Dismissed With Prejudice (9780061760631) by Judith A. Jance Page A

Ph.D.”
    â€œSmart guy.”
    â€œHe worked down in California for a number of years, for Hughes or one of those other big defense contractor types, then he came back up here and went to work for Boeing. I figured he’d play it safe and stay there. They don’t call it the Lazy B for nothing, but Tadeo couldn’t handle the pace. Hewanted to make things happen, wanted to be a mover and shaker. He quit Boeing to work for RFLink in the late seventies and has been off on his own for the last three or four years.”
    â€œKimi said something about there being hard feelings when he left his previous employer, RFLink. Do you know anything about that or the people who work there?”
    â€œNo. He was pretty closed-mouthed about it when it happened. I got the feeling that his leaving wasn’t entirely voluntary.”
    â€œYou mean he was fired.”
    George Yamamoto nodded reluctantly.
    â€œWhen’s the last time you saw him?”
    â€œTwo months ago, down at the courthouse. I ran into him in the lobby. He had just lost the case, his patent infringement case.”
    â€œAnd did you know what losing that case meant to him?”
    â€œNo, and he never let on. He acted as though it was no problem, said not to worry, that he’d be back on his feet in no time.”
    â€œWould his secretary, Mrs. Oliver, know what kinds of things he might have been working on?”
    â€œMrs. Oliver? If she’s still with him, she’d know everything there is to know.”
    â€œYou say that as though she’s been part of the picture for a long time.”
    â€œShe has. She was his secretary when he worked for Boeing. When he left there, so did she. As far as I know, she’s been with him ever since.”
    â€œAnd you think she’d be privy to all his business dealings?”
    â€œYou’ve got it.”
    â€œAnything between them?” I asked, knowing how the question would hurt, regardless of the answer.
    â€œYou mean romantically?” George shook his head. “No,” he replied. “I don’t think so.”
    But it wasn’t the same kind of absolute answer he had given about whether or not the sword had been stolen. It made me wonder.
    Our drinks had been empty for a long time. I ordered another round. George Yamamoto had told me a whole lot I didn’t know about Tadeo Kurobashi, information I needed to get to the bottom of who had killed him and why. But there was still something missing, something about Tadeo and Machiko and George Yamamoto that I didn’t understand, something that would unlock their history together and help it make sense to me. For all our talking, nothing in what George had said had given me a clue about the long-standing antipathy he felt toward his friend’s widow.
    I looked at George. Disconsolate, he sat holding his drink but gazing without seeing at the black-and-white picture of a German shepherd which, along with twenty or so other doggie portraits, lined the walls of the Doghouse’s bar.
    It would have been easy to let it go. There was little reason to think that the years of enmity between George and Machiko could have anythingto do with Tadeo’s death in the here and now. But detectives don’t let things go. It’s not part of our mental makeup.
    â€œWhat do you have against her?” I asked.
    George’s head came up. He looked at me, saying nothing, but he didn’t ask me who I was talking about. He knew I meant Machiko.
    â€œWhy do you want to know?” he asked.
    â€œIt could be important.”
    â€œI doubt it.”
    â€œI’d still like to know, George.”
    â€œHe and my sister met in Minidoka,” he said evenly. “They weren’t engaged, but they had an understanding. Tomi was prepared to wait until Tadeo got out of school. Then Machiko came along. Once she got her claws in him, that was the end of it.”
    â€œAnd what happened to your