In Sickness and in Lies novel · Chapter 6 of 32

Chapter 6: The Receipt

The gallery was quiet on Tuesday.

My indigo panels had red dots on the wall labels, and the center of the room was empty where the shirt piece had hung.

The owner met me at the door and locked it behind us.

"I fired my assistant an hour ago," she said.

"The one who handed me the program card?"

"She took that photo through the office door, and she sold it. A man called her Sunday night and offered her five hundred dollars. She says she never saw his face, only a number on her phone."

I knew that number.

I had called it for seventeen years.

"There's something worse," the owner said.

She walked me to her desk and turned a letter toward me.

It was on heavy paper with a Keane Freight letterhead.

"My lease on this building comes from a holding company," she said. "It belongs to your husband. This is a notice. They are raising the rent to a number I can't pay, effective next month, unless I withdraw 'a certain exhibition of controversial content.'"

"My spring show."

"Your spring show."

I read the letter and put it down.

"He's trying to starve me out."

"He's trying to make you come to him." She said it gently. "He thinks that's all it takes."

"What will you do?"

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