Notturno (14 page)

NOTTURNO
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and befriended my father. I believe I told you my family has

worked for him off and on. When I was old enough, I came to

the U.S. to go to school. Donte has been very kind.”

“So you don’t drive a limousine ordinarily.”

Boaz laughed. “No, not ordinarily.”

“What do you do then?”

“A little of everything. I’ve been an interpreter, a courier,

and a liaison to certain Middle Eastern corporations where

Donte has holdings. Often I entertain business associates for

him. I’m a good man to have around.”

“I see,” said Adin. A hint of jealousy crackled beneath his

skin.

“Sometimes I take care of meals,” Boaz said, as if to remind

him that he was merely food to Donte and his kind. Adin

flushed and looked away.

“Speaking of food,” said Edward, coming back into the

room. “I’m starving. I didn’t have breakfast. Who else needs to

eat?”

Neither Adin nor Boaz said anything, but in typical fashion,

that mattered not at all to Edward, and soon they were headed

to Scoma’s for lunch. Once there, Boaz flatly refused to dine

with them, arguing that he needed to remain with the vehicle.

Nothing Edward said or did could change his mind. Edward

and Adin were seated and ordered drinks.

“What a stubborn little man,” remarked Edward, still angry.

Adin watched out the window as boats bobbed in their docks.

Gulls dashed about from one to the next, fighting over

territory, swooping and circling in the pearly gray late-morning

light.

“Edward.” Adin hardly knew how to approach what had

been uppermost on his mind. “Did you ever wonder if there

were things on earth that you didn’t imagine existed?”

To his credit, Edward gazed at him seriously. “Like what?”

Adin looked away. “Like, oh I don’t know. Ghosts or

monsters or ESP or something?”

94 Z.A. Maxfield

Edward laughed. “My grandmother used to say she had the

ghost of a little Pakistani boy in her home in Sussex. I think she

just said it to freak me out. She said she saw him playing ball on

the stairs at night. It kept me safely tucked in bed till morning

every time I visited.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t go running off as soon as you

heard about it to make his acquaintance.” Adin nodded at the

waiter when he brought their drinks. “But, did—”

“What’s this really about, Adin?” Edward watched him

closely. “Have you been seeing ghosts?”

Adin shook his head. “No, it’s nothing that silly. I just

feel…twitchy. Like nothing today is the same as it was last

week. Maybe it’s because I’m home, but home isn’t here

anymore. I’m disoriented.”

“I felt that way when I met Tuan.” Edward leaned forward.

“Like I was being sucked into something and nothing would

ever be the same. It wasn’t something I was looking for… I was

happy just to play, you remember?”

“Oh yes, I remember.” Adin fondly recalled his first meeting

with Edward and their subsequent adventures together, first in

Paris and then in London. Both had vowed to take most of it to

the grave.

“Did you meet someone, Adin?”

“Yes… No… It’s that damned manuscript.” Adin played

with his forks. “The lovers in that diary were just so beautiful,

Edward. I wish you could have seen the drawings. The entries

made me feel rudderless.”

“Rudderless? You?” Edward acknowledged the waiter when

he brought the appetizer. “You’re hardly flotsam, Adin. You’ve

always steered your own craft; what’s happened?”

“I’ve never felt anything remotely like what I read in those

journals. Is that real? Or is it just somebody making things up

for dramatic effect. The man who wrote that diary was a man

wholly given up to his lover and not the weaker for it. His love

gave him immense strength. He was just…different from

NOTTURNO
95

anything I’ve ever imagined. He said when his lover sighed it

came from his own lungs.”

“Scary. Boundaries are healthy.”

Adin peered at him, knowing Edward had none where Tuan

was concerned. He raised his eyebrows.

“Oh, all right. When I met Tuan in Paris I spent at least six

months running away from him. He scared the crap out of me.

