“You never did answer my question earlier,” I began as he looked at me quizzically. “If your vampire eyesight is so excellent, why do you and the Reverend wear glasses?”
He laughed. “My night vision is fantastic – it’s like infra-red. My peripheral vision is fantastic. My distance vision is fantastic. I can hunt in the dark like an owl. But up close I can’t see a damn thing! It’s another of those weird things – everything for hunting is heightened but most physical things that were wrong with you before you change stay the same. In my case there’s something wrong with the short-distance focus that vampirising didn’t fix. So I can sit at the back of the theatre and see a mouse run across the back of the stage but I can’t read the script on the desk in front of me.” He shrugged. “David’s glasses, on the other hand, are fake. He thinks it adds to his style.”
“Speaking of David,” I laughed, picking up on Severn’s use of the Reverend’s real name, “I’ll see him tonight. Should I tell him you’re here?”
“Yes. No.” Severn dithered. “Seth will be expecting me to contact David. They’ll have someone close enough to hear everything that’s said to him. And just remember, with our hearing the other side of the stage is close enough.”
I suddenly remembered the strange conversation about my maglight and realised he was right. Maybe I could slip him a note if I did it carefully.
As it happened, it was Finn who slipped a note to me.
CHAPTER TWENTY
By the time Mum and Grant had arrived home, Severn and I had created a reasonable hiding place for him in the back of my wardrobe. It wouldn’t be comfortable, but there was only an hour and a half between them arriving home and all of us leaving for the theatre, so we figured he could manage. After that, as long as the curtains were shut, he could wander around the house till we got home. I don’t know if Mum noticed that I was being unusually helpful, but she did say that I seemed to be a lot “perkier” than I had been in the morning and that a day off school had obviously been exactly what I needed. They even agreed with my suggestion that Grant, as the society’s president, should be at the theatre early in case anyone had “issues to discuss”, so as soon as the television news had moved into the sports segment we were out the door and off to the theatre. I looked back as we headed down the drive and I was sure I saw the curtain in my room flutter briefly. See you later.
As it was, Grant was glad we had arrived early as stress levels backstage were intense and fights and squabbles were breaking out everywhere. Grant was soon embroiled in a deep discussion with the theatre manager about some floral tribute to Tasha they were erecting in the foyer while Mum was dragged into the wardrobe department to gossip. Setting up the stage was impossible as Dilly Davenport was drilling the dancers, moving them into new line-ups to cover the hole left by the missing Tasha, so I drifted to the back of the scenery dock where I could listen in on the conversation the stage manager was having with Seth Borman, Finn and the Reverend. They didn’t look like vampires.
“I don’t care whether he’s guilty, not guilty or Jack the Ripper,” the stage manager was saying. “I just want to know, if he isn’t going to be here, who’s running the sound desk?”
Surprisingly, it wasn’t Seth, their supposed leader, who answered.
“I am,” replied the Reverend decisively, tossing his ponytail back as he tilted his head upwards to address the stage manager who towered over his tiny figure. “Aiden’s taking my place on the followspot and the girls will cover his set moves.”
The stage manager beamed happily, patting the Reverend on the top of his head as if he had been a good puppy. The show would go on. Then she spotted me.
“Riley,” she cried, beckoning me over. “You can help too. Aiden, go over all your set moves with the girls and divide them up. Girls, add them to your sheets. Write them down! Make sure you all know what you are doing and cover each other. We don’t want any missed moves. If you simply can’t do something, find a props person or even an actor to help. But,” she waggled her finger as a warning,” if you use an actor to move set, remind them or they’ll forget!” She turned away towards the dressing rooms, her black-clad form sweeping through a bunch of milling actors like an icebreaker through the arctic sea. Scary woman! But not as scary as the creepy pair who were standing like bookends, arms folded, heads to opposite sides, staring at me from behind lashings of black mascara.
