Original subtitles

All the traditional trappings of harakiri.

The ceremonial robe, the dagger.

That's the sambo.

Looks just like a trait of me, doc.

Why the grooves?

It's used to carry in the dagger.

The grooves are so the dagger won't fall off.

It's also used to carry the sake.

Hmm. Hasn't taken any.

It's considered a mark of additional courage to do without alcoholic comfort.

You sound like an expert.

Well, you pick it up in my line of work.

What's up?

Suicide. Japanese style. Why is 508 on this?

Onakonui. Big Hancho. Matsuru Matsukata. Head of the Honolulu branch of the

Nippon International Bank of Tokyo.

Still can't see where we fit in.

Look at it like this. When a big-time banker knocks himself off...

It's time for a lot of people to start worrying, especially the bank examiners.

Come in.

Mr. McGarrett. Mr. Hunter.

So good of you to come.

May I present Professor Ramon Borrelli.

Yes, sir. Mr. McGarrett.

An official of the World Bank called, said it was urgent.

Mitsuru Matsukada.

occupied a unique position in international trade.

Please, sit down. Thank you.

I invited Professor Borrelli because he was one of the few close friends

Matsukata had in this country.

Matsukata was a widower.

All his surviving relatives are in Japan.

Did you know him well, Professor?

We both majored in international trade at the London School of Economics.

Matsukata went on to a practical career in banking while I contented myself with

the more theoretical aspects.

I understand that the Nippon International Bank of Tokyo is one of

the largest in the world dealing in foreign trade and that it handles

exceptionally large transfers of cash. Now, is that correct?

Usually by coded cable.

We have a couple of men at the bank now waiting for the examiner's audit.

Well, surely you don't believe that Matsukata took his own life because of

some irregularity at the bank.

Can you suggest another motive, Professor?

No. But the idea of tampering, that's unthinkable.

Mitsuru Matsukata was a direct descendant of the samurai, Mr.

McGarrett. And does that automatically place him above suspicion?

It does.

especially in the eyes of most Japanese, which is why his suicide is bound to

have such repercussions and why it is so important to determine the true motive.

If I can be of any help in getting to the bottom of this tragedy, Mr.

McGarrett, I'll be at the Regent Hotel.

Thank you.

I'm sorry that my English is not as good as it should be, Mr. McGarrett.

Mr. Hata, I only wish that my Japanese was as good as your English.

These are all the papers I found when I cleaned out the desk.

His appointment calendar and also his address book.

Mind if we take them with us?

Well, let me check.

Miss Whitmore, would you come in for a moment, please?

Ann was Matsukata's secretary.

She's kindly consented to stay on.

How are you?

Mr. Williams would like to have Mazzucato's appointment calendar.

Now, is there anything in there I'm supposed to follow through on?

It's perfectly all right, Mr. Shibata. I have a duplicate record of all

appointments. They're all yours.

Thank you. Chin, give him a receipt.

Miss Whitmore,

if you mind waiting a minute.

Chin, you better get these down to Steve right away.

I'm sure he's going to want to check anybody Mazzucato talked to or saw in

the last couple of months.

OK, I will see you back there. Good.

As Mr.

Mazzucato's secretary, you probably knew him as well as anybody.

Is there anything at all, any possible motive you could figure for his suicide?

None whatsoever.

What about his personal life?

Well, he didn't have any.

Not in the usual sense.

As far as I know, the only ones he saw were members of his temple.

Was there anything else?

I don't know. Is there?

Not that I know of.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

Bank examiners are just finishing up. So far, everything seems fine.

I told you, they'd find nothing wrong.

But something is wrong.

A man doesn't take his life for no reason.

I was referring to bank matters, naturally.

I've been assistant manager to Matsukata for five years, and I've never known him

to do anything that was even slightly questionable.

Mr. Shibata.

What is your view on suicide?

I was born in this country, Mr. Williams.

Matsukata belonged to the older generation of my people.

They don't regard suicide as a crime.

I see.

Okay, Dano, you and Ben get out to the temple and check with the monk who found

Matsukata's body.

Run down his story one more time.

On our way.

Did Chin get there with Matsukata's appointment record and address book?

Yeah, he just arrived.

10-4.

Chin, I want the book on a Professor Raymond Barelli. He's staying at the

Regent Hotel.

Old friend of Matsukata's.

Check him out, top to bottom.

On it.

Now we know it works.

250,000.

Oh, there.

This was only a test.

Now we go for $2 million.

You really think we can swing that much?

I've been planning this thing for five years.

I'm carrying the ball from here on in.

With Matsukaru dead, how do we know that Tokyo won't change the cable codes?

