Roger Zelazny: Trumps of doom

I sat there and thought for a long while before I started the engine again and drove on slowly.

It was a grimy brick building situated on a corner. It was four stories in height, with occasional spray-painted obscenities on the alley side and on the wall facing the narrower street. I discovered the graffiti, a few broken windows and the fire escape as I strolled slowly about the place, looking it over. By then a light rain was just beginning to fall. The lower two stories were occupied by the Brutus Storage Company, according to a sign beside the stairs in a small hallway I entered. The place smelled of urine, and there was an empty Jack Daniels bottle lying on the dusty windowsill to my right. Two mailboxes hung upon the flaking wall. One said «Brutus Storage,» the other bore the legend «V M.» Both were empty.

I mounted the stair, expecting it to creak. It did not. There were four knobless doors letting upon the second floor hallway, all of them closed. The outlines of what might be cartons were visible through several of the frosted panes in their upper sections. There were no sounds from within.

I surprised a black cat dozing on the next stairway. She arched her back, showed me her teeth, made a hissing noise, then turned and bounded up the stairs and out of sight.

The next landing also had four doors - three of them apparently nonfunctional, the fourth dark-stained and shellacked shiny. It bore a small brass plate that read «Melman.» I knocked.

There was no answer. I tried again several times, with the same result. No sounds from within either. It seemed likely that these were his living quarters and that the fourth floor, with the possibility of a skylight, held his studio. So I turned away and took the final flight.

I reached the top and saw that one of the four doors there was slightly ajar. I halted and listened for a moment. From beyond it came faint sounds of movement. I advanced and gave it a few knocks. I heard a sudden intake of breath from somewhere inside. I pushed on the door.

He stood about twenty feet away beneath a large skylight and he had turned to face me - a tall, broad-shouldered man with dark beard and eyes. He held a brush in his left hand and a palette in his right. He wore a paint-smeared apron over his Levi's and had on a plaid sport shirt. The easel at his back held the outlines of what could be a madonna and child. There were a great many other canvases about, all of them facing the walls or covered.

«Hello,» I said. «You are Victor Melman?»

He nodded, neither smiling nor frowning, placed his palette on a nearby table, his brush into a jar of solvent. He picked up a damp-looking cloth then and wiped his hands with it.

«And yourself?» he asked, tossing the cloth aside and facing me again.

«Merle Corey. You knew Julia Barnes.»

«I don't deny it,» he said. «Your use of the past tense would seem to indicate -»

«She's dead all right. I want to talk to you about it.»

«All right,» he said, untying his apron. «Let's go downstairs then. No place to sit up here.»

He hung the apron upon a nail near the door and stepped outside. I followed him. He turned back and locked the studio before proceeding down the stairs. His movements were smooth, almost graceful. I could hear the rain on the roof.

He used the same key to unlock the dark door on the third floor. He drew the door open and stood aside, gesturing for me to enter. I did, traversing a hallway that led past a kitchen, its counters covered with empty bottles, stacks of dishes, pizza cartons. Bursting bags of trash leaned against cupboards; the floor looked sticky here and there and the place smelled like a spice factory next door to a slaughterhouse.

The living room, which I came to next, was large, with a comfortable-looking pair of black sofas, facing each other across a battlefield of Oriental carpets and miscellaneous tables, each of which bore several overflowing ashtrays. There was a beautiful concert-sized piano in the far corner, before a wall covered with heavy red drapery. There were numerous low bookcases filled with occult materials, stacks of magazines beside them, atop them, and alongside a few easy chairs. What could be the corner of a pentacle protruded slightly from beneath the largest rug. The stale smells of incense and pot lingered in patches. To my right, there was an archway leading to another room, a closed door to my left. Paintings of a semireligious nature - which I took to be his work - were hung on several of the walls. There was a Chagall-like quality to them. Quite good.

«Have a seat.»

He gestured toward an easy chair and I took it. «Care for a beer?»

«Thank you, no.»

He seated himself on the nearer sofa, clasped his hands, and stared at me.

«What happened?» he asked.

I stared back at him.

«Julia Barnes got interested in occult systems,» I said. «She came to you to learn more about them. She died this morning under very unusual circumstances.»

The left corner of his mouth twitched slightly. He made no other movement.

«Yes, she was interested in such matters,» he said. «She came to me for instruction and I provided it.»

«I want to know why she died.» He continued to stare.

«Her time was up,» he said. «It happens to everybody, in the long run.»

«She was killed by an animal that should not exist here. Do you know anything about it?»

«The universe is a stranger place than most of us can imagine.»

«Do you know or don't you?»

«I know you,» he said, smiling for the first time. «She spoke of you, of course.»

«What does that mean?»

«It means,» he answered, «that I know you are more than a little aware of such matters yourself.»

«And so?»

«The Arts have a way of bringing the right people together at the proper moment when there is work in progress.»

«And that's what you think this is all about?»

«I know it.»

«How?»

«It was promised.»

«So you were expecting me?»

«Yes.»

«Interesting. Would you care to tell me more about it?»

«I'd rather show you.»

«You say that something was promised. How? By whom?»

«All of that will become clear shortly.»

«And Julia's death?»

«That, too, I'd say.»

«How do you propose rendering me this enlightenment?»

He smiled. «I just want you to take a look at something,» he said.

«All right. I'm willing. Show me.»

He nodded and rose.

«It's in here,» he explained, turning and heading toward the closed door.

I got to my feet and followed him across the room.

He reached into his shirtfront and drew up a chain. He lifted it over his head and I could see that it bore a key. He used it to unlock the door.

«Go in,» he said, pushing it open and stepping aside.

I entered. It was not a large room, and it was dark. He flipped a switch and a blue light of small wattage came on within a plain fixture overhead. I saw then that there was one window, directly across from me, and that all of its panes had been painted black. There were no furnishings, save for a few cushions scattered here and there across the floor. A portion of the wall to my right was covered with black drapery. The other walls were unadorned.

«I'm looking,» I said.

He chuckled.

«A moment, a moment,» he advised me. «Have you any idea of my major concern in the occult arts?»

«You're a cabalist,» I stated.

«Yes,» he admitted. «How could you tell?»

«People in Eastern disciplines tend to run a tight ship,» I stated. «But cabalists always seem to be slobs.»

He snorted.

«It is all a matter of what is really important to you,» he said then.

«Exactly.» He kicked a cushion into the middle of the floor. «Have a seat,» he said.