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private security field would be a major growth industry for several decades, Alex had left the law firm to work for the fifty-man Bonner Agency, where he intended to learn the business from the inside. By the time he was thirty, he arranged a bank loan to buy the agency from Martin Bonner. Under his guidance, the company moved aggressively into all areas of the industry, including installation and maintenance of electronic security systems. Now Bonner-Hunter Security had offices in eleven cities and employed two thousand people.
        'You have your Rolls-Royce?' Joanna asked.
        'Two.'
        'Is life better for having two?'
        'Sounds like a Zen question.'
        'And that sounds like an evasion.'
        'Money's neither dirty nor noble. It's a neutral substance, an inevitable part of civilization. But your voice, your talent - that's a gift from God.'
        For a long moment she regarded him in silence, and he knew she was judging him. She put down her chopsticks and patted her mouth with a napkin. 'Most men who started out with nothing and piled up a fortune by the age of forty would be insufferable egomaniacs.'
        'Not at all. There's nothing special about me. I know quite a few wealthy, self-made men and women, and most of them have every bit as much humility as any office clerk. Maybe more.'
        Their waitress, a pleasant round-faced woman dressed in a white yukata and short maroon jacket, brought dessert: peeled mandarin orange slices coated with finely shredded almonds and coconut.
        'Now we've talked too much about me,' Alex said. 'What about you? How did you get to Japan, to the Moonglow? I want to hear all about you.'
        'There's not a lot to hear.'
        'Nonsense.'
        'My life seems boring compared to yours.'
        She was either secretive about her past or genuinely intimidated by him. He couldn't decide which, but he continued to encourage her until she finally opened up.
        'I was born in New York City,' she said, 'but I don't remember it well. My father was an executive with one of those hydra-headed conglomerates. When I was ten, he was promoted to a top management position in a British subsidiary, so then I grew up in London and attended university there.'
        'What did you study?'
        'Music for a while… then Asian languages. I became interested in the Orient because of a brief, intense infatuation with a Japanese exchange student. He and I shared an apartment for a year. Our affair didn't last, but my interest in the Orient grew.'
        'When did you come to Japan?'
        'Almost twelve years ago.'
         Coincidental with the disappearance of Lisa Chelgrin, he thought. But he said nothing.
        With her chopsticks, Joanna picked up another slice of orange, ate it with visible delight, and licked away a paper-thin curl of coconut that clung to the corner of her mouth.
        To Alex, she resembled a tawny cat: sleek-muscled, full of kinetic energy.
        As though she had heard his thought, she turned her head with feline fluidity to gaze at him. Her eyes had that catlike quality of harmoniously blended opposites: sleepiness combined with total awareness, watchfulness mixed with cool indifference, and a proud isolation that coexisted with a longing for affection.
        She said, 'My parents were killed in an auto accident while they were on vacation in Brighton. I had no relatives in the States, no great desire to return there. And England seemed terribly dreary all of a sudden, full of bad memories. When my dad's life insurance was paid and the estate was settled, I took the money and came to Japan.'
        'Looking for that exchange student?'
        'Oh, no. That was over. I came because I thought I'd like it here. And I did. I spent a few months playing tourist. Then I put together an act and got a gig singing Japanese and American pop music in a Yokohama nightclub. I've always had a good voice but not