Surprisingly, the gate is not guarded. This could have been a problem. Since there is nobody there, she pushes some buttons. The intercom squawks. She gives her name. Then she waits. The gate opens, she drags her little suitcase inside and walks towards the house, which is still a good way away. A few minutes later, a golf cart meets her. A young man takes her suitcase, she climbs into the vehicle.

  “My name is Ren Kato.”

  “You are one of Mr Mori’s lawyers, is that right? Nicholas mentioned your name. Pleased to meet you.”

  He glances at her but does not speak.

  “How is Mr Mori?”

  “Not well. Mrs Casadoro, you are not supposed to be here.”

  “I know.” Faith adopts a deliberately light manner. “You were not supposed to let me in, I guess.”

  “No. But that was not my decision.”

  “Well, that’s fine then.” If Mori wants her here, it’s fine.

  Ren seems to swallow a reply. They travel in silence. At the house she is lead to the big room with the colourful painting. Ren ushers her in and leaves.

  Mori is sitting on the sofa in front of the painting, looking very frail. Faith sees him, and realises at this moment what the painting is about. She had not seen it before, but the intertwined animal shapes are being held together by the outline of a human shape. Yes, we have so many animals inside us. She sees Mori trying to rise and greet her, and rushes towards him. “Mori sama. Don’t trouble yourself.”

  He gestures towards the other sofa. “It is a pleasure to see you, Faith chan.”

  “You invited me. Here I am.” She smiles.

  “We were operating under different premises then, I believe.”

  “Not so much different, if I am informed correctly.”

  He nods. “No. I was not well then, that is true.” Then he says something in Japanese, and Ren materialises in the room. “Can you prepare the tea on the terrace, please.”

  Ren bows and leaves. Faith asks, “I thought he is your lawyer.”

  “My watchdog. I’m allowed one nurse, and one person for everything else. Ren is my liaison with my business. We make do.”

  “I see.”

  “Where are you staying?”

  She shrugs.

  “I will have arrangements made. Who knows that you are here?”

  Ren has entered the room again. “Nobody”, she says.

  “We should keep it that way.”

  “There is no guard outside.”

  “No. We do things differently.”

  Faith is beginning to understand. She turns to Ren. “If you happen to talk to Nicholas, you might drop a hint. And if he wants to tell Tom Healey, that will be fine, too. I believe it might help my business, especially since I seem to have left my phone at home in Scotland.”

  Ren looks at Mori, who just nods. When he tries to get up, Faith beats Ren to it and rushes forward.

  “Allow me to help you, Mori sama.”

  She leads him to the terrace and takes over the tea ceremony as best she can.

  She gets assigned a room. Days pass in which he gets up, they talk, she plays the piano for him. His room has been changed. It is a sick room now, and the nurse, Hideo, sleeps on a futon bed that is being rolled up during the day. There are stands for infusions and some other equipment that Faith does not concern herself with. She understands that Mori is on morphine. He does not eat much; at best, he drinks some broth. When the doctor comes, every morning, she waits in her room. Hideo is very reserved towards her, but even he has to allow her near his patient when he realises that she has come to help.

  Eventually Mori cannot get up any more, and Faith moves to his room. He sleeps a lot now. She does, too. When she wakes up one afternoon, she sees that Mori is not asleep but looking at her. She wonders whether the morphine is numbing him to such a degree that he does not mind eye contact any more. He gestures for her to sit by him.

  “Come and sit with me, please.”

  She sits on his bed, and he holds her hand. Hours later she lies down beside him. His breathing is flat. It will not be long.

  The morphine does not help very well any more. The infusion always issues just a certain amount, and it is no longer enough. Mori is in enormous pain even in his sleep.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Why don’t you give him more?”, she asks Hideo.

  “Because it would kill him.”

  She resigns herself to this statement. Still, she examines the apparatus. There is just one small piece of plastic, easily broken, that seems to control the flow. But she dismisses the thought.

  One day Mori asks her to play some Mahler again. The piece from the second symphony they had heard together in Monaco. She panics briefly, she has never played “Urlicht”, but then she goes back to her old method of playing along with a recording, and she stumbles through the piece until she lets it take over, and she finishes in tears.

