Some of them are
This didn’t sound right, none of it did.
“I’ve got to get ahold of her, Jack. I’ve got to know what she’s got ready to go. If I can’t get back to these galleries with some kind of commitment soon, they’ll write her off. That would be really bad for her future. You got to help me out here, Jackie. My bread and butter’s on the line, and so is hers.”
“What can I do?” Jack queried.
“Tell me about this thing she went on with Ginny. She hates my guts too, by the way.”
“I don’t know anything about it,” Jack said. “She said it was a creative retreat of some sort, said she wanted to ‘find’ herself. And she said some rich guy was putting her up.”
“Khoronos,” Stewie said.
“Yeah. Khoronos. If you ask me, the whole thing sounds pretty fucked up.”
“We finally agree on something. Do you know where Khoronos lives?”
“She wouldn’t tell me. I think she was afraid I’d hound her or something. She hit me with all this the night we broke up.”
Stewie stirred his gin with his finger. He’d grown his pinky nail long and painted it white. “I met him once,” he said.
“Pompous but refined,” Stewie answered. “Something awesome about the way he carries himself and the way he talked. The word ‘scintillating’ comes to mind.”
“And real good-looking,” Stewie was kind enough to continue. He ordered another Sapphire from Craig. “Sharp dresser, tall, well proportioned.
Jack frowned.
“Human beauty’s a wondrous thing, whether you’re a man or a woman. Too bad you can’t relate to that, Jackie.”
“Yeah, too bad,” Jack muttered. “Go on.”
“What I’m saying is this guy Khoronos is a real hot number. Veronica fell for him the instant she met him.”
Each word of Stewie’s revelation made Jack sink further. He remembered what Craig had said. No matter how much you love a girl, there was always someone around the next corner waiting to ruin it all. There was always a Khoronos. “What else do you know about him?”
“He bought one of Vern’s paintings. The guy was carrying twenty-five large in cash. Tell me that’s not weird. He sent a couple of guys around the next morning to pick up the picture.”
“Delivery men? Big deal.”
“These guys weren’t delivery men. They almost acted like servants. Heartbreakers, Jackie. Musclemen with class.”
Now Jack’s head spun with the most terrible images. “Creative retreat, my ass,” he mumbled under his breath.
“I know what you’re thinking. We both know there’s a side to Veronica that’s very susceptible to outside influences. In a lot of ways, she’s very vulnerable.”
“What are you saying?”
Stewie put a good dent in his Sapphire. “Come, Jackie. Guys like that, rich, sexy, art enthusiasts… Veronica will be putty in their hands, and you know it.”
“Ginny’ll keep an eye on her,” Jack lamely suggested.
Stewie threw his head back and laughed, a bit too loudly. “Ginny protecting Veronica is like a vampire in a fucking blood bank. Wake up, Jackie. She’s a feminist existentialist, for Christ’s sake. Read her books. They’re all about women breaking free of relationships, sexual independence, doing whatever they feel like to find actualization.”
Jack didn’t know what actualization meant, but it didn’t sound good.
Stewie ordered yet another gin. “I’ve always believed that love between two people is a holy thing. Two people together are stronger than when they’re on their own. There’re a lot of bad folks in the world, Jackie. Users, liars, con men, and every other kind of motherfucker who’ll take advantage of vulnerable people for their own kicks. But love protects us from people like that.”
“You’re the last person I’d expect to hear that from.”
“We all have our fronts, Jackie. You do, I do. You think my only interest in Veronica is financial.”
“As a matter of fact, Stewie, I do. Veronica’s your only important client. Without her, you’d be washed up.”
“That’s true. But she’s also my friend, and I care about her.”
This was very bizarre. Stewie was showing a side of himself Jack didn’t think existed. Could it be possible that Stewie was something more than a self-centered art pimp? Beneath the new-wave clothes and hairdo, and the decadent pretenses, was there really a decent human being?
“You still care about her too, Jackie.”
Jack stared at him.
“All I mean is that Veronica could be in a bad situation, and goddamn Ginny isn’t going to be any help at all. Veronica’s not a decisive person, and as far as this retreat thing goes, Ginny’ll be right there to help her make all the wrong decisions.”
“Which makes Veronica even more vulnerable.”
“You got it. This Khoronos guy, he’s slick, he’s a smooth operator. He knew all the right things to say to impress Vern, and all the right ways to say them. It took him all of five fucking minutes to make her completely oblivious to common sense, and it was almost like he had the whole retreat thing planned in advance. The fact is he’s a perfect stranger. Khoronos and his two pretty boys? They could be nuts, for all we know.”
Jack began to foment. Stewie was right. Who knew who these guys were, and what their game was?
“I saw them off, Vern and Ginny. Vern promised to keep in touch on what was going on with the gallery bids. I haven’t heard one word from her.” Stewie drained another gin. “You’ve got to take care of this, Jack.”
“I don’t know where she is,” Jack countered. “I don’t know anything about any of it.”
“Don’t you give a shit at all, man?”
“Of course I do, you asshole.”
“Then do something about it, shithead.”
“What?”
“Come on, Jackie. You’re a cop. You can get a line on this Khoronos clown. Just do whatever it is you cops do when you want to know something.”
“I could run his last name if he’s got a criminal record, but that would take a while. I could try MVA too. If I had his date of birth or his S.S. number, it’d be a lot faster, but we don’t have any that shit. You say he bought a painting with cash? Were they big bills, small bills?”
“Big bills, man. C-notes.”
“You still have the money?”
“Fuck no, I deposited it the same day.”
“Shit,” Jack muttered. Banks kept serial number records of large withdrawals. “He give it to you in anything. An envelope?”
“No, he gave it to me in a fucking toolbox. Of course there was an envelope. But there was nothing on it.”
“You still have the envelope?”
“I threw it out.”
Jack frowned. “All right. You said these two guys picked up the painting Khoronos bought. What kind of
