The Music Lovers - Jonathan Valin by Jonathan Valin

Author:Jonathan Valin
Language: eng
Format: epub

"Thanks," I said, turning away from the counter.

"Mr. Stoner?" Pavel Fleischer was standing right behind me. He had a sad look on his long, pensive face.

"I think I must tell you something. In private, please."

"O.K."

We went down the hall to a consultation room fitted out with a round wooden table and several chairs. Fleischer sat down at the table and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He shook one out and half the pack came with it. Blushing he bent over and picked them up, shoving them back in the pack one by one.

"Oh hell," he said, tossing the pack on the table and putting his hands to his face. "I'm so ashamed. I don't know how to say this."

"Is it about Leon?"

He nodded, dragging his hands down his cheeks and pulling the flesh under his eyes with them. "This is awful. Leon, he was my first buddy when I move here. He teaches me about music and records. I wouldn't make a living if not for Leon."

"You're a musician?"

"I sell records. Like Leon. Records and other stuff."

"What other stuff ?"

"Junk. Cameras, books, paintings. Anything I find secondhand. I go to estate sales, auctions. I have customers who will buy anything for the right price. Emigrés. Greenhorns, you know?" He shook his head unhappily. "This is so shameful."

I stared at him for a moment, wondering if he had enough arm to push a bookshelf full of records onto my head. He was certainly in an agony of remorse over Leon. And the robberies were the only things I could think of that might have caused it. "Don't tell me you're the one who's been stealing Leon's records?" I said.

Pavel Fleischer dropped his hands from his cheeks and slapped the table with his palms. "Me! Steal records from Leon! Oh, please. What kind of man do you think of me?"

His face twisted with disgust.

"I'm sorry," I said quickly. "It was just a wild guess. What is it you wanted to say?"

"It's about Sheila."

"You have some information about Sheila?"

He nodded. "I seen something—maybe it could be important. Maybe not."

"What did you see?"

"This guy Bob?" He swallowed hard. "I think maybe I have met him."

"When?"

"I buy records from him, maybe. Many years ago in Kentucky."

I started to get a little excited. "Go on."

"It is Sheila who tells me he's in town and has records to sell. I go over and talk to him. We meet in this motel by the river. You know this one? Big cylinder with the restaurant?"

"The Quality Court?"

Pavel nodded. "Yes. This is the one. Anyway I go up to his room and Sheila, she is there, too. I think . . . I don't know what I think. This guy, he shows me these records he's got. Says he was in the record business, you know—rep'd for one of the record companies. He says he would like to keep these records, but he is always on road. Besides he needs money. I say, 'Sure. I got money, you got goods.

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