Tommy Savorne pressed the buzzer of Nicole D'Orleans's apartment and thought of how strange it was going to be to see her standing there and not Shelly.
He had tried-often, lately-to remember the first time he saw Shelly. He couldn't. That was another odd thing. He had a good memory and there didn't seem to be any reason why he shouldn't remember Shelly. She'd been a person you could picture clearly. Maybe it was the poses she struck. She was never-what was the word?-random about anything she did. She was never careless in the way she stood or sat or spoke.
Or in what she decided to do.
He had recent images: Shelly on Asilomar Beach in Pacific Grove or at Point Lobos, on the bluffs where the park rangers were always telling you to stay away from the edge. Man, he could picture her clearly there.
He pictured her in bed.
But the first time they met, no, he couldn't see that at all.
He'd tried a lot lately.
Nicole opened the door.
'Hey there,' she said.
'Hi, babe.' He took off his cowboy hat, kissed her cheek and hugged her and felt that wonderful presence of a voluptuous woman against your body. She looked good: a pale blue silk dress with a high neckline, high heels, hair teased up and back. The makeup-well, she was a little over-the-line there, but he could tone it down with some gels on the lights. He picked up his camera bags and carried them inside.
He noticed her dangling zirconia earrings. They were pretty but he'd get lens flare off of them. They'd have to go.
'You look nice,' he said.
'Thanks, come on in. You want a drink?'
'Sure. Juice. Mineral water.'
'So you've, like, completely stopped drinking?'
'Yep,' he said.
'Good for you. You mind if I…'
'Oh, God, no. Go right ahead.'
Nicole poured two orange juices. Added vodka to hers. The bottle vibrated slightly in her hand as she poured. He smiled. 'What, you nervous?'
'A little I guess. Isn't that weird? I do a sex film and no big deal. I'm on camera with my clothes on and I get butterflies in my tummy.'
'Ah, it'll be a piece of cake.' They clinked glasses. 'To your new career.'
She sipped the drink, then set the glass down. Her eyes swiveled; she'd been thinking about something, it seemed. She decided to say it. 'If this works out, Tommy, you think there'll maybe be others I could do?'
Tommy drank down half the juice. 'I don't see why not.' Then: 'I ought to start getting set up. Can you show me the kitchen?'
She led him into the large, tiled room. It was chrome and white. In the center of the ceiling was a large steel rack hanging from chains. Dozens of heavy copper pans and bowls hung from it.
'This'll work just fine.'
'We had it redone last year.'
He looked over the room. 'We can use those pans. Copper looks good on camera.'
Together they began assembling the camera and lights.
Nicole asked, 'Was it hard for you to, you know, get out of the business?'
'Out of porn? Yeah, financially it was a pain. What I did was assist at some film companies for a while.'
'Like what Rune's doing?'
'Rune? Oh, that girl. Yeah, like her. And eventually I started getting some jobs as a cameraman, then I directed some documentaries.'
'I'd like to act. I keep thinking I could take lessons. I mean, how hard can it be? Shelly had a good coach. Arthur Tucker. She said he helped her a lot. I don't know why he hasn't been around. He didn't go to the memorial service. I thought he would've called.'
'The coach?'
'Yeah.'
'I don't know,' Tommy said. 'When somebody dies it makes people feel funny. They can't deal with it.' He turned to her, examined her closely. 'You should act. You should be always in front of the camera. You're very beautiful.'
Their eyes met for a moment. A copper bowl paused in Nicole's hand. She looked away.
He finished assembling the camera and lights. Nicole watched him, the smooth, efficient way he handled the equipment. She leaned against the island, absently spinning the round-bottomed copper bowl. She looked down at its hypnotizing motion.
'I know Shelly got some kind of kick out of the porn films she made but, all in all, I don't see why she didn't give it up.'
'Because,' Tommy said, stepping next to her, 'she was a whore. Just like you.' And he brought the long, lead pipe down on the back of Nicole's head.
CHAPTER TWENTY
They ended up at her houseboat.
First, after the country-western club they were drenched with sweat so they decided it'd make sense to go for a walk. Then a cool night breeze came up as they were walking in the West Village and that made Healy suggest coffee nearby and they went to a cappuccino place on Hudson Street with a fountain where water spit out of a goat's head into a trough filled with coins.
One of the coins was an Indian head nickel and Rune spent a couple minutes nonchalantly fishing the coin out while Healy tried to distract the waitress.
'Hmm,' Healy muttered. 'Petty larceny. And I'm an accessory.'
She retrieved the coin and then wrung the slimy fountain water out of her sleeve. 'It was in deeper than I'd thought.'
After that they'd walked another five or six blocks and found themselves not far from her boat.
'I only live three blocks away.'
'Where?' he asked.
'In the river.'
He looked at her for the standard five seconds before asking the standard question. 'In the river?'
'I have a houseboat.'
'I don't believe you. Nobody's got a houseboat in New York. This I've got to see.'
Which was a line that'd been tried on her before.
Not that it mattered. She was going to invite him home anyway.
After the tour of the houseboat Rune looked for something to offer him. Beer didn't seem right after coffee and her only bottle of brandy had been capped with foil a year or two ago and a dark residue floated in the bottom.
'Sorry.' She held up the bottle.
'Bud's fine.'
They stood on the deck, looking over at New Jersey, feeling the nerves in their legs click from all the dancing and feeling tired and energized at the same time.
She wasn't quite sure what started it. She remembered saying something about the stars, which you couldn't see very well because of the city lights, but they were both looking up, and then there was his face filling the sky as it moved toward her and they were kissing, pretty serious kissing too.
