[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
bought some paintings at auction together, he said, switching his attention
to Mike. You re the skeptic, Detective. Check with Christie s. Back in May we
were partners on some minor Impressionist works that sold pretty reasonably.
Lowell s in on this, too?
Oh, no. Not at all. But a lot of the things we bought well, it just made
more sense for Deni to keep them for us, to store them until we decided
whether we were going to hang on to them or sell them to clients. I mean,
Lowell had warehouses and guards and insurance. Even their apartment was a
safer place to keep artworks than any temporary facility she and I could
arrange. We were lovers, after all, Detective. I didn t have to get a signed
pledge from Deni when I agreed to let her hold on to something we bought as
partners. She wasn t trying to screw me out of anything, if you ll forgive the
expression.
So you think some of the art you own is being spirited away by Lowell?
Possibly. And I don t even mean intentionally. Lowell doesn t have any reason
to know the details about Deni s latest acquisitions. I just think there
should be some way for me to have a look at what he s got before he ships it
out of town or abroad. I have papers and sales receipts for everything. I m
not asking you to get in the middle of deciding what s mine and what isn t. My
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lawyer will handle all that. He wanted me to, well, to exaggerate to you a
bit.
What do you mean?
Wrenley was fidgeting now. I called my lawyer to ask him to get involved this
morning. The problem is, of course, that Lowell won t let me inside to look,
neither at the gallery nor the apartment still their home, certainly. It was
my lawyer s idea to come to you, Miss Cooper. Look, I don t want to lie to
you, but he suggested I swear to you that I know Lowell Caxton has got
property in the gallery that belongs to Deni and to me. That perhaps then you
could intercede and go in with a warrant to search for things. He tapped his
fingers on the arm of the chair. Frankly, I have no idea what Deni did with
some of the paintings. I can t swear where they are that would simply be a
logical guess, but not necessarily true. Bryan Daughtry s been very helpful.
I m going to go through his warehouse, too. Perhaps some of the things I m
looking for are stored with him.
Can you give me an inventory, a list of the works you have a claim to? I
asked.
I don t have one prepared right now, but I can have it drawn up within a day
or two. Wrenley s hands were on his knees, and he looked down at the floor
before he spoke again. When you re in love with a woman as young and healthy
as Deni, you just never think that she s going to walk out the door and . . .
never, never come back. The business side of our partnership was the last
thing it occurred to me to worry about during this past week. That afternoon,
I just waited and waited for her to meet me for lunch
The day she disappeared? She was on her way to meet you? Chapman asked.
Perhaps I have surprised you after all, Detective. I assumed you d know that,
from the housekeeper or someone you d interviewed. Didn t you ask me that the
first time we met? I was sure you had.
Chapman seemed embarrassed that he didn t know one of the fairly basic facts
about Denise Caxton s last day. The guys who work in her garage have her
going out with the car early in the morning. No one else we talked to seemed
to know much about her plans for the day. What did you do when she didn t show
up for lunch?
I waited half an hour. Tried her at home, in the car, at the gallery. No
luck. Check with the maître d at Jean-Georges I thought you would have done
that by now. I must have tied up his phone for twenty minutes calling around
to find Deni.
Were you upset? Call the police to look for her?
No, I suppose the maître d would also tell you I wasn t very upset, so
there s no point pretending. Nothing from which a couple of martinis couldn t
distract me. I d half expected she might stand me up that day. We d had a bit
of a tiff the week before.
Business?
Not business at all. And in retrospect, not exactly pleasure, either.
Wrenley looked me in the eye. I told you when I met you the first time that
Deni and I dated other people. Well, I ran into someone in Paris, a woman
who d been recently widowed and was doing the grand tour to announce that her
mourning period was officially over. We spent a weekend together, which there
was no need for Deni to find out about. Unfortunate coincidence, she turned
out to be a friend of Deni s.
Marina Sette? Chapman asked.
Bravo, Detective! Forty-eight hours in a small hotel on the Left Bank, and
tout New York seems to know all about it. I know Marina told Deni, and that s
what had her so mad at me. Deni didn t mind what she didn t know about, but
Marina really pushed her nose into it.
Was it over between you and Deni?
Of course not. But it was cool, to say the least. She made a point of letting
me know that she was spending a lot of time with Preston Mattox. But that was
just to get back at me.
