Transgressions Page 7

  There was no sound, but thanks to the gallery owner's expensive surveillance system, it was possible, if he wanted, to tune in on nearly every conversation on the first two floors of the gallery, swarming with media-annointed superstars. Name a profession with glitter appeal, there was an icon, a living legend, or a luminary in attendance.

  Cy Mellichamp had coaxed one of his very close friends, from a list that ran in the high hundreds, to prepare dinner for Ransome and his guests for the evening, both of whom were still unaware they'd been invited.

  "John," Cy said, "Monsieur Rapaou wanted to know if there was a special dish you'd like added to his menu for the evening."

  "Why don't we just scrap the menu and have cheeseburgers," Ransome said.

  "Oh my God," Cy said, after a shocked intake of breath. "Scrap—? John, Monsieur Rapaou is one of the most honored chefs on four continents."

  "Then he ought to be able to make a damn fine cheeseburger."

  "Johnnn—"

  "We're having dinner with a couple of kids. Basically. And I want them to be at ease, not worrying about what fork to use."

  A dozen of the gallery's guests were being admitted at one time to the room in which the Ransome exhibition was mounted. To avoid damaged egos, the order in which they were being permitted to view the new Ransomes had been chosen impartially by lot. Except for Echo, Peter, and Stefan Konine, arbitrarily assigned to the second group. Ransome, for all of his indolence at his own party, was impatient to get on with his prime objective of the evening.

  All of the new paintings featured the same model: a young black woman with nearly waist-length hair.

  She was, of course, smashing, with the beguiling quality that differentiates mere looks from classic beauty.

  Two canvases, unframed, were wall-mounted. The other three, on easels, were only about three feet square. A hallmark of all Ransome's work were the wildly primeval, ominous or threatening landscapes in which his models existed aloofly.

  Two minutes after they entered the room Peter began to fidget, glancing at Echo, who seemed lost in contemplation.

  "I don't get it."

  Echo said in a low firm tone, "Peter."

  "What is it, like High Mass, I can't talk?"

  "Just—keep it down, please."

  "Five paintings?" Pete said, lowering his voice. "That's what all the glitz is about? The movie stars? Guy that plays James Bond is here, did you notice?"

  "Ransome only does five paintings at a time. Every three years."

  "Slow, huh?"

  "Painstaking." Peter could hear her breathing, a sigh of rapture. "The way he uses light."

  "You've been staring at that one for—"

  "Go away."

  Pete shrugged and joined Stefan, who was less absorbed.

  "Does Ransome get paid by the square yard?"

  "The square inch, more likely. It takes seven figures just to buy into the play-off round. And I'm told there are already more than four hundred prospective buyers, the cachet-stricken."

  "For five paintings? Echo, just keep painting. Forget about your day job." -

  Echo gave him a dire look for breaking her concentration. Peter grimaced and said to Stefan, "I think I've seen this model somewhere else. Sports Illustrated. Last year's swimsuit issue."

  "Doubtful," Stefan said. "No one knows who Ransome's models are. None of them have appeared at the shows, or been publicized. Nor has the genius himself. He might be in our midst tonight, but I wouldn't recognize him. I've never seen a photo."

  'You saying he's shy?"

  "Or exceptionally shrewd."

  Peter had been focusing on a nude study of the unknown black girl. Nothing left to the imagination.

  Raw sensual appeal. He looked around the small gallery, as if his [lowers of detection might reveal the artist to him. Instead who he saw was Taja, standing in a doorway, looking at him.

  "Echo?"

  She looked around at Peter with a frown, then saw Taja herself. When the Woman in Black had her attention she beckoned. Echo and Peter looked at each other.

  "Maybe it's another special delivery," Peter said.

  "I guess we ought to find out."

  In the center of the gallery's atrium a small elevator in a glass shaft rose to Cy Mellichamp's penthouse suite. A good many people who considered themselves important watched Peter and Echo rise to the fourth floor with Taja. Stefan took in some bemused and outright envious speculation.

