Lovers and Other Killers by Penelope Karageorge

Author:Penelope Karageorge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2023-02-03T14:53:23+00:00

28

Cass took Noah’s card out of her pocket and placed it down in the center of her desk. She glanced around at the familiar furniture, books. Stuff. She felt as if she had been away for weeks, months, as if she had returned from a trip abroad. So this was her life. The landscape that she cherished so desperately. Suppose she lost it all. She could survive if she could hang on to her laptop and her sanity.

Cass went to bed and fell asleep almost instantly. She woke up to the phone ringing. Bugsy Fozer was on the line.

“Are you drunk, Fozer?” Cass struggled awake. “It’s 2 A.M.”

“I finished your painting. You have to see it.”

“The paint can’t even be even dry.”

“Sure it is. It’s acrylic paint – dries fast – and glue. Also rhinestones and tin and beads and paper. It’s called mixed media. After you left last night, I was all fired up and started working on it. I could not stop. Like I was on this high.”

“I will come to your studio tomorrow, see the painting, buy the painting, and carry it away.”

“No payment. It’s a gift. And not tomorrow. Now.”

“I would not get dressed and come downtown now if Picasso was knocking at my door.”

“No need to travel. I’m here. I have been waiting for you for hours, drinking coffee in Dunkin’ Donuts and sucking up beer in Charlie Blue’s. I consider this picture one of my superior efforts. I would even call it inspired. I am across the street. I will wait here. I left the picture with your doorman. After you look at it, you can shout out your opinion to me.”

“All this trouble –”

“For you, it’s a pleasure. You acknowledge Bugsy Fozer as a human being and artist. Half of these fucks won’t even speak to me. When I was riding high they were happy to suck up my booze and use my connections.”

“Okay, give me a couple of minutes. I’m coming down.”

“I have something else for you. I have an idea about Marsha Newman’s leader. Whom that person might be.”

“Oh?”

“I was working on your painting, in the throes of creation, when I remembered something. A face. A conversation.”

“And?”

“After you look at the picture I will tell you.”

“Will the painting give me a clue?”

“That’s up to you to decide. Perhaps my idea about the Leader is unimportant to you. You think it’s just the mad ravings of Fozer, looking for attention.”

“I am interested, although barely awake.” Cass threw off the blanket. She pushed her feet into slippers and moved towards the hall closet. “I’m sure that your theory is relevant. I’m just not sure how. You do have a vivid imagination, Fozer.”

“Now come downstairs and gaze at your new work of art. I am standing across the street. Give me your reaction to the picture. Then I will cross the street and talk to you about life, and the leader. And then I will leave.”

Cass threw her coat on over her nightgown and buzzed for the elevator.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.