There's only one way to find out.

Yeah? Yeah?

Go ahead.

Cable code 985.

Charge home office $30,000, cash transfer payable, Afro-American trading,

sign token.

Hold on a minute, George.

What's the date?

Tuesday the 18th.

Uh, date that Wednesday the 19th, and make the time...

9.30 AM.

And get it off at once.

Gotcha.

This is the old code.

Get Professor Borelli on the phone.

Yes, sir.

Yes?

He just got the cable.

And he wants to talk to me.

Which means the old code is out, right?

Right.

Hold on a moment, please.

I have Professor Borelli on the line.

Professor, I must apologize.

I have a cable transfer payable to your company for $30,000.

It's a small sum, but unfortunately, the cable code is inoperative since Mr.

Matsukata's death.

Someone evidently sent it by mistake.

I see.

When do you expect the new codes?

Soon, I hope.

They've been flown from Tokyo by special courier.

I hope the delay won't inconvenience you.

Not at all. I understand perfectly.

Again, my apologies.

Think nothing of it.

Thanks for calling.

We're really stymied without those new codes.

Exactly.

Which means we must get them, right?

How do you expect to do that? I expect Mr. Shibata to give them to me.

Of course, I had no inkling of what Matsukata was contemplating when I saw

him that morning.

You saw him?

Yes, I saw him every Thursday.

Are you saying his visits were a weekly occurrence?

Yes.

Then others could have known he was here.

It was his custom to arrive shortly before dawn, change into his

kimono, and retire to an isolated room for prayer and

meditation.

Unfortunately, the same closet which held his robes contained all the

instruments for seppuku.

Wasn't this unusual?

Matsukata was...

A descendant of the samurai.

The samurai have always venerated such objects and stored them in a holy place.

One thing has continued to puzzle me.

What's that?

That he did not use his tatami.

Ceremonial mats?

Yes, he had them in his closet.

It is customary to spread them first.

so that blood does not defile the floor of the temple.

But any man who's about to kill himself is certainly in a high emotional state.

Certain details could be forgotten.

He was a child of the samurai.

He was also a child of the 20th century.

How soon do you expect the courier?

Oh, he should be here tomorrow at the latest.

Good. When he gets here...

I'd like a copy of the codes.

I beg your pardon?

A copy of the cable codes.

Do you realize what you're saying?

Perfectly.

When my friend Matsukata occupied that chair, I had a copy.

Now I need a new one.

It's no joke, Mr. Shibata.

You should soon be getting news that you're short $250,000.

There is no shortage.

There will be when you get your reconciliation statements from Tokyo.

Are you trying to say that we paid out $250,000 in forged cables?

Precisely.

Before you do that, Mr. Shibata, might I ask you a question?

Have you any idea as to the whereabouts of your wife at present?

Miss Whitmore.

Are you surprised, Mr. Shibata?

Surely you must have remembered that it was I who recommended Miss Whitmore to

your late, departed superior.

Yeah. Wait.

I'll see if she's in.

Sweetheart, it's your husband.

Andrew? Yes.

It's all right.

Don't be frightened.

Please, do what they tell you.

They'll kill me.

Andrew, please.

Hello?

That's better.

I'm glad to see, Mr. Shibata, that you are a reasonable man.

You'll never get away with it, Borrelli.

What happens when we get the official report on the stolen 250,000?

What do I do then?

Exactly what you're supposed to do.

Cooperate with the authorities in every respect.

Act perfectly normal.

All we want from you are the codes.

And then?

We'll take care of the rest.

In case your head cashier should get curious, you may simply explain that

Afro-American has plans for expansion and is calling in all available cash.

How do I know she'll be all right?

As long as you cooperate, she'll be fine.

If not...

The point of entry was the center of the abdomen.

Then the knife was drawn to the left and all the way back to the right side.

This is indicated by two cuts in the pancreas here as the blade went back and

forth, and only one cut in the liver here on the right side.

That's sure doing it the hard way.

It certainly is.

The traditional method of harakiri is to insert the dagger on the left side here,

then draw it across to the right and up.

severing the vena cava and the aorta.

From what we found out, Matsukata certainly knew the traditional way.

So what's the bottom line?

Well, whether Matsukata knew the right way or not, I doubt whether any person

could stand the sheer physical pain to complete a self-inflicted wound as shown

on this chart.

Doc, are you saying it was murder made to look like suicide?

I can't be 100% certain, Danny.

It's remotely possible that Matsukata might have had the willpower to surmount

the pain.

I'm only saying it's highly improbable.

Bergman.

Yes, Steve, he's here.

Yes, Steve.

