Free The Kizuna Coast: A Rei Shimura Mystery (Rei Shimura Mysteries Book 11) by Sujata Massey Page A

Yamagawa. Mr. Yano wrote back that this would be fine, and that he would reserve a seat for me on the free Friday evening bus.
Thank you so much!
I typed back before remembering that I still had a dog to worry about.
    I pondered taking Hachiko from the vet to stay in the shop alone. Perhaps Mr. Okada knew a neighborhood youngster who could feed and walk Hachiko twice daily.
    But was that responsible? I considered the missing money, the empty box in the safe, all the scattered objects. I’d felt an odd atmosphere in the shop that had never been there before. If someone had already entered and stolen without hindrance, there was no reason to think he or she wouldn’t return to properly finish the job.
    No,
I decided. Even though Hachiko was technically a guard dog, I didn’t want her there.

Chapter 9
    “T his is your last day of comfort. Please enjoy it, because soon you will enter another life. Just twenty of you are here today, but ten more will be with us tonight on the bus.”
    In a packed Shinjuku conference room, Mr. Yano chose to start volunteer orientation on a gloomy note.
    “I wish I could describe the conditions of the lodging where we will stay, but we are the first group going into Tohoku, so I cannot.” Mr. Yano was a trim fellow about my age, who had a wispy beard that needed trimming—an atypical look for the Japanese. “Expect that sleeping, eating, and toileting to be very rough. There will also be no personal bathing, clothes washing, or wearing of contact lenses, because there is no place to wash hands with water.”
    No hand washing in clean-freak Japan? This was unthinkable, but all around me, serious-looking volunteers—mostly people in their twenties through forties—were nodding as if it was no problem.
    “Do not come if you think you might get cold or tired or overpowered by bad smells. It’s better to change your mind now than later,
neh
? Once you arrive, there will not be return bus transportation until Sunday.”
    People were raising their hands left, right, and center, full of questions about the length of the bus ride, danger of exposure to radiation on the trip, and so on. There was one question in the back of my mind that had been bugging me since the night before. Could Hachiko come? I was beginning to think it was the best option.
    Soberly, we filed out a few hours later. I hadn’t dared raise the question. Instead I read through Helping Hands’ suggested packing list and decided to focus on obtaining a few items Michael hadn’t thought of when he’d packed my duffel bag. A down jacket and a battery-powered phone charger were the only outstanding issues.
    I rode the subway a few stops to Roppongi and went to Richard and Enrique’s place. I entered through the unlocked apartment door and found Richard huddled on the futon with a blanket wrapped around him. He was drinking wine and reading a Hawaiian travel magazine that I’d brought. Glancing at me, he said, “Your island looks better to me all the time.”
    “Then come visit,” I said. “Although we get cyclones a lot, and sometimes earthquakes and tsunamis, too.”
    “Yeah.” He sighed. “Let me get you a glass of wine. What’s the latest?”
    “I’m definitely cleared for the trip to Tohoku,” I said, accepting a small tumbler of Chilean red. “But I’ve got a couple of last things I need to bring along. Do you have battery-powered phone charger?”
    “Sorry, I’m an all-electric boy. Anyway, I hear you can’t find one of those chargers to save your life in this city. Everyone else wants one, too.”
    “Okay. Then would you lend me your down jacket? I can’t stand the idea of buying a winter coat I really won’t wear again at Tokyo prices.”
    Richard’s face paled. “My North Face coat?”
    “I’ll be careful. Apparently the weather’s really cold there—too cold for my jacket—”
    Richard sighed gustily but stalked over to the closet and handed me the red jacket swathed in the shelter of a