Death Sentences (18 page)

"That's not a problem, of course! We'll supply any additional staff."

It was Tomari who had replied.

3

(Thirty-five million yen!?)

When he heard the amount, Sakakibara closed his eyes for a moment as a wave of dizziness washed over him.

(Did he really say thirty-five million yen!?)

In his wildest dreams he had never imagined that much.

For the first time in his life, to his shock, Sakakibara understood the expression "an embarrassment of riches."

But-still-when he said "the entire staff," "a yearly retainer fee," what did that mean exactly?

He suddenly felt the sting of the little gems that adorned Tsujimi's speech- "that's not how you sell" and "investment" and "back to basics"-which bothered him even more.

"Wait a minute, please!"

Without thinking, Sakakibara had raised his voice.

Even the smallest creature has its pride. And so far they had gotten by pretty well on their pride. If they sold that off, what would be left of them?

"Yes, what is it?"

Tsujimi looked up from the documents, and with a smile plastered on his face, looked squarely at Sakakibara.

His expression of supreme confidence rankled him.

"Without some discussion of the work to be done, it's a bit difficult to talk money. Don't you agree?"

Mishima Keiko jabbed a finger into his thigh. He felt it, of course, but it was too late for him to back down now.

"You mentioned retaining our services for a year, but our company has remained autonomous through various projects. For instance, even though it's small potatoes, we publish a quarterly magazine. We also put out books. It's not a matter of money. We're simply an editorial production company. We wish to pursue very specific work. Which means that we cannot accept certain constraints."

After this outburst, Sakakibara sat back down.

Silence filled the room.

The Hakuden Agency representative, Tomari, was staring at the ground, face beet red.

The head of the advertising division for Seito department store looked anxiously around the room: some men looked away, others looked uncomfortable. But there were some who stared coldly back at him, with expressions of contempt.

But-

Strangely enough, Tsujimi Yujiro didn't look ruffled in the least.

The smile remained plastered on his face. He spoke up.

"Of course! You are absolutely right, Mr. Sakakibara! But we're not trying to buy your company. If you were merely a production company, we would never have made this request. We would like for your company to continue with its usual editorial activities. This is strictly `another project.' We're asking you to devote your spare time to this project. We're interested in your participation in it. And what is more, we feel that this project entails materials that are ideally suited to your company's expertise. That is why we've come to you. That is what I meant by `retainer fee.' I appreciate your position. I may have misspoken. The term retainerfee is somewhat misleading. How shall we rephrase it? Shall we call it something like an 'exclusive contract fee'?"

(Exclusive contract fee ... ?)

It still doesn't make any sense.

What exactly was being exclusively contracted?

Nonetheless, feeling that his objections had been too neatly parried away, he found himself at a loss for words. Hunched over, Sakakibara glared rather sullenly at Tsujimi.

"Even more importantly ... what sort of project are we talking about?"

As Tsujimi spoke, he looked around the room at the Hakuden and Seito executives.

"It would seem that matters have not yet been properly explained to Mr. Sakakibara-"

"No, sir, they haven't!"

The panicked response came from Tomari.

"But-we were just about to begin filling him in on the details! We started with the reports related to media-but that was surely a mistake. I hope you'll accept my apologies. But, we can, well, get started immediately-"

Tsujimi cut off Tomari with a wave of his hand.

"There was no need to have Mr. Sakakibara sit through your discussions of media arrangements. Now that that is understood, shall I explain things to Mr. Sakakibara myself? Surely, that would be the most expedient."

"Oh, no, sir, it isn't necessary for you-! But, well, then-!"

The division chair of Hakuden Agency leapt from his seat, flushing.

But Tsujimi ignored him and motioned to Sakakibara.

"Shall we go, then, Mr. Sakakibara? You're in for quite a surprise. I am very certain of that. Come on-"

Thus prompted, Sakakibara rose to his feet, still feeling uncertain.

Mishima Keiko also stood up.

Tsujimi had already turned his back to the room and was on his way out.

The tall man, the secretary who had shown them to the room, guided him.

"This way, please."

The advertising division and Hakuden Agency executives looked utterly confused as Sakakibara and Keiko left the conference room.

Tsujimi was already well ahead of them.

Store employees scattered before him and bowed deeply as he passed.

The secretary scurried ahead to press the up button of the employee elevator before Tsujimi.

The elevator arrived. The secretary cleared it of employees and ushered in Tsujimi, Sakakibara, and Keiko. The door closed.

The elevator reached the eighth floor without stopping.

The door slid open.

There-

The ambiance was entirely different from that of the third floor they'd just left.

For one thing, there was not a person in sight.

Deep shag carpeting covered the floors.

The gentle indirect lighting imparted a sense of softness and indistinctness.

"This floor is reserved for executives."

Tsujimi informed them impassively.

"Where shall we take them?"

The secretary whispered discreetly.

"We'll talk in my suite," Tsujimi said.

"As you wish."

He scurried ahead to the end of corridor where he opened double doors of heavy wood.

It was what one would expect of a presidential suite.

It was beautifully appointed. Not in the least flashy. The furniture was simple. But one could tell at a glance how expensive it was. The room had an aura of power and influence.

An imposing desk overwhelmed the left side of the room.

The right side was a reception area.

"Please, take a seat."

Tsujimi directed them toward the sofa.

Stacks of worn and battered wooden crates were piled in the reception area, conspicuous for their incongruity with the rest of the room.

The labels in French slapped on the sides suggested they had come from abroad.

In any case-

Sakakibara and Keiko sat down together on the sofa.

Tsujimi sat facing them.

"By the way, before we talk business, could you please introduce me to this young lady?"

Tsujimi smiled pleasantly at her as he made this request.

