Robert B. Parker - Painted Ladies (Spenser Mystery)

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Table of Contents

THE SPENSER NOVELS

The Professional
Rough Weather
Now & Then
Hundred-Dollar Baby
School Days
Cold Service
Bad Business
Back Story
Widows Walk
Potshot
Hugger Mugger
Hush Money
Sudden Mischief

Small Vices
Chance
Thin Air
Walking Shadow
Paper Doll
Double Deuce
Pastime
Stardust
Playmates
Crimson Joy
Pale Kings and Princes
Taming a Sea-Horse
A Catskill Eagle

Valediction
The Widening Gyre
Ceremony
A Savage Place
Early Autumn
Looking for Rachel Wallace
The Judas Goat
Promised Land
Mortal Stakes
God Save the Child
The Godwulf Manuscript

THE JESSE STONE NOVELS

Split Image
Night and Day
Stranger in Paradise
High Profile
Sea Change
Stone Cold
Death in Paradise
Trouble in Paradise
Night Passage

THE SUNNY RANDALL NOVELS

Spare Change
Blue Screen
Melancholy Baby
Shrink Rap
Perish Twice
Family Honor

THE VIRGIL COLE/ EVERETT HITCH NOVELS

Blue-Eyed Devil
Brimstone
Resolution
Appaloosa

ALSO BY ROBERT B. PARKER

Double Play
Gunmans Rhapsody
All Our Yesterdays
A Year at the Races
(with Joan H. Parker)
Perchance to Dream
Poodle Springs
(with Raymond Chandler)
Love and Glory
Wilderness
Three Weeks in Spring
(with Joan H. Parker)
Training with Weights
(with John R. Marsh)

For Joan: live art

My first client of the day (and of the week, truth be known) came into my office on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and sat in one of my client chairs. He was medium-height and slim, wearing a brown tweed suit, a blue paisley bow tie, and a look of satisfaction.

Youre Spenser, he said.

Yes, I am, I said.

I am Dr. Ashton Prince, he said.

He handed me a card, which I put on my desk.

How nice, I said.

Excuse me?

What can I do for you, Dr. Prince.

I am confronted with a matter of extreme sensitivity, he said.

I nodded.

May I count on your discretion? he said.

Sure, I said.

Im serious, he said.

I can tell, I said.

He frowned slightly. Less in disapproval than in uncertainty.

Well, he said, may I?

Count on my discretion?

Yes!

At the moment, I dont have anything to be discreet about, I said. But I would be if I did.

He stared at me for a moment, then smiled.

I see, he said. Youre attempting to be funny.

Attempting? I said.

No matter, Prince said. But I need to know you are capable of taking my issues seriously.

Id be in a better position to assess that, I said, if you told me what your issues were.

He nodded slowly to himself.

I was warned that you were given to self-amusement, he said. I guess theres no help for it. I am a professor of art history at Walford University. And I am a forensic art consultant in matters of theft and forgery.

And pleased about it.

Is there such a matter before us? I said.

He took in some air and let it out audibly.

There is, he said.

And it requires discretion, I said.

Very much.

Youll get all I can give you, I said.

All you can give me?

Anything, I said, that your best interest, and my self-regard, will allow.

Your self-regard?

I try not to do things that make me think ill of myself.

My God, Prince said. I mean, thats a laudable goal, I suppose. But you are a private detective.

All the more reason for vigilance, I said.

He took another deep breath. He nodded slowly.

There is a painting, he said, by a seventeenth-century Dutch artist named Frans Hermenszoon.

Lady with a Finch, I said.

How on earth did you know that? Prince said.

Only Hermenszoon painting Ive ever heard of.

He painted very few, Prince said. Hermenszoon died at age twenty-six.

Young, I said.

Rather, Prince said. But Lady with a Finch was a masterpiece. Is a masterpiece. It belongs to the Hammond Museum. And last week it was stolen.

Heard from the thieves? I said.

Yes.

Ransom? I said.

Yes.

And if you bring any cops in, theyll destroy the painting, I said.

Yes.

So what do you want from me? I said.

The Hammond wants the whole matter handled entirely, ah, sotto voce. They have asked me to handle the exchange.

The money for the painting, I said.

Yes, and I am, frankly, uneasy. I want protection.

Me, I said.

The chief of the Walford campus police asked a friend at the Boston Police Department on my behalf, and you were recommended.

Im very popular there, I said.

Will you do it?

Okay, I said.

Like that? Prince said.

Sure, I said.

What do you charge?

I told him. He raised his eyebrows.

Well, he said. Im sure they will cover it.

The museum.

Yes, he said. And if they wont cover it all, Ill make up the difference out of pocket.

Generous, I said.

Youre being ironic, he said.

It is you Im protecting, I said.

I know, he said. The painting, too. It is not merely a brilliant piece of art, though that would be enough. It is also the expression of a distant life, cut sadly short.

Ill do my best, I said.

Which Im told, Prince said, is considerable.

I nodded.

Tis, I said.

Susan and Pearl were spending the weekend with me. It was Saturday morning and the three of us were out for a mid-morning stroll in the Public Garden. Pearl was off the leash so she could dash about and annoy the pigeons, which she was doing, while Susan and I watched proudly.

So you are going to make this exchange Monday morning? Susan said.

Yep.

How do you feel about it? she said.

I am, as you know, fearless.

Mostly, Susan said.

Mostly?

Susan smiled and shook her head.

Whats bothering you about it? she said.

An exchange like this, I said, they gotta be sure they get the money before they give you the painting. You gotta be sure you get the painting before you give them the money. They gotta be sure that once they give up the painting the cops dont swoop in and bust them.

Difficult, Susan said.

And their side gets to call the shots, I said.

Which you dont like, Susan said.

Which I dont like, I said.

Ducks, Susan said. You dont like anyone else calling the shots on what tie to wear.

Except you, I said.

Susan smiled.

Of course, she said. Always except me.

A group of pigeons was pecking at some popcorn that had been thrown on the ground for them. Pearl chased them off and ate the popcorn. A mature woman in a leopard-skin coat stood up from the bench where the pigeons had gathered and walked toward us.

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