It was the final day of bidding, and the deadline was 7 p.m., one hour after M+’s closing time.
“Damn,” Fuga murmured as he looked at the computer screen. “Three bids over a hundred million, and the others are in the tens of millions. The people who offered nine digits are Jing, an Indian investor, and Takamiya from Japan. That old man’s a real fan of yours, huh?”
They were in Fuga’s guest room in the museum, which had been prepared for him by the exhibition organizers. Fuga was sitting at the desk by the window while Ensho had plopped himself down on the sofa. Shiro Kikukawa had left not too long ago.
Fuga turned around to face Ensho. “So who’re you gonna pick?”
“Oh, you’re letting me choose? I thought I wouldn’t get a say.”
“That was the deal. But if Shiro was here, he might force you to go along with his opinion.”
“Probably.” Ensho shrugged.
It had been about an hour and a half since Shiro had left the room after a phone call.
✦ ✦ ✦
“We’ve got quite a few bids,” Shiro said cheerily as he looked over the data. “Two of them are over a hundred million!” He looked at the names of the bidders and frowned. “I don’t see Yilin, even though I was sure she’d participate. Is she hesitating? There’s no point if she doesn’t bid,” he grumbled.
He called management and received confirmation that Mr. Jing had visited M+ today with his daughter, Yilin.
“Yes!” He clenched his fist. “I thought Yilin would try to handle it herself, but she brought her dad. Now we’re guaranteed to get a bid from Jing!”
Ensho and Fuga sat in individual armchairs, watching Shiro celebrate. Shiro’s primary goal was to bait the wealthy businessman. He was still working with the rich and powerful, but what he really wanted was to go back to Mr. Jing. If either Yilin or Mr. Jing bid on Ensho’s painting, he was going to say, “This exhibition was all for you” and put forward his offer.
It seemed that Yilin had succeeded in inviting her father. But what Shiro didn’t know was that after parting ways with Yilin the other day, Ensho had sent Mr. Jing an email. Of course, he hadn’t told him that his work was on display. Instead, he had made two requests. One was that if Yilin asked him to go to M+ with her, he would agree without questioning it. As for the other...
Suddenly, Shiro’s phone rang. “Oh! He’s already calling me.” Naturally, he was nervous. Mr. Jing had stopped contacting him after the incident he’d caused.
“I wanna hear too,” said Ensho. “Can you put it on speaker?”
“Sure.” Shiro cleared his throat and set the phone to speaker. “Hello?”
“Is that you, Kikukawa?” came Mr. Jing’s low voice. He was speaking in English.
“Yes, it’s been a while,” Shiro replied, also in English.
“I went to M+ today and saw the trending exhibition.”
“Is that so?” Shiro gulped.
“That was your doing, right?”
He proudly placed a hand on his chest. “Yes, in fact.”
“How much more will you insult me before you’re satisfied?!”
He flinched. “I would never do such a thing.”
“What is it, then? Are you harassing me?”
“No, um...” Shiro looked around, panicking. “I am involved in the project but only as an advisor. The agent is a man named Fuga. He knows one of the organizers and is helping them find painters.”
“Do I have your word that you won’t take any cut whatsoever from Taisei Ashiya’s sales, then? And I do mean Ensho.”
“I do receive a bit as a management fee...”
“I see. So you’re trying to lure me and make a bit of change while you’re at it. Do you think I’d place a bid knowing that?”
“I’m doing no such thing. I just wanted to please you again...”
“I knew you wanted to come back to me, and I would have allowed it if you’d come clean and made a sincere effort to apologize for your crime. But all you do is sneak around, casting glances at me as you enact your underhanded schemes! How can I trust someone like that?”
Shiro gulped.
“For now, I’m willing to meet with you again, but only if you remove yourself from this project.”
“I will, right away. I won’t take any management fee at all.”
“Then come to me now.”
“Yes, sir!” Shiro ended the call and hurried to gather his belongings. “As you just heard, I’m leaving. Sorry. Until next time.” He sped out of the room.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Shiro seemed happy, huh?” Fuga remarked, looking at Ensho. “It’s a shame he won’t get the management fee, but he achieved his goal.”
Though Shiro had withdrawn from the project, there was still another intermediary: Fuga’s employer. Fuga himself was merely following orders.
“This was your doing, wasn’t it?” he continued. “I bet you hinted to Jing that Shiro was with you.”
“Who knows?” Ensho replied curtly.
“There was that call the other day too. You do some funny stuff.” Fuga laughed, amused. “So who’re you gonna pick? Jing, Takamiya, the Indian investor, or Kiyotaka?”
Ensho snorted. “That guy only offered a hundred thousand yen. What the hell was he thinking?”
“It’s probably supposed to be the airfare for the return flight.”
“That’s exactly what he said. You sure know him well, eh?”
“We did spend a lot of time together.”
“He must’ve been really attached to you back then.”
Fuga said nothing.
“You’re the kinda guy who doesn’t arouse suspicion. You have a way of worming into people’s hearts, and that ability was probably natural at first, but not anymore. When’d you start using it intentionally?”
“Intentionally?”
“You were already doing it by the time you first met Holmes, weren’t you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Fuga smiled in amusement. Not wanting to continue this line of conversation, he asked, “So who’s it gonna be?”
Ensho stood up and looked at the screen. “I already decided from the beginning.” He scanned the data and pointed at one name.
Fuga hummed and smirked.