Fiddlers Read Online Free PDF

in this building. In the sixties, we were still uptown, on Silvermine Drive, near Tenth.�
    �Close to our turf,� Meyer said. �The precinct.�
    �Yes,� Abigail said, not completely sure she�d understood. �He was a violin major, did you say?�
    �Yes.�
    �Alexei Kusmin would have been heading Violin Studies.�
    �Yes, so we understand. Mr. Sobolov was one of his students.�
    �Kusmin was first desk at the philharmonic back then. But he also taught here. Your man would have played violin day in and day out for four years. Well, not just violin. He�d have taken piano as his second instrument, all students in the music department do, even today. And L and M, of course, which is Literature and Materials. He�d also have played in one of the orchestras. There were only two back then, the Concert and the Rep. We have four now. And he�d have taken courses in music history, and - since he was a string musician - he�d have been assigned to chamber music as well.�
    �He�d have been busy,� Carella said.
    �Oh yes. Our students are expected to be serious about music. Here at Kleber, it�s music - or dance or drama, of course - all day long, every day of the week. Lessons, or practicing, or performing in this or that orchestra� it�s a life, gentlemen. It�s a full life.�
    The detectives nodded.
    Carella was wondering if he ever really could have become a famous actor.
    Meyer was thinking his uncle Isadore had once told him he made nice drawings.
    As she led them across the room, Abigail explained that Max Sobolov�s options after a four-year course of study here would have been numerous.
    �We�ve got several major symphony orchestras in this city, you know,� she said, �plus the two opera companies, and the three ballets. There are something like thirty, thirty-five violin chairs in any given orchestra - well, count them. Eighteen fiddles in the first section, another fifteen in the second. That�s thirty-three chances for a job in any of the city�s orchestras. Plus there�s nothing to say he couldn�t have applied to an orchestra in Chicago, or Cleveland, or wherever. A good violinist? And one of Kusmin�s students? His chances would have been very good indeed.�
    She pulled open one of the file drawers.
    �Let�s hope his records haven�t already been boxed and sent up to Archives,� she said. �Soboloff, was it?�
    �Sobolov,� Carella said. �With an o-v.�
    �Ah. Yes,� she said, and began riffling through the folders. When she found the one for SOBOLOV, MAX, she placed it on top of the filing cabinet, and opened it. �Yes,� she said, �an excellent student. Brilliant future ahead of him.� She paused, reading. �But you see, gentlemen, he never finished the course of study here. He left after only three years.�
    �The Army,� Meyer said.
    �Vietnam,� Carella said.
    * * * *
    �A pity,� Abigail said.
    �This would�ve been a long time ago, you understand,� the woman in the clerical office was telling them.
    Her name was Clara Whaitsley. Parker thought she was British at first, the name and all, and this was mildly exciting because he�d never been to bed with a British girl. But she had a broad Riverhead accent, and he�d been to bed with lots of Riverhead girls in his lifetime. So had Genero. Well, a few, anyway. All business, they merely listened to her.
    �We�re talking a girl in her teens,� Clara said. �They enter high school in the tenth grade, you know, when they�re fifteen, going on sixteen. According to our records, Alicia Hendricks came into Harding directly from Mercer Junior High, some forty years ago.�
    �Long time ago,� Genero observed sagely.
    �The usual progression is Pierce Elementary to Mercer Junior High to Harding High,� Clara said. �We have her leaving Harding at sixteen.�
    �Any follow-up on that?�
    �We wouldn�t have anything on her after she left our school.�
    �Went into the workforce,