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"Better than I expected. How was your class?"
"Great, but theres a ton of stuff Ive got to read. And theres one little airhead in the class who gets her hand up every time the instructor comes to the end of a sentence. If he doesnt find a way to shut her up I may have to kill her. "
I asked if I could come over. "Id like to use your VCR for about an hour," I said.
"Thats fine," she said, "if you come over right away, and if its really not much more than an hour. And if its more fun than the last cassette you brought me. "
"Ill be right over," I said.
I hung up and stepped to the curb and caught a cab right away. When I got there she took my coat and said, "Well, how did it go last night? Did you see the killer?" I must have stared, and she said, "Richard Thurman. Wasnt he supposed to be there? Isnt that why you went to Maspeth?"
"I wasnt thinking about him. He was there, yes, but Im no closer to knowing if he killed her. I think I saw another killer. "
"Oh?"
"The man in the rubber suit. I saw a man and I think it was him. "
"Was he wearing the same outfit?"
"He was wearing a blue blazer. " I told her about the man, and the boy hed had with him. "So its the same tape as last time," I said. "I dont think youll want to watch it again. "
"Not for anything. What I think Ill do, I was figuring I might do this anyway, Ill run out and buy books for my class. It shouldnt take me more than an hour. You know how to work the VCR, dont you?" I said I did. "And Ill be back in time to get ready for my appointment. Ive got somebody coming at eleven-thirty. "
"Ill be out of here by then. "
I waited until she was out the door, then got the VCR going and fast-forwarded past the Dirty Dozen footage. She let herself back in a few minutes before eleven, almost exactly an hour after shed left. By then Id watched the show twice. It ran a half hour, but the second time around Id worked the Fast Forward button, getting through it in half the time. Id rewound the thing and was standing at the window when she came back.
She said, "I just spent a hundred dollars on books. And I couldnt find half of whats on the list. "
"Couldnt you get paperbacks?"
"These are paperbacks. I dont know when Im going to find time to read all of these. " She upended the shopping bag on the couch, picked up a book and tossed it back onto the pile. "At least theyre in English," she said, "which is a good thing, since I dont happen to read Spanish or Portuguese. But are you really reading something if you read it in translation?"
"If its a good translation. "
"I suppose so, but isnt it like seeing a movie with subtitles? What youre reading just isnt the same as what theyre saying. Did you watch that thing?"
"Uh-huh. "
"And? Was it him?"
"I think so," I said. "It would be a lot easier to say if he hadnt had that goddam hood on. He must have been sweltering in a skintight rubber suit and a rubber hood. "
"Maybe the open crotch had a cooling effect. "
"He looked right to me," I said. "The one gesture, his hand on the boys hair, thats what finally rang a bell for me, but there were other points of correspondence. The way he held himself, the way he moved, these are things you cant cover up with a costume. The hands looked right. The gesture, stroking the boys hair, that was just as I remembered it. " I frowned. "I think it was the same girl, too. "
"What girl? You didnt mention a girl. You mean his partner in crime, the one with the little tits?"
"I think she was the placard girl. Strutting around the ring between rounds with a sign telling what round was coming up. "
"I dont suppose she was wearing her leather drag. "
I shook my head. "She was dressed for the beach, showing a lot of leg. I didnt pay much attention to her. "
"Ill bet. "
"I mean it. There was something faintly familiar about her but I didnt study her face. "
"Of course not. You were too busy looking at her ass. " She put a hand on my arm. "Id love to hear more," she said.
"But youre expecting company. Ill clear out. Do you mind if I leave the tape? I dont want to carry it around all day or make a special trip to get rid of it. "
"No problem. And I hate to rush you, but-"
I gave her a kiss and left.
WHEN I got out to the street I had the urge to plant myself in a doorway and see who showed up. She hadnt come right out and said that her appointment was with a john, but neither had she said otherwise, and I had been careful not to ask. Nor did I really want to lurk in the shadows trying to spot her lunch date, and speculating just what he would have her do to earn the price of all those translations from the Spanish and Portuguese.
Sometimes it bothered me. Sometimes it didnt, and sometimes I thought that it ought to bother me more or less than it did. Someday, I thought, not for the first time, I would have to get it all sorted out.
In the meantime I walked over to Madison and took a bus thirty blocks uptown. Chances gallery was one flight up over a shop that sold expensive clothing for children. The window featured a charming scene from Wind in the Willows, with the animals wearing the shops fashions. Rat wore a moss-green jumper that probably cost as much as a whole shelf full of contemporary Latin American fiction.
The brass plate downstairs read, L. CHANCE COULTER/AFRICANA. I climbed a flight of carpeted stairs. The gilt-edged black lettering on the door bore the same legend, along with BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. I didnt have an appointment, but maybe I wouldnt need one. I rang, and after a moment the door was opened by Kid Bascomb. He was wearing a three-piece suit, and he smiled broadly when he saw who it was.
