The Kizuna Coast: A Rei Shimura Mystery (Rei Shimura Mysteries Book 11) Read online

  Critics on Sujata Massey and the Rei Shimura Series

  “The Kizuna Coast is Sujata Massey’s most moving novel in the Rei Shimura mystery series so far. Her and her sleuth’s love for Japan and its people is evident in this tale involving the destruction of the earthquake and resulting tsunami in the Tohoku region in 2011. While Rei follows clues to locate her antiques mentor and later investigate a murder, readers get an authentic look at what it was like for survivors and rescue workers days after the devastating disaster. Bravo to Massey’s clear-eyed recounting of a recovery that is still ongoing.”

  —Naomi Hirahara, Edgar-award winning author of Snakeskin Shamisen and Murder on Bamboo Lane

  “Agatha-winner Massey’s engaging tenth mystery to feature antiques dealer and part-time spy Rei… An appealing protagonist and memorable supporting characters blend smoothly with lessons in Hawaiian and Japanese history in a tale sure to win new readers for the series.”

  —Publishers Weekly on SHIMURA TROUBLE

  “Fans of Sujata Massey’s series, starring stylish Japanese antiquities dealer Rei Shimura, are in for a fashion show as well as a mystery… Catching up with Rei is always rewarding.”

  —USA Today on GIRL IN A BOX

  “Massey builds the bridge between mystery fiction and mainstream women’s fiction… A lively, intuitive view of contrasting societies and a young woman trying to find her place in the world.”

  —Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel on THE TYPHOON LOVER

  “Massey’s pungent take on mixed marriages and East-West culture clashes is first-rate.”

  —Kirkus Reviews on THE PEARL DIVER

  “Combining the legal mystery with Japanese history and antiques is a winning stroke for Ms. Massey. Intricately plotted and filled with Asian lore and customs, this charming love story is spiced with courage and danger.”

  —Dallas Morning News on THE SAMURAI’S DAUGHTER

  “The cross-cultural suspense story is as active as the traffic pattern at Dupont Circle… Japanese pop culture references, style, intrigue and the quick pace of THE BRIDE’S KIMONO combine… to attract hip readers.”

  —Daily Press (Virginia) on THE BRIDE’S KIMONO

  “Sujata Massey takes readers on a thoughtful tour of contemporary Japanese youth culture in this accomplished murder mystery… deftly sketching everyday life in parts of Tokyo rarely seen by tourists, Massey tells a series of overlapping stories about identity, the popular media and the hilarious frenzy of comic book culture.”

  —Publishers Weekly on THE FLOATING GIRL

  “A totally captivating experience. A unique plot, exceptional protagonist, and some subtle cultural lessons are as beautifully arranged as a vase of cherry blossoms.”

  —Booklist on THE FLOWER MASTER

  “A gifted storyteller who delivers strong characters, a tight plot and an inside view of Japan and its culture.”

  —USA Today on ZEN ATTITUDE

  “Sly, sexy and deftly done. THE SALARYMAN’S WIFE is one to bring home.”

  —People Page Turner of the Week on THE SALARYMAN’S WIFE

  The Kizuna Coast

  Sujata Massey

  The Ikat Press

  Baltimore, MD

  Original copyright by Sujata Massey, November 2014, and the Ikat Press. Designed and produced by Interbridge.com. Cover art by Deranged Doctor Design. All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogue are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  Critics on Sujata Massey and the Rei Shimura Series

  About This Book

  Cast of Characters

  Japanese Name Suffixes

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Rei Shimura Books in Order

  The Salaryman’s Wife

  Zen Attitude

  The Flower Master

  The Floating Girl

  The Bride’s Kimono

  The Samurai’s Daughter

  The Pearl Diver

  The Typhoon Lover

  Girl In A Box

  Shimura Trouble

  The Convenience Boy And Other Stories Of Japan

  The Kizuna Coast

  Other Books By Sujata Massey

  The Sleeping Dictionary

  The Ayah’s Tale

  About This Book

  In 2008, I thought that my Rei Shimura books were done. Six years later, though, I’m releasing a new book in the series. You’re still here, willing to read? Thanks, and you deserve the backstory.

  Shimura Trouble, the tenth Rei mystery, came out in 2008 under a series of challenging circumstances, including a request to considerably cut its length. After working through a severe edit, I wasn’t sure I had the energy to keep writing Rei books—plus I was spending more time in India than in Japan and had a lot of ideas in that direction. Therefore, I constructed Shimura Trouble’s ending to tie up loose ends and address readers’ hopes for Rei’s love life. As far as I was concerned, the girl could hold hands and drink mai tais in the Hawaiian sunset for a while.

  Rei and I embarked on an amicable separation. During the time that she was renovating an early twentieth-century cottage in Hawaii, I was taking a paintbrush to a 1913 house in Minnesota, and working the rest of the time on The Sleeping Dictionary, my first historical novel set in late British Raj India. It felt fresh and challenging to create a cast of new characters and also to build their storyline around real historical events in India.

