“No. I was born and raised in Grand Junction, Colorado. I only moved here four months ago.”
Colorado—
Payne had once done some skiing there, but that was years ago. If she’d only been in New York since February, then she’d done all the covers of him while she’d lived in Grand Junction.
So how in the hell did she know what his office looked like? He knew for a fact she hadn’t been to his suite when he’d been there or he would have remembered.
“Did you ever visit New York City previous to moving here?”
“No.”
“How long have you worked for Red Rose Romance?”
“Four years.”
“We know you’re employed by Global Greeting Cards too. Before you started freelancing, what did you do? Give us your background.”
“I graduated from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, with a B.F.A. in Art Education. That included an internship in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy. After graduation I was hired to teach art at a high school in Grand Junction.”
“How long did you teach?”
“Six years.”
Ms. Bennett didn’t look old enough to have been a teacher to a bunch of rowdy high school students for that long a time. Boys that age raged with hormones. With a woman so attractive and shapely, he could just imagine the drawings they’d generated of her. Drawings she would never know about.
“Will you tell the court how you prepare when you’re doing a cover for a book?”
“As soon as the art sheet information arrives, I read it carefully, particularly the theme. That’s where all the emotion is centered. After that I read the novel and take a few days for the elements of the story to solidify in my mind. During that reflective period, I do research on the background details of the suggested scenes.
“Slowly the characters come to life for me. Sometimes I can picture him or her in my mind. When that happens, I start sketching like mad.
“Other times I study models from agencies until I see one that encapsulates my vision of the character in question. At that point I make an appointment for them to sit for me.
“Every day of life I see beautiful, interesting, fascinating faces in the crowd, in a photograph. Once in a while there will be a face that won’t leave me alone.
“A certain bone structure, smooth olive skin, the lines of experience around a compelling mouth, piercing black eyes, the shape of an eyebrow black as a raven’s wing—I find myself drawing this face weeks or even months later. Sometimes it ends up on the canvas.”
“Tell us what happened when you painted the cover for Manhattan Merger.”
Payne’s gaze had been riveted on her classic features. There was a subtle change—a tension in her demeanor as soon as the attorney mentioned Manhattan Merger.
“The minute I read the novel, I knew who was going to be the male on the cover. I’d used him on seven other covers, but never as a contemporary American hero who is one of the powers that be in the corporate world.
“It was as if Bonnie Wrigley had written that novel with him in mind. Like the glass slipper that only fits Cinderella’s foot, the melding of the right words and art can be a spiritual experience. That’s how it was with Manhattan Merger.”
“Did you use a model?”
“No. I’d seen the man in a photograph while I was helping my mother clean my brother’s room.”
“Did you know who he was?”
“No. But he had the spirit of a Renaissance man who could achieve anything. That’s what was needed for the cover of this story to make it throb with poignancy. Imagine the reader falling in love with this extraordinary man so far ahead of his time, so endowed with superb male attributes, only to find out he’s dying of a disease he’s powerless to stop.”
A stillness went out over the courtroom Payne could feel.
“Thank you, Ms. Bennett. You may be seated. If Mrs. Ellen Bennett will please come forward.”
Drew turned his head, eyeing Payne with an enigmatic expression. His attorney wasn’t the only one who’d been thrown a curve. Payne didn’t know what in the hell to think.