. He'd had a reputation as a great womanizer when he was married, which he still was when Ms. Mizuno had first appeared at the hospital, but his passion for Mizuno was something different--everyone who knew of it said so.

According to Penny, who had been in oncology for nearly her entire career at Stanford, Dr. Yawada became infatuated with Mizuno almost as soon as they met. The circumstances there turned out to be quite interesting. Ms. Mizuno had been an undergraduate at Stanford then, and she was dating a first-year medical student--Mamoru Chiba. The very same who was now Dr. Chiba, and now married to the paraplegic woman Crawford had met when he interviewed Kevin Jones.

Penny told Crawford that that was why she thought Dr. Yamada disliked Dr. Chiba so much.

Crawford decided to visit Dr. Yawada. He was very famous in his own right, and a request for an interview was nothing unusual for him.

Dr. Yawada asked to be interviewed at home. Crawford was surprised, but Dr. Yawada explained that any interview in his office was going to be interrupted, probably many times. Besides, he had read Mr. Crawford's works and liked them.

Dr. Yawada's home was a surprisingly small house, though set on a large lot in what was now a very expensive neighborhood. Dr. Yawada met Crawford in shirtsleeves, and extended his hand instead of bowing; he had been living in America for a long, long time now. Still, shoes off in the house.

The living room was really an office-study, with books everywhere and two desks; the doctor obviously took his work home with him. Two chairs and a small table in the center of the room provided the guest facilities.

"Tea?" asked the doctor.

Crawford said, "Umm, not unless you have something strong. I have to drive."

Dr. Yawada said. "I am sorry. I drink only herb tea now. Stimulants do nasty things to me now that I am old."

Crawford said. "Oh, don't say that! You're not much older than me, and I'm not slowing down!" <Much.>

Yawada said, "Fortunate you are . . . what is it you want to talk about, Mr. Crawford? I know nothing about any national scandals. And you are not a reporter who writes about personal scandals unless there is a larger context."

Crawford said, "Well, I have heard you are a ladies man."

The oncologist nodded once. "Personal matter. And I am really past that. It is just too silly for an old man like me. I am not even sure if I should even marry again."

Crawford said, "Not even Ms. Mizuno? If she were available, I mean."

Dr. Yawada grew very quiet. "I have never had any dishonorable feelings for Ms. Mizuno, or brought any dishonor on her. My affection for her is quite well known. But she is loved by many people. That is not newsworthy."

Crawford really did not like what he was doing to Dr. Yawada--he moved past the uncomfortable part quickly. "I also have heard that you have little affection for a Dr. Chiba, a man who was involved with Dr. Mizuno some time ago. This man may have a more direct connection with what I am investigating."

"What are you investigating?" asked the doctor.

Crawford said, "It would be better if I didn't tell you exactly what. It does involve the federal government."

Dr. Yawada said, "If you want me to cooperate, you must tell me what you suspect, and convince me that I won't be breaking the confidence of Ms. Mizuno. Or of the hospital."

"Well . . ." Crawford told him about the disappeared van and body, and a little about the other "anomalies." "Dr. Mizuno is an important lead, but I don't want to get her in trouble. Can you tell me more about this Dr. Chiba, for instance? I found a connection between him and all this, but he's been very hard to get much on."

Dr. Yawada said, "Yes, that I understand . . . Chiba . . . Another brilliant student. I rather liked him at the very first. But his personal life is disgraceful. He hurt Ami-chan--Ms. Mizuno terribly. He fathered children by three different women in only one year; I do not know how many more bastards he has, but there are at least two others--I have seen his wife caring for them."

"In a wheelchair?" asked Crawford.

"Yes . . . you have met her?" asked Yawada.

Crawford said, "I saw her once, but we didn't have a chance to talk . . . a lovely woman."

"Yes, and wasting herself on him!" He shook his head. "I had fun with some girls in my day, but I never would break their hearts like him!"