You don t think she was in love with him?
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Deni was an intensely physical creature, Ms. Cooper. She d once made the
mistake of telling me, when she was unusually giddy in the middle of a rather
vigorous round of lovemaking, that there wasn t enough Viagra in all the
laboratories in the country to get Preston through another month of his
relationship with Deni.
Every time I was on the verge of liking her a bit more, I d hear something
that would cause me to take three mental giant steps in reverse. No point in
exploring with Wrenley whether his rival had other redeeming features.
When she didn t show up at the restaurant for lunch and I couldn t find out
where she was, I thought that all she needed was some time to get over what I
had done with Marina. She d only graced me with the luncheon meeting because
we had some business decisions to make and because she wouldn t accept an
evening date with me. She already had dinner plans with Mattox. I didn t
think I had displayed any expression, but Wrenley looked from me to Mike.
Surely you knew that, didn t you? Preston would have had more to worry about
than I did when she didn t show up for that date.
I guess my trip down here wasn t altogether useless, Wrenley said. I do
hope you ll give some thought to looking into why Lowell Caxton is in such a
hurry to close his gallery.
I had no intention of telling Wrenley what we would do next. I d suggest you
let your lawyer go ahead with whatever action he thinks will protect your
business interests as well. I stood up to see him out. Thanks for letting us
know about it.
Do you still have any contact with Marina Sette? Mike asked.
Nothing directly. But I hear about her from time to time.
When s the last time you saw her?
Couple of months ago.
She call you when she came to New York?
You mean yesterday?
Chapman didn t hesitate for a moment. Yeah, yesterday.
No, but she called Bryan Daughtry. He told me that last night when he
telephoned to let me know about Lowell Caxton. Bryan said that Marina had
stopped by the new gallery on Twenty-second Street to see him. Probably to
find out if he d heard any rumors about whether Deni had left a will, or any
instructions about who was to get which paintings.
I thought she had told us she detested Daughtry. Why did she go to him?
She could hardly go to Lowell, considering their relationship, and she wasn t
talking to me.
What did Bryan tell her?
That the only will he knew of was the original one Lowell s lawyers had [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szkicerysunki.xlx.pl
bought some paintings at auction together, he said, switching his attention
to Mike. You re the skeptic, Detective. Check with Christie s. Back in May we
were partners on some minor Impressionist works that sold pretty reasonably.
Lowell s in on this, too?
Oh, no. Not at all. But a lot of the things we bought well, it just made
more sense for Deni to keep them for us, to store them until we decided
whether we were going to hang on to them or sell them to clients. I mean,
Lowell had warehouses and guards and insurance. Even their apartment was a
safer place to keep artworks than any temporary facility she and I could
arrange. We were lovers, after all, Detective. I didn t have to get a signed
pledge from Deni when I agreed to let her hold on to something we bought as
partners. She wasn t trying to screw me out of anything, if you ll forgive the
expression.
So you think some of the art you own is being spirited away by Lowell?
Possibly. And I don t even mean intentionally. Lowell doesn t have any reason
to know the details about Deni s latest acquisitions. I just think there
should be some way for me to have a look at what he s got before he ships it
out of town or abroad. I have papers and sales receipts for everything. I m
not asking you to get in the middle of deciding what s mine and what isn t. My
Page 139
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
lawyer will handle all that. He wanted me to, well, to exaggerate to you a
bit.
What do you mean?
Wrenley was fidgeting now. I called my lawyer to ask him to get involved this
morning. The problem is, of course, that Lowell won t let me inside to look,
neither at the gallery nor the apartment still their home, certainly. It was
my lawyer s idea to come to you, Miss Cooper. Look, I don t want to lie to
you, but he suggested I swear to you that I know Lowell Caxton has got
property in the gallery that belongs to Deni and to me. That perhaps then you
could intercede and go in with a warrant to search for things. He tapped his
fingers on the arm of the chair. Frankly, I have no idea what Deni did with
some of the paintings. I can t swear where they are that would simply be a
logical guess, but not necessarily true. Bryan Daughtry s been very helpful.
I m going to go through his warehouse, too. Perhaps some of the things I m
looking for are stored with him.
Can you give me an inventory, a list of the works you have a claim to? I
asked.
