The Final Curtain

by Gilbert, Morris

  “Pretty bad.” Dani opened her purse and wrote her name and number on a page of a small notebook. Giving it to the clerk, she flashed her best smile. “Will you give this to Benny, when he gets back? I think I could make it worth his while, if he has any information that I can use.”

  “Sure, I’ll give it to him.”

  Dani left the store, wondering if she had stumbled onto something. A woman had bought the ammunition. That could be Lily, Carmen, or Lady Lockridge. But it might be a false lead. She knew from sad experience that most leads like this proved useless.

  The phone was ringing when she got to her door, and she had to run to answer it.

  “Hello, Dani, how are you?” a familiar voice asked.

  “Dad!” Dani answered. “I was going to call you today.”

  “Just wanted to give you a progress report,” he said. “And it’s good. Got two new accounts just yesterday.”

  “Now, Dad, you’re doing too much!” she exclaimed. “You know what Doctor Lovell said.”

  “I know more how I feel than any doctor does,” her father objected. “The new man is working out fine. Going to be a good one.”

  She sat down in the soft chair, kicked off her shoes, and curled up to listen as he told her about the agency. Then she asked about Allison, her fifteen-year-old sister, and about her brother, Rob, age seventeen.

  “Well, Dani, they’re having their problems,” he said slowly. “I think every parent we know is having some sort of trouble with their kids. It’s something about the times, I suppose. Never had that much trouble with you.”

  “Oh, yes, you did! You’ve just forgotten the bad times.”

  They talked about the family, and he asked about her case. “It could be a long-range thing, you think?”

  She knew him very well and recognized what he would never come out and say. “Dad, if you need me, I can work out of this thing and come home right away.”

  “No, don’t do that,” he answered. “But you don’t sound too hopeful.”

  “I’m not,” she admitted. “It’s so—so elastic! Nothing solid to hang on to. But it can’t go on forever. Keep a light in the window for me.”

  “Sure. We miss you.”

  A lump rose in Dani’s throat, and she said, “Love you, Dad. I’ll call as soon as I get some news.”

  She put the phone down, went to the bathroom, and soon was half floating in a tub of hot water. As the tension drained out of her, she put the case away from her mind and thought of going home. It seemed to be the only thing left to do. But her deep stubborn streak would not let her quit. She got out of the tub, dried off, then slept for two hours before getting up to prepare for the night at the Pearl.

  That evening, in the scene when she handed Jonathan the package, he gave her an odd look and stumbled over his line. Afterward, he came to her dressing room and she brought him up-to-date on the case. When she finished, he shook his head. “I don’t mind admitting, Danielle, I’m running scared. If you and Savage hadn’t found that bomb, I’d be dead right now.”

  “Death is only a step away from any of us, Jonathan,” she warned.

  He glanced at her, studying her face, and quietly asked, “You’re not afraid of dying are you, Danielle?”

  “I suppose I have some fear of the unknown,” she responded slowly. “But death is just a matter of moments. It’s what comes after that we ought to think about, Jonathan.”

  “You’re right, of course,” he agreed. “Ever since this thing happened, I’ve been thinking of life and how short it is.” Then he pulled himself together, gave her a shamefaced look, and taunted, “Well, well, you’re going to try to make a Christian out of me now.”

  “I wish I could, Jonathan.” She smiled. “Jesus has brought real joy into my own life. He can do the same for you.”

  He left abruptly, and almost at once Lily came in. “That policeman is here again, Danielle. He asked me a lot of questions. Won’t they ever stop?”

  “Not until someone goes to jail, Lily,” Dani said. She buttoned her blouse and asked, “What kind of questions?”

  “Oh, the same ones! Where was I when this happened? Who was with me? Things like that.” She stood there, watching Dani as though she wanted to ask a question. Of all the members of the cast, Dani thought, Lily was the most vulnerable—and the least likely to be the killer. Finally Lily wondered, “Danielle, aren’t you afraid?”

  “Of being the next victim?” Dani asked. “Well, I’d rather not be. It’s something to think of, Lily. Are you afraid?”

  “Yes!” Lily shivered at the thought. “I’d leave the play in a second if—”

  She broke off, and Dani finished the sentence. “If it weren’t for Jonathan?”

