Lady Joker, Volume 1 by Kaoru Takamura (lightest ebook reader .txt) 📕

big case, doesn’t matter what it is, Goda thought as he closed his eyes atop the pillow of his arms. Just then, like a reflex springing from his selfish desire, the faces of the victim’s wife and son flashed through his mind. Deputy Chief Inspector Dohi, over at his desk, was on a call with a nearby 7-Eleven. “Get me thirty Makunouchi bento boxes. Make it out to the Omori Police Department, Police Affairs Division.”

The investigation radio didn’t make a peep. By four in the morning, the sound of rain beating down on the roof of the building and the asphalt of the highway had subsided as well, and the CI office filled with the silence of early dawn and a chill that numbed his hands and feet. Drawing up the collar of his down jacket, Goda fell into a brief but deep sleep. Just as he reached the brink of some dream, he was pulled back into consciousness by the abrupt ringing of the police phone, and his conditioned reflex was to peek at his wristwatch.

4:30 a.m. Dohi, who had answered the phone, replaced the receiver and announced, “The investigation meeting will convene at 7 a.m. The official name of the HQ is Hinode Beer President Abduction and Unlawful Confinement Special Investigation Headquarters.”

After hearing as much, Goda and the others went back to sleep. Dohi set himself to the silent task of taping together four sheets of B4 copy paper and, with a calligraphy brush, inking the solemn name that had just been bestowed upon the incident. Regardless of what his countenance might suggest, Dohi had beautiful penmanship, and all the cautionary postings on the walls of the department—Keep It Neat, Be Polite on the Phone, and Point & Check—were his handiwork.

It was before six when Goda was awakened again, this time by the sound of cars pulling into the back lot. The officer on duty from Police Affairs came in and asked for help setting up chairs. When he went down to the main conference room on the second floor, he saw that the Communications Bureau from MPD had arrived to install equipment and add police phone lines in preparation for the investigation command headquarters. They had been told that roughly one hundred members would be coming from MPD, so all department staff helped with gathering every available folding table and chair, and once these were all crammed into the conference room, it looked like they were ready for a meeting of creditors. Outside the door to the room, Dohi’s poster had already been put up.

Next, Goda and the other officers went back up to the third floor to wash their faces, shave, and eat the Makunouchi bentos from 7-Eleven. Goda had a tendency to become sleepy when full, so he threw away his bento half untouched, then started to write out the tasks he would be turning over to his subordinates in Violent Crime. The ones who would remain in his unit were a sergeant with a bad back named Hirai, along with the duo Konno and Izawa, neither of whom could write a decent case file.

Saito from Organized Crime, having scarfed down his entire bento, mumbled with a tooth pick in his mouth, “My head’s getting cold.” Back when he was with the Fourth Investigation Division at MPD, Saito got into a physical altercation with a member of the yakuza family Inagawa-kai and earned himself ten stitches on his now shaven head, which he rubbed as he walked all the way to the window. He raised the blinds only to cry out, “Oh, hell!” Outside, spring snow had turned everything the color of quartz.

At 7 a.m., a photograph of the victim and a large sketch of the layout of his home were posted on the blackboard at the front of the main conference room. The members who had managed to assemble there after being called in during the early morning hours included the first and second units of the First SIT as well as the fourth unit of the Second SIT from MPD’s First Investigation Division. It was an impressive gathering of thirty-five SIT officers, not counting those stationed at the victim’s home and in the communications vehicles. Among them were also undercover investigators who specialized in apprehending perps.

Since this matter involved a major corporation like Hinode Beer, the arrival of a few members from MPD’s Second Investigation Division was to be expected, but Goda was a little surprised to see all ten members of the third unit from Fourth White Collar Crime specializing in corruption and bribery. All eight members of the first unit of Special Violence and Organized Crime Investigation specializing in commercial law violations and extortion had come from the Fourth Investigation Division. In addition, ten members from the ninth unit of Third Violent Crime Investigation from the First Investigation Division were in attendance. Since there were few faces he recognized, Goda resorted to giving them a quick bow. Then, there were another seventeen members from among the eight sub-units of the First Mobile CI Unit as well as the leader of the unit headquarters. From the precinct, there were ten detectives from CID, including Goda, and the assistant police inspector and sergeant from the Crime Prevention Division, and six members combined from the on-scene forensics team and the precinct’s crime scene team from CID. All told, Investigation Headquarters headcount totaled ninety-nine officers.

The seats at the front were helmed by Hidetsugu Kanzaki, chief inspector of First Investigation, along with other top brass, including the chief inspector of the Crime Scene Division; the respective directors of First and Second SIT, Third Violent Crime, Fourth White Collar Crime, and Special Violence and Organized Crime; the deputy leader of First Mobile CI and Superintendent Tobita from Omori Police Department; while off to the side sat inspectors from various units and the leader of the unit headquarters, with Omori’s very own Chief Inspector Hakamada of CID hunkered down on the far end.

“Attention!” On command, everyone rose