  Afterwards Mori says, “Faith chan, I need your help.”

  “Anything”, she says, wiping her tears away.

  He points at the infusion. She shakes her head. “I cannot do that.”

  “You need not do it. I will. You just have to help me.”

  She shakes her head, crying again. He holds her gaze until she gets up and steps out on the terrace. The sky is dark. There are no stars to offer any comfort. She cannot not do it, even though she does not want it. But have they said everything? Had she given him enough? She would never be able to repay him anyway, but had she done enough? He seems to think so.

  When she returns, she says, “You are right. It is enough.”

  She helps him to sit up, and then to stand, she has to hold him in her arms, but he manages to break the plastic thing that controls the dosage of the morphine. Then he falls back on the bed and she puts the sheet over him again. The clear liquid is dropping faster now, and she panics. What have they done?

  He just looks at her and takes her hand again. She sits down although she really wants to run. He is calming down until he falls asleep.

  When it is over, she calls Hideo. The nurse realises at once that the apparatus had been manipulated. He picks the broken off piece up from the floor. “Did you do that?”

  “No, I didn’t do anything. What do you mean?”

  “The infusion has been manipulated.” He sounds suspicious.

  “I’ve been outside for a few minutes. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Maybe he…”

  “He was not able to do anything of the sort.”

  Ren is looking from one to the other. “If it is really so important, we can call the police. If it is really necessary.”

  Faith realises the danger she is facing. She shrugs calmly. Hideo stares at her and phones the police and the doctor. She retires to her room and packs her bag. Then she sits in the dark, waiting, not thinking at all.

  Ren comes to talk to her. “It was his fingerprints on the apparatus. Hideo did not mention you, but he wanted them to check. They have gone now, Hideo, the doctor, the police.”

  She sighs. “Good. I’m leaving, too.”

  “I think you’d better stay. The funeral has to be organised, and there is the will.”

  “That’s none of my business.”

  “Well”, Ren says and gestures vaguely around the room.

  “He left me this house? Oh my God!”

  Ren shakes his head. “Faith, I don’t know whether I should be telling you this, but he left you everything.”

  She frowns. “Everything”, she repeats mechanically.

  “Yes.”

  Again she wants to run, and again it is not an option. “And now?”

  “I have called Nicholas. He is already on his way to the airport. And in the meantime, you and I can prepare the body for the funeral.”

  Faith feels trapped, but there is nothing she can do. She forces herself into automatic mode. She is grateful to Ren for telling her what to do.

  “We could ask an institute, or we can do it ourselves. Japanese funeral rites are an intricate thing. It is not going to be easy, but I believe we can manage. We owe him, I think.” Ren sounds determined. “The will is from last July, by the way. A lot has happened, but he has never changed it. He has been waiting for you. I am very glad that you came. And so was he. The past weeks have been hard, but you will manage. You will get through this, too.”

  Faith just looks at him, helplessly.

  “I will call the servants, so that they can say their good byes. But before that the body has to be washed and prepared. This is what the eldest son does, as a rule, or the eldest daughter. But there is just us.”

  When is it ever going to stop? “Okay.”

  Around eleven at night, they are done. Ren has been right. She has gotten through it somehow. None of the servants seem to have minded her presence. Tomorrow the body will be taken away to be cremated. It sounds bizarre, but she is going to be tasked with picking the unburnt parts from the ashes and put them in the urn. This she is going to take home. She will have to decide on the final resting place.

  Her head is spinning. She is alone in the house, apart from Mori’s body. She takes the laptop computer Ren has given her, carries it to the terrace and calls Tom.

  Early morning in Europe. Tom looks sleepy.

  “Hello, Tom”, she says, and then she breaks down again and cries.

  “Faith”, he says. “Is it over?”

  She just nods.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Are you coming back?”

  “I can’t. The funeral is a complicated matter. And then there’s the will.”

  “The will?”

  “That’s complicated, too. Nicholas is already on his way here.”

  Tom does not reply. He runs his hand across his face.

  “Tom, do you think you could…”

  “No. I can’t. We kick off in two weeks.”

  “I know.”

  Another pause.

  “Tom, I…”

  “I have to go, Faith. Take care.” He ends the call.

  She looks at the screen and feels as if he had hit her in the face.