The Tooth Tattoo by Peter Lovesey Read Free Book Online Page A

that?’
    ‘Playing cello in a string quartet? I can’t say I have.’
    ‘But you know all the top ensemble groups.’
    ‘On CD, yes. I haven’t watched them all perform. Sometimes they’re pictured on the cover, but not always. You said her name is Cat. Would that be short for Catherine?’
    ‘She didn’t say. Katrina? Kathleen? It may be a nickname.’
    ‘I’m trying to think of cellists,’ Dolores said.
    He sipped the wine and waited.
    She took a different tack. ‘You’ve met two of them. Logic suggests that the third will want to vet you soon.’
    He nodded. ‘They’ve got me on a piece of string.’
    ‘Not necessarily. I expect they’re as nervous as you are. It’s a massive decision. Get someone who isn’t compatible and he could destroy the group in a very short time. Did they say what happened to their violist?’
    ‘That’s another mystery. I asked Ivan straight out if he died or is being given the push. He more or less told me to back off. He’s a hard man, is Ivan. There’s some East European in his manner as well as his name – if that is his name.’
    ‘Yet he was the first to approach you, and he told you he’d heard you play, so he must be on your side.’
    ‘You’re talking as if this is going to happen.’
    ‘I think it will,’ she said.
    ‘But you can’t identify the quartet. They’ve got to be famous if they’re earning the money Ivan spoke about.’
    ‘I’m not infallible, Mel. Yes, I may have heard them. I may even recognise their playing, but that doesn’t mean I’d know them if they walked in here this minute and bought us a drink.’
    ‘And do the personnel change much?’
    ‘In some groups, yes. Others stay together forever. The same four guys played in the Amadeus for forty years and the Guarneri weren’t far behind. Their cellist retired, but the others carried on. Four people coming together to play music can’t predict what life will throw at them. Someone gets ill or dies and the others have to decide whether to call it a day or look for a replacement.’
    ‘And is it blindingly obvious when someone new comes in?’
    ‘To me? I can usually hear the difference in a recording of the same piece. To the players I’m sure there are major adjustments.’
    ‘And some resentment, no doubt,’ he said, confiding yet another worry that had been gnawing away at his confidence. ‘I don’t particularly relish being the new boy. Comparisonsare going to be made. I wouldn’t wish to ape the playing of the previous incumbent just to make the process easy for the others. I doubt if it’s possible, anyway.’
    ‘They’ll understand,’ Dolores said. ‘Everything I’ve heard about string quartets and the way they work suggests that there’s debate going on all the time in rehearsal. And sometimes in performance. I don’t need to tell you this. You’ve played in ensembles.’
    ‘Filling in isn’t the same as taking over for someone who has left,’ Mel said. ‘The two people I’ve met are formidable characters in their different ways. They’re not going to give me an easy ride.’
    ‘Would you want one?’
    ‘An easy ride?’ He smiled. ‘Of course not.’
    Then his phone beeped.
    ‘D’you mind if I take this?’
    ‘Feel free.’
    ‘Mr. Farran?’ Mel tensed. The voice was Ivan’s, the same Beechamesque tone as if he was speaking to an audience. ‘We spoke before, about the quartet.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘We’d like to arrange an opportunity for you to play with us.’
    ‘In concert?’
    ‘No, in more of a soirée situation, a private house, with the three of us and possibly our manager.’
    ‘Where is this?’
    ‘We will send a car, as before. Would next Sunday afternoon suit you?’
    ‘I suppose.’ His brain was racing. He almost forgot to ask the basic question: ‘What are we playing?’
    ‘Are you familiar with Beethoven’s Opus 131?’
    He took a deep breath. The Quartet in C sharp minor is one of the most challenging in the repertoire,