I Woke Next to the Corpse by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

The Party

When I got to the appointed triplex place, two huge, olive skinned guys in expensive, dark and striped suits were standing just inside the entry door. “Hello, friend,” one nodded, raising his arms to show that he was going to frisk me. “You know the routine.”

He had a pinhead, which reminded me of Pirozi, but I was far from certain and reserved any chummy greetings for a few reasons. I said, “Sure,” lousy with expectations of being relieved of the snub nose I had duct taped to my crotch. I was wrong.

The big guy didn’t relieve me of my roscoe or anything else, and I walked in with my hardware unmolested and in place, the kind of thing expected when dealing with amateur, not yet competent poseurs, or someone in on a setup; the former the much more likely scenario.

The interior was magnificent. Most knives are duller. Elsa had used only the most rare and expensive materials in her sharp art deco furniture decoration, which included ebony, mahogany, rosewood, ambon and other exotic woods, adorned with inlays of ivory, tortoise shell, and mother of pearl. Little pompoms of silk decorated the handles of drawers of the cabinets. The

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furniture was based upon 18th century models, but simplified and reshaped. In all of it, the interior structure of the furniture was completely concealed. The framework, usually of oak, was completely covered with an overlay of thin strips of wood, then covered by a second layer strip of rare and expensive woods.

This was then covered with a veneer and polished, so that the piece looked as if it had been cut out of a single block of wood. Contrast to the dark wood was provided by inlays of ivory, and ivory key plates and handles. Armchairs were designed differently and were done according to the functions of the rooms where they appeared. Elsa’s salon chairs were voluptuous.

The average price of the pieces must have been greater than the price of an average house.

Now inside the party, Elsa immediately and perhaps nervously, came over to greet me, asking who I knew, and requested my RSVP

“evidence,” and smiled with her mouth only when she saw it was transferred to me by Toro. She had little sharp predatory teeth, as white as fresh orange pith and as shiny as porcelain. They glistened between her thin too taut lips. Her face lacked color and didn't look too healthy. Elsa exuded the value of being pointed and tiny, like the diamond which replaced the apple in the snake’s mouth. She wore a tight dress to the calf, as black as an extortionist’s hand. Constrained by the dress, she took

I Woke Next to the Corpse