‘I call it bad art,’ Robbie said with a grin, ‘but at the same time I think I understand why this woman wants it. It has an emotional quality to it that’s quite striking. The elements may be classical — the sort of thing one might see in old steel engravings — but the feel is gothic.
And then there’s the fact that the principal figure has her back turned. I find that very odd. On the whole . . . well, one can’t say this young lady has chosen the best picture in the joint, but I’m sure she’s chosen the most peculiar one.’
Rosie was still barely hearing them. She kept finding new things in the picture to engage her attention. The dark violet cord around the woman’s waist, for instance, which matched her robe’s trim, and the barest hint of a left breast, revealed by the raised arm. The two men were only nattering. It was a wonderful picture. She felt she could look at it for hours on end, and when she had her new place, she would probably do just that.
‘No title, no signature,’ Steiner said. ‘Unless— ‘
He turned the picture around. Printed in soft, slightly blurred charcoal strokes on the paper backing were the words ROSE MADDER.
‘Well,’ he said doubtfully, ‘here’s the artist’s name. I guess. Funny name, though. Maybe it’s a pseudonym.’
Robbie shook his head, opened his mouth to speak, then saw that the woman who had chosen the picture also knew better.
‘It’s the name of the picture,’ she said, and then added, for some reason she could never
have explained, ‘Rose is my name.’
Steiner looked at her, completely bewildered.
‘Never mind, that’s just a coincidence.’ But was it? she wondered. Was it really? ‘Look.’
She gently turned the picture around again. She tapped the glass over the toga the woman in the foreground was wearing. ‘That color — that purply-red — is called rose madder.’
‘She’s right,’ Robbie said. ‘Either the artist — or more likely the last person to own the picture, since charcoal rubs away fairly rapidly — has named the painting after the color of the woman’s chiton.’
‘Please,’ Rose said to Steiner, ‘could we do our business? I’m anxious to be on my way. I’m late as it is.’
Steiner started to ask once more if she was sure, but he saw that she was. He saw something else, as well — she had a fine-drawn look about her, one that suggested she’d had a difficult go of it just lately. It was the face of a woman who might regard honest interest and concern as teasing, or possibly as an effort to alter the terms of the deal in his own favor. He simply nodded. ‘The ring for the picture, straight trade. And we both go away happy.’
5
‘Yes,’ Rosie said, and gave him a smile of dazzling brilliance. It was the first real smile she had given anyone in fourteen years, and in the moment of its fullness, his heart opened to her.
‘And we both go away happy.’
She stood outside for a moment, blinking stupidly at the cars rushing past, feeling the way she had as a small child after leaving the movies with her father — dazed, caught with half of her brain in the world of real things and half of it still in the world of make-believe. But the picture was real enough; she only had to look down at the parcel she held under her left arm if she doubted that.
The door opened behind her, and the elderly man came out. Now she even felt good about him, and she gave him the sort of smile people reserve for those with whom they have shared strange or marvellous experiences.
‘Madam,’ he said, ‘would you consider doing me a small favor?’
Her smile was replaced with a look of caution. ‘It depends on what it is, but I’m not in the habit of doing favors for strangers.’ That, of course, was an understatement. She wasn’t even used to talking to strangers.
He looked almost embarrassed, and this had a reassuring effect on her. ‘Yes, well, I suppose it’ll sound odd, but it might benefit both of us. My name is Lefferts, by the way. Rob Lefferts.’
‘Rosie McClendon,’ she said. She thought about holding out her hand and rejected the idea.
Probably she shouldn’t even have given him her name. ‘I really don’t think I have time to do any favors, Mr Lefferts — I’m running a little late, and— ‘
‘Please.’ He put down his weary briefcase, reached into the small brown bag he was holding in his other hand, and brought out one of the old paperbacks he’d found inside the pawnshop. On the cover was a stylized picture of a man in a black-and-white-striped prison outfit stepping into what might have been a cave or the mouth of a tunnel. ‘All I want is for you to read the first paragraph of this book. Out loud.’
‘Here?’ She looked around. ‘Right here on the street? In heaven’s name, why?’
He only repeated ‘Please,’ and she took the book, thinking that if she did as he asked, she might be able to get away from him without any further foolishness. That would be fine, because she was starting to think he was a little nuts. Maybe not dangerous, but nuts, all the same. And if he did turn out to be dangerous, she wanted to find out while the Liberty City
Loan & Pawn — and Bill Steiner — was still within dashing distance.
The name of the book was Dark Passage, the author David Goodis. As she paged past the copyright notice, Rosie decided it wasn’t surprising she’d never heard of him (although the tide of the novel rang a faint bell); Dark Passage had been published in 1946, sixteen years before she was born.
She looked up at Rob Lefferts. He nodded eagerly at her, almost vibrating with anticipation
. . . and hope? How could that be? But it certainly looked like hope.
Feeling a little excited herself now (like calls to like, her mother had often said), Rosie began to read. The first paragraph was short, at least.
‘It was a tough break. Parry was innocent. On top of that he was a decent sort of guy who never bothered people and wanted to lead a quiet life. But there was too much on the other side and on his side of it there was practically nothing. The jury decided he was guilty. The judge handed him a life sentence and he was taken to San Quentin.’
She looked up, closed the book, held it out to him.
‘Okay?’
He was smiling, clearly delighted. ‘Very much okay, Ms McClendon. Now wait . . . just one more . . . humor me . . . ‘ He went paging rapidly through the book, then handed it back to her. ‘Just the dialogue, please. The scene is between Parry and a cab-driver. From “Well, it’s funny.” Do you see it?’
She saw, and this time she didn’t demur. She had decided Lefferts wasn’t dangerous, and that maybe he wasn’t crazy, either. Also, she still felt that queer sense of excitement, as if something really interesting was going to happen . . . or was happening already.
Yes, sure, you bet, the voice inside told her happily. The picture, Rosie — remember?
Sure, of course. The picture. Just thinking of it lifted her heart and made her feel lucky.
‘This is very peculiar,’ she said, but she was smiling. She couldn’t help herself.
He nodded, and she had an idea that he would have nodded in exacdy the same way if she’d told him her name was Madame Bovary. ‘Yes, yes, I’m sure it seems that way, but. . . do you see where I want you to start?’
‘Uh-huh.’
She scanned the dialogue quickly, trying to get a sense of who these people were from what they were saying. The cab-driver was easy; she quickly formed a mental picture of Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden in the Honeymooners reruns they showed on Channel 18
in the afternoons. Parry was a little harder — generic hero, she supposed, comes in a white can. Oh, well; it was no big deal either way. She cleared her throat and began, quickly forgetting that she was standing on a busy streetcorner with a wrapped painting under her arm, unaware of the curious glances she and Lefferts were drawing.
‘” Well, it’s funny,” the driver said. “From faces I can tell what people think. I can tell what they do. Sometimes I can even tell who they are . . . you, for instance.”
‘”All right, me. What about me?”
“‘You’re a guy with troubles.”
” I don’t have a trouble in the world,” Parry said.
‘”Don’t tell me, brother,” the driver said. “I know. I know people. I’ll tell you something else. Your trouble is women.”