He made me want things…” Edward took up his napkin and

primly folded it in his lap. “It’s crazy when you know you’d die

for someone if they needed you to do that, when you think that

would make you the happiest person on earth.”

They stared at each other for a long moment. “What a

drama queen you are,” Adin whispered.

“Hey!” Edward growled, dipping a calamari ring into

cocktail sauce after lacing it liberally with Tabasco. His many

bracelets and rings clanked as he shook some of it off. “I’m not

the one who’s in love with an Italian petty noble from the

sixteenth century.”

“Who are you calling petty?” asked Adin, feeling a little

better. He dug into lunch with a newly returned appetite while

Edward talked about his most recent work. It seemed he’d been

hired as a go-between for an old man who had some of Max

Perkins’s private notes on Thomas Wolfe’s work and a

Dartmouth grad who had studied Perkins and collected

anything he could find on the man. Adin let him talk.

“So,” he finished up. “It’s time you thought about what

you’re going to do if you never get your manuscript back.”

“I’ll get it back,” Adin said. “If Tuan can’t find it, I’ll start

putting feelers out as a private buyer.”

“What? You would seriously do that?” asked Edward. “Can

you come up with that kind of cash?”

“I can.” Adin was grim. “I would. It would take everything I

have that’s liquid, probably a whole lot more. And there’s no

guarantee that the other men who want this so badly can’t buy

me and sell me, but at least I might find out where the

manuscript is. I was going to talk to Tuan about it.”

96 Z.A. Maxfield

“If you find out where it is, and the authorities can’t get it,

you could probably have it stolen back, for a price.” Edward

looked away. “Tuan could give you names.”

“Now that our rank desperation is on the table, shall we be a

little more optimistic? Maybe Tuan chased it down already and

will be calling any minute with the good news.”

Edward raised his glass. “I’ll drink to that.”

Adin raised his own. They clinked the glasses together just

as their entrées came.

Adin was smashing his crab with a mallet when Edward’s

phone rang. Edward quickly wiped his hands and answered,

motioning for Adin to continue, while Edward left to talk in

private outside. Adin was just finishing extracting the crabmeat

from a final claw when he felt a body drop into the chair beside

his.

“Hello,” said a man he didn’t recognize. Adin wiped his

hands carefully, controlling his face. “I’ll bet you’re wondering

why I would come over and sit down next to you, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am.” Adin looked around furtively. The room was

filled to capacity; it was hardly likely anyone could harm him

here.

“I’m just here to deliver a message, Dr. Tredeger.
”
The man seemed to be in no hurry, and Adin worried about Edward. He

darted a glance in the direction Edward had gone. “He’s fine.

This is just a friendly chat, all right?”

Adin nodded, not trusting his voice.

“Here’s the thing. Three parties are at war over
Notturno
. It’s all about old anger and personal grudges and, shall we say,

blood ties. This is not something you want to be involved in.

Leave it alone, and you’ll probably survive.”

“I can’t do that; it belongs to the university I work for.”

“Not anymore. That book has a far greater purpose than

study. Leave it alone. You can’t hope to win.” He snaked his

hand out and picked up Adin’s wineglass, then helped himself

to its contents before turning to leave. “Last warning, eh?” He

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97

put the glass down and left. Adin sat in silence for a few

minutes until Edward came back.

“Did I see you talking to someone?” asked Edward.

“Not someone I knew,” Adin admitted, thinking hard. Had

that been yet another vampire he’d failed to detect? In the

daytime?

“You’ve still got it. I swear, when you go out men come out

of the woodwork.” Edward picked up the crackers for his crab.

“You have no fucking idea,” said Adin, earning a surprised

look. They finished their meal in silence, and then Edward had

Boaz drive them to the de Young Museum. Adin was agitated,

and Edward had energy to burn.

“Do you mind going ahead for a minute?” asked Adin. “I

need to talk to Boaz.”

“Sure.” Edward stepped out to the curb and headed for the

museum. He turned back to call out over his shoulder, “I’ll

meet you inside.”