  Then came a very terrible Friday. It was March 11, 2011, and while driving through snow, I heard the radio report about a massive earthquake on Japan’s main island, Honshu. By the time I reached a TV, the tsunami had already struck.

  Once again, I became immersed in Japan—but in a way I never had before. The bright lights, luxuries, fast trains, and sweet cartoon images were replaced by hardship, power outages, meltdown, and the loss of almost twenty thousand people. It was the biggest horror the country had faced since World War II.

  Like many around the world, I was filled with a desire to do something. For a while there were no flights into Japan for would-be volunteers. All we could do was give money and prayers. I imagined how frustrated Rei Shimura would feel, trapped on her Hawaiian island. And I knew she’d find a way around the barriers and get into Japan and the tsunami-ravaged Tohoku coast.

  The first draft of this novel, The Kizuna Coast, took about six months to write: a speed record for me. But then I put it aside for a few years to deal wit
h editing and launching The Sleeping Dictionary as well as moving from Minneapolis back to Baltimore. Therefore, I didn’t return to seriously working on the book until 2014.

  Because of the real framework of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, this book could probably classify as a modern historical novel within the Rei mystery series. Yes, there’s a crime to solve, a love story, and the typical cast of characters… but it’s different. The Kizuna Coast is also available as a trade paperback. An audiobook and limited edition signed hardcover will be published soon. I love to hear from readers, so you could either leave a review at Amazon, Goodreads, or contact me directly with any queries.

  Kampai!

  Sujata

  Cast of Characters

  Rei Shimura—Raised in California and trained in Japan, a world-class young woman who deals in antiques and personal intrigue

  Michael Hendricks—Rei’s new husband, a former spy who now works for an American think tank on Pacific Rim issues

  Yoshitsune Shimura—Rei’s great-great-uncle Yosh, whose son Edwin and daughter-in-law Margaret are Rei’s relatives living in Hawaii

  Yasushi Ishida—Tokyo antiques dealer who is Rei’s most important mentor

  Hachiko—Mr. Ishida’s beagle-Akita mix dog

  Richard Randall—Rei’s beloved friend and former roommate who still lives in Tokyo with his boyfriend, Enrique

  Norie Shimura—Rei’s aunt who lives in Yokohama, married to Hiroshi Shimura. Their children are Dr. Tom (Tsutomu) Shimura, an emergency-room doctor in Tokyo, and Chika Shimura, an executive trainee in Osaka

  Mr. Okada—small businessman who owns a senbei cracker-roasting shop and is a neighbor to Mr. Ishida

  Dr. Kubo—veterinarian at Animal House clinic in Tokyo

  Mr. Yano—volunteer director of Helping Hands organization

  Mayumi Kimura—Mr. Ishida’s eighteen-year-old assistant at the antiques shop and a lacquer artist. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kimura, are lacquer artists.

  Mrs. Endo—senior-citizen volunteer

  Akira Rikyo—Mayumi’s high-school sweetheart. His father, Mr. Rikyo, is a carpenter, and his mother, Mrs. Rikyo, is a textile artist. His sister is Hanako, and his nieces are Noriko and Sachiko

  Mayor Kazuo Hamasaki—mayor of Sugihama

  Mr. Morioka—owner of Takara Auction House in Sugihama

  Michiko Tanaka—a nurse who is a co-worker of Tom Shimura and volunteers with Helping Hands

  Nobuko—a professional cook volunteering with Helping Hands

  Sgt. Lee Simonson—medical corpsman in the US Army

  Private McDonald—a driver for the US Army

  Dr. Nishi—a Japanese physician who is also a colonel in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF)

  Miki Haneda—a seven-year-old Sugihama girl with mother named Sadako

  Constable Ota—Sugihama police officer

  Lieutenant-Colonel Uchida—a JMSDF officer

  Petty Officer Oshima—a dog handler in the JMSDF

  Glock—female artist and a roommate of Mayumi, along with another young woman artist, Eri

  Yoshiko—beautician who works with Richard Randall at Blond Apparition

  Mr. Koji—construction site boss

  Queen Cake—bar manager in Tokyo

  Masa—a teenaged boy from Sugihama

  Mr. Fujita—a lawyer

  Sgt. Kodama—Tohoku Prefecture police sergeant

  Japanese Name Suffixes

  Suffixes commonly follow surnames—or even first names—to show respect or kinship. The suffix “san” is the most commonly used one; it means Mr., Mrs., or Miss. “Kun” is the equivalent of “guy” and is typically used by young men and boys toward younger males, but now is sometimes used by young women for good friends of both genders. “Chan” means little one, and is used for children of both genders and young women; and sometimes when addressing parents or grandparents.

  Chapter 1

  If you’ve been through an earthquake, you remember.