  “I love him, Danielle.” There was, Dani saw, a great dignity in the young woman. Lily drew herself up, and her eyes were honest as she announced, “Oh, I know about Jonathan—his women and all that. But I love him anyway.”

  Dani felt constrained to say, “Lily, it could be dangerous. Men like Jonathan Ainsley seem to act as though there are two standards—one for everybody else, and a special one for them.”

  “That’s true,” Lily agreed quietly. “I’ll probably get hurt because of him, but what can a woman do when she’s in love, Danielle? I can’t just decide with my head to walk away, can I?”

  Dani felt insecure, but made one more attempt. “I can’t advise you Lily. I admire Jonathan tremendously, but the woman who marries him will have to be willing to be second in his life. The theater will always come first.”

  “I know. That’s all right with me. As long as he loves me, that’s all I ask.” Lily suddenly gave Dani a teary smile. “Well, here I am crying all over you! I don’t usually do that. You must have a motherly nature.”

  “I guess so.” Dani smiled back. She gave Lily a brief embrace, encouraging her, “Anytime you want to talk about this, I’m available.”

  When Lily left, Dani looked at herself in the mirror. “You’re getting to be quite the little counselor, aren’t you, Dani? Sobering, she asked, “But who’s going to give the counselor some advice?”

  The bombshell went off twenty minutes before the curtain rose. Dani was chatting with Mickey Trask, when Tom Calvin appeared. He strode straight over to Ainsley and said something. The actor’s head flew back in shock, and he stared at Calvin unbelievingly. After a rapid conversation, Ainsley called out: “Everybody—come out here, please.”

  The entire cast soon assembled, and Ainsley at once broke into words, “I have disturbing news. Simon has decided to leave the play.” He waited until the cast’s muttering rose and died down before continuing, “I may as well tell you the reason. He has chosen to resign because it’s become too dangerous to be in my play. This will make things more difficult, but we’ve come so far, I don’t think any of us want to stop now. I should have waited until after the performance to tell you this, but you have a right to know. Let’s meet as soon as the performance is over. There are a couple of things we need to talk about.”

  The cast walked about, everyone speculating on the new development. None of them had liked Nero, but as Mickey Trask put it, “He’s hard to work for, but he was one of us.”

  After a somewhat ragged performance, they all met on stage. Ainsley swept them with his eyes, then prompted them, “I know we’re all disturbed about this thing. But we’ve got to get over it as we’ve gotten over other problems. We’ll just have to pull together.”

  “What about a director, Jonathan?” Lyle demanded.

  “A good question,” Ainsley responded. “And though some of you may disagree, I have decided to direct the play myself. It was what I intended to do from the first, and now that we’re whipped into shape, I don’t foresee any difficulties.”

  Dani saw a difficulty at once. As he had spoken she had watched the faces of the cast. Ainsley’s decision to direct the play himself had caught Mickey Trask off guard. His eyes narrowed, and Dani saw their fury. He expected to get the job, Dani thoug
ht.

  “One more thing I must share with you,” Ainsley looked around and smiled briefly. “I have no family, as you know, in the real sense. But I would like to think of you as being like a family. And in that sense I want to let you be the first to know—” He paused dramatically, and Dani suddenly knew what he was going to say.

  Ainsley walked over to Lily, put his arm around her, and turned to face the cast. “I’d like to announce that Lily and I are officially engaged to be married.”

  At once most of the cast moved forward with their congratulations, but Carmen Rio wheeled and left the stage instantly. Watching Mickey Trask, Dani suddenly knew what she had only suspected: He was in love with Lily. Blankly, he stared at Lily, his eyes unbelieving. Finally, he shut his mouth firmly and joined the others. Dani heard him say woodenly, “Congratulations, you two. Hope you’ll be very happy.”

  But as the actor left the stage, Dani saw that Ben was watching Mickey carefully. Their eyes met, and Ben nodded slightly. Later, Dani said, “I’d hate to think it was Mickey, Ben.”

  “You’d have good wishes for Attila the Hun,” he answered gruffly. “You’re always looking for the happy ending, Boss—but I don’t think this story’s going to have one.”

