Gale Force

72

The young doctor gave Daishin Sato a pained expression. “I hate to tell you this, sir, but you took the wrong flight. They flew your brother’s body to Anchorage already.”

Sato let his eyes drop, tried to play the role he’d chosen: grieving brother, come to retrieve his sibling’s remains. He’d found the doctor at work in the town of Dutch Harbor’s small medical center, tending to a Aleut girl with a broken arm. Assumed a pitiful countenance and asked for information.

Both the smuggler Tomio Ishimaru and the sailor Hiroki Okura were still missing. One of the men was dead. Sato wanted to know which.

“Anchorage,” he repeated. “Tell me, why did they move him? Are you not equipped to deal with the deceased at this hospital?”

“Most of the time, sure,” the doctor said. “But if the death is suspicious—”

“Suspicious? I was told he died alone on his ship.”

The doctor winced again. “I’m sorry. Someone should have really gone over this with you. There were some questions that arose when I looked at the body. The cause of death wasn’t maybe as clear as we thought. So I sent the body to the state medical examiner in Anchorage, standard procedure. They’d be able to give you more information.”

He began to turn away. “I’m really sorry. This is— I don’t know why someone didn’t tell you this stuff already.”

“Wait.” Sato took hold of the doctor’s arm. With his free hand, he retrieved a photograph from his pocket, Hiroki Okura. “My brother— Tell me, this was him, yes?”

The doctor glanced back at the injured young girl, her mother behind her glaring at Sato. He sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said again. “I really—” Then he looked down at the picture. “Wait a minute.”

“Yes?”

The doctor took the picture. Studied it close, squinting. “This is your brother?”

“Hiroki Okura. My brother. This is the dead man, correct?”

“I don’t…” The doctor stared at the picture. “This isn’t the body I saw,” he said. “What the heck?”

“You’re sure?”

“Pretty sure.” The doctor still hadn’t taken his eyes from the photo. He scratched his head. “The body— His eyes were set closer. And his mouth, it was different. It was—” He shook his head. “This wasn’t the guy.”

Sato took the picture back. “Thank you,” he said. “That is excellent news.”

He turned away from the doctor, walked out of the hospital. Heard the doctor call something after him, but didn’t look back.