First published in Japanese under the title Redi jōkā (レディ・ジョーカー) Copyright © 1997 by Kaoru Takamura English translation copyright © 2021 by Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell This English language edition is published in arrangement with Shinchosha Publishing Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. First English translation published in 2021 by Soho Press, Inc. 227 W 17th Street New York, NY 10011 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Takamura, Kaoru, author. Powell, Allison Markin, translator. | Iida, Marie, translator. Title: Lady Joker / Kaoru Takamura ; translated from the Japanese by Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell. Other titles: Redi joka. English Description: New York : Soho Crime, 2021. Identifiers: LCCN 2020032998 ISBN 978-1-61695-701-8 eISBN 978-1-61695-702-5 Classification: LCC PL862.A42295 R4313 2021 | DDC 895.63/5—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020032998 Interior design by Janine Agro, Soho Press, Inc. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Dramatis Personae 岡村清二 Seiji Okamura Former employee of Hinode Beer 物井清三 Seizo Monoi Pharmacy owner; Seiji Okamura’s younger brother 半田修平 Shuhei Handa Police Sergeant working in Criminal Investigation, Violent Crime Unit at Shinagawa and later Kamata Police Department; Monoi’s friend and fellow horseracing fan 高克己 Katsumi Koh Credit union employee; Monoi’s friend and fellow horseracing fan 布川淳一 Jun’ichi Nunokawa Truck driver; Monoi’s friend and fellow horseracing fan 松戸陽吉 Yokichi Matsudo AKA Yo-chan; lathe operator; Monoi’s friend and fellow horseracing fan レディ Lady Jun’ichi Nunokawa’s daughter 城山恭介 Kyosuke Shiroyama President and CEO of Hinode Beer 倉田誠吾 Seigo Kurata General Manager of Beer Division and Vice President of Hinode Beer 白井誠一 Sei’ichi Shirai General Manager of Business Development and Vice President of Hinode Beer 杉原武郎 Takeo Sugihara Deputy Manager of Beer Division and Director of Hinode Beer; Kyosuke Shiroyama’s brother-in-law 野崎孝子 Takako Nozaki Kyosuke Shiroyama’s secretary 秦野浩之 Hiroyuki Hatano Dentist 秦野美津子 Mitsuko Hatano Hiroyuki’s wife; Seizo Monoi’s daughter 秦野孝之 Takayuki Hatano Hiroyuki and Mitsuko’s son 杉原佳子 Yoshiko Sugihara Takayuki Hatano’s girlfriend; Takeo Sugihara’s daughter 西村真一 Shin’ichi Nishimura Corporate underling of the Seiwakai, a large crime syndicate; extortionist 田丸善三 Zenzo Tamaru Advisor to the Okada Association, a group of corporate extortionists 菊池武史 Takeshi Kikuchi Representative of GSC, Ltd., an investment management company; former Metro desk reporter for Toho News’ Osaka bureau 久保晴久 Haruhisa Kubo Metro desk reporter for Toho News, Tokyo bureau, in charge of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (MPD)’s First Investigation Division 根来史彰 Fumiaki Negoro Metro desk reserve chief at large for Toho News, Tokyo bureau 菅野哲夫 Tetsuo Sugano Metro desk chief for Toho News, Tokyo bureau, in charge of MPD 神埼秀嗣 Hidetsugu Kanzaki Head of MPD’s First Investigation Division 平瀬悟 Satoru Hirase MPD, First Investigation Division. First Special Investigation Team, Second Unit. Assistant Police Inspector. 合田雄一郎 Yuichiro Goda MPD, First Investigation Division. Third Violent Crime Investigation Team, Seventh Unit. Later joins Criminal Investigation Division, Violent Crime Unit at Omori Police Department. Assistant Police Inspector. 安西憲明 Noriaki Anzai Omori Police Department, Criminal Investigation Division, White Collar Crime Unit. Assistant Police Inspector. 加納祐介 Yusuke Kano Public prosecutor in the special investigative department of Tokyo District Public Prosecutor’s Office; Yuichiro Goda’s former brother-in-law 1947—Confidential Document Meeting Minutes (addendum) Regarding the item of this past June 10th, in which an employee from general affairs, who opened and read a letter addressed to our company at the Kanagawa factory determined that the letter, being incomprehensible in its argument and unclear in its purpose, contains baseless accounts that affect the honor of our company, and as such at the meeting of the board of directors it was considered how said letter should be handled, and a conclusion was reached that it required no special response. Regarding the “Communist Party member” referenced in the letter, Director of General Affairs Kuwata reported that, after consulting with the Shinagawa Police Department as a precautionary measure, he received a response that no such individual had been found. Kuwata will approve the disposal of the letter. August 1, 1947 Recorded in meeting room of Shinagawa temporary office, Tokyo main office (Recorded by Hamada) Hinode Beer Company, Kanagawa Factory, To Whom It May Concern: I, Seiji Okamura, am one of the forty employees who resigned from the Kanagawa factory of Hinode at the end of this past February. Today, as I am currently confined to my sickbed and can hardly sit up or stand, and with ever so many things on my mind, I have decided to write this letter. First, what must be made clear is the true intention and the trajectory of how a person who has already left the company has come to address you in this manner. Recently, I heard from a certain individual to the effect that the Kanagawa branch of the Hinode labor union encouraged my resignation on the grounds of my medical ailment and need for rest only as a pretense when in fact they had been instructed to do so by the police. The branch was apparently advised that, “Since on last December 15th Okamura was seen with a former colleague somewhere in the Shiba district of Tokyo, such a subversive element should be made to resign quickly.” The person who conveyed this information to me was a man who was hospitalized in the surgical ward for appendicitis, a self-proclaimed Communist Party member by the name of Eiji Kono, but I do not know whether this is true or not. Seeing that I am indeed ill at the present moment, I realize that even if such an event did not take place, the day of my resignation would have come sooner or later. Thus, whereas the “issue of last December 15th” can no longer have any effect whatsoever on my life, on the other hand when I think about the identity of my aforementioned “former colleague,” I am overcome with deep confusion and trepidation. My “former colleague,” that is to say Katsuichi Noguchi, himself resigned from the Kanagawa factory in 1942, but in the case of Noguchi, I know that his resignation took place with an unspeakable amount of disappointment and indignation, and that various circumstances transpired before and after. The reason I string together such abstract words is that, although I do not claim to wholly understand what is in Noguchi’s heart, today it occurred to me that in certain ways he and I share a great deal in common. First, we are both human beings; second, we are not political animals; and third, we are absolutely destitute. I