  12

  Lily’s Scene

  * * *

  The weather grew colder in New York, making Dani homesick for the mild days of New Orleans. Thursday afternoon she went shopping and bought a bright-red angora sweater, but when she got home and tried it on, she felt it wasn’t a good color for her. “Should have worn it out in the daylight,” she muttered, staring at herself in the mirror.

  The doorbell rang, and she opened it to find Ben standing there.

  “I picked up all the portfolios from Ainsley,” he said, pushing by her. “Thought we might look them over this afternoon.” He dropped a pile of thick manila folders on the coffee table, then glanced at her more closely. “New sweater?”

  “Yes. It looks hideous, doesn’t it?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, staring at her with a judicial look. “On the whole it looks better than that old rag you wear when you give Biscuit a workout.”

  The thought of her rust-colored quarter horse turned Dani’s memories to home. “I wish I were riding him right now, Ben! We’re going nowhere on this case. Dad called again, and I could tell he’s doing too much.”

  Savage wasn’t finished with the sweater. “No, it’s not hideous, Boss. An earthy type like you needs to dress pretty flashy.” Without a break he threw in, “You ready to give up and go home?”

  Dani ran her hand through the mass of short black curls, threw herself into a chair opposite Ben, and gnawed at her left thumb. It was a habit he had noted long ago, a sure sign that she was worried. “I’d like to but we can’t, can we, Ben? I mean, if we hadn’t found that bomb, it would have killed Jonathan.”

  “Stop sucking your thumb,” he ordered, grinning at the look of annoyance that his comment brought. “It’ll make your teeth grow crooked.”

  “Never mind my teeth!” her voice held a waspish tone. “Let’s wade through these things and see if we can find anything that ties anybody to a murder.” It had been Dani’s idea to get the portfolios. She hoped that something in the backgrounds of the cast might throw light on the murders.

  “What are we looking for, Boss?” Ben asked.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Something that will give a clue about why one of the cast would want to kill Jonathan.”

  “Shouldn’t be too hard. They all hate his guts.”

  They sat in the tiny living room, poring over the portfolios and finding very little. Once Dani said, “Ben, Ringo once worked in the mines in Colorado. Don’t they use explosives a lot?”

  “Sure. You’re thinking that he could have learned to use explosives—enough to make that bomb?”

  “It took some skill. The average person couldn’t do it.”

  Ben snapped his fingers, riffled through the stack, and pulled one of them out. “Look, this is Mickey Trask’s folder. He was in the navy for a while. Could have learned something about demolitions there.” Dani nodded slowly. “It could be. Let’s see what else we can turn up.”

  They worked steadily for fifteen minutes more, then Savage held up a stock photograph of Carmen Rio. It was a studio shot of her, wearing black lingerie, with curls of vapor rising from someplace. She had the usual sultry look called for by such shots. As he offered it to Dani for inspection, Savage said, “I think there’s a clue in this somewhere. Maybe I’d better take it home and study it more closely.”

  “Push your eyeballs in, Savage,” she snapped. “I might have known you’d give that one close attention.” He didn’t answer, and she glanced over to see that he was holding a single sheet of paper, staring at it intently. “What is it, Ben?”

  He looked up with a peculiar light in his hazel eyes and passed it over, saying, “Bingo!”

  Dani took the paper, which held the customary sketch of the actor’s life. It included the usual information about the applicant’s background and closed with a statement of goals. Dani ran her eyes over it, wondering what had aroused Ben’s interest, then she got it. “Ben! The E’s and the O’s are all raised!”

  “Yes, indeedy, Boss.” He grunted with satisfaction. “This was typed on the same machine as the first two threats.” He looked down at the photograph. “Doesn’t look like a murderer, does she?”

  “They usually don’t,” Dani said. She studied the note and nodded. “We need to compare this with the notes Goldman has. Do you think it’s enough to make an arrest?”

  “I doubt it. Even if she still has the typewriter, there’d be no way to prove she used it to write the notes. She could say someone else used it for that.”

  “First, we’ve got to find out if it’s her typewriter. But it almost has to be, Ben. We’ll ask Jake to get a search warrant.”

  Savage rubbed the scar that ran down his forehead into his left eyebrow, thinking slowly. Finally he shook his head. “We need more than this, Dani. First, we need to be sure she’s still got the typewriter. Maybe she gave it to one of the other actors.”

  “Are you thinking of going through her place, Ben? The