  A super-socialite complained, "I've spent seventeen million with Cy, and I've never been invited to the penthouse. Who are they?"

  "Does Ransome have children?"

  "Who knows?"

  A talk-show host with a sneaky leer and a hard-drive's capacity for gossip said, "The dark one, my dear, is John Ransome's mistress. He abuses her terribly. So I've been told."

  "Or perhaps it's the other way around," Stefan said, feeling a flutter of distress in his stomach that had nothing to do with the quantity of hors d'oeuvres he'd put away. Something was up, obviously it involved Echo, and even more obviously it was none of his business. Yet his impression, as he watched Echo step off the elevator and vanish into Cy's sanctum, was of a lovely doe being deftly separated from a herd of deer.

  Taja ushered Echo and Peter into Cy Mellichamp's presence and closed the door to the lush sitting room, a gallery in itself that was devoted largely to French Impressionists. A very large room with a high tray ceiling. French doors opened onto a small terrace where there was a candlelit table set for three and two full-dress butlers in attendance.

  "Miss Halloran, Mr. O'Neill! I'm Cyrus Mellichamp. Wonderful that you could be here tonight. I hope you're enjoying yourselves."

  He offered his hand to Echo, and a discreet kiss to one cheek, somewhere between businesslike and avuncular, Peter noted. He shook hands with the man and they were eye to eye, Cy with a pleasant smile but no curiosity.

  "We're honored, Mr. Mellichamp," Echo said.

  "May I call you Echo?"

  'Yes, of course."

  "What do you think of the new Ransomes, Echo?"

  "Well, I think they're—magnificent. I've always loved his work."

  "He will be very pleased to hear that."

  "Why?" Peter said.

  They both looked at him. Peter had, deliberately, his cop face on. Echo didn't appreciate that.

  "This is a big night for Mr. Ransome. Isn't it? I'm surprised he's not here."

  Cy said smoothly, "But he is here, Peter."

  Pete spread his hands and smiled inquiringly as Echo's expression soured.

  "It's only that John has never cared to be the center of attention. He wants the focus to be solely on his work. But let John tell you himself. He's wanted very much to meet you both."

  "Why?" Peter said.

  "Peter," Echo said grimly.

  "Well, it's a fair question," Peter said, looking at Cy Mellichamp, who wore little gold tennis racket cuff links. A fair question, but not a lob. Straight down the alley, no time for footwork, spin on the return.-

  Cy blinked and his smile got bigger. "Of course it is. Would you mind coming with me? Just in the other room there, my study-Something we would like for you to see."

  'You and Mr. Ransome," Peter said.

  "Why, yes."

  He offered Echo his arm. She gave Peter a swift dreadful look as she turned her back on him. Peter simmered for a couple of moments, took a breath and followed them.

  The study was nearly dark. Peter was immediately interested in the array of security monitors, including three affording different angles on the small gallery where the newest Ransome paintings were on display Where he had been with Echo a few minutes ago. The idea that they'd been watched from this room, maybe by Ransome himself, caused Peter to chew his lower lip. No reason Cy Mellichamp shouldn't have the best possible surveillance equipment to protect millions of dollars' worth of property. But so far none of this—Taja following Echo around town, the special invitations to Ransome's showing—added u
p, and Peter was more than ready to cut to the chase.

  There was a draped, spotlighted easel to one side of Mellichamp's desk. The dealer walked Echo to it, smiling, and invited her to remove the drape.

  "It's a work in progress, of course. John would be the first to say it doesn't do his subject justice."

  Echo hesitated, then carefully uncovered the canvas, which revealed an incomplete study of—Echo Halloran.

  Jesus, Peter thought, growing tense for no good reason. Even though what there was of her on the canvas looked great.

  "Peter! Look at this!"

  "I'm looking," Pete said, then turned, aware that someone had come into the room behind them.

  "No, it doesn't do you justice," John Ransome said. "It's a beginning, that's all." He put out a hand to Peter. "Congratulations on your promotion to detective."

