Lady Joker, Volume 1 Kaoru Takamura (ereader ebook .TXT) 📖

can of beer. Ah, he’s already on board, Monoi thought instinctively, and he felt his mood lifting gently as he topped off his own glass of shochu.

“I don’t mean for it to be a joke, it’s just an idea,” Monoi dove in himself. “This old man has decided to squeeze money out of Hinode Beer. I wouldn’t know what to say if you asked for a motive, but I think in life there’s such a thing as timing.”

“‘The devil made me do it’ is the only explanation for some crimes, but even then there’s always some underlying basis.”

“Soon after the war ended, I came close to murdering the owner of the factory where I worked, and his entire family. That’s the basis. I always tried to live my life quietly, for the most part. But growing old is not so peaceful, you know.”

“You’re the type that gives police the most trouble. Your motive is unclear.” Handa laughed in an uncharacteristically light manner.

“But Handa-san, what about you?”

“Me? I have a habit of fantasizing. Whenever something bad happens, I always try to compensate by running through a fantasy in my mind to save myself. I’ve been doing that for so long and then suddenly, I got your call.”

“Did anything specific happen?”

“No. I can only say that things have been piling up for me, too. But I’m positive that when I entered the working world, I came in through the wrong door. The police force as an organization, my career as a police detective—all of it is too honorable for me.”

The layers of frustration of working in the police force accumulated over time, and during these last ten years, Monoi figured he had seen that frustration surface a fair number of times in Handa’s aspect and manner. Although each individual annoyance was simple, as they piled up they tangled into a complicated, inextricable knot. In Handa’s case, that knot was also interwoven with twisted obsessions, pride, and ambition. One thing Monoi did not know, however, was whether a fiend like the one he had nurtured in himself existed within Handa. When the time came to cross the line, what would be the force that would drive this particular man over it? Monoi could only wonder as he peered into Handa’s face.

“Yeah, right—this morning, for example, what do you suppose I was doing? There I am, yawning after a night shift, when I get a call from the head of the unit—it’s six in the morning, and he’s on his way to play golf with the department chief. He left his putter in his locker at the office, and he tells me to bring it to him right away. So I have to carry the putter all the way to Komae, bright and early in the morning.”

“Did you?”

“The asshole who called me, his only concern is ingratiating himself with the chief and the top brass at MPD, but the sleazier they are, the more I enjoy standing at attention before them. I was as courteous as I could be to the bastard. ‘Yes, boss, here I am with your putter,’” Handa said, laughing as he acted out the gesture of bowing his head low. “First of all, I find it hilarious that they have no idea what I’m thinking.”

“Huh.”

“What I mean is, I have twice the patience of an ordinary man. That’s why there are so many opportunities to indulge in my fantasies.”

Ah, now I see. This man copes with reality by exchanging humiliation for masochism and indignation for fantasy, Monoi thought. He reacts to the slightest provocation by society, an organization, or another person, and the pleasure he derives from his masochism and fantasies becomes his daily sustenance—a twisted enough state of being. This was the form taken by the fiend within this particular man. It was quite different from the impulsiveness of the fiend within Monoi, but the important thing was that there was a fiend here as well.

“But my plan to blackmail Hinode Beer is no fantasy, you know.”

“The amount of time it will take to carry out the crime is actually quite short. In contrast, the anticipation leading up to and the excitement after the fact will be more than enough. That’s why I’ll do it.”

“Thinking about it doesn’t cost a thing.”

“The satisfaction I’ll get from knowing that no one around me has any idea what I’m up to—I doubt you can imagine, Monoi-san. The pleasure of playing the innocent at my respectable job as a police officer at MPD when in fact I’m a public enemy . . .”

Handa rolled the words around in his mouth as if he were already savoring the fantasy, then washed them down with his beer. Monoi also swallowed his determination—I’ve got him now.

“So, Handa-san, that means you’re in?”

“Yes.”

“No second thoughts?”

“Nope. By the way, could we ask Nunokawa to join us? While he and I were cleaning up his house after the fire, the bastard kept mumbling to himself. Said he was going to disappear . . .”

“Disappear?”

“Look. It’s none of our business, but if he wants to leave his wife and child and disappear, then it wouldn’t make much difference for him to pull off something crazy before he does. Nunokawa might even change his mind about it all if he got his hands on some money.”

The thought of bringing in Nunokawa, who had Lady to take care of, had never entered Monoi’s mind, and he was unsure of how to respond. There might be some truth to the idea that money could change things for him, but he was at a loss for words as he recalled how, just last week at the WINS in Suidobashi, Lady’s face had looked as she joyfully wobbled her head. In the end, he skirted the issue by replying, “This old man can’t make a decision about such matters.”

“No, ultimately it’s something that Nunokawa has to decide for himself. That guy, in addition to having been trained in the Self-Defense Forces, he’s been deconditioned of thinking