"Please excuse me. This is Ms. Mishima, a member of our editorial staff.

It was Sakakibara who rushed to introduce her this time.

It wouldn't do to present her as his "secretary." They knew everything about the company. He would only invite suspicion if he introduced her as his secretary.

"My name is Mishima Keiko. I am an editor at Kirin. Pleased to meet you."

Keiko introduced herself frankly this time.

"I see. I see. Well, I see that Kirin's good taste extends beyond its books. To its employees as well. Very lovely taste, indeed."

Tsujimi was brimming with good spirits.

"Well, now ... let's get right to it-"

He then turned around and addressed the secretary. "Mr. Sano, could you please bring us something to drink?" And he turned toward them again.

"What I am asking of you in particular-you see, some people in our international art section uncovered something very interesting in Paris-"

Tsujimi's eyes opened wide in excitement.

"You see, Mr. Sakakibara, they found materials related to surrealism that have never before been discovered."

"Newly discovered materials?"

At the word surrealism, Sakakibara leaned forward.

"Exactly. And that's only part of it."

Pointing at the stacks of crates, Tsujimi began to explain.

"Our international art section had long been in contact with a dealer in European antiquities, and about six months ago this elderly art dealer passed away-"

He spoke with an air of indifference.

"His son took over the business but rather foolishly started to talk about selling off the entire collection that his father had spent years putting together, in one big lot."

The buyer in the international art section had taken a look, and, eventually, he managed to buy up nearly everything in the store, just like that.

"As it turns out, the old man had been a patron of Dada and surrealist artists in his youth and developed a wide range of connections. A lot of interesting things turned up. For instance, we discovered a letter that Salvador Dali wrote to Andre Breton in 1958."

"Really?!"

Sakakibara's eyes glittered with excitement.

Because Dali had completely broken ties with the surrealist movement in 1939, if the letter was genuine, it would create a major sensation among scholars of Dali and Breton, regardless of the actual contents.

"That's not all. There are diaries and letters, unpublished manuscripts, sketches, small oil paintings, objets d'art-a mixed bag of materials, by well-known and unknown artists.... We couldn't possibly sort it all out ourselves. In any event, there is certainly enough there to put together a large-scale show, which we propose to call The Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde Art Exhibition-well, that's what we have in mind. And this is why we have requested your assistance, Mr. Sakakibara."

The more he heard, the more it piqued his interest.

They hardly needed to beg him. Even without paymentnot that that would be feasible-he would have snapped at the chance. Sakakibara found his eyes drawn to the stacks of wooden crates.

Then-

A cart of refreshments arrived.

There was an assortment of coffee, tea, soft drinks, and various alcoholic beverages.

"What may I serve you?"

The woman pushing the cart asked of Sakakibara.

But his mind lay elsewhere.

"Mr. Tsujimi, would you mind if I took a look?" Sakakibara asked without taking his eyes off the crates.

Tsujimi's face eased into a smile.

"Yes, of course-you might begin with the crate on the top right. There's an old leather trunk in it. Apparently, it belonged to Andre Breton-"

"Breton! Did it really?"

"If you decide to participate on this project, we'll have everything shipped to your offices. Or we can set aside a special room for you here. What do you think?"

Sakakibara drew a deep breath. And then he took another.

"Just let me know how to proceed. We're eager to offer whatever assistance we can."

4

Ultimately-the agreement with Tsujimi, president of Seito department stores, was worked out as follows.

First, Sakakibara and the staff at Kirin Publishers would be responsible for the conceptualization of the 7wentieth- Century Avant-Garde Art Exhibition, which meant developing an overarching theme for the entire project.

To start this work, however, they would have to sort through and organize the piles of materials that the Seito international art section had shipped from Paris.

The real draw of the exposition would be paintings by bigname artists such as Dali, Dc Chirico, Magritte, and Tanguy. But they were nothing new. There had already been two or three large public exhibits of their work in Japan.

People might be drawn to such exhibits, but the exhibits alone wouldn't be anything special.

The real significance of the exhibition lay entirely in the materials that had been recently discovered.

There was quite an assortment of materials. In addition to such visual materials as paintings, designs, and objets d'art, there were numerous diaries, letters, and unpublished manuscripts. Well over half of them were by completely unknown artists.

They were going to have to organize and analyze them to determine their worth.

The Kirin offices were not large enough to undertake such work.

Fortunately, there were two unoccupied rooms on the fifth floor of the same building. Seito rented these for them. These provisionally became their new offices.

Once these were furnished with desks, chairs, file cabinets, and shelves, they finally set to work on the materials.

The international art section took charge of storing the artworks. But there still remained close to ten cartons of materials.

The bulk of these were written materials. About 70 percent of these were printed materials such as books and pamphlets. The remainder consisted largely of hand-written materials such as unpublished manuscripts, memos, and diaries. The great difficulty lay in making sense of them.

About eight months until the opening of the exhibit-

But they didn't have much time at all to put the materials in order, when one took into account the number of days necessary for preparations at the department store end of things.

On top of that-

They were putting off the work that Kirin was actually known for, editing and publishing.

As it turned out, Kirin Publishers had taken on everything from fliers to pamphlets.

And that wasn't all.

Tsujimi Yujiro had thrown another challenge at Sakakibara.

"These materials, all of them, belong to you. You may do with them whatever you wish. Think of them as part of Kirin's assets. That is, at least until the campaign comes to a close next December."

"Until next December?"

"Until that time you may handle them as you would anything else. There's no need to worry about us. The only thing we ask is that you design the publication and put it into print. As long as you do a decent job of it, we'll be entirely satisfied. Personally, of course, I know that your company is capable of more than a decent job."