We were gathered at the French Club, and Hiro, cheeks flushed from exertion on the tennis court, offered to get drinks from the bar. He was away a long time and when he returned, he said, ‘There's lots of commotion at the bar. A former bartender's been murdered in broad daylight, somewhere not far from here.’

‘Would we have known him?’ Tamiko asked.

‘You might have, Tamiko-san. They say he left the French Club in mid-1941 and went to the Hotel Park,’ Hiro responded.

I felt a jolt at the mention of Hotel Park – where Shin-tsu went for drinks with his boss. Shin-tsu would have known him, I thought. How shocked he’d be with the news.

Rokki collected more details from the bar. ‘Apparently it happened around 2 o’clock this afternoon – after the lunchtime rush. Hong was clearing up, went outside briefly to take out empty beer crates, and that's when someone came from behind. One single bullet, and that was it. The perpetrator apparently disappeared into the crowd.’

Settling into the wicker chair with beer in hand, Rokki went on. ‘One of the French fellows said Hong was a superb bartender, remembering the tastes of all his clients, and good at picking up languages from bar conversations – French, English, Russian, even Japanese, apparently. There’re rumours of involvement with gangs and spies. They say he never lacked for anything, had a string of street boys willing to run errands and procure whatever he needed.’

It all sounded like something from a film. I tried to picture Shintsu being served drinks by this man Hong. It felt incongruous, but I could also imagine inquisitive Shin-tsu finding the shady bartender fascinating. To think that such violent things were happening so close to us! It suddenly occurred to me that even innocent civilians, with nothing to do with gangs and spies could be caught in crossfire and I felt a shudder run through my spine.

Tuesday, 9 November

Midori rang this morning. ‘Eiko-san, has Shin-tsu been in touch with you?’ she asked in a concerned tone.

‘Not since our last lesson, but I didn't expect to hear from him because he said he’d be travelling,’ I responded.