Crawford asked, "What else do you know about him? Or have heard about him?"

Dr. Yawaka said, "I have not worked with him much. My colleagues tell me he was very good with patients and made few clinical errors. But he was absent much more than any student I have seen continue through the program. During his rotation though my department, he used up his sick days for the whole year--and I think someone in Administration covered up an additional absence."

Crawford asked, "What else? Wait, you said he was? Was he expelled?"

Dr. Yawada said, "No, unfortunately . . . He took a surgical residency at Highland Hospital in Oakland. I think his wife wanted him closer, to keep an eye on him. I noticed that he kept his apartment even after they were married--that is the one decent thing he did for Usagi, marrying her. He'd fathered a child on her years before."

"How did you know about the apartment?" asked Crawford.

The doctor shook his head. "I broke the law. I followed him home from time to time. His apartment was in Ravenswood. I'm sure he was bringing women there." He shook his head yet again. "What honest man would want to live there? Dr. Hornberger made much of his work at the free clinic there, but I think he worked there just to find women, or maybe even drugs. He always tested negative, but he was very smart . . . and he was always coming in with these injuries. They could only be from fights."

Crawford asked, "Was there any trouble with police about him? Or other government agencies?"

Dr. Yamada ate a small cracker, and poured more tea, and drank most of it. "I will be as fair as I can to the man. I have seen him with police many times, but almost always that was because he had treated a criminal or a victim of a crime. He is excellent at trauma care. But the first year he was in the medical school, he found a body. The police talked to him a lot about that. Including some men from the FBI."

"Body? Was the case ever solved?" asked Crawford.

"Not that I know of," said Dr. Yawada. "I do not follow the crime news. There is so much of it."

"Was it a man's body?" asked Crawford.

Dr. Yawada said, "Yes. It was found on one of the paths through the reserved areas south of the college campus, a place where hikers and joggers and bicycle-riders often go."

"Was the body burned?"

Dr. Yawada seemed puzzled for a moment. "Burned? No. No, I remember seeing it; it was in our morgue for awhile. Actually, one of my former patients. Luther Ponds was his name. He had childhood leukemia, but we successfully treated it."

"He was still your patient?" asked Crawford.

Dr. Yawada said, "No . . . actually, Mr. Ponds was a criminal. A professional criminal. He was already in a gang when I treated him. I had hoped he would leave his gang after he left, but I guess he went back to his old life."

Crawford said, "So it wasn't a surprise to find him dead. Was he murdered?"

"Possibly not, but probably," said Dr. Yawada. "Someone took the trouble of moving the body."

"How do you know that?"

Dr. Yawada explained. "Mr. Ponds drowned, but he was found far from any body of water. Dr. Hartunian performed the autopsy. The lungs were filled with water. Fresh water, so it didn't happen in the Bay. But there weren't any definite signs of struggle--some bruises and abrasions, but Dr. Hartunian said none of them were really consistent with a forcible drowning."

"So the police think it might be just an accident and someone panicked, but really think it was probably a murder?" said Crawford.

Dr. Yawada, "Yes, that would be it. It was not surprising about Mr. Ponds being found dead. What is odd is the way it happened. Why bring him all the way to where he was found? I do not know precisely, but I remember police very far off the road the morning after. I actually drove by them coming to work; I did not know what they were doing until later."

"Was Ms. Mizuno involved in any way?" asked Crawford.

Dr. Yawada said, "No. I didn't first meet Ms. Mizuno until after this. Although . . . "

"What?"

Dr. Yawada had a disturbed look "I met her for the first time only a few days after this. I hadn't thought of it before. She was very different . . . troubled. I caught several glimpses of her with Chiba; they were both upset . . . I think Chiba might have told her something about this . . . perhaps something he didn't tell the police." He stopped to finish his tea. "I would like to know, but I don't think it is part of your story, is it, Mr. Crawford?"

Crawford said, "I don't know. Watergate started out on the police blotter. I will look into it."