The Storyteller by Arthur Reid

Author:Arthur Reid
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780385510998
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2003-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

Thirty-seven

Fred brought the large envelope into my study, where I was reading the first three chapters of Quentin Bass's new novel, The Sunset Demon. Why would I read anything by him after the scene we had in the restaurant? Two days after his blowup, Quentin called me and apologized—sort of.

“It wasn't Quentin Bass talking last night, Steve. It was my old nemesis, Mr. Tanqueray. He's never been a friend of mine. He's always been a nasty, mean prick, and though he's not sorry, I guess I am.”

Of course, a large part of the reason for the rapprochement was that Quentin wanted me to read these pages. They were pure Bass: some fine lyrical writing set in a morass of self-indulgent ranting. The book that Chancery had published, and I had underwritten, was doing poorly. The few reviews it had received were lousy. Quentin, predictably, had justifications for this, none of them having to do with him: the bookstore chains didn't give a rat's ass for literary fiction; Parch and Chancery were too busy planning the publication of my next novel to give any attention to his book; and last, but best of all, the jacket art on his book sucked.

“But you told me that you loved the painting on the jacket when they showed it to you.”

“I was just trying to be nice. And they printed the thing way darker than when I first saw it. And what about my name? You need a jeweler's loupe to read it. I do have a following, you know. It might not be the size of your faceless hordes, but it's still there.”

I put down Quentin's pages and looked at the manila envelope, which had been sent by certified mail, return receipt requested. The return address indicated that it was from Hamilton Cray, Ben's lawyer. I had made Cray, along with Tina and myself, a trustee of the Chambers Outreach Foundation. Periodically, I received reports from him on the foundation, which was run out of his law office in Wiscasset. Instead of a financial report, the envelope contained a note from Cray, attached to a white letter-size envelope.

Dear Steven:

I trust this finds you and Tina in good health. Things are running smoothly at the foundation. The new accountant I hired to keep the books, a woman named Rachelle Broome, comes in twice a month and is a marked improvement over the fellow from Brunswick. I will be sending you the quarterly financials in a few weeks. At this point our expenses and disbursements appear to be running as we expected. No surprises there. I will recommend, however, when we meet next, that we purchase a new computer with the proper software for our needs. Also, a part-time clerk should be considered. Bernice, who does all the typing and filing, is becoming a bit overwhelmed handling the daily flow of inquiries. Real estate agents keep contacting me to inquire if Ben's house will ever be put up for sale. That's your decision, of course, but I'm sure if you decided to sell, it would move quickly.

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