I don t have one prepared right now, but I can have it drawn up within a day
or two. Wrenley s hands were on his knees, and he looked down at the floor
before he spoke again. When you re in love with a woman as young and healthy
as Deni, you just never think that she s going to walk out the door and . . .
never, never come back. The business side of our partnership was the last
thing it occurred to me to worry about during this past week. That afternoon,
I just waited and waited for her to meet me for lunch
The day she disappeared? She was on her way to meet you? Chapman asked.
Perhaps I have surprised you after all, Detective. I assumed you d know that,
from the housekeeper or someone you d interviewed. Didn t you ask me that the
first time we met? I was sure you had.
Chapman seemed embarrassed that he didn t know one of the fairly basic facts
about Denise Caxton s last day. The guys who work in her garage have her
going out with the car early in the morning. No one else we talked to seemed
to know much about her plans for the day. What did you do when she didn t show
up for lunch?
I waited half an hour. Tried her at home, in the car, at the gallery. No
luck. Check with the maître d at Jean-Georges I thought you would have done
that by now. I must have tied up his phone for twenty minutes calling around
to find Deni.
Were you upset? Call the police to look for her?
No, I suppose the maître d would also tell you I wasn t very upset, so
there s no point pretending. Nothing from which a couple of martinis couldn t
distract me. I d half expected she might stand me up that day. We d had a bit
of a tiff the week before.
Business?
Not business at all. And in retrospect, not exactly pleasure, either.
Wrenley looked me in the eye. I told you when I met you the first time that
Deni and I dated other people. Well, I ran into someone in Paris, a woman
who d been recently widowed and was doing the grand tour to announce that her
mourning period was officially over. We spent a weekend together, which there
was no need for Deni to find out about. Unfortunate coincidence, she turned
out to be a friend of Deni s.
Marina Sette? Chapman asked.
Bravo, Detective! Forty-eight hours in a small hotel on the Left Bank, and
tout New York seems to know all about it. I know Marina told Deni, and that s
what had her so mad at me. Deni didn t mind what she didn t know about, but
Marina really pushed her nose into it.
Was it over between you and Deni?
Of course not. But it was cool, to say the least. She made a point of letting
me know that she was spending a lot of time with Preston Mattox. But that was
just to get back at me.
You don t think she was in love with him?
Page 140
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Deni was an intensely physical creature, Ms. Cooper. She d once made the
mistake of telling me, when she was unusually giddy in the middle of a rather
vigorous round of lovemaking, that there wasn t enough Viagra in all the
laboratories in the country to get Preston through another month of his
relationship with Deni.
Every time I was on the verge of liking her a bit more, I d hear something
that would cause me to take three mental giant steps in reverse. No point in
exploring with Wrenley whether his rival had other redeeming features.
When she didn t show up at the restaurant for lunch and I couldn t find out
where she was, I thought that all she needed was some time to get over what I
had done with Marina. She d only graced me with the luncheon meeting because
we had some business decisions to make and because she wouldn t accept an
evening date with me. She already had dinner plans with Mattox. I didn t
think I had displayed any expression, but Wrenley looked from me to Mike.
Surely you knew that, didn t you? Preston would have had more to worry about
than I did when she didn t show up for that date.
I guess my trip down here wasn t altogether useless, Wrenley said. I do
hope you ll give some thought to looking into why Lowell Caxton is in such a
hurry to close his gallery.
I had no intention of telling Wrenley what we would do next. I d suggest you
let your lawyer go ahead with whatever action he thinks will protect your
business interests as well. I stood up to see him out. Thanks for letting us
know about it.
Do you still have any contact with Marina Sette? Mike asked.
Nothing directly. But I hear about her from time to time.
When s the last time you saw her?
Couple of months ago.
She call you when she came to New York?
You mean yesterday?
Chapman didn t hesitate for a moment. Yeah, yesterday.
No, but she called Bryan Daughtry. He told me that last night when he
telephoned to let me know about Lowell Caxton. Bryan said that Marina had
stopped by the new gallery on Twenty-second Street to see him. Probably to
find out if he d heard any rumors about whether Deni had left a will, or any
instructions about who was to get which paintings.
I thought she had told us she detested Daughtry. Why did she go to him?
She could hardly go to Lowell, considering their relationship, and she wasn t
talking to me.
What did Bryan tell her?
That the only will he knew of was the original one Lowell s lawyers had [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]