Boaz held the door open, and Adin stepped out.

“Something the matter, Dr. Tredeger?”

“A man approached me in the restaurant to warn me off

Notturno
,” he said. “He told me if I stayed out of it, I’d survive.”

Adin tried to remember the exact words. “He said the

manuscript had a greater purpose than study. What can that

mean?”

“Can you describe this man?” Boaz looked concerned. His

hooded eyes were earnest as they watched Adin. “It would

help.”

“If you had paper I could sketch him.” Adin thought about

Donte, who could have rendered him perfectly. “I’m not really

an artist, but…”

“I’ll get paper while you’re inside.” Boaz chewed his lower

lip. “I’d better call Donte. You go. Have a good time, sir. Phone

me when you’d like me to pick you up.”

Adin and Edward explored the de Young’s collection of

American painters, and as he had been when they’d first met,

98 Z.A. Maxfield

Edward was an intelligent and knowledgeable guide. He more

than put Adin in a good mood with his witty remarks and

anecdotal information about several of the artists, and they were

glared at by more than one serious art lover before they left.

Tuan called as they were leaving the building, and Edward

excused himself while Adin phoned for Boaz. When the limo

drove up, Adin climbed in by himself, as Edward seemed to be

arguing about something with his lover. Adin found a sketch

pad and pencils in a bag in the back of the limo, so he idly

began to draw the man from the restaurant. He was working on

that when Edward returned.

“Oh, hey! That’s the guy who was talking to you. You’re not

a bad artist yourself, Adin. How come I never knew that about

you?” Edward slid into the seat next to him.

“I’ve taken some classes. I’m just a technician.” He thought

about Donte’s work, and it gave him a hollow feeling. “I can

hold my own in a class of amateurs.”

Edward took the finished sketch from him. Adin thought it

was more of a doodle. “Adin, I think you should pursue it…”

He frowned. “Did this man threaten you? You made him

look…”

Adin tried to laugh it off. “I was going for seductive meets

rough trade. Must have nailed it.” He tore the page off and

waved it at Boaz, who rolled the partition down and took it

from him, then looked at it briefly when they were stopped at a

light.

Edward was looking at him. “That was no pick-up, Adin.

That man did threaten you, didn’t he?”

Adin looked away. “He just warned me off trying to get

Notturno
back is all.”

Edward gripped his hand hard. “Or what?”

“Nothing. He just said don’t go looking for it.”

“That’s it?” He raised his eyebrows and took out his phone,

pushing the Number One button and tapping his foot. “Tuan,

it’s me. Someone threatened Adin.” He looked over at Boaz.

“No, I only saw him for a second, but Adin sketched him…

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99

Okay, good. Love you too.” He hung up. “We need to fax that

to my partner, Tuan, Boaz.”

“Very good, sir,” said Boaz. “May I ask why?”

“You may ask,” he said dramatically, “but as the information

seems to be flowing in one direction, I will feel free to remain

silent.”

“Edward—”

Edward held up a hand. “Adin, the man I love is out there

trying to get to the bottom of this. If you know anything and

aren’t sharing it with me, I would say that’s a deal-breaker,

wouldn’t you?”

Adin was silent for a moment. “I can’t tell you everything

that happened to me. You wouldn’t believe it, anyway. I swear

to you that the guy you saw me with just warned me not to try

to retrieve
Notturno
. He told me I wouldn’t survive it. That’s all.”

Edward punched Adin’s arm angrily. “That’s all? You

fucking idiot! It’s like we’re all running around trying to find

something that’s going to get you killed. We need to regroup.”

“Edward…”

“Let me put it this way. Drop me off at the house, and I’ll

talk to Tuan. You go back to your hotel. Boaz?”

“Yes, sir?”

“If he leaves the room, kill him yourself.”

“Will do, sir.” Adin stared a pit into the back of Boaz’s head

while Edward nodded.