“Here,” Meredith thrust a piece of paper covered in thin, spidery writing into my hand. “Pot plant, prompt side chair, piano stool, brown table, hat stand,” she intoned. Maybe they looked like vampires. They did have long, black-painted fingernails and black lipstick.
“We worked it all out before,” explained Aiden. “Meredith and Olivia are covering my moves, we just need you to do what you normally do plus those moves of theirs. Then they can double up on the heavier stuff.”
“Ok,” I shrugged. “Whatever.”
Aiden was definitely too normal looking to be a vampire. Perhaps they weren’t. Perhaps Severn was spinning me a line. Perhaps I watched too much television. Perhaps I never saw them fly. I caught sight of the faint wing-line under Aiden’s black T-shirt. Yes he did fly! Vampires! Backstage! What would Grant think?
I stuffed the list into my pocket and walked away grinning to myself. As I did so I felt another bit of paper at the bottom of my pocket and realised I had a more important mission to achieve – finding the note I had found the other night. How was I going to make that look realistic? I stopped to stare at the dancers now huddled at the back of the stage and had an idea. Knowing they were all safely on stage and out of the way I walked purposefully to their dressing room. Sure enough, Tasha’s red costume was hanging all alone on the rack. I took it down, picked up her red shoes and the box containing her headdress and, still trying to look as if I was supposed to be doing this, carried them to the wardrobe room.
“Tasha’s costume,” I announced as I walked in, thrusting the pile of red material forwards as I moved. “I thought it was better not to leave it in the dressing room.”
“Good thinking!” the wardrobe mistress exclaimed, jumping to her feet and taking the box and shoes from the top of the pile.
I held onto the costume, walking towards the corner rack as if I was intending to hang it up. The wardrobe ladies were fussing over the headdress, so it was easy to put my hand into the bra cup and remove the hanky that was really in there while concealing the note I had hidden in my hand. But my plan was spoilt. Just as I was beginning my “Look what I found” speech, the five-minute call sounded over the intercom and the ladies began to fluster about like chickens, grabbing up bits of costume and all talking at once. Stuffing the note back in my pocket, I walked out. Plan B, show it to Grant later, tell him my prepared story of where I found it and let him take it to the police.
Once we were into the show, I was too busy with all the extra moves to think of much. I did notice that Jason looked tired and drawn. He seemed to be purposefully avoiding Dilys Davenport, looking over his shoulder to see who was near him, but he still put up a good show on stage. In fact, it was his best performance yet, which in turn spurred on everyone else. The audience applauded wildly. Grant was beaming.
I was stacking away a fake wall when Finn ambled up behind me.
“I think you dropped this,” he said in his quiet drawl. He took my hand in one of his, placed something into it and folded his other hand over mine, closing my fist over the object. I was about to say that I hadn’t dropped anything when he winked. Then, with a slight nod of his head, he let go of my hand and ambled away.
I opened my hand to find a large hairclip that was certainly not mine. I realised immediately that Finn was being as careful as Severn had warned me to be, as slipped inside the clip was a small square of folded paper. Popping the whole lot into my pocket as if the clip was a long-lost treasure, I slipped off to the toilets to find some privacy where I could see what was on the paper. Unfolding it carefully I read, in beautifully scripted b
lack ink:
If Severn is safe with you, please walk past me and say, “Thank you for finding my hairclip”. Then, please tell him not to panic, David and I are finding a solution.
Should I answer him? What if Finn and David were the killers? What if they had hacked up Tasha and dropped her head in the rain truck? Hadn’t Severn said David knew she was there? What if they wanted to kill Severn too? What if the note was just to get me to tell them where he was? But what if they were the good guys? What if they really were trying to help? If I pretended not to know where Severn was I might ruin his chances of getting help. They were the only friends Severn had. Severn obviously trusted them. What should I do? Decision time!
“Thanks for finding my hairclip,” I said cheerfully as I wandered past Finn on my way to the scenery dock.