  "Thanks," Pete said, testing Ransome's grip with no change of expression.

  Ransome smiled slightly. "I understand your paternal grandfather was the third most-decorated officer in the history of the New York City police force."

  "That's right."

  Cy Mellichamp had blue-ribbon charm and social graces and the inward chilliness of a shark cruising behind the glass of an aquarium. John Ransome looked at Peter as if every detail of his face were important to recall at some later time. He held his grip longer than most men, but not too long. He was an inch taller than Peter, with a thick head of razor-cut hair silver over the ears, a square jawline softening with age, deep folds at the corners of a sensual mouth. He talked through his nose, yet the effect was sonorous, softly pleasing, as if his nose were lined with velvet. His dark eyes didn't veer from Peter's mildly contentious gaze. They were the eyes of a man who had fought battles, won only some of them. They wanted to tell you more than his heart could let go of. And that, Peter divined in a few moments of hand-to-hand contact with the man, was the major source of his appeal.

  Having made Peter feel a little more at home Ransome turned his attention again to Echo.

  "I had only some photographs," he said of the impressionistic portrait. "So much was missing. Until now. And now that I'm finally meeting you—I see how very much I've missed."

  By candlelight and starlight they had cheeseburgers and fries on the terrace. And they were damn good cheeseburgers. So was the beer. Peter concentrated on the beer because he didn't like eating when something was eating him. Probably Echo's star-struck expression. As for John Leland Ransome—there was just something about aging yuppies (never mind the aura of the famous and reclusive artist) who didn't wear socks with their loafers that went against Peter's Irish grain.

  Otherwise maybe it wasn't so hard to like the guy. Until it became obvious that Ransome or someone else had done a thorough job of prying into Echo's life and family relations. Now hold on, just a damn minute.

  "Your name is given as Mary Catherine on your birth and baptismal certificates. Where did 'Echo'

  come from?"

  "Oh—well—I was talking a blue streak at eighteen months. Repeated everything I heard. My father would look at me and say, 'Is there a little echo in here?' '

  "Your father was a Jesuit, I understand."

  'Yes. That was his—vocation, until he met my mother."

  "Who was teaching medieval history at Fordham?"

  'Yes, she was."

  "Now retired because of her illness. Is she still working on her biography of Bernard of Clairvaux? I'd like to read it sometime. I'm a student of history myself."

  Peter allowed his beer glass to be filled for a fourth time. Echo gave him a vexed look as if to say, Are you here or are you not here?

  Ransome said, "I see the beer is to your liking. It's from an exceptional little brewery in Dortmund that's not widely known outside of Germany."

  Peter said with an edge of hostility, "So you have it flown in by the keg, something like that?"

  Ransome smiled. "Corner deli. Three bucks a pop."

  Peter shifted in his seat. The lace collar of his tux was irritating his neck. "Mr. Ransome—mind if I ask you something?"

  "If you'll call me John."

  "Okay—John—what I'd like to know is, why all the detective work? I mean, you seem to know a h— a lot about Echo. Almost an invasion of her privacy, seems to me."

  Echo looked as if she would gladly have kicked him, if her gown hadn't been so long. She smiled a tight apology to Ransome, but Peter had the feeling she was curious too, in spite of the hero worship.

  Ransome took the accusation seriously, with a hint of contrition in his downcast eyes.

  "I understand how that must appear to you. It's the nature of detective work, of course, to interpret my curiosity about Echo as suspicious or possibly predatory behavior. But if Echo and I are going to spend a year together—"

  "What?" Peter said, and Echo almost repeated him before pressing a napkin to her lips and clearing her throat.

  Ransome nodded his point home with the confidence of those who are born and bred in the winner's circle; someone, Peter thought resentfully, who wouldn't break a sweat if his pants were on fire.

