Art in the Blood - Chapter Two

[kalinara]

Sorry for the delay. I took a nice lazy break for my birthday last week, then promptly caught a miserable cold. Fortunately, I seem to be through the worst of it. Yay!

Last time, Jack was actually having a good time for once! He got to go to a party and have a quickie in a garden! It's a nice change from misery and trauma! I'm sure that'll last through the whole book!



So we return to Bobbi and Jack. Since Jack's still a little flushed from the vampire-sex, he can only walk her partway to the house. That's okay though, he gets to enjoy the garden. At some point, he can hear Bobbi sing "Red Sails in the Sunset", which he takes as a private joke kidding him.

I did a quick google search on it, it's apparently a Fats Domino song. And sadly not one of those dirty or murdery old songs, so I'm not sure what the link is. But it's cute that Bobbi and Jack have been together long enough to have songs that mean something to them even if I don't get it.

Then Titus takes over, which makes Jack wince. Interestingly, he mentions never having a problem with violins before he became a vampire, and blames the transformation for it. The violin is too high pitched for vampire ears or something. Hm. I wonder how a fiddle would do? Can you scare Dracula away with a polka?

So anyway, Jack over hears some men whispering, trying to be secretive. The source turns out to be some young men playing dice against the fountain. "Evan" is the name of the guy shooting dice, and he appears to be really good and/or lucky at it. Then some other dude, named Dreyer, comes over and grabs the dice.

OH, it appears Evan was cheating. That's not a great idea, apparently, as this Dreyer fellow punches him in the stomach. This leads to a free for all and a splash as someone or something goes into the fountain.

Jack was amusing himself by watching the kids, but when he sees the guy get punched and hears the splash, his chronic hero tendencies kick in. He pushes through the crowd to yank Evan out of the fountain. Dreyer, who'd been holding Evan's legs up, tries to punch Jack. It goes as well as can be expected. There's more in the crowd than Jack can influence, but Jack's good at reading social dynamics. Dreyer's the leader, and he stares him down long enough for other people to decide to leave. So Jack gets the grateful Evan away.

Evan offers to buy him a drink and they head into the kitchen, where Evan's greeted as "Mr. Robley". They seem to know him here, immediately ambushing him with towels and instructions to a grinning waiter to get a robe and then find "Miss Robley".

Evan starts waxing eloquently about one of the staff members' skin tones (a girl named Janine who has skin that is "a little white, a touch of umber") and Jack realizes that he's an artist. Maybe a bit of a bitter one since Evan says he's "one of the genuine few at this party".

Janine and Evan definitely have a history from the way she makes him strip and references a "modeling job" she'd given her.

Soon we meet "Miss Robley" (Or "Sandra") who is dressed in rich green satin and has "russet eyes". Maybe Evan's rubbing off on Jack a bit. Anyway, we get a bit of description here about both being sharp featured and with paint-stained fingers.

They seem close. Sandra is amused and tolerant of Evan's antics, while Evan tries to encourage his sister to go back to the party and have fun, roping Jack into escorting her.

They make small talk, Jack filling her in on what happpened. He learns that both are artists. Evan doesn't sell much, since his work is "too different for conventional tastes". Sandra sells more, painting "anything that sells". She seems a bit regretful about that noting that it's good for money but not always good for artistic integrity.

Jack doesn't really understand so Sandra offers him a lesson in the basics of art, leading him farther into the house.

She fills him in on the artists' social circle. They compete, but also exchange ideas and critiques. She shows him a landscape that he thinks is very similar to the rural scene in Gordy's office in the first scene of the book. She presses him on what he thinks and he admits that it seems a little too perfect.

He gets to see more of Leighton Brett's work and has the same reaction: he couldn't really imagine buying one to look at for years at a time. This observation delights Sandra.

Her smile had a definite softening effect on her face. “You are one of the few people I’ve met who’ve spotted it.”

“What did I spot, then?”

“Leighton’s artistic manipulation.”

“What’s that?”

She gestured at the painting, this one of a vase of flowers. “See the colors, very bland except for this touch of red here and here, which gives it all balance. I’m not denying he has a great deal of technical skill, but it’s all very carefully planned, as you said, just a little too perfect.” Her attitude was more amusement than jealousy, like a teacher instructing a pupil and enjoying the interaction for its own sake.

I just like this interaction and I appreciate how, despite knowing probably less than Jack about any kind of art, I'm following along. I have no idea if there's any merit to this, but Elrod makes it sound believable.

He asks Sandra about her work and she admits she paints the same sort of things as Leighton, but doesn't get paid as much. She's in the WPA program to produce art for federal buildings, which has helped her financially though.

Leighton doesn't know it, but apparently he helps her realize exactly what they expect and give it to them.

They end up interrupted by a new face, who Sandra's delighted to see. Now THIS guy gets a notable description:

His response to her obvious affection was minimal. His body went stiff at her touch and then relaxed visibly, as though he had to consciously remember she was a friend. “I’m well enough.”

He didn’t look it. He held his body straight, but his clothes were loose from weight loss and the skin on his face was dull. The impression was not so much ill health as neglect. The term “walking dead” had a more meaningful application to him than to myself. His suit was expensive but unpressed, and his collar and cuffs frayed beyond saving. He noticed my assessment and a slight spark of resentment lit his dark eyes for a brief second, then went out. He didn’t give a damn.

