Chapter 79 – The Feud Continues
The team sat on the fourth story porch of the Gromstov house, looking out at ships leaving Charleston harbor. They all were there, including the big, dumb borzoi dog (now weighing in at 140 pounds) that had started this caper by sliding across the polished hardwood floors and crashing head first into the antique desk they had stolen from a Hermitage Museum warehouse a year earlier. Henric and Helstof hosted the gathering, the Ps sitting together on a wicker settee, Gale blabbing to Catherine about her new Armani pants suit, The Whosey writing the lyrics to another song for Catherine in his head, Baryshnikov wondered about the music to which he would choreographic his first new ballet, the woman wondering if retiring for good would be boring after what she’d gone through over the last six months, and Bart and Selgey were wondering if they should come out of retirement and mix it up with the young-uns from the Mariinsky who now formed the dance troupe of the new company. That left Roger and Gwen, who waited for the right moment to tell the others about the news. As usual, the Junes were on to the next caper. Their perception of themselves was that they were well to do Charleston aristocrats, who liked to drink good wine and eat great food in interesting restaurants, and liked to live in a house populated with nice antiques. The rest of the team saw them as people around whom strange and sometimes wild things occur.
Roger looked at his wife, saying, tell them. So she did. “Hey, y’all, we have some news.” Several members of the group reacted with feelings of ambivalence. News from the Junes could be interesting and fun, or it could mean they would have to starting carrying guns again. Everyone looked at her. “Roger found the artifacts. The Hermitage stuff. He knows where Stirg has it stashed.” The ambivalent feelings increased, and spread to one or two other members of the team. Gwen handed it back to Roger.
“When Nev paid us the visit the other night, trying to snatch The Whosey, we talked with him about several things. Given the circumstances, he was pretty accommodating.”
Henric said, “Accommodating?”
“Gwen asked him a basic question. ‘What do you want out of life, now that you’re getting older’? He said what he didn’t want any more was to do the commando thing. Said he did that for twenty years, and it was exciting, and he knew he was doing things for his country, good things. But, it was very demanding, and now he wanted something different.” They waited to hear what Nev wanted now. Now was what affected their lives. “He said he has a friend, Otis, and they’ve been spending time over at Stirg’s place, hanging out. Nev said he likes that, not really doing much of anything. Said he paid his dues to Israel, and has taken care of Stirg for a lot of years, and now he wants to kick back.
“Gwen asked him where the artifacts are, and he told us. Just like that. We didn’t have to waterboard him or anything. She put him in the mood, asking him about his life, and she did that Deneuvian influence thing on him, and he told us.”
The Ps looked at each other, and Helstof and Henric stared out at the ocean. The rest, Selgey, Bart, The Whosey, Baryshnikov, and the woman kept looking at Roger. They weren’t sure what to expect next. Finally Pater said, “We’ve just done a ballet. A wonderful production. Everything was perfect, and we’re famous in the ballet world right now.” He paused, not all that comfortable with challenging Gwen and Roger. But he said, “Do we really need to go after the artifacts? Now? Can’t we wait for a while?”
Gwen said, “We’re a team. We do want everyone wants, not what Roger and I want. We were sitting around talking the other night and Roger went over our history with Stirg, and looking at that, we thought it might be interesting to, ah, engage him again. That’s all, just a thought.” She sat back and sipped her glass of Bandol rose.
Gale, the mouth, said, “Let’s hear it, Roger. The history with Stirg.”
Roger’s accounting went thusly. “A year ago we started by stealing the Hermitage stuff. Stirg found out about it, about us bringing it here, and he was pissed, saying it was Russia’s heritage. A few months later he sent Anna into our home in the middle of the night. Thanks to our dog,” and he leaned over to pat the borzoi, “that failed. We didn’t like that, and went on the offensive by invading his house and teaching him a lesson in manners. Then he went a little nuts, and tried to ram us out in the harbor with his power cruiser. We got lucky, and it was him that landed on his ass on the deck, and his boat on a sandbar. Stirg is tough, smart, and determined, we learned that, and he found out where we had the Hermitage stuff stashed, and he swiped the whole lot one night, every painting, every silver bowl, every carpet, every table.”
