The Most Beautiful Lie By Offer Kuban
from MOTHER: a PUNK NOIR Magazine series
The Most Beautiful Lie
by
Offer Kuban
Gianluca’s mother telephoned late that night. Her voice taut, she said to come over. There’d been “un incidente”. He should hurry.
Professoressa Antonetti worked as a restorationist in Trieste, Roma, a train ride from Galleria Borghese. Gianluca had the spare key for his mother’s apartment.
At 3AM, Gianluca clicked the front door shut, shed his coat, and entered.
“Ciao? Mamma?”
“Sono qui,” she called from the study.
“Mamma, what was so import—” He entered the room and stopped.
A man’s body was sprawled on the floor. Dark blood had pooled around his head. Shards of a heavy antique vase lay scattered around him. The professoressa was rigid in a tan, Valencia chair. She raised her head.
Slack-jawed, he palmed his forehead. “Ai, mamma, what the fuck?”
“Gianluca! Language.” She frowned, pointed at the painting. “He came to steal that.”
Caravaggio’s “David with the Head of Goliath” was a sad, pensive, mute witness on the wall.
“Why? Why risk this for a reproduction?” Gianluca turned to her for answers.
She shrugged, shook her head. “It’s not.”
“What? Does the Galleria…? Oh, Cristo. That’s another conversation. I’ll come back to help you. Don’t touch anything.”
She raised her hands. “Si, si!”
Bio:
Offer Kuban works in healthcare by day, and knows he should be spending more time writing. He grew up in Vancouver, BC but now calls Winnipeg, Manitoba home. Offer loves multiple genres, including Science Fiction & Fantasy, but he also dabbles in the shadows of Crime & retro Noir. He has words published in Punk Noir Magazine, Bunker Squirrel Magazine, Shotgun Honey, and Pistol Jim Press. He is the host and producer of “The Speakeasy: Conversations with the Writing Community” podcast, which he’d love for you to check out, and he thanks you in advance for reading and listening.
Ah, what a good story ....
Molto Bene!