  You recall where you were and exactly what you were doing; what you had for breakfast and the plan for the day’s activities. What’s harder is explaining the panic that rolled through you when the ground wouldn’t stop shaking. The moment you learned that everything you trusted to be safe and solid, was not.

  I’ve weathered a variety of earthquakes, large and small, in California and Japan. But the earthquake that still figures in my dreams is the big one: the Great Eastern Kanto Earthquake of 2011. Even though I wasn’t even there when the earth buckled.

  I was perched midway in the Pacific, playing mah-jongg, a thousand-year-old Asian game of tiles that moves fast and furious. My Hawaiian friends play with a set dating from the 1920s, so the tiles are probably ivory or bone. This gives me the creeps, although the set’s owner, Pak Chang, claims that such old tiles carried great feng shui.

  But that disagreement is just the start. Pak, my great-uncle Yosh, and their cohort, my neighbor Lilia DeCruz, continually fuss about the right rules to follow: American, Japanese, or British. As a result, almost everything goes—including controversial “dirty” hands using tile pairs from more than one suit.

  The night of the disaster, I was involved in a different kind of dirty mah-jongg—because Michael Hendricks, my brand-new husband, was at the table. This kind of mah-jongg meant a bare toe tracing its way up my calf, or a whispered code about something happening later on. Michael could make me blush with just three or four words uttered at an extremely low decibel level. I’d become flustered to the point that my attention disintegrated to Michael’s level, and then both of us would lose.

  Michael and I had failed so many times that it was becoming legend in the community. But what happened after those losses was the best part of mah-jongg night.

  “I don’t care what the governor says about feeling sorry for people, it’s not right for people to live on the beach. Looks like a tent city,” Uncle Yosh grumbled. He was talking about the stretch of beach that had become an encampment of homes for locals who couldn’t afford Oahu housing.

  “Then where you gonna put them? Nobody’s got acres of land lying around for your great-niece to build them houses. Unless she knows something we don’t.” Lilia looked significantly at me.

  Underneath the table, I flicked Michael’s stealthy hand off my thigh so I could concentrate when answering.

  “I wish there were a secret land parcel I could tell you about.” Because of my work, I was considered a possessor of important information. About six months earlier, I’d put my antiques work on hold to help with the restoration of Ewa Landing, sixty small cottages that had been built in the early twentieth century for sugar-plantation workers. Abandoned when the plantation closed in the 1970s, these cottages were where Lilia, Pak, and Michael and I lived.

  Michael winked at me. His blue eyes stood out against his sailor’s tan, which had deepened since moving to Hawaii.

  Great-Uncle Yosh shot the two of us a disapproving glare. “Not many men got the nerve to sleep in a house their wife paid for.”

  Michael laughed as if my uncle had made some kind of fabulous joke. But I was slightly embarrassed. Not because it was wrong that I’d been the one offered the cottage—but because white guys on this majority-Asian island were ribbed just a little bit harder than anyone else.

  “It’s modern times, Uncle Yosh,” I chided him in a mild voice, just as Carly, Aunty Lilia’s daughter, hurried up with a kid attached to each hand.

  “Hey! When can we go out in the canoe again?” demanded Kai, the older boy.

  “Nobody wants to canoe now! You folks hear what’s happening?” Carly’s voice was loud and urgent.

  “Hold on, Carly,” Aunty Lilia began.

  “Go look at CNN!” Carly shouted. “An earthquake just happened in Japan, and the big wave’s gonna roll over them, what you call it, cyclone or soonamee—”

  “Tsunami,” I corrected, feeling a chill steal over me, despite the fact it was eighty-two degrees.

>   Michael was already scrambling to get his cell phone out of the pocket of his cargo shorts. He shook his head as he looked at the screen. “Hank’s called three times. Damn it, I never felt any vibration.”

  I’d made Michael silence his phone because I was tired of frequent, nonessential interruptions from his boss. Hank was a former navy captain working through the sorrow of not making admiral by acting like one in his new civilian job. As Michael sprinted off, phone at his ear, I felt guilty. Michael worked for a group that dealt with threats to the Asia-Pacific region. He was supposed to know about crises before they aired on CNN.

  “I’m sorry to break up the game like this. But if Michael’s on duty, I want to make sure he’s got what he needs for a long night,” I explained as I gathered up our tiles to turn in.

  “Don’t be silly,” Lilia chided. “It’s terrible about Japan. So many here came from there. Nobody got time to play mah-jongg after hearing such news.”

  “You woulda lost anyway, Rei,” Uncle Yosh said, looking at the tiles I turned in. “Girl, I can’t believe all your bad luck.”

  For feng shui reasons, I’d painted the door to our cottage a perfect Chinese crimson. The positive, powerful color was supposed to shield us from misfortune. Michael had been so hasty that he’d left this door ajar; I closed it behind me and took a few deep breaths before moving on.