Summertime of the Dead by Gregory Hughes

pack it in!’
    But she didn’t pack it in. All the way up to the shrine I could hear her talking to herself. She only stopped when we came to the temple and running up the steps she rang the bell. Then she clapped three times to summon the gods and bowed. I ignored her, and heading around the side of the temple I knocked on the nuns’ house. But then I realized I hadn’t seen Natsuko since I was sick. And now I felt awkward about asking her to look after the Lump. But it didn’t matter anyway because no one was home.
    The Lump was walking along the garden paths with her hands behind her back. She stopped every now and then to give a statue or a plant a good inspection. She always inspected things with her hands behind her back; she was strange like that. But then she spotted dozens of stone dogs at the side of the temple and ran towards them. They weren’tthe lion dogs that you see outside most temples. They were more fox-like and they each had a red cotton handkerchief wrapped around their neck. The Lump looked at them in absolute wonder. ‘Beautiful!’ she said as I came towards her. She always thought everything was beautiful. She was a real dummy.
    â€˜Listen,’ I said.
    She cringed as she looked up at me as though bracing herself for bad news.
    â€˜I’m going to leave you here for five minutes.’
    â€˜Leave me?’
    â€˜Just for five minutes. I’ll be back soon.’ I went to leave but the Lump followed. ‘No, you stay here.’
    â€˜Hungry,’ said the Lump.
    â€˜That’s why I’m leaving. I’m going to get you something to eat.’
    She seemed happy with this and wandered off to explore the grounds. I walked until I was out of sight and then I ran. I ran all the way back to the house and crept into the garden. I looked through the kitchen window, to make sure Yoshe had gone, and then I got on the bike and rode to Akasaka. I figured it would take me fifteen minutes to ride there, fifteen to find their apartment, and fifteen toride back. The most the Lump would be left alone was an hour or so, and she’d seemed happy enough when I left her. But even if she wasn’t, it didn’t matter. This came first.
    I rode through the Minato area and into Akasaka and then I rode around the stone wall that encircles Akasaka Palace. The palace is where heads of state stay when they visit Japan. But the royal family used to live here at one time and so the grounds are pretty big, and so are the walls that run around them. And the whole area’s covered in office blocks and apartment blocks and I couldn’t see a blue glass building to save my life.
    I stopped and asked a cop did he know where the Garden City office block was, but he didn’t and so I rode on. I guess I shouldn’t have asked a cop for a location where I was going to kill someone, but it was too late now. I saw a traffic warden giving someone a ticket. I was just about to ask him when I saw this tall blue office block. It was a Sony Building, and just behind it was the Garden City skyscraper. Kako hadn’t lied.
    I parked the bike in front of the building and looked around. Kako said that the girls lived right next door, but there were three or four apartmentblocks close by. It could have been any one of them. I walked across a wide walkway, which turned into a pedestrian bridge, and headed into a small concrete jungle. The Park Court Tower was definitely the closest and so I reckoned that was the one. But he’d also said that the girls had the penthouse, which was bad because the tower was at least thirty storeys high. There was a residents’ board outside the entrance, and so I started to scan the names. But then I heard a voice behind me.
    â€˜Can someone get me a drink?’
    I turned to see another apartment block, no more than six floors high. At the top was a penthouse with small trees and a rooftop garden. And leaning on the rail was Riko