Chapter 25The walls and storefronts of the street abutting the Yamanote Line tracks in Shin-Okubo were jammed with signs in Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Korean. The smell of spices from different cuisines floated in the cold night air. Video soundtracks in different languages and the four-beat precision of Korean pop blasted out of knockoff stores, their racks protruding into the lane with a jumble of clothes, kitchenware and used video games. Faded arrows pointed up the dingy stairwells of the narrow buildings to more and more of the same. Most of the teen-oriented food stalls had closed, leaving only the smell of sizzling beef soaring out of tin exhaust hoods.
The detectives circled together at a V-split in the lanes. Sakaguchi slapped his hands together to warm them. “Get in and out a
