Ghost Music Read Online Free PDF Page A

it comes to artists.”
    â€œWell, it’s my beloved Jonathan, of course. Who else would it be?”
    I said nothing. Some old friend of hers must be using her as a model, and she was simply confused. I had to admit, though, thateven in her old age she had a very passable figure. Slim hips, long legs, tiny breasts with faint pink nipples.
    â€œI have to get back downstairs now,” I told her. “I have a lunch guest.”
    â€œIf you see Jonathan, you will tell him to hurry up, won’t you?”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œAnd do be warned,” she said, lowering her voice back down to a whisper. “The people in this house . . .
they’re not always what they seem to be
.”
    â€œExcuse me?”
    Pearl raised her hand to her face and stroked her cheek, as if she were making sure that she were still there.
    â€œThey tell you one thing, but they do another. That’s their trouble. And they watch you, all the time. They covet your possessions, that’s why. They want everything that’s yours, and not theirs. They covet every breath that you take. They even covet the sunlight that shines into your eyes.
They want it
, like Gollum wanted the ring.”
    â€œWell . . . I’ll be careful,” I assured her.
    Pearl stood up. I thought for one alarming moment that she was going to drop her bathrobe, but she simply came up to me and took hold of my left hand.
    â€œOne door opens and another door closes,” she told me. “But don’t forget that doors never open and close by themselves. There are people walking through them, even if there aren’t always people to be seen.”
    With that, she closed her eyes and lifted her face toward me, as if she expected me to kiss her. I hesitated for a moment, and then I gave her the lightest kiss on her forehead.
    â€œYou’re such a good fellow, Gideon Lake,” she said. “I think I might be able to remember you.”

Six
    Kate came up about twenty minutes later, while I was chopping up the Chinese cabbage. I had left the door on the latch, so that she could walk straight in.
    â€œSo sorry I’m late.” she smiled. She was wearing narrow black jeans and a yellow scoop-neck T-shirt, and she was holding up a bottle of Cuvée Napa sparkling wine. She kissed me as if she had known me for years.
    â€œHey, no problem. Glad you could make it.”
    â€œSomething strange happened to a friend of mine this morning, and I had to go see her.”
    â€œSomething strange?”
    â€œSomebody broke into her apartment and broke all of her flower vases. They didn’t steal anything, just broke all of her vases, and threw her flowers all around the room. She’s very distressed about it.”
    â€œDoes she have any idea who did it?”
    Kate shook her head.
    â€œDoes she have any idea
why
they did it?”
    â€œNo. But there are so many psychos around these days.”
    I took the wine bottle from her. It was intensely cold, and beaded with dew, as if she had just taken it out of the fridge. “I don’t have any champagne glasses,” I admitted. “You don’t mind slumming it with a regular wineglass, do you?”
    â€œOf course not. I’ve drunk it straight out of the bottle before now.”
    I took two glasses out of the cupboard and opened the Cuvée Napa with a sharp, suppressed hiss.
    â€œThat’s good,” said Kate.
“La pette d’une ange.”
    â€œExcuse me?”
    â€œAn angel’s fart. That’s the way you’re supposed to open champagne. Not like Victor. Every time he opens a bottle of champagne you’d think he just won the Indy 500. It sprays everywhere.”
    â€œI met Victor this morning.”
    Kate looked away, and said nothing.
    â€œHe was telling me about Pearl, upstairs,” I persisted.
    â€œPearl? Yes, she’s something else, isn’t she? She didn’t drop her robe?”
    â€œNo. She was