“My pleasure,” he smiled back.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Mum plonked four coffee cups down on the kitchen bench.
“Tell Severn to come down for supper,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone that suggested she had known he was there all along. “Go on,” she fluttered her hands to shoo me down the passage.
“How did you know?” I asked when I had returned with Severn who was now perched on the edge of a kitchen chair wringing his hands nervously.
“Ha!” Mum laughed, “Mothers know everything. You gave the game away.”
“Huh?”
“You were far too cheerful, my dear. You should have been moping, worried, concerned, not happy, cheerful and oh so helpful. I figured you knew something. Plus, young man,” she turned to Severn, “You crewmen must all use the same brand of after-shave. The wardrobe ladies and I have talked about it. It’s very distinctive. Sort of leathery.”
Severn grinned ruefully.
“Now,” she said as she handed round the coffee and settled herself at the table, “what are we going to do?”
I guess we must have all been staring at her with our mouths open because she looked at us and started to laugh.
“Oh for heaven’s sake!” She waved her hand at Grant. “Go get a packet of biscuits then sit down and we can all have a chat.”
It all sounded so cosy!
“Really... I don’t know... He could be...The police...” Grant stuttered.
“Rubbish!” Mum cut him off. “It’s quite obvious Severn had nothing to do with Tasha.”
“Is it?” asked Grant weakly.
“Of course it is,” Mum ploughed on, ticking off her reasons on her fingers like a shopping list. “Tasha was killed on Tuesday night. If Severn was going to run away because he had killed her, he would have done it then. He wouldn’t have turned up to do the Wednesday show then run. That would only, as indeed it did, make him look guilty. No, I don’t know why you ran, young man, but I am willing to bet it was not because you killed that girl. Do you know something? Is that why you ran? Because you know who did it and they know you know?”
Severn shook his head but remained silent. Partly to deflect Mum from asking difficult questions and partly because I wanted to get it out of the way, I pulled the crumpled note from my pocket and laid it on the table.
“Look at this. I collected Tasha’s costume from the dressing room and took it to wardrobe. I found this with her hanky in the bra padding.”
Mum’s hand rushed to her mouth in shock as she read the two words.
“We must give this to the police,” Grant gasped.
“That’s what I thought,” I replied.
“I think,” Mum was still on her original train of thought, “it was Seth Borman.”
“What?” Severn and I both gasped.
“Well,” said Mum, “think about it. She obviously went there to meet a man. They never found any knickers you know. It wasn’t just that she had taken them off, she hadn’t been wearing any! And she must have been up the fly tower when she fell otherwise her head wouldn’t have come off.”
“What?” we chorused again.
Mum looked at our shocked expressions. “Oh, apparently she wasn’t beheaded. She fell or was pushed off the fly tower and on her way down she hit that flat of the New York skyline – the one made of thin sheet metal. It cut her head clean off her body.” Mum looked positively gleeful as she described the gruesome image.
“Yuk!” was the best comment I could think of.
“So it might not even be murder,” Grant pondered. “She may have been there all be herself and just fallen. Stupid girl playing in the theatre after dark.”
“I believe that’s what the police are starting to think,” Mum replied. “Although I guess this note will change their minds. This,” she tapped the note, “at least suggests, along with the lack of underwear of course, that she did intend to meet someone. Which brings us back to Seth Borman.”
“Why Seth?” I asked. “Why not Jason Broderick? We know she was chasing him.”
“The fly tower,” Mum answered. “I doubt if anyone except Seth would think of going up there.”
We had to admit she had a point.
“Except that Seth has an alibi for Tuesday night.” Severn finally spoke. “And it’s not his writing”
“Ahh,” Mum’s logic was defeated.
“I still think it was Jason,” I interjected. “Maybe Tasha suggested the fly tower. She was into kinky sex.”
