Lover Man: An Artie Deemer Mystery by Dallas Murphy Read Free Book Online

on a glass table and put a desk lamp on the floor beneath them. Too much glare. I put my muddy T-shirt over the lamp.
    People, singly and in groups. All strangers to me. I felt let down and frustrated. What did I expect? A face with a sign held beneath its chin saying, "I did it"? Then I noticed that most of the subjects were standing in front of Renaissance Antiques. The rest of the photos, not of Renaissance antiques, were too grainy to make out.
    I fished Sybel's number from my pocket. I could phone her, tell her about the subjects and the settings, see what she says. Unlikely as it seems, I thought maybe I could be subtle about it, feel her out, without mentioning poor frozen Freddy, utterly oblivious of the fact that it was after midnight. I phoned her.
    "Haw-wo?" An Asian woman. I woke her up.
    "May I please speak to Sybel?"
    "Ha?"
    "Sybel."
    "No See-ball! No See-ball!"
    "I'm sorry."
    I hung up. I'd have to call again to be sure I didn't misdial.
    "Haw-wo!"
    I knew I should call the police. However, Billie had placed in my hands something important. Billie hadn't sent it to the police. She sent it to me. She was trying to communicate with
me
. Butwhat was she trying to say? I smoked a gasper and essentially passed out.
    I got up at eight, because Jellyroll had a nine o'clock call. I'd have skipped it, called in dead, but I didn't relish the idea of sitting around thinking about Billie and the photographs. Besides, I'd promised. Ordinarily, he doesn't have to audition. They know him. They just phone our agent with the gig. But a week ago I'd agreed to audition for a TV movie called
Dracula's Dog
because they were going to shoot in Samoa. The way I heard the idea, Dracula had this dog, a pet that he took everywhere and that, I guess, lay around the coffin all day and pissed in the hometown dirt. They originally wanted a mean-eyed rottweiler with rabies, but then some dork decided "to go the other way!" Get Dracula a cute and cuddly dog and film the whole thing in Samoa. The dog is so cute and cuddly that Dracula, moved, mends his bloodsucking ways and joins the Polynesian Legal Aid Society. Or something. When the alarm went off, I almost called to cancel, Samoa or no Samoa, but I went because I respected the director and didn't want to fuck him up.
    "Hey, Artie, how's it goin'?"
    "Hi, Vinnie." Vinnie was lame. His knee didn't seem to work. He lay nearly supine on the black leather couch in the reception room at ABC over on Sixty-ninth near Columbus. A buff-colored cocker spaniel named Roger sat at Vinnie's feet and panted nervously.
    I told the receptionist at her little window that Jellyroll was here. Everyone hops to when he shows up. Sometimes it's embarrassing. She asked me if I wouldn't please have a seat for just one moment. Then she went off to pass the word to the heavies.
    I took a leather seat beside Vinnie. Jellyroll and the blond cocker sniffed and circled and wagged their tails.
    "Hello, Mr. Deemer," said a fleshy woman from across the room.
    "Oh, hello, Mrs. Sackley." Mrs. Sackley was a professional handler who always wore gloves, as if she didn't want actually to
handle
an animal.
    "I see your Jellyroll every time I switch on the set," she said with a frigid smile. Jellyroll moved over to sniff her schnauzer, but Mrs. Sackley didn't approve of sniffing. She shielded the schnauzer with a mammoth leg. "Isn't your Jellyroll sweet." I called Jellyroll back before Mrs. Sackley slipped him a ground-glass burger.
    "Hey, Artie," said Vinnie. "Last Hurrah in the fifth at the Meadowlands. Great mudder, best mudder I ever saw in twenty years. Pontoons for hooves. A sawbuck on the nose'll land the smart man two bills. I just wanted you to know."
    "Okay, thanks, Vinnie," I said, but I knew he'd never leave it at that.
    "I got pals in the paddock. They showed me his hooves. The size of your head!" His eyes, the left one clouded with cataracts, pleaded with me to show interest. "Last Hurrah could water-ski, you had a boat