Cobalt by Nathan Aldyne Read Free Book Online Page A

them.”
    â€œWonder what this will do to business?”
    â€œI wouldn’t worry. The police were pretty blasé. Once they found out he wasn’t heterosexual…”
    â€œFigures,” said Valentine. “Well, who do you think did it? Who rolled his credits?”
    â€œThe last I saw of him, he had just been cast in the role of The Other Woman.”
    â€œWho were the co-stars?”
    Clarisse smiled and paused for effect. “Polyphemus and Ulysses.”
    Valentine whistled. “Axel? Scott was up in arms?”
    Clarisse described what she had witnessed on the deck of the Crown.
    â€œDid you tell the police about Axel and Scott?” asked Valentine.
    â€œI told them that he had been talking to the men dressed as Polyphemus and Ulysses at the party. I couldn’t remember their names. Maybe you ought to call them up, and warn them that the police are out looking for them.”
    â€œYou think Scott did it?”
    Clarisse shrugged. “Let me sleep on it. I’ll dream the identity of the killer.”
    Valentine glanced at the clock. “You have to be at work in half an hour.”
    â€œOh Jesus! I’ll have to call in sick.”
    â€œOn your first day? Beatrice would be very upset. And you haven’t even met her yet.”
    â€œCall her up. Tell her I have Hepatitis-B. Tell her—tell her the truth. I found a dead body on the beach and I’m reeling with grief because it turned out to be my nearest and dearest friend in all the world, and I’ve got an appointment with the undertaker to pick out the coffin.”
    â€œYou can’t not show up at work on your first day. Besides, Beatrice wants to explain to you about the merchandise, and then she’s going off for the afternoon—you’ll have to be there.”
    â€œBut I haven’t slept!”
    â€œNeither have I. Saturday night: you spend yours with a corpse, and I spend mine with a man who proposes on the first date.”
    â€œI love Provincetown.” She stood, and began unbuttoning her dress. “Call a taxi and tell him to meet me at the end of the alley in thirty minutes.”
    â€œThe shop is five minutes away by foot. With Sunday morning crowds, it’d take a taxi twice that long.”
    Clarisse was in the bathroom. As she closed the door, she shouted, “Star witnesses do not walk to work!”

Chapter Seven

    C LARISSE SAT ON A high wooden stool behind one of the four glass display cases that were arranged fortresslike in the center of the Provincetown Crafts Boutique. Her hair was arranged in an efficient bun; she wore a white silk blouse, dark brown waist-pleated slacks, and sensible low-heeled shoes. It was an outfit she’d thought appropriate for appearance behind the counter of a shop specializing in “rare and beautiful things”—Valentine’s words. Her folded arms rested heavily against the edge of the beveled surface; her clouded eyes shifted uncertainly and unhappily about the room. On the back of a receipt book she quickly made a list of four terrible ways for Daniel Valentine to die.
    Of approximately two thousand objects offered for sale and individually priced, not one was either rare or beautiful. On tables crowded against the inside wall, dozens of gaudily painted porcelain clowns with leering smiles faced an army of machine-carved Cape Cod fishermen brandishing vibrant red lobsters. Plaster fish were stacked in four-foot pyramids on either side of the door, and in a water-filled bucket just in front of the cash register a blue plastic whale endlessly swam around and around and now and then spurted a geyser of water through a blowhole in its head. On the wall were posters celebrating the glory of summer on Cape Cod, and printed Chinese calendars on bamboo scrolls. On the door and window frames were tiny mirrors in seashell-littered frames. Suspended in the large many-paned front window was a profusion of stained-glass