Chapter 1: an Unlikely Gathering Outline Description Sortnum 1.1.01.001
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BookComponent including StoryText with Plot Element and Character Relationship BookComponent Name StoryText CHAPTER 1 Chapter 1: An Unlikely Gathering Outline Description SortNum 1.1.01.001. ID 4 Parent 3 Seq 1 WordCount 3 Author: BookComponent Name StoryText For Robert Montcrieff, his first sight of the wall of black-clad backs, gathered around whatever it was on the floor, Intro Robert Montcrieff contemplates formal dress re-raised a question he'd been considering lately: Why was it that people of a certain age and class—not to put too Outline fine a point on it, he thought, his own age and class—readied themselves for formal occasions by dressing from head to foot in the color that predominated at funerals, the color of death? Description SortNum 1.1.01.001.010.110. ID 9 Parent 7 Seq 110 WordCount 59 Author: Timothy Hallinan ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 488 personal traits & attitudes revealed 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff 887 is present at scene 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff BookComponent Name StoryText Someone brushed against him, running for the door. The man's cheeks had been distended and one hand had been Man about to puke clamped over his mouth. Outline Description SortNum 1.1.01.001.010.120. ID 10 Parent 7 Seq 120 WordCount 19 Author: Timothy Hallinan ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 887 is present at scene 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff BookComponent Name StoryText Perhaps, Robert thought, making a note to check his home library, the preference for wearing black at special Robert ponders Fr aristocracy gatherings dated from the years just following the French Revolution, when it was practically suicidal to wear Outline expensive-looking clothes. Description SortNum 1.1.01.001.010.130. ID 11 Parent 7 Seq 130 WordCount 30 Author: Timothy Hallinan Wednesday, June 26, 2013 © 2013 Theresa de Valence Page 1 of 68 BookComponent including StoryText with Plot Element and Character Relationship ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 488 personal traits & attitudes revealed 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff 887 is present at scene 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff BookComponent Name StoryText "Watch where you're going," a man in a T-shirt and baseball cap snapped at Robert. Robert said, "Apologies," and Man in tshirt & baseball cap moved on. Outline Description SortNum 1.1.01.001.010.140. ID 12 Parent 7 Seq 140 WordCount 19 Author: Timothy Hallinan ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 887 is present at scene 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff BookComponent Name StoryText The French aristocracy, before so many of them had their heads removed in a market square, had been absolute More Fr aristocracty peacocks, swathed in silks and rattling with jewels. The black of the tuxedo, he thought, might descend from a Outline revolutionary reaction in the opposite— Description SortNum 1.1.01.001.010.150. ID 13 Parent 7 Seq 150 WordCount 33 Author: Timothy Hallinan ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 488 personal traits & attitudes revealed 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff 887 is present at scene 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff BookComponent Name StoryText "You're the doctor," someone said, peering up at Robert. Robert contemplates his doctorship Outline "I'm a doctor," Robert said. His doctorate was in sociology, but, first, that didn't seem to be the information that had been requested; and second, what right had medical doctors to act like they owned the title? And anyway, if the Description man had asked whether Robert were the doctor, that meant that a medical doctor would be along in moments, and SortNum 1.1.01.001.010.160. ID 14 Parent 7 Seq 160 WordCount 68 what harm could he do? He wasn't going to hurt the corpse. Author: Timothy Hallinan ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 12 personal history is revealed 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff 887 is present at scene 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff Wednesday, June 26, 2013 © 2013 Theresa de Valence Page 2 of 68 BookComponent including StoryText with Plot Element and Character Relationship BookComponent Name StoryText Because there was no doubt that the man on the floor, around whom the crowd of people had clustered, was dead. Body on floor is dead No one who was still breathing could have turned his head that far around. Outline Description SortNum 1.1.01.001.010.180. ID 16 Parent 7 Seq 180 WordCount 28 Author: Timothy Hallinan ID PLOT ELEMENT 8 Body on floor is dead Thread: Xavier Aspro's life and death ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 887 is present at scene 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff BookComponent Name StoryText An actual corpse. In thirty years of reading, inhaling, devouring, and trying hopelessly to write, detective fiction, Robert contemplates the stiff, er victim Robert had never seen a, umm, stiff before. No, no, not stiff. Wrong kind of book, lurid