Deuces Down (Wild Cards 16) by George R.R. Martin

Author:George R.R. Martin [Martin, George R.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-08-01T23:21:51+00:00

From the window he could see the upper story of Kelly's house. Finn trotted back to the main rooms of the house. All the drapes were tightly closed. He returned to the bedroom and those wide open drapes.

After another look at the lights in the movie star's house Finn began riffling through the bookcases in the bedroom. Not surprisingly there were a lot of books about the movie business. There were also lot of books about Grace Kelly. Finn flipped through a few of them skimming a sentence here, a paragraph there.

On the dresser was a framed picture of Stan standing next to a marlin hanging by its tail from a wooden scaffold. This was a familiar picture to Finn. Every male in southern California had a

162MELINDA H. SNODGRASS

picture of himself next to a big fish he'd caught in Mexico. In the photo Stan was a good deal younger, and he was smiling off to the side as if to someone out of camera range. That was odd. Most of the mighty hunters beamed directly into the camera. The frame was also anomalous. It was an elaborate silver affair.

'Must have been really proud of that fish.- Finn muttered as he turned over the photo and looked at the back. There was a handwritten notation. La Paz, June 1954.

The date hit some memory or association. Finn stood struggling with that sense of reaching for something just beyond reach. Then it bit. Ile lunged back across the bedroom, and pulled down one of the biographies of Kelly. He flipped quickly through the pages.

The start of principal photogmphy um delayed ox To Catch a Thief due to Kelly's exhasstion. She recsperated for several weeks in Mexico before returnisg to begin work. . . .

There was more, but Finn had what he needed. Kelly and Stan had both been in Mexico in June of '54. Question was, were they together? Finn flipped forward a few more pages to the section about Prince Rainier of Monaco.

Odds makers in Vegas were offering two to one that Kelly would uwd the dashing prince, but it was the cynics who didn't Wien, fairy tales who made the best choice—ix 1955 Hollywood's princess declined the offer to join European royalty.

Finn closed the book. He looked back at the framed photo. Ile looked out the window at the distant lights in Kelly's home. The lights went out. Grace Kelly had gone to bed. "She didn't marry Rainier because she couldn't" Finn said aloud. "She was already married to you. Wasn't she. Stanr It was an idiotic thing to say. but it was the only thing that made any sense.

The only explanation for why the make-up man bad stayed so loyal for all those years.

'AU those years while she was fucking every new leading man. You were a schmuck. Stan." Finn shoved the book back into its place on the shelf. 'And you need to go home and go to sleep. You're talking to yourself. Bradley, my man."

163

A FACE FOR THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR

V***

The next morning he put in a call to the Myth Patrol.

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