Gwenny June's Tommy Crown Affair

  Chapter 54 – Ms. Granite

  Back in the hotel room Ms. Granite sat on the edge of the unmade bed, Tommy not sitting there with her, but on a chair near the door. She still was ranting about the expense account, and Tommy still was tasting the sour sibilance of her Brooklyn heritage, which never before had bothered him. She paid his fees and he could live with the rest of her. But now....

  “Well,” she said, “what are you going to do? Your personal life is your own, you can play with monkeys at night for all I care, but on my time you have ta produce, and you ain’t doin’ that now." Tommy’s mind did not wander over into the territory of Ms. Granite’s personal life, him planning on asking for a new room as soon as this interrogation was over. He was pondering the meaning behind the monkey reference when his phone dinged the reception of a text message. It said, “Come over to the house asap. Someone wants to meet you. G and G.”

  He smiled, thought for a moment and said to stone lady, “Here’s the deal. The museum will get their painting back in the next five days.”

  “And?” she said.

  “And it’s going to cost you double the usual fee.”

  “That’s fourteen percent of $2.5 mill. Are you crazy?”

  “That’s the deal. You don’t pay, the painting’s gone.”

  “That sounds like a threat. Sounds like you’re involved in this as more than an investigator. Almost sounds like you’ve gone over to the other side. Sounds, Tommy, almost like extortion.”

  “So you only get two trips to Hawaii this year instead of three. Your rep’s still good. You make it up on the next policies.”

  She sat looking at him now, the quality of her face matching that of her voice. Finally she said, “Why, Tommy? Why now?”

  “Two reasons. I’ve met some new friends, and I like the way they play.”

  “And?”

  “You messed up my bed.”