cover, hackneyed first- Outline person narrative. Bang bang kiss kiss. The deceased. Description The victim. SortNum 1.1.01.001.010.190. ID 17 Parent 7 Seq 190 WordCount 37 Author: Timothy Hallinan ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 12 personal history is revealed 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff 885 personal ambitions revealed 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff 887 is present at scene 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff BookComponent Name StoryText He glanced around and saw the expected categories of reaction, about equally divided: those who were fascinated Robert considers the audience and would have liked to look more closely, those who were terrified or repulsed and looked everywhere else, and Outline those who were secretly celebrating the fact that they were among the standing and who mostly looked smugly at each other. A woman near Robert, in a rainbow-hued off-the-shoulder gown, crossed herself, and he wondered Description whether the gesture was shorthand for a prayer for the departed's soul or a quick thanks for the thunderbolt having SortNum 1.1.01.001.010.200. ID 18 Parent 7 Seq 200 WordCount 74 missed. Author: Timothy Hallinan ID PLOT ELEMENT 11 Robert considers the audience around body Thread: Robert Montcrieff investigates/deduces Wednesday, June 26, 2013 © 2013 Theresa de Valence Page 3 of 68 BookComponent including StoryText with Plot Element and Character Relationship ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 887 is present at scene 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff BookComponent Name StoryText He said to her, "Do you have a mirror?" It seemed like a safe bet. Robert performs some tests to verify corpse Outline She blinked rapidly at him, birdlike, and unsnapped her tiny purse, withdrawing a compact. Her hands were shaking enough that she spilled some powder over her wrist when she handed it to him. Description SortNum 1.1.01.001.010.210. ID 19 Parent 7 Seq 210 WordCount 151 He knelt and put the mirror to the victim's nostrils and saw no clouding, not that he expected any. Put his fingers where he figured a pulse would be and didn't find one. Author: Timothy Hallinan He said, "The man is dead," and heard his words buzzed outward in a widening circle, like an audible splash. It was a big ballroom, and there must have been four hundred people in it, so it rippled away from him for a while. The wrist he had hold of was the left, and Robert noted the carefully maintained nails with their coat of clear polish and the stains, the color of a dirty honeycomb, between the index and middle fingers. The moment he saw them, he could smell the tobacco. "Left handed," he said. He heard that relayed back, too, and then, in response, a high, raucous laugh. ID PLOT ELEMENT 14 Robert performs some tests to verify corpse Thread: Robert Montcrieff investigates/deduces 13 Robert performs some tests to verify corpse Thread: Xavier Aspro's life and death ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 887 is present at scene 70 Dr. Robert Montcrieff BookComponent Name StoryText * * * * * Item: SECTION BREAK (asterisks) Outline Description SortNum 1.1.01.001.010.999. ID 104 Parent 7 Seq 999 WordCount 1 Author: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 © 2013 Theresa de Valence Page 4 of 68 BookComponent including StoryText with Plot Element and Character Relationship BookComponent Name StoryText Jeez, Amy thought, looks like the Penguin Habitat at Sea World. She briefly regretted the sequin-studded plastic Intro to Amy Ogawa flip-flops on her feet and the Hawaiian-shirt of almost-real silk , but a quick check of the room reassured her. Outline Scattered throughout the crowd, conspicuous as Life Savers in a coal pile, were people who had passed on the expense of renting a tux or getting their hair and nails done, or even having their clothes dry-cleaned. Description SortNum 1.1.01.001.020.100. ID 15 Parent 20 Seq 100 WordCount 72 Although the thought didn't give her the courage to look at her own nails. Author: Timothy Hallinan ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 486 physical description (self) 72 Amy Ogawa 488 personal traits & attitudes revealed 72 Amy Ogawa 887 is present at scene 72 Amy Ogawa BookComponent Name StoryText Her private eye, Lipsy Quinn, would have been dressed just like she was, and all over the room other women would Intro to Amy's private eye Lipsy Quinn have been eying her, envying her disregard for the weensy line at the bottom of the invitation to Opening Night Outline (capitalized) of the CrimeFiction.org convention: Formal Dress Suggested. So they got her, far-sighted as she was, like this. Amy did a quick survey and didn't spot much envy, but that may have been because absolutely no one was Description looking at her. SortNum 1.1.01.001.020.110. ID 21 Parent 20 Seq 110 WordCount 67 Author: Timothy Hallinan ID PLOT ELEMENT 267 Intro to Amy's private eye, Lipsey Quinn Thread: Amy Ogawa's private eye, Lipsy Quinn ID CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP CHARACTER 488 personal traits & attitudes revealed 72 Amy Ogawa 887 is present at scene 72 Amy Ogawa BookComponent Name StoryText Something was definitely going on at the end of the room.