"Mr. Scudder!" he said. "Its good to see you. Is Mr. Coulter expecting you?"
"Not unless he has a crystal ball. I took a chance hed be in. "
"Hell be glad to see you. Hes on the telephone but come right in, Mr. Scudder, and make yourself comfortable. Ill just tell him youre here. "
I made my way around the room, looking at the masks and statues. I didnt know the field, but you didnt need much expertise to sense the quality of the pieces on display. I was standing in front of what the label identified as a Senufo mask from the Ivory Coast when the Kid returned to tell me that Chance would be with me in a minute. "Hes on the phone with a gentleman in Antwerp," he said. "I believe thats in Belgium. "
"I believe youre right. I didnt know you were working here, Kid. "
"Oh, for some time now, Mr. Scudder. " Last night in Maspeth Id told him to call me Matt, but it was a lost cause. "You know I retired from the ring. I wasnt good enough. "
"You were damned good. "
He grinned. "Well, I met three in a row who was better. Were better. I retired, and then I looked for something to do, and Mr. Chance said to see if I liked working for him. Mr. Coulter, I mean. "
It was an easy mistake for him to make. When I first met Chance that one syllable was the only name he had, and it wasnt until he went into the art business that he added an initial in front and a surname after.
"And do you like it?"
"It beats getting hit in the face. And yes, I like it very much. Im learning things. Theres never a day I dont learn something. "
"I wish I could say the same," Chance said. "Matthew, its about time you came to see me. I thought you were going to join us last night, you and your friend. We all trooped downstairs to Eldons dressing room and when I turned around to introduce you you werent there. "
"We decided not to make a long night of it. "
"And it did turn out to be a long night. Do you still have a taste for good coffee?"
"Do you still get that special blend?"
"Jamaican Blue Mountain. The price is outrageous, of course, but look around you. " He indicated the masks and statues. "The price of everything is ridiculous. Black, right? Arthur, could you bring us some coffee? And then youll want to get at those invoices. "
He had first served me Jamaican coffee at his home, a con
verted firehouse on a quiet street in Greenpoint. His Polish neighbors thought the house belonged to a housebound retired physician named Levandowski, and that Chance was the good doctors houseman and chauffeur. Instead Chance lived there alone in a house with a full weight gym and an eight-foot pool table and walls lined with museum-quality African art.
I asked if he still had the firehouse.
"Oh, I couldnt bear to move," he said. "I thought Id have to sell in order to open this place, but I found a way. After all, I didnt have to purchase stock. I had a house jammed full of it. "
"Do you still have a collection?"
"Better than ever. In a sense its all my collection, and in another sense everything I have is for sale, so its all store stock. Do you remember that Benin bronze? The queens head?"
"With all the necklaces. "
"I overpaid for her at auction, and every three months when she didnt sell I raised the price. It finally got so high somebody couldnt resist her. I hated to see her go, but then I took the money and bought something else. " He took my arm. "Let me show you some things. I was in Africa for a month this spring, I spent two full weeks in Mali, in the Dogon country. A sweetly primitive people, their huts reminded me of the Anasazi dwellings at Mesa Verde. See, that piece is Dogon. Square holes for eyes, everything very straightforward and unapologetic. "
"Youve come a long way," I said.
"Oh, my," he said. "Havent I just?"
When I first met Chance he was successful, but in another line of work. He had been a pimp, though hardly the traditional figure with the pink Cadillac and the floppy purple hat. Hed hired me to find out who killed one of his girls.
"I owe it all to you," he said. "You put me out of business. "
That was true in a sense. By the time Id done what he hired me to do, another of his girls was dead and the rest were off his string. "You were ready for a career change anyway," I told him. "You were having a mid-life crisis. "
"Oh, I was too young for that. Im still too young for that. Matthew? You didnt just drop in to be sociable. "
"No. "
"Or for the coffee. "
"Or that either. There was somebody I saw at the fights last night. I thought maybe you might be able to tell me who he is. "
"Somebody with me? Somebody in Rasheeds corner?"
I shook my head. "Somebody sitting first row ringside in the center section. " I sketched a diagram in midair. "Heres the ring, heres where you were sitting right by the blue corner. Heres where Ballou and I were. The guy Im interested in was sitting right about here. "
"What did he look like?"
"White man, balding, say five-eleven, say a hundred and ninety pounds. "
"Cruiserweight. How was he dressed?"
"Blue blazer, gray trousers. Blue polka-dot tie with large dots on it. "
"The ties the first thing that doesnt sound like everybody else. I might have noticed a tie like that, but I dont believe I ever saw it. "
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