When we were married, it was a way of...
When we were married, it
was a way of life
"Dad, what does this red circle on top of the
frame mean?" Ilse asked
"That it's sold, dear," Alice said
I paused to look at Sunset with Sophora as I
started away, andsure enough, there was a
little red circle on the upper right corner of the
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frameThat was a good thing - it was nice to know
the crowd here was composed of more than just
lookers drawn by the novelty of a one-armed dauber
- but I still felt a pang, and wondered if it was
normal to feel that wayI had no way of telling
I didn't know any other artists to ask
iii
Dario and Jimmy Yoshida were in the office; so was
a man I'd never met beforeDario introduced him
to me as replica tiffany jewelry Jacob Rosenblatt, the accountant who kept
the Scoto's books in trimMy heart sank a little
as I shook his hand, turning my own to do it
because he offered the wrong one, as so many
people doAh, but it's a righties' world
"Dario, are we in trouble here?" I asked
Dario placed a silver champagne bucket on Jimmy's
deskIn it, reclining on a bed of crushed ice,
was a bottle of Perrier-JouëtThe stuff they were
serving in the gallery was good, but not this good
The cork had been recently drawn; there was still
faint breath drifting from the bottle's green
mouth"Does this look like trouble?" he asked"I
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would have had Alice ask your family in, as well,
but the office is too freaking smallTwo tiffany jewelry wholesale people
who should be here right now are Wireman and Jack
CantoriWhere the hell are they? I thought they
were coming togetherDid you try Elizabeth Eastlake's house?
Heron's Roost?"
"Of course," Dario said"Got nothing but the
answering machine
"Not even Elizabeth's nurse? Annmarie?"
He shook his head"Just the answering machine
I started having visions of Sarasota Memorial"I
don't like the sound of that
"Perhaps the three of them are on their way here
right now," Rosenblatt said
"I think that's unlikelyShe's gotten very frail
and short of breathCan't even use her walker
anymore
"I'm sure the situation will resolve itself,"
Jimmy said"Meanwhile, we should raise a glass
"Must raise chanel j 12 a glass, Edgar," Dario added
"Thanks, you guys, that's very kind, and I'd be
happy to have a drink with you, but my family's
outside and I want to walk around with them while
701
they look at the rest of my pictures, if that's
all right
Jimmy said, "Understandable, but-"
Dario interrupted, speaking quietly"Edgar, the
show's a sell"Beg your pardon?"
"We didn't think you'd had a chance to get around
and see all the red dots," Jimmy saidHe was
smiling, his color so high he might have been
blushing"Every painting and sketch that was for
sale has been sold
Jacob Rosenblatt, the accountant, said: "Thirty
paintings and fourteen sketchesI watched as Dario
turned and this time took a cc chanel logo earrings tray of glasses from
the shelf behind the deskThey were in the same
floral pattern as the Perrier-Jouët bottle"But
the price you put on Girl and Ship No7 was forty
thousand dollars!"
From the pocket of his plain black suit,
Rosenblatt took a curl of paper that had to have
come from an adding machine"The paintings
fetched four hundred and eighty-seven thousand
dollars, the sketches an additional nineteenThe
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total comes to a little over half a million
dollarsIt's the greatest sum the Scoto has ever
taken in during the exhibition of a single
artist's work
"All of them?" I said in a voice so tiny I could
hardly hear it myselfI looked at Dario as he put
a champagne glass in my 925 tiffany's necklace ha