Sara Paretsky - Body Work

“Acid on the wire from the master switch to the solenoid? How’d you know what that was?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t. I asked my dad. I didn’t tell him why I wanted to know-I let him think it was for a physics project at school. Even so, he might have guessed. He was a smart guy, my dad, but he died thinking I was selling drugs.”

“He loved you,” I ventured. “He certainly would have forgiven you.”

“I was so stupid,” she whispered. “So greedy. I wanted the stuff that all those rich brats had-their horses, their clothes, and when I started hanging around with Zina, Anton, he saw my greed. I made it so easy for him. So goddamned fucking easy. ‘Is not taking candy from baby,’ he said. ‘Is giving baby candy and giving you power.’ I loved it. I’ve always loved power. It was only later, when I was in too deep, that I saw he had all the power.”

The story was almost more than I could bear. Anton’s vileness, using his own daughter and her friend as a private brothel-Scalia and MacLean, casually murdering Nadia Guaman to keep her sister’s destruction a secret-I didn’t think I could continue living in a world with people like this in it.

And Karen, her adolescence shaped by Anton. No wonder she kept people at a distance.

My feelings must have shown in my face because she said, “Don’t go feeling sorry for me. I hate that worse than anything. Tell your cop friend about the solenoid. If Anton really goes to prison, then, yes, I’d like to come home, be Francine Pindero again. If you want to send me any news about it, e-mail steveskid80@yahoo.com.”

Vesta emerged from her crate at the back of the cellar, surprising both of us-we’d been so intent on our talk that we’d forgotten her. She put her arm around the Body Artist.

“Come on, Buckley,” she said. “Or Frannie. Maybe I’m a fool, but I’m taking you home with me.”

I turned off the space heater and followed the two of them up the stairs. When I got to the top, Tim and Marty were holding the Artist. I told them we were done-she could vanish into whatever shadows she chose.

Marty Jepson and Tim Radke were heading to Plotzky’s to join their other friends for a drink or six and wanted me to join them.

“Chad’s off the hook,” Tim Radke said. “You were awesome, Vic. Wish you’d been with our squad in Iraq.”

I told them that they were pretty awesome themselves, but that I’d take a rain check for now. “Drink one for me. We’ll catch up soon.”

Marty stayed a moment to apologize for losing his cool. “Man, I watched Chad disintegrate into that kind of rage a hundred times and never thought it could happen to me. But when I saw that guy-and wearing the Iraq medal-if Chad’s dad hadn’t beat me to it, it would’ve been me with my hands around his throat.”

“You saw someone getting away with framing one of your buddies for murder. Most people would have had a brainstorm under those circumstances. I wouldn’t worry that it’ll keep happening to you.”

“I-” His voice cracked, and then he surprised us both by pulling me close and giving me a full-treatment kiss. “You take care, Vic. And if you ever need help-any help with anything-well, you know how to send for the Marines, right?”

He turned and ran across the room after Tim Radke.

Sal was waiting to close. She and Erica had swept up the debris, but a decontamination team would have to come in before she could reopen the Glow.

I took a stool next to her at the end of the bar. “You were right, Sal: I should have rented a theater. I somehow wasn’t imagining that there would be people stupid enough to fire guns in a crowded room.”

Sal poured me a slug of one of those liquid-gold single malts that I can’t afford to get used to. “The damage wasn’t as bad as it might have been. A table, some glassware, and that light fixture near the exit. Which, thank the goddess, wasn’t an original. I guess that was when that guy was trying to shoot the Body Artist. As long as Rainier Cowles and the woman who got shot instead of the Artist don’t sue, we should be okay.”

“If your insurance doesn’t cover the decon team, I’ll take care of it. And the chandelier and table.” I couldn’t bear to think about my expenses on this venture.

“I’ll make that my donation to truth, justice, and the Warshawski way,” she said drily. “You pulled it off, girl. When you came out under the spotlights, I was completely convinced. You were the Body Artist.”

“Yeah. We’re just a bunch of interchangeable parts, aren’t we, under our clothes.”

“Don’t go down that road, at least not tonight. Go back to your own crib, get your life back in order. Get on a plane and surprise Jake over there in Amsterdam, or wherever he is right now. Do something good for yourself, you hear?”

My smile felt lopsided, but I squeezed her hand, drank up, went back to my own place for the first night in a week. My neighbor had stayed up until he was sure I was home safely. I hugged him but went on up the stairs to shampoo the heavy lacquer out of my hair. When I got out of the shower, Mr. Contreras was in my dining room with the dogs and a plate of scrambled eggs. Mitch and Peppy were ecstatic to see me again, which brought as much comfort as the late-night supper and Mr. Contreras’s affection.

I knelt to fondle Peppy’s ears. “If you’d been in the Golden Glow tonight, you’d have known right away it was me. Not a body, but me, V. I. Warshawski.”

Mr. Contreras had a thing or two to say about me being naked on the stage. “I told you two months ago, women who sit around naked onstage get what’s coming to them.”

“And how reassuring it is to hear that again. Although Terry Finchley seems to think that not knowing who was naked under all that paint is what unnerved Anton. Anton thought I was the Body Artist. And then when Karen, or Frannie-or whatever we’re going to call her-had her outburst at the back of the room, Anton was so surprised he lost his cool and sent Rodney after her.”

“So I guess your stunt worked. Guess you’re happy as all get out. Just do me a favor, keep your clothes on in public in the future.”

“Yes, sir,” I said meekly.

“Oh, you don’t fool me none with that butter-wouldn’t-melt attitude. I know you. I know you do what you damned well please no matter what I say.”

He spoke roughly. My well-being mattered greatly to him, and he hated knowing he wasn’t fit enough or fast enough anymore to keep up with me, let alone look after me.

“I listen to you.” I put my arms around him. “My mother would be glad to know I have you to counsel me.”

He brightened, thinking that I loved him well enough to compare him to my beloved mother. He bustled about cleaning up the table. It was two-thirty, time we was all in bed, anyway, doll. So what’s the point of fighting when it’s all water over the dam, anyway.

Mr. Contreras was right. The stunt had worked. At least, up to a point. The results, however, didn’t leave me happy as all get out, except for how they affected Chad Vishneski. Two days after my show at the Golden Glow, John Vishneski came into my office, Mona at his side: the state’s attorney had decided to drop charges against Chad.

“We can get him into a proper rehab hospital,” Mona said. “You worked a miracle for us, Ms. Warshawski. I didn’t know what to think when we got to that bar on Sunday, but you knew what you were doing.”

Vishneski grinned. “You ever want to take up that line of work more seriously, let me know. I can play the clarinet for you instead of that gal on those old-time instruments… You let me know what all your time and work came to. We’ll settle up.”