Helstof said, “Thank goodness he didn’t get the desk.”
“No, he didn’t get the items we sent to your house. But he got most of it. Then, thanks to your pooch here, we found the Stravinsky score, and decided to do the production. That was another thing Stirg decided he didn’t like, same reason, thinking we were stealing Russia’s cultural heritage. So he sent Nev into The Hall and tried to brace us. Thanks to Peter and Pater, that failed.” The Ps knew it really was Roger that got the drop on Nev, but they didn’t mind taking a little credit, due or not. So they smiled at each other. Roger went on. “A few weeks after that, Stirg managed to steal a copy of the score, and take it back to Saint Petersburg, which is when the dueling ballets thing started. Finally, when we were up against it with finding great dancers, Gwen came up with the idea of stealing dancers from the Mariinsky. That did two things: it brought a world class troupe here, and it stuck it to Stirg pretty good. And that’s where we stand now.”
Helstof stood up, put her back against the porch railing, and looked from one member of the team to the next, right down the line. She had Gwen’s back on this, and moved the conversation to a decision point. “Each side has some wins and loses. We’re a formidable team, and so is Stirg. I’m not really sure which side is up in the competition, but that’s not the point. We have an opportunity here. Roger has found the Hermitage stuff, and Gwen wants to steal it back from him. The ballet production was an opportunity to shine, and we did. We shone brightly. Now we can do something else. This will be a private adventure, not public, like the ballet. But we’ll know about if we pull it off. It’s another challenge for the team, and we know it’s good to not let grass grow under our feet.” Again she looked at each team member, straight in the eyes. “We’re going to decide right now. No waiting, no thinking it over, no ‘I’ll tell you tomorrow’. Each of us….we’re in, or we’re out.” She looked at her husband and said, “I’m in, dear. I’m in, with Roger and Gwen. How about you?” Henric raised his wineglass to his wife. She looked at the Ps, who had been in on the original heist of the artifacts.
Pater said, “I’d rather be dancing than stealing stuff, but I’m with them. I’m in.” Peter squeezed Pater’s hand, and nodded.
The B stood up, smiling. “It’s been a great adventure, working with you. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. And now, I have the chance to choreograph ballets for the next three years, for the great dancers of the Mariinsky. And that is what I want to do. So, I will have to decline the offer.”
The Whosey said, “I’m with The B. I’m an artist. I have more songs to write. It’s been a blast, but I’m out too.” He smiled at Gwen, knowing he just had given up the chance to hang some more with her.
The other four, almost at the same time, said, “I’m in.” That was the woman, Selgey, Bart, and, of course, with the biggest mouth, Gale. Helstof motioned to everyone to stand, and when they did, she said, “To all of us, making art, or sticking it to Stirg.”
Gwen felt very relaxed sitting on the porch with her friends, now that the ballet production was over, and the course of their immediate future had been charted. She leaned over and patted the dog on the head. Some local kids down on the beach looked up and waved. Everyone waved back except The Whosey, who just about had the last stanza of lyrics done. The dog recognized the
kids down below and barked, which made the kids laugh, and yell up, “Can she come down to the beach?”
Gwen smiled, and then leaned over to her husband, saying, “Dear, I found a gun on the ground under the hydrangea at the back steps. Do you know anything about that?”
Roger looked at the glass in his hand, dripping with condensation created by the chilled white Bordeaux wine in it, and remembered. Damn. Forgot about it. He said, “Oh, yeah, that must be Nev’s. He had it when he came the other night.”
“So, it’s been out there since just before opening night? Under the hydrangea?” Roger nodded while taking a sip of his wine, thinking that would mitigate his admission that he’d forgotten about the gun; left it lying around in their back yard. Gwen was feeling wonderful, so she said, “Don’t worry, dear. I added it to our collection.”
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Richard Dorrance lives in America's most beautiful town,
Charleston, South Carolina. You can look at other books at his website: richarddorrance.com
The Lost Ballet Page 79