Mum gasped in shock although I wasn’t sure if it at the thought of Tasha’s antics or my use of the word “sex”. Whichever, it was an effective conversation-stopper and suddenly we were all sitting in silence, staring meaningfully into our now empty coffee cups and wishing someone else would say something. Severn broke the silence.
“Or the girls.”
It was Mum’s turn to say “What?”
“The girls. Meredith and Olivia. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was them.”
“Why do you say that?” Mum leant towards him.
Severn hesitated. “I’d rather not, um, go into details,” he replied quietly. “I just think we shouldn’t dismiss them as a possibility.”
I could see Mum’s brain go into hyperdrive. She was adding up the fact that Severn was on the run from something, her own views as to why he was running, plus what he had just said and jumping to her own conclusions.
“I thought you said you all had alibis for Tuesday night,” I argued. “You said you were all together. Now you’re saying you weren’t?”
“Um, yes and no,” Severn shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “We were all together and Seth was definitely with Finn, David and I all evening. I’m pretty sure Aiden and the girls were there all night too, but it’s a big house we’re renting, and there were times when they weren’t always in the same room.”
“Long times or short times?” I asked.
“Um, I don’t know. “
“Long enough to get to the theatre and back?”
An enigmatic smile came over Severn’s face. “As the crow flies, yes.”
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
I woke up at nine o’clock. Severn, who Mum had bundled off into the spare bedroom, was already up, drinking coffee and reading the morning paper. He was wearing one of Grant’s red plaid working shirts unbuttoned over his crew T-shirt, a look which, with the unshaven stubble on his chin and tousled hair, was untidy but surprisingly sexy. I was glad I had decided to forego my crew blacks in favour of blue jeans, a white T-shirt and my muslin shirt, with my little bluebird still fastened around my neck and my long, blonde hair cascading loose over my shoulders. It looked good enough in my bedroom mirror. I made myself some coffee and toast and joined him, snatching part of the paper that I hoped he had finished reading.
“Your mother is amazing!” Severn said as I sat down.
“My mother is weird!” I replied. “My mother freaks me out! Her grandmother was psychic and read people’s fortunes for a living. I think Mum could do the same if she wanted to. It is scary the things she knows.”
“But ... her teenage daughter has a guy hidden in her room and she just... invites him for supper. It
wasn’t the reaction I expected.”
“Me neither. But Mum never reacts the way mothers are expected to. I have a feeling you could tell her you’re a vampire and she would say something like, “That’s nice, dear. Don’t flap your wings in the house, you’ll break the ornaments”.
“Like mother, like daughter,” Severn laughed. “You didn’t exactly freak out either.”
“I did at the theatre when I saw The Reverend and Aiden flying. I freaked out big time. It had worn off by the time I got home. By then I was just angry.”
“You certainly were.”
Mum passed through carrying an armful of laundry then returned immediately, heading back to collect more.
“Should we tell her then?” Severn smiled, his eyebrow shooting up quizzically.
“Ok, go for it,” I bluffed. “Take your shirt off and show her your wings.”
With all the perfect timing of a show music cue, noise blasted from the lounge stereo. The theme from “Lost Boys”. A vampire movie! I looked at Severn, grinned and, in a bad imitation of an American accent, quoted the immortal final lines.
“One thing about living in Santa Carla I never could stomach...”
With a timing that should have taken weeks of rehearsals Mum entered the room and all three of us quoted together,
“All the damn vampires!”
We all collapsed laughing, although Mum had no idea why the two of us were so amused and, in spite of our threats, we weren’t telling. She smiled as she poured herself a coffee. Maybe she knew anyway.
“What’s the plan for the day?” she enquired cheerfully, settling herself at the table.
“I promised Anita I would go to her place at eleven. She’s got all Tasha’s stuff from school. She wants to sort through it before she takes it to Tasha’s mum and I promised I would help. I figured that if I went at eleven, I could go from her place to the theatre instead of coming all the way back across the city.”
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