Read Online Sleeping in Flame by Jonathan Carroll - Free Book Online

will he look?"
    "I don't know. In the phonebook? Who cares. I just wanted to tell you what was happening. How is our beautiful friend?"
    Maris took the phone from me. "Nicholas, don't be so cool about this!
    Luc's crazy, and stupid enough to really try something bad. Maybe he'll do something to your family."
    "Maris, remember that movie, _Babyskin_, I made with Weber Gregston as his assistant? When it was over, he gave me a Colt Python pistol as a present.
    A crazy but very sweet _Geschenk_. If the little Frenchman comes, I'll shake it at him and tell him to go away."
    She hit her head, exasperated. "You idiot! And what if he goes to your house when you're not there? Have you thought about that?"
    "Yes, I have. Just enjoy yourself and stay close to Walker now. Let me talk to him again, please."
    "I'm here, Nicholas. But she's got a good point, if he is as nuts as she says."
    "Did I ever introduce you to Goldstar? The meanest man I ever met.
    European boxing champion years ago, but now he works as a stunt man. Looks like Gorbachev.
    He's at my house now and he'll stay there a couple of days. If Rambo comes, he'll have to shake hands with Goldie before he gets in.
    Everything is taken care of, believe me.
    "You want to go to dinner tonight? I made a reservation at Frascati for nine o'clock. Let's go eat some scampi, huh?
    "Maris, if you're still there, stop listening."
    Shaking her head, she rolled to the other side of the bed and started petting Orlando, who was perched on a pillow.
    "Is she okay, Walker?"
    "She's fine. We had a great day together."
    "That's good. Let's finish it with a good meal."
    Ristorante Frascati was one of the few gifts I'd ever been able to give Nicholas that he didn't frown about. The decor was a mixture of bad paintings of Venetian scenes and uncomfortable chairs. But the food was the best Italian in town, so it had become one of his regular hangouts.
    Maris and I arrived a few minutes early and were chatting tiredly when he breezed in. Nicholas Sylvian was a celebrity in Vienna. When he entered a restaurant there was much fawning by waiters, whispers, and subtle pointing by pretty women and jealous men as he made his way across a room.
    "I've already ordered a hundred scampi and two bottles of Orvieto for me. Maris, you look much happier today. Did you meet his cat? Only Walker would _buy_ a fucking blind cat!"
    He looked around the room to see if he knew anyone. The artist Hrdlicka was sitting in a corner Page 26

    with a group of people. When he saw Nicholas, he made a funny face and tipped his glass our way.
    Nicholas waved back. "I just bought a bronze figure from Hrdlicka that cost as much as a house.
    It'll take five men to put it in my living room. Then
    I'll never be able to get it out of there again. The greatest piece you ever saw, so I had to have it.
    End of discussion. Where's the wine?"
    "Did you hear anything more from Luc?"
    "Nothing. He's just playing macho. What did you two do today?"
    Maris told him about everything except her confrontation with the woman, and our time in my apartment. He watched closely and seemed to enjoy her company thoroughly. Her earlier fatigue disappeared and was replaced by a happy vibrancy and animated gestures.
    Again it struck me that they had an important history together that I wasn't any part of. Fall hard in love, and immediately you want to know everything about them.
    Whom did they love most before and why, what things delight them, where do you fit into their soul . . . Nicholas was probably the
    best friend I had. He'd helped me survive some of the worst days I'd known when stumbling through my divorce and after. But in the restaurant that night he was a worry: a strong, fascinating man, who knew much more about this woman than I did. If we'd been alone, I'd have asked him questions about her I was hesitant to ask Maris directly. In bed, earlier, she'd told me many intimate things that showed she was willing to enter into a lovers' trust with me.