I understood why when Sandra introduced us. Alex Adrian: one of the very few who had become famous outside artistic circles. In the last ten years hardly a week went by that his work didn’t appear on some major or even minor magazine. He was in demand for snob advertising, illustrative work, society portraits, you name it, his talent crossed all boundaries and had kept him at the top. But this year, in January, the work stopped, and with enough notoriety to make headlines in more places than Chicago.

So here's a guy even Jack's heard of. Doesn't sound like he's in good shape though. And Elrod does know how to slide a good zinger line here.

We shook hands briefly to obey social convention and then he pulled back into himself, hands held in front, the fingers of the right slowly twisting his wedding band around. I was interested to note he still wore it, perhaps as silent defiance to the rumors he’d murdered his wife.

So there we go. THAT's why Jack knows who he is. Alex and Sandra chat a bit about her work, and Evan's. Evan sold something recently but far below the asking price, which Alex attributes to having pre-negotiation drinks with the buyers. Apparently there was a gallery deal that fell through, and Sandra was hoping to talk to Reva (the host, there are a lot of names here), into hosting some of his more "restrained" work.

Evan shows up to defend his honor a little. There's some talk about him approaching Reva, but it sounds like Evan plans to do it the next day, after the party when she'll be tired and more open to the idea. Then he heads out to party. Sandra goes off after him to try to make sure he eats a sandwich before going all in on debauchery, which leaves Jack and Alex to chat.

We learn Sandra's the younger sister, but much more responsible, so she seems older. They chat about Evan and Sandra a bit more, Alex gets filled in and seems to recognize Dreyer's name. He sounds like trouble.

He asks if Jack's connected with the art world, and recognizes Bobbi's name, noting that Jack is very fortunate. Which is generally a good way to win over Jack. And it actually gives Jack an idea for a present for Bobbi that she'll actually like: a painting by Alex Adrian.

He asks Alex how one goes about commissioning a painting and if Alex would consider it. Sadly, Alex doesn't think he has time but recommends Evan - as long as Jack supervises since Evan fits "most people's cliched ideas of an artist."

This is interesting though:

He excused himself and moved back into the crowd. He was puzzling, because I was positive for a moment that he was going to say yes. The dullness had left his face, and even in the packed room, I’d heard his heart hammer a little faster. He’d been genuinely interested and then the walls had come up, visibly and quite sudden. I glanced around to see if anything had inspired the change. The only thing in his direct line of sight were people, none of them known to me, but then a woman moved her head and I saw Reva Stokes, smiling and playing hostess.

So there's something going on with the famous artist!

Reva, the host, comes over to converse with Jack. Apparently Alex had been a frequent guest and a good friend of Leighton Brett (the artist whose party this is celebrating, in case you forgot. There is a large cast here), prior to his wife's suicide. The poor guy wasn't friendly to the reporters afterward, so they decided to do a lot of not quite lawsuit-justifying insinuations. He's become more reclusive.

The star of the party shows up here too, and so Jack gets to meet Leighton Brett. He greets Jack friendly enough, and they also chat. This leads Jack to ask if Brett had ever made any duplicates of his work, and mentions seeing the painting in Gordy's office (without specifics). This ends up getting Brett's back up. He wants to see the work, assuming they're done by an imitator.

Jack realizes he's bitten off a bit more than expected. Gordy's not going to like having an artist barging around with questions. Brett's reaction starts to get attention, but Jack calms things down by promising to look into it. Jack further helps defuse things by making some inexpert but praising comments about the art.

So this is actually a pretty novel situation. For the first time, we're getting to see Jack getting involved in a case that doesn't directly involve him. It's emotionally fraught for the people in it, of course, but Jack himself gets to be distantly curious. And it's nice to see how well his practical curiosity works when he's not dealing with his own shit.

This is also maybe the first time we get to see Jack in a major social setting, and while he may lack Escott's panache, he really does negotiate it very well.

Eventually, he gets to check in on Bobbi, who's singing again. There's even an impromptu dance floor, where couples are swaying to the music. Alex Adrian is dancing with Sandra, which surprises Jack a little, but they seem to be enjoying themselves.

Then Walt, a waiter from the kitchen who we met earlier with Evan and Janine comes looking for help. Apparently Evan asked for Adrian (that's how Jack refers to the guy so I'll probably stick with that, instead of Alex). Jack goes instead. Poor Evan's at the bottom of a linen closet with blood on his face.

With that slight cliffhanger, the chapter ends.

So yeah, as I noted in the review as I read, this is an interesting contrast to the previous books. For once, we're not starting with drama or action. Jack's got no emotional stake in what's going on. He's just curiously strolling around a party, meeting a lot of interesting and likable people.

He's getting involved, of course, because he's Jack. Because he didn't want to see a guy get beaten up and because he could help. I definitely think we'll be seeing more of Alex Adrian. He and Jack seemed to have a very quick connection of some kind. And it's kind of fun to see all the people who'll clearly be at the center of some kind of mystery before the mystery actually happens.

I wonder if someone'll get murdered! I suppose we'll find out soon!