Alibi by Sydney Bauer Read Free Book Online

But he took a moment, calmed himself and did his best to limit his bodily response by rising from the matching two-seater across from his two visitors and pacing the room.
    “Mr. Nagoshi,” he said after a breath, “Peter is barely out of diapers. I mean . . . law school. He is young and inexperienced.
    “I made a commitment to you people,” he said, immediately realizing this last comment may seem offensive. But he’d spent the past eighteen months dealing with the daily frustrations of US-Japanese cultural differences so, if it came out that way, then . . .
    “I have worked damned hard under the circumstances,” he went on. “And, I must say, have found your disinterest in discussing my range of progressive recommendations to be nothing short of insulting. I have expanded our household products division, consolidated our growth into telecommunications and . . .”
    But when he picked up his pace to turn back across what the company interior decorator had referred to as his “inspirational but functional minimalist workplace,” he saw that Nagoshi and his equally stealthy spawn were already on their feet and halfway across the coffee-colored carpet to the frosted-glass door. He still had no idea how they did that—moved like fucking cats without making a goddamned sound. It just wasn’t normal.
    “Thank you for your kind wishes of sympathy, Bob,” said Nagoshi as he turned to bow before opening the door.
    And with that, they left, leaving Bob to his million-dollar view and his ridiculously uncomfortable furniture, shutting the door behind them slowly, softly and without a trace of any audible click.

    “You did well, segare ,” John Nagoshi said to his son as soon as they were safely inside the private confines of their car moving south along Madison Avenue. John Nagoshi motioned for his driver to pull out into the thick Manhattan traffic and make their way back to their two-story apartment on Central Park West.
    “Thank you, Father,” said Peter. “We are well placed.”
    “Yes. Regardless of Crookshank’s incompetence, the forecast for the future is bright.”
    And it was.
    Despite the death of his daughter, as Mr. Crookshank so inappropriately pointed out, Nagoshi Inc. was just last week named in the Forbes 500 comprehensive ranking of the world’s biggest companies, at number 138—up twenty-seven places from the year before.
    The list, which spanned fifty-one countries and twenty-seven industries and was measured by a composite of sales, profits, assets and market value, named Nagoshi Inc. the seventh most successful company in Japan—behind Toyota, Nippon, Honda, Nissan, Tokyo Electric and Sony. Its nearest market competitor was way back at number 205, just where it belonged.
    Annual sales of their myriad of products, including everything from refrigerators and washing machines to DVD cameras and multimedia systems, computers and printers, cell phones and fax machines, were now at about eighty-five billion, with assets of over seventy-seven billion. They currently employed some 350,000 people worldwide with the company having 985 sub sidiaries, including 486 overseas companies.
    If there was one thing John Nagoshi had learned from his grandfather Nagoshi Isako who, together with his younger brother, Yoji, had founded Nagoshi Inc. over eighty years ago when they opened a small electrical repairs shop in a Tokyo marketplace, was that expansion was key to success. But his wise elder also taught him that sensing his surroundings, feeling when it was time for growth and time for stillness, was the only way to prevent the disappointment of failure.
    “The animals observe their environment,” his grandfather used to say. “They sense the ups and downs of the seasons. They feel the changes in the weather—the hot, the cold, the wet, the dry. They store food in times of plenty so that they can feed their young in times of famine. They know their enemies and assess their power and so learn when it is