Catt Diana - The Fine Art of Murder: A Collection of Short Stories

The
Fine Art
of
Murder

The Fine Art of Murder

Copyright 2016

Published by Blue River Press
Indianapolis, Indiana
www.brpressbooks.com

Distributed by Cardinal Publishers Group
Tom Doherty Company, Inc.
www.cardinalpub.com

All rights reserved under International and
Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a database or other retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 9781681570325
eISBN: 9781681570402

Editor: Kelsey Schneiders
Senior Editors: Diana Catt & Brenda Stewart
Interior Design: Dave Reed
Cover Design: Phil Velikan

Printed in the United States of America

Andrea Smith

Joan Bruce

Marianne Halbert

N. W. Campbell

S. Ashley Couts

Stephen Terrell

Diana Catt

Brenda Robertson Stewart

Shari Held

Janet Williams

MB Dabney

C. L. Shore

Sherita Saffer Campbell

B. K. Hart

C. A. Paddock

Claudia Pfeiffer

Barbara Swander Miller

Stephen Terrell

N. W. Campbell

David Reddick

Stephen Terrell

N. W. Campbell

N. W. Campbell

Stephen Terrell

Janis Thornton

N. W. Campbell

Shari Held

Stephen Terrell

Stephen Terrell

Stephen Terrell

N. W. Campbell

B. K. Hart

Stephen Terrell

Stephen Terrell

Stephen Terrell

The editors, Brenda Robertson Stewart and Diana Catt, would like to thank the members of Speed City Indiana Sisters in Crime for their enthusiastic support for this project. We had an excellent response to our request for fictional short story submissions and for factual inserts about artists in Indiana. We send special thanks to Travis DiNicola for writing the introduction, and to the wonderful team at Cardinal Publishers Groupespecially Morgan Sears, Kelsey Schnieders, Ginger Bock, Adriane Doherty and Tom Dohertyfor their support and belief in our group and our latest endeavor. Again, we send our special congratulations to all the members of Speed City Indiana Sisters in Crime for the successful completion of another project to showcase the creative talents of this group of writers.

Twenty-some years ago, when I was looking for a quote to include in my graduate thesis (on why art museums should use this new technology called the internet to expand their education and marketing outreach) I found the following by philosopher Nelson Goodman:

The only moral effect a museum has on me is a temptation to rob the place.

If the words art thief don't give you a little thrill, if the thought of how to bypass a museum's security system has never once crossed your mind, and if you've never, ever, thought about the perfect place to hang your own Picasso, then perhaps this book isn't for you.

But you have thought these things, haven't you? You've been tempted.

My thesis advisor strongly advised me not to use the quote. He didn't think it was appropriate in an academic paper. I thought it was hilarious, and appropriate. Eventually, I convinced him of the merits of including it, my thesis was approved, and I graduated with a Masters in Art Education.

The reason I wanted to include it in the thesis is because in the early 1990s most art museums did not want to be on the internet for fear of having their work stolen. Curators spoke at conferences and wrote in forums speculating that digital images of their collections could be copied (stolen!) and appreciated outside of the museum walls. Directors feared that people would stop coming to museums if they could access their collections online. These were the same fears that museums had early in the twentieth century when critic Walter Benjamin argued that art created by human hands has an aura that can't be reproduced mechanically. A photograph of an artwork is not the artwork. Museums did not shut their doors.

Photographs were one thing, but now anyone could steal a digital copy of any work in a museum, without even going to the museum.

And they did.

And it didn't hurt the art.

And the museums didn't have to shut their doors. And today, every art museum in the world has their collection available online.

At some point the museums realized that it was a good thing that people wanted their own copies of art they loved. It wasn't a crime, and it didn't keep them from coming to see the real thing.

But this book you are holding is about crime and art. And, it is about the real thing. Because people don't kill for a copy.

That temptation, to possess the original, is also real. It can be overwhelming. That temptation leads to motivationmotivation to steal, and motivation to murder.

Art and mysteries. Two of my favorite things.

I blame my mother. They are two of her favorite things as well.

I grew up surrounded by art and by murder mysteries. Every vacation led to a museum and at least a few bookstores. Prints of Picasso, Klee, Rothko, Monet, Duchamp, and Matisse covered the walls. Copies of Christie, Spillane, Rendell, Hammett, James, and Highsmith filled the shelves. One year, for her birthday, of course I bought her a replica of the Maltese Falcon statue.

The stuff that dreams are made of: Art & Murder. The Fine Art of Murder.

And those dreams, those temptations, have led me here. I've made a career of them.

As the Executive Director of Indy Reads, Indianapolis's adult literacy program, I also founded the bookstore, Indy Reads Books where we sell a lot of mysteries to support our program. In my other role, as the co-host of WFYI Indianapolis Public Radio's The Art of the Matter, each week I get to talk with artists about their work. I pay my bills because of art and murder mysteries. My mother is very proud.

This is why I so gladly agreed to write this introduction for the Speed City Indiana Chapter of Sisters in Crime. What could be better than mysteries with art? Having them written by Indiana authors with most of them set in Indianapolis! There are even references to my NPR station, my Mass Ave neighborhood, and my favorite minor-league baseball team, the Indianapolis Indians. How could I say no?

This is a great collection of stories. Hardboiled and cozy. Abstract and impressionist. Like any good museum collection, there is something here for everyone. This book is filled with temptations. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.

Now, I've got to go help my mom find a perfect place to hang her new Picasso.

M. Travis DiNicola, April, 2016

Andrea Smith

My friend, Noah, slides into the booth and sits facing me. His smile is so broad it stretches the lines in his weathered brown face.

Vera Ames, little girl, you look more delicious than my sweet potato pie, he bellows above the din of people chatting and enjoying his southern fare.

I purse my lips. I'm fifty-four, a long way from being a girl. Don't waste your charms on me.

His eyes sparkle with mischief. Just speaking the truth, pretty girl. You're always so put together. Now if you didn't have that big ol husband and I was ten years younger, I

Would still be ancient, you eighty-two-year-old flirt, I say without cracking a smile.

Noah slaps the table and we both collapse in laughter.

When you've been friends for thirty years like Noah and me, teasing comes as naturally as breathing. We've been an unlikely team of sorts since we organized to keep my sons and his granddaughter's school from closing. My hubs was working and going to grad school. I had left my corporate manager's job to open the Beauty Emporium. Noah sent clients my way when only a handful of customers would take a chance on my skills. His beloved wife, Ella, was one of the first ladies to sit in my chair. She had thick, gorgeous hair and the sweetest personality anyone could want in a client. I was there for Noah when she passed away after fifty years of marriage, six sons and so many grandkids and great-grandkids I doubt Noah even knows the number. Now we're trying to keep the struggling Community Art Center afloat.