“But this time you called me.”
“There are two people I’d ordinarily call. One of them does what I do, he makes arrangements, and when I’ve got something I can’t handle I call him and sub it out to him. But I couldn’t call him this time, because he was the one who called me.”
“And who did that leave?”
“A fellow out on the West Coast, who does the same sort of work you do. I wouldn’t say he’s got your flair, Keller, but he’s solid and professional. I’ve used him before in New York, and once or twice when you were busy on another assignment. He’s my backup man, you might say.”
“So you called him.”
“I tried.”
“He wasn’t home?”
“Phone’s been disconnected.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he’s not going to hear me unless I shout at the top of my lungs. I don’t know what else it means, Keller. Plain and simple, his phone’s been disconnected. Did he change his number for security reasons? Did he move? You’d think he’d give me his new number, but I don’t send him much work and I’m probably not one of the low numbers on his Speed Dial. In fact…”
“What?”
“Well, I’m not even positive he has this number. He must have had it once, but if he lost it he wouldn’t know how to reach me.”
“Either way-“
“Either way he hasn’t called and I can’t call him, and here’s this job, and I thought of you. Except it’s in New York, and you know what they say about crapping where you eat.”
“They don’t recommend it.”
“They don’t,” she said, “and I have to say I agree with the conventional wisdom this time around. The whole idea is you go in where you don’t know anybody and nobody knows you, and when you’re done you go home. You’re out of there before the body is cold.”
“Not always. Sometimes you can’t get a flight out right away.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Sure.”
“I’m a big believer in keeping things separate.”
“Like crapping and eating.”
“Like crapping and eating. New York ’s for you to live in. That leaves the whole rest of the world to work in, and isn’t that enough?”
“Of course three-quarters of the earth’s surface is water,” he said.
“Keller…”
“And how much work do you get up around the North Pole, or down in Antarctica? But you’re right, there’s a lot left.”
“I’ll call the man back and tell him we pass.”
“Hang on a minute.”
“What for?”
“I came all this way,” he said. “I might as well hear about it. Just tell me it’s a connected guy, has a couple of no-neck bodyguards with him night and day, and I can go home.”
“He’s an artist.”
“At what, mayhem? Extortion?”
“At art,” she said. “He paints pictures.”
“No kidding.”
“He’s got a show coming up. In Chelsea.”
“I heard there were galleries opening over there. Way west, by the river. Is that where he lives?”
“Uh-uh. Williamsburg.”
“That’s in Brooklyn.”
“So?”
“Practically another city.”
“What are you doing, Keller? Talking yourself into something?”
He was silent for a moment. Then he said, “The thing is, Dot, it’s been a while.”
“Tell me about it.”
“And the last one, that business in Louisville…”
“Not a walk in the park, as I recall.”
“It actually went pretty smoothly,” he said, “when you look back on it, but it didn’t seem so smooth while it was going on. We got paid and everybody was happy, but even so it left a bad taste.”
“So you’d like to rinse your mouth out?”
“Is there a lot of fine print in the contract, Dot? Does it have to look like a heart attack or an accident?”
She shook her head. “Homicide’s fine, and as noisy as you want it.”
“Oh?”
“So I’m told. I don’t know what it’s supposed to be, unless it’s an object lesson for a player to be named later, but if you can arrange for the guy to get decapitated at high noon in Macy’s window, nobody would be the least bit upset.”
“Except for the artist.”
“Keller,” she said, “you can’t please everybody. What do you think? You want to do this?”
“I could use the money.”
“Well, who couldn’t? The first payment’s on its way, because I said yes first and then looked for someone to do it. I don’t have to tell you how I hate to send money back once I have it in hand.”
“Not your favorite thing.”
“I get attached to it,” she said, “and I think of it as my money, so returning it feels like spending it, and without getting anything for it. Do you want a day or two to think about this?”
He shook his head. “I’m in.”
“Really? Brooklyn or no, it’s still New York. He’s in Williamsburg, you’re on First Avenue, you can just about see his house from your window.”
“Not really.”
“All the same…”
“It won’t be the first time in New York, Dot. Never on a job, but personal business, and what’s the difference?” He straightened up in his chair. “I’m in,” he said. “Now tell me about the guy.”
“I used to paint,” Maggie Griscomb said. “Now I make jewelry.”
“I was noticing your earrings.”
“These? They’re my work. I only wear my own pieces, because that way I get to be a walking showcase. Unless I’m sitting down, in which case I’m a sitting showcase.”
They were sitting now, in a booth at a Cuban coffee shop on Eighth Avenue, drinking cafй con leche.
“It’s odd,” she said, “because I like jewelry, and not just my own. I buy other people’s jewelry and it just sits in the drawer.”
“How come you stopped painting?”
“I stopped being twenty-nine.”
“I didn’t know there was an age limit.”
“I spent my twenties painting moody abstract oils and sleeping with strangers,” she said. “I figure my twenties lasted until my thirty-fourth birthday, when I got out of some guy’s bed, threw up in his bathroom, and tried to get out of there without looking at him or the mirror. It struck me that I was older than Jesus Christ, and it was time to quit being twenty-nine and grow up. I looked at all my paintings and I thought, Jesus, what crap. Nobody ever bought any of them. Nobody even went so far as to admire them, unless it was some guy desperate to get laid. A horny man will pretend an enthusiasm for just about anything. But aside from that, about the best most people would do was say my work was interesting. Listen, I’ve got a tip for you. Don’t ever tell an artist his work is interesting.”
“I won’t.”
“Or different. ‘Did you like the movie?’ ‘It was different.’ What the hell does that mean? Different from what?” She stirred her coffee and left the spoon in the cup. “I don’t know if my paintings were different,” she said. “Whatever that means. But they weren’t interesting, to me or anybody else. They weren’t even pretty to look at. I was going to burn the canvases, but that seemed too dramatic. So I stacked them at the curb, and somebody hauled them away.”
“That sounds so sad.”
“Well, it felt liberating. I thought, What do I like? And I thought, Jewelry, and I went out and took a class. I had a flair right from the beginning. These are pretty, aren’t they?”
“Very pretty.”
“And it’s okay for them to be pretty,” she said. “I had to work to keep my paintings from being pretty, because pretty art is facile and decorative and doesn’t wind up in museums. So I did everything I could to turn out pictures that no one would ever get any pleasure out of, and I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. Now I make rings and bracelets and necklaces and earrings, and I purposely make them attractive, and people buy my work and wear it and enjoy it. And it’s really a pleasure not being twenty-nine anymore.”
“You changed your whole life.”
“Well, I still live downtown,” she said, “and I still wear black. But I don’t drink myself stupid, and I don’t hurt my ears listening to loud music…”
“Or go to bed with strangers?”