I spent my first year and a half working in the outfit working as an enforcer in Tony T's loan sharking operation. Then one cold, windy, day in December Tony T called me down to his office and gave me my first big solo assignment.
Tony handed me a photograph of a thin, pale, Asian man in his mid-fifties who had an angular face and slick backed black hair that was wearing a black, three-piece British suit. Tony T said the guy was an outfit bookie named Kenny Tanaka who went missing with fifty thousand dollars when he failed to show up at a drop off the other night. Tony T wanted me to find Kenny Tanaka and get the money back.
I started my search at a restaurant in downtown Chicago that Kenny Tanaka owned called "The Kyoto House". "The Kyoto House" was a nineteen sixties style Japanese restaurant where all of the meals where served in benito boxes, the waitresses wore kimonos and classic enka music played on the sound system.
The manager of the restaurant was a strange, fruity looking, bald middle aged, Japanese guy who wore horn rim glasses, an ugly red Christmas sweater, a pair beige slacks, white socks, and pair of black open toed slippers. His name was George and he wasn't very polite. He refused to shake my hand and he got angry when I started asking him questions about Kenny Tanaka.
George insisted that the last time he saw Kenny Tanaka was ten o'clock yesterday morning and that Kenny hadn't said anything to him that day. George also said that Kenny seemed happy and that never talked about leaving Chicago. In fact George said that Kenny had told him that he wanted to spend the rest of his life in Chicago. While was there I also talked to a few waitresses and the bartender but they couldn't tell me anything about Tanaka's disappearance either so I decided to drive over to Kenny Tanaka's house and see if I could find anything there.
Kenny Tanaka lived in a brick Georgian house that was located in South Kenwood. I rang the doorbell and a beautiful five foot four, one hundred and thirty pound; twenty five year old Japanese girl opened the door. She had straight jet black hair tied into a side ponytail by a white scrunchie, pale milky porcelain skin, a square face, small slanted brown eyes, puffy cheeks, a round nose, a pair of pouty lips, a square jaw and curvy luscious body. The girl was wearing a powder blue cherry blossom print happi coat, a white obi belt and a pair of white cotton tabi socks.
"Hiya there."
She spoke in a whispery voice and her lips formed into an uneasy beauty queen smile.
"I'm Chuck Lutkus. I'm a business associate of Mr. Tanaka's. I don't believe we've met before.
"I am Midori. I am Kenny's wife."
"Well Mrs. Tanaka I was wondering if I could come inside and ask you a few questions about your about your husband?"
Midori shuffled her feet and looked down at the floor nervously.
"Yes. Come inside."
I took my navy blue Keds Champions off in the doorway and followed Midori into the living room. Midori sat down on a wing chair folded her hands in her lap. I plopped down on a big Italian leather coach. The album "Odori" by the fusion jazz band Hiroshima was playing on the record player.
"So, um have you see Kenny today?"
"No I have not. He did not come home last night. I think he is out on business trip. Kenny goes out on a lot of business trips."
"Did Kenny tell you he was going out on a business?"
"Um. No."
"Did Kenny ever talk about moving?"
"Um. No. Kenny always say he like Chicago a lot."
"Was there anything unusual about Kenny lately?"
