Man With a Squirrel
Page 25
Who else? Molly was fine. Fred was unscathed. Clayton was at the Ritz. And the painting was almost complete. He’d drive the last parts to New Bedford first thing, before Bookrajian started getting cute with search warrants. As far as making it right with the owner or owners of the fragments—the one Marek had given Fred, and the last two smuggled out by Molly—Fred and Clay would worry about that later. The first thing was to get the painting back together. Something was owed to Copley, and to the memory of Martin Clarke.
Fred clothed himself and went down to the kitchen, which was inhabited by three persons surrounding warmed-up platters of egg foo young and thrice-cooked shrimp. “You remembered my birthday!” Fred exclaimed.
“We have a present for you,” Molly said, after they all sat around the table and Fred had served everyone. Terry pulled the package from under the table. The hands of the kitchen clock reached seven-eleven. Fred tasted his egg foo young. “How on earth did you manage this?”
Sam turned crimson with pride. “We made Ophelia buy it for us last night, and Terry and I kept it all night under our beds. We remembered. Chinese for your birthday.”
“It’s delicious. Perfect. Is the package for me? A present?”
“Open the goddamned package,” Molly said. “You don’t know how hard three people worked to get it here.”
Fred tore paper. “It’s a glove! It’s a beauty!”
“Let’s try it!” said Terry.
Fred ate a shrimp and looked at his companions. Terry and Sam were dressed and fed and fit. They had their gloves. Sam had a baseball ready. The rain poured down.
“Honey, it’s raining,” Molly protested toward them all.
“Jesus, Mom,” Sam said, heading for the door, followed by Fred and Terry. “What do you want, snow?”
ALSO BY NICHOLAS KILMER
Harmony in Flesh and Black
Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
Publishers since 1866
115 West 18th Street
New York, New York 10011
Henry Holt® is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
Copyright © 1996 by Nicholas Kilmer
All rights reserved.
Published in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd., 195 Allstate Parkway, Markham, Ontario L3R 4T8.
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.
ISBN 0-8050-3666-0
First Edition—1996
eISBN 9781466879485
First eBook edition: July 2014