"Oh, her," Genevieve said nonchalantly, eyes grazing over the sight that made Nick gasp. "I had the same response the first time I saw her, too. The rest of them are just as disturbing. He was artistic--who knew?"
"She" was a painting--a room-dominating 60" by 48" canvas of a nude barbarian woman with a bronze sword in her hand--who, nonetheless, was unquestionably Genevieve. Or rather--wasn't.
"It's...it's big," Nick managed. He looked at Genevieve. "And eerie."
She nodded. "He kind of over-idealized the nose, and I wear a lot more than her, but otherwise--yeah. It's signed with one of his aliases and dated." She paced about the room, taking on a few of the other portraits, all cast in different eras. It was easier for her to take another look at them, than to pretend they weren't there. Nick stepped towards the large portrait to inspect the signature. It read, "Attis, 1788."
"The name?" he asked, distractedly.
"Kind of a joke. Check what's in her other hand."
He looked, and went a little pale. "I get the joke."
"The joke, unfortunately, had been on him," she went on. She took a seat on the arm of an over-stuffed burgundy leather chair. "Some women leave mementos--she had taken one. And for that reason--he remembered her."
Nick walked on to the next picture--a smaller piece in tempera.
"That one is older still--they are all like that. Little hints. All the same woman. All before I was born. Just repeated again and again. He just didn't do bowls of fruit or landscapes, I guess. But when you look at them..."
"They're you." Nick straigtened up from regarding a watercolor of a young woman in a toga that had been sitting on the floor and resting up against the wall. "And since they're in different times, and dated..."
"Sure. Like Polaroids or something. Nearly proof that she sill existed." Genevieve sat with her hands in her lap, wondering if her interest in this didn't, in some way, make her nearly as obsessed and strange as Akkasur had become. Nick's eyes continued to search the apartment. Numbly, she went on. "I searched through all of his stuff for a journal or something like that--I found some papers. His computer? I couldn't get anything--and from his personal stuff--well, you see. Not really helpful."
Nick pointed to some pill bottles bottles on a counter in the kitchen, which could be seen through the doorway. "He took drugs?"
"Androgens and speed. Makes sense, kind of. I thought he needed a shave when I saw him--that was all he could..."
"Why would you come back here? This is...crazy."
That was all Genevieve needed--confirmation of her own suspicion about it. But she did have and answer.
"Yeah, but it's my link. To her."
Posted on Jan 14, 2001, 3:45 PM from IP address 172.181.39.227