Manhattan

Michiko jumped and dropped the certificates. In the doorway stood Hideo Nakanishi, her uncle's deputy at the bank. Michiko glared at him.

Michiko knew Ichiro had disliked Hideo and believed that the younger man got his job because his father was a prominent LDP politician with close ties to the Ministry of Finance.

While that alone would not have caused her uncle to despise the man, he had swiftly judged Nakanishi to be worthless when he found the deputy too frequently out of the office playing golf with clients and quick to volunteer to entertain visitors.

More importantly, Ichiro did not trust him, suspecting that Hideo passed information about the bank's dealings to his father. Ichiro seemed to have his belief confirmed when the head office failed to act on his request to transfer Nakanishi to another branch or back to Tokyo, a most unusual refusal.

The fact that every few weeks Hideo would drop by her office and ask Michiko to go out with him added to her contempt for the man.