Aomame

On Saturday, Aomame goes to the home of her wealthy employer. On the lawn, she speaks with Tamaru, an enormous bodyguard with a gentle demeanor. As they chat, he says mildly that a man has turned up dead of a heart attack in a nearby hotel. From this, Aomame understands that the authorities have not attributed Miyama’s death to murder.

Tamaru escorts Aomoame into a greenhouse full of plants and butterflies. There she meets with her employer, an elderly dowager who inherited a great deal of money from her aristocratic husband. When he died just after World War II, the dowager went into business. She compounded her fortune through the stock market and real estate investments. Now she is retired.

After Tamaru leaves, the dowager says that a man has died. She does not directly mention a murder, but she thanks Aomame and says that there would be no way to replace her. Aomame replies that it is always possible to find a way to get a job done. However, the dowager says she would miss Aomame if anything bad happened.

The dowager gets out a stack of photographs of a woman covered in welts and cigarette burns. Aomame studies them in disgust. This, she knows, was the work of Miyama, the man she killed. “We can’t let anyone get away with doing something like this,” the dowager says. Aomame agrees.

When Aomame leaves, she stops to speak with Tamaru again. He tells her that the wife of the dead man is recovering fairly well from her injuries. He explains that her husband was so powerful that it would have been very difficult for her to get a divorce. Even if she had managed to separate herself from him, he would not have been induced to pay alimony. Now she will get a life insurance check that will help her to restart her life. Aomame asks about the other women who are living at the dowager’s safe house. He says that their husbands are also “nasty bastards,” but none will need Aomame’s attention.

Changing the subject, Aomame asks when the police changed their uniforms and guns. This question obviously alarms Tamaru. He is very loyal to the dowager, who would be in some danger if Aomame were caught by the police. He asks why she wants to know, but she refuses to explain.

Tamaru tells Aomame much the same story that she has already heard, but with more detail. According to him, the change happened two years ago after a shootout in which the Japanese police used tiny six-shooters against revolutionaries with automatic rifles.

This story shocks Aomame, who would never miss a news story as big as a shootout that killed police officers. Worriedly, she says goodbye and walks away. She is aware that Tamaru is watching her as she goes. She reflects that he would kill her before allowing her to endanger his employer. Aomame does not take this personally. After all, protecting the dowager is Tamaru’s job.