Clancy Martin - How to Sell

“Where are you?” I said.

“I’m just chatting with my dear friend Shelley,” he said. I recognized his salesman voice. “You bring our big packages of diamonds, buddy? You find a bunch of bargains?”

“I thought you were picking me up,” I said.

“Oh, good, good,” he said. “Well, I better run, buddy. See you soon. See you as soon as you get those stones cleared through customs.”

The diamonds were shipped under separate cover, of course, with insurance, and went through our customs broker.

I took a cab. But the way things were, since he was supposed to pick me up and left me here, I thought I would go home first and take an hour or two before getting back in to work. Maybe Lisa would have time for an early lunch. But I called and she didn’t answer the phone.

Where is she all of a sudden? Just since I’ve been away, she disappears, I thought. I wondered if she knew when my plane got back. She didn’t really work during the day. Obviously she wasn’t with Jim. He was at the store.

•

“It’s for Wendy,” I told Jim.

A few days after I was back I bought Lisa an eighteen-karat gold and natural pearl bracelet that an antique dealer from Houston brought in. Normally I would not pay for natural pearls from a dealer because it was all bullshit, no one had a reliable way of confirming whether or not pearls were natural, you could use badly formed pearls from a farm and they would look like old naturals. But Jim had known this dealer for years and he never misrepresented his merchandise. The bracelet had been made by Cartier in the fifties and it had little knotted bars of gold wound all the way around. It was stamped, and not just on the clasp, which could have been added later. In between the bars were the pearls. Eight millimeters each. Eleven of them.

“Why would you divorce her and give her a bracelet?” Jim said.

“We go into arbitration in a few weeks.”

“Mediation.”

“That’s what I meant,” I said. “Mediation.”

“Lord knows I have given my wives enough jewelry,” he said. “But I never picked something out for my ex-wife.”

It was only Lily he ever referred to when he referred to his ex-wife. The other two were like photocopies of Lily and with each new copy the image was inkier and more blurred. In the most recent divorce, which was only a few months old, Jim had relocated — on paper only, of course — to Nevada, for legal residence, and hired an actress to represent his wife in court. She never even knew they were divorced. She still thought they were merely separated. Tanner, their new little baby, lived with his mother, but Jim gave himself custody in the papers. “Because it was the right thing to do. I love my son. Also for leverage,” he said, “in case she ever acts up.”

“On the other hand, maybe it’s smart thinking,” Jim said, changing his mind. “She’ll be generous, thinking she might still get you back if she isn’t too greedy. But that bracelet’s a find.”

“This way it stays in the family,” I said. “It’ll be like a dowry for Claire.” I felt guilty when I said that. I didn’t like to use my daughter for material.

We were in the car talking when I gave Lisa the bracelet.

She said, “But Bobby. I don’t wear jewelry.”

It was true. I had considered that. But that was why she might wear one piece. For me. For us, even.

“You could try one bracelet,” I said.

She knew jewelry and could see well enough for herself what kind of a bracelet it was. But I wished I could tell her they were natural pearls.

“It’s very pretty,” she said. “It’s nice. But I’m so busy. I’m not one of these women who lives in a showcase, Bobby. I would just break it.”

“It’s old,” I said. “It’s stronger than it looks.”

“You know how much I love to swim. I would forget it by the pool or I would break it swimming.” She laughed. “I guess they are pearls, though.”

“You are right,” I said. “You might not want to wear those pearls in a swimming pool.” I could not think about those pearls in water with chemicals.

“Anyway, the point is I can’t wear jewelry in my business,” she said. “It’s asking for trouble. I would just have to take it off. And if I forget about it and leave it somewhere…”

“You wouldn’t forget it,” I said.

“I might,” she said. “Sometimes I’m in a hurry to get out.”

•

L isa’s boyfriend drove a blue Toyota pickup. They knew my car, so I stayed back. They went to an apartment complex off Eastchase. It was not too far from the temporary furnished apartment I had rented when I first left the house. It was a gated complex, like most of them over there, so I parked around the corner, on the street. You could not park there but I didn’t think I would be long. I looked for a place to climb the fence. They would be on the second or third floor and the truck would be near the apartment. Most of the fence was metal and there was nothing to grip on but I found a section of old wooden fencing near the pool and used a plastic garbage can that was there to climb over. It was rainy and no one was at the pool. I walked into the laundry room to make myself inconspicuous. Often the manager’s office was near the pool and I didn’t know if I had been seen climbing the fence. It would have been better if I were not in a suit. I got a Diet Coke out of the machine. A man was there in a jogging outfit doing his laundry and he nodded at me.

“Cold for October,” he said.

I tried to look as though I belonged. I opened the top of a washing machine.

“They work fine,” he said. “New machines. But a buck-fifty a load is steep.” He eyed me like he knew something was up.

“That is steep,” I agreed. “I guess because they’re new.”

“Uh-huh,” he said. He looked like the kind of person who would go to the office to report a suspicious person.

“My name is Plater,” I said. “Adam Plater.” We shook hands. He had a limp handshake like he didn’t want to shake my hand.

“I’ve seen you on TV. You are that jeweler. Are you thinking of moving here?”

“That’s right,” I said. “But I’m not that jeweler. I get that all the time, though.”

“No, you’re him, all right. You got a girlfriend here or something? Don’t worry, I won’t say anything.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said. He was baring his teeth. “If you ever need anything,” I said, and hurried out of the laundry room.

I almost climbed back over the fence. Then I realized I could walk out the front. But I didn’t want Lisa and her boyfriend to see me if they were leaving. Or if he was still in the truck, waiting. I knew that the man from the laundry room was watching me. But I could not look back over my shoulder to check. I walked into the manager’s office. It was right there next to the pool. I came in a back door and sat down at the rental desk in front. I ate a candy from the dish on the desk. A vase on the desk held fake birds-of-paradise. There was dust on the orange and blue blossoms. In a minute an attractive young woman in a cheap nylon suit came around a corner with half a sandwich in her hand.

“You caught me,” she said. “Can I help you?”

“I want to rent an apartment,” I said.

“Good!” she said. She looked like a pleasant person. She was wearing a silver charm bracelet and CZ earrings.

“What sort of an apartment are you looking for?” she said. She looked past me into the parking lot for my car. She wanted to see what sort of apartment I could afford.

“My car’s around the corner,” I said. “I had some difficulty finding the office.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Are you looking for a one-bedroom or something larger?”