  "—I find it helpful in my work as an artist," Ransome continued, "if there are other areas of compatibility with my subjects. I like good conversation. I've never had a subject who wasn't well read and articulate." He smiled graciously at Echo. "Although I'm afraid that I've tended to monopolize our table talk tonight." He shifted his eyes to Peter. "And Echo is also a painter of promise. I find that attractive as well."

  Echo said incredulously, "Excuse me, I fell off at that last turn."

  "Did you?" Ransome said.

  But he kept his gaze on Peter, who had the look of a man being cunningly outplayed in a game without a rule book.

  With the party over, the gallery emptied and cleanup crews at work, John Ransome conducted a personal tour of his latest work while Cy Mellichamp entertained Stefan Konine and a restless Peter, who had spent the better part of the last hour obviously wishing he were somewhere else. With Echo.

  "Who is she?" Echo asked of Ransome's most recent model. "Or is that privileged information?"

  "I'll trust your discretion. Her name is Silkie. Oddly enough, my previous subjects have remained anonymous at their own request. To keep the curious at arm's length. I suppose that during the year of our relationships each of them absorbed some of my own passion for—letting my work speak for itself."

  "The year of your relationships? You don't see them any more?"

  "No."

  "Is that at your request?"

  "I don't want it to seem to you as if I've had affairs that all turned out badly. That's far from the truth."

  With her lack of expression Echo kept a guarded but subtle emotional distance from him.

  "Silkie. The name describes her perfectly. Where is she from?"

  "South Africa. Taja discovered her, on a train from Durban to Capetown."

  "And Taja discovered me? She does get around."

  "She's found all of my recent subjects—by 'recent' I mean the last twenty years." He smiled a bit painfully, reminded of how quickly the years passed, and how slowly he worked. "I very much depend on Taja's eye and her intuition. I depend on her loyalty. She was an artist herself, but she won't paint any more.

  In spite of my efforts to—inspire her."

  "Why can't she speak?"

  "Her tongue was cut out by agents of one of those starkly repressive Cold War governments. She wouldn't reveal the whereabouts of dissident members of her family. She was just thirteen at the time."

  "Oh God, that's so awful!"

  "I'm afraid it's the least of what was done to Taja. But she has always been like a—for want of a better word, talisman for me."

  "Where did you meet her?"

  "She was a sidewalk artist in Budapest, living down an alley with whores and thieves. I first saw her during one of my too-frequent sabbaticals in those times when I wasn't painting well. Nor painting very much at all. It's still difficult for me, nearly all
of the time."

  "Is that why you want me to pose for—a year?"

  "I work for a year with my subject. Take another year to fully realize what we've begun together.

  Then—I suppose I just agonize for several months before finally packing my pictures off to Cy. And finally—comes the inevitable night."

  He made a weary, sweeping gesture around the "Ransome Room," then brightened.

  "I let them go. But this is the first occasion when I've had the good fortune of knowing my next subject and collaborator before my last paintings are out of our hands."

  "I'm overwhelmed, really. That you would even consider me. I'm sorry that I have to say—it's out of the question. I can't do it."

  Echo glanced past at him, to the doorway where Peter was standing around with the other two men, trying not to appear anxious and irritable.

  "He's a fine young man," Ransome said with a smile.

  "It isn't just Peter, I mean, being away from him for so long. That would be hard. But there's my mother."

  "I understand. I didn't expect to convince you at our first meeting. It's getting late, and I know you must be tired."

  "Am I going to see you again?" Echo said.

  "That's for you to decide. But I need you, Mary Catherine. I hope to have another chance to convince you of that."

  Neither Echo nor Peter were the kind to be reticent about getting into it when there was an imagined slight or a disagreement to be set-tied. They were city kids who had grown up scrappy and contentious if the occasion called for it.

  Before Echo had slipped out of the new shoes that had hurt her feet for most of the night she was in Peter's face. They were driving up Park. Too fast, in her opinion. She told him to slow down.

  "Or put your flasher on. You just barely missed that cabbie."

  "I can get suspended for that," Peter said.

  "Why are you so angry?"