How you doing there, Danno?

Just wrapping it up.

Good. I had a call from Shibata.

Wants to see me. Says it's urgent.

He'll be here in about a half an hour.

Can you be here by then?

On my way.

It normally takes ten days for the cables to clear.

That is, for us to get documentary verification.

Because of Mascotta's death, Tokyo speeded it up.

And your branch cashed a quarter of a million dollars worth of faked cables.

How come?

It was my understanding that those cables are very carefully coded.

Oh, very.

Speed is of the essence in cable transfers.

The code has to be foolproof and has to be honored at once. It's the only way we

can do business.

Suppose you tell us how it's done.

Actually, there's a number of codes plus a master code number.

Now, this is a sample cable using the old code.

It starts with the master number 957.

Hold it.

957. Now, the whole cable reads as follows.

957. Transfer 40,300 to Gold Coast Shipping.

Dated Thursday, April 18.

Signed, Tokin.

Our Tokyo cable name.

Now, every item in this cable has a code number.

When they're all added up, they must equal the master code number.

957. Right.

Now, the code number for thousands was 12.

Since there are 40 thousands...

Multiply 40 by 12, equaling 480.

Got it. The code for hundreds is 15.

There are only three hundreds, so 3 times 15 equals 45.

Got it. The days of the week have different code numbers.

The number for Thursday is 64.

Got it. The day of the month has a code multiplier of 4.

4 times 18 equals 72.

Okay. The code number for April is 36.

Now put down the code numbers for the Tokyo sending office.

174.

And our receiving branch.

86.

Now total them.

Four for eight was nine, 9.57.

That's it. The code checks out, and we automatically pay the cable.

Sure is foolproof.

Unless somebody steals the codes.

Or someone in the bank lets them leak out.

There is only one person in each country who has access to the codes.

That is the manager of the main branch.

It used to be Matsukata.

And now it's you?

This money that was stolen, it had to be paid out to some company or individual.

They must have vouchers or receipts for it.

It's not that simple.

There are hundreds of authentic cables and none for the exact amount of 250

,000.

It must have been withdrawn in a number of cables for smaller sums.

It's impossible to check until we get duplicates of the legitimate cables from

Tokyo. How long will that take?

Any time now.

There should be a carrier arriving from Japan, the one bringing the new codes.

Mr. Andrew Shibata, please.

He's out right now. May I help you?

I have something to deliver to Mr. Shibata.

Well, I'm his secretary.

You can leave it with me.

Thank you. It is not possible. I must deliver to Mr. Shibata personally.

Well, in that case, why don't you wait in his office?

Thank you.

The codes, they're here.

Good.

Time to go to work.

When a coded cable arrives, I take the codes from the safe and use this

calculator to check it out.

And then phone the head cashier and authorize him to make payment.

No matter how large the amounts?

We deal only in large amounts.

Who else knows the combination to that safe?

No one.

Matsutaka knew it when he was alive.

The combination has been changed, of course.

Now I am the only one.

Mind if we have our lab man come out and take a look?

What good would it do?

You never can tell.

I'll be happy to cooperate in any way I can.

We've located the forged cables, sir.

There are four of them.

Forty-five thousand, sixty-five, sixty-eight, seventy-two.

Total, two hundred and fifty thousand.

All made out to South Pacific Imports at Merchant and Alakea Streets.

Who's their representative?

A Mr. Walter Hutchins.

Medium height, gray-haired, slender. Must weigh about 150 pounds.

Let's go.

You're doing fine.

Keep it up.

When may I speak with my wife?

Pretty soon now.

I have a right to know if she's safe.

She'll be okay.

As long as you follow instructions.

Looks like somebody left in a hurry.

Sure does.

200,000 for openers?

You don't think that's too much?

Afro-American is expanding.

Might as well get them used to large sums.

But suppose they question it.

Who?

Shibata? I was thinking of the head cashier.

The head cashier is paid to follow instructions.

Shibata will see that he does.

Still, that's pretty steep.

And it's going to get steeper.

Start sending.

You're the boss.

Hello, Jay.

Danny, Jen, I got something to show you.

Is Steve coming?

Well, he called a while ago, said he was busy with a governor and a Japanese

consul. What do you got?

Take this, Danny, and I want you to go over by the door, turn your back to me,

and listen.

You putting me on?

You'll hear two kinds of clicks, one higher, one lower.

Jock down a number of each.

Okay, Danny, it's your turn now.

Light clicks to the left, heavier clicks to the right.

You didn't have to stay in the room.

You could have heard those clicks within a radius of a quarter of a mile.

You found a bug under Shibata's safe.

Well, not a bug. The remains of one.

I caught a rough spot under the shelf and took some scrapings.

A spectrographic examination revealed the residue of silicon and germanium.

Then someone else found the bug and removed it.

Who? Only one person.

Matsukata? Had to be.

It all adds up. And he must have had a pretty fair idea of who put it there,

which made him dangerous to have around.

Then it definitely wasn't suicide.

That's right, Chen. Not Harakiri, not Seppuku.

Just plain old-fashioned murder.

It's hard to believe.

Who would want to kill him?

Someone with something to gain.

I can't think who that would be.

Whoever planted this bug.

Why? They already got their money.

That's just the point.

All they had to do was take the money and run.

If they decided to kill him, it means they're sticking around for more.

Embezzlers, yes.

But not killers.

The two don't go together.

Oh, yes, they do. The price is high enough.

For Afro-Americans.

If you'll excuse me. There's one more thing.

Those four phony cables, we'd like to borrow them for a while.

I'll authorize it.

Get the head cashier on the phone.

Yes, sir.

You can pick them up at the cashier's window.

Thank you, Mr. Shabana.

Here he is Anything how much oh, thanks, man

Perfect Steve just radioed once a 24-hour till and she bought him and his

secretary and Whitmore and he wants the book on that figures They're the two

people who had the best chance of planning the bug my matzah cutter was

alive She bought I had the best motive for killing him. How do you figure?

He takes over the boss's job assures himself easy access to the codes if he's

in with the crooks you think he is I'm not sure, but I get uneasy vibrations

from the way he's acting.

I'm doing everything I can, Helen.

I know.

I know you are.

Now that you've been reassured about your wife, I trust you'll expedite those

payments without further delay.

Are you cabling impossible figures, Borrelli?

Somebody's likely to get suspicious.

In that case, I'm sure you'll do your best to calm their fears.

My best may not be good enough.

Don't try and stall me, Shibata.

My reputation is solid.

If those codes are correct, there's nothing you or anyone else can do except

to honor the cables.

But if something should go wrong... I hope it doesn't.

For your wife's sake.

Bear in mind, Mr. Shibata,

But the sooner I get what I want, the sooner you can have her back.

Get me the head cashier.

Something's wrong, and it's bugging me, because I'm looking at it, and I don't

see it.

Did you check them out with the old code?

Oh, yeah, they check out fine now. It's not the code.

Steve, want me to phone Tokyo and see if we can get some more information?

Let's see. It's a 10 a.m. heater.

That would make it, uh, what?

5 a.m. in Tokyo.

Yeah. I forgot we were five hours ahead of them.

Oh.

We're not, Dan. They're 19 hours ahead of us. It's Wednesday there. It's

Tuesday here.

Wait a minute.

If it's Wednesday there because of the international date line and Tuesday

here... That's it. I think you've got it, Dan.

Take a look at the date on this cable.

Set the 19th, receive the 18th.

That checks.

Tokyo's a day ahead of us. No, no, not a day. Only 19 hours. When it's 9 o'clock

in the evening in Tokyo, when this was sent, then it's 2 a.m. the same day here

in Honolulu.

So the date of arrival should be the 19th.

Same day it was sent in Tokyo.

Not the 18th, it appears on this wire.

But the forger was so used to dating them a day apart, he slipped up. Yeah,

that's exactly what happened.

So where does it lead us?

To a local sender, I'd say.

Let me ask you this, then.

Of all the thousands of incoming wires to Honolulu, how could he find and tap

into the one direct wire that leads into that bank?

Transmit from somewhere in the same building.

Yeah. All he'd have to do is lay his hands on a set of schematic plans for

the telegraph wiring in that building. It's only one problem. What's that? That

building has hundreds of offices.

Yeah, well, I want to check each and every one. Then I'll get some help if

necessary.

And, uh... And start with the new tenants first. We might get lucky.

Right.

Steve. Yeah. I've been trying to get a line on Ann Whitmore.

Not much to go on. She's clean. No police records.

Did you try the bonding company? Every bank employee has to be bonded.

Yeah, I went there first.

They don't have much more. Some school records.

I attended college at Berkeley.

Seems like they only approve on one very strong recommendation.

Recommendation from whom?

Professor Borelli.

That's the last one.

There are only five people who've taken new leases in the last year.

You have a floor plan of the building? Yes, sir. Right here.

I hope this works.

I hope so. We have an awful lot of tenants.

Don't remind me.

Bye.

Arthur Pataka, Wilton Hatcher, Henry McPherson, Lewis Knox, Edward Nomura.

That's it.

Wilton Hatcher.

Wilton Hatcher.

What was the name of that guy who fronts for the South Pacific imports?

Walter Hutchins.

Sound like a reasonable alias to you? Walter Hutchins, Wilton Hatcher.

Yeah, it does.

What's the office number?

1206.

Let's see.

Here it is.

Single room, bank side of the building.

Ben, stake it out, call HPD for backups.

Right.

The key for 1206.

We have a warrant.

I'll have to give you the master key.

Nick, spot anything?

Nothing yet.

Ben.

Nothing from this angle, Danny.

Empty offices.

that's always seemed to be coming up with lately.

The champion.

You're insane to push your luck.

You've already collected close to two million.

But not quite, my dear fellow.

And when I set a goal, I have this compulsion to attain it.

There's no way in the world I can authorize payment of another $300,000.

But I can't see that you really have any choice.

It's what the cable specifies, unless by some chance there's been an error in the

coding. Can't you get it through your head?

McGarrett found a tap-in. He's notified the bank.

Under the circumstances, I can't authorize payments to anyone.

A very wise precaution for the others.

But I am the rare exception, Mr. Shibata.

You've known me for a long time.

I have an international reputation.

Like Caesar's wife, I am above suspicion.

Borelli, settle for what you've got already.

Don't press it.

What you don't seem to realize, Mr. Shibata, is that this last 300,000 has

been earmarked for the men who are holding your wife, men very prone to

violence.

I wouldn't irritate them further by any suggestion that you're withholding what

they consider to be their just rewards.

All right.

But this is it.

No more delays.

I pay you the money, and you take me to my wife.

That was precisely my intention.

Get it down.

Hello? Yes.

Hold on, please.

Steve, the bank. Head cashier.

McGarrett. Oh, Mr. McGarrett, you asked to be informed of any cable transfers

since we received notice of the irregularities.

Well, there's been one. 300,000 for Afro-American trading.

Afro-American? That's Borelli's outfit, isn't it? Yes, sir. I questioned Mr.

Shibata about it, but he assured me it'd be all right.

They've been withdrawing substantial amounts lately because of their

expansion. How long ago was Borelli there?

He just left with the cash. I thought I'd call you immediately.

Thank you, sir. You did the right thing. Get on it, then. Looks like Borelli's

making his big move.

Jim, Ben, this is it. Let's go.

Where to?

To the school.

Where's Ann?

She's on the way.

With Shibata.

I promised we'd take him to his wife.

What about the Shibatas?

George and Shigo will take care of them.

Is that absolutely necessary?

Nothing is absolutely necessary.

Not if you want to take a chance on getting caught.

You feel like playing games with two million dollars?

We checked out about two hours ago. Did he happen to make any travel

arrangements for the hotel?

No. Let's check Shibata.

Find him? He's not here. Funny, Mr. Shibata usually doesn't leave without

telling me. You sure he's not around?

No, sir. He hasn't returned yet.

Returned? One of the tellers saw him leave with his secretary.

He seemed to be in a hurry.

When was this?

Apparently while I was out counting Professor Borelli's money.

Let's go.

McGarrett to Williams.

McGarrett to Williams.

Williams.

Tano, Ben picked up the tail on Shabata and the Whitmore woman. She drove him to

a building in the La Pietra area.

Ten-four.

Ben,

where are you now?

In the La Pietra area.

About two blocks north.

Hold it, Steve.

We got more company, Steve.

Bareilly and another man just went into an empty school building at the foot of

Diamond Head.

Bareilly was carrying an attache case.

Do you read that, Dano?

10-4.

What about that school building, Steve?

No problem, Dano. Not in session. Shut down for the summer.

Ben, report any movement in or out of the area, but don't leave your

observation point.

10-4.

McGarrett to Central. McGarrett to Central. Central.

Code red.

Contact all HPD units to cordon off La Pietra area around girls' school.

Silent approach. Maintain 100-yard distance from school buildings.

Repeat. Code red. Silent approach.

You cover me.

Keone.

Joe.

You guys go around behind the garage.

Jin, cover me.

I did everything you asked.

You promised.

I can't believe you'd be so stupid.

There's lots of places they couldn't lay a finger on you for fraud, but no place

they can extradite you for murder.

That was the original idea until friend Matsukata discovered our little bug and

spoiled it.

Then you did kill him.

And now you plan to keep on killing.

I'm afraid you'll leave me little choice.

Are you all right?

I couldn't help it. They were holding my wife.

I know, Mr. Shabbat, I know.

Central, pass me through to McGarrett.

McGarrett.

Steve. We nailed them.

All of them?

It's a wrap-up.

They're on their way to the blue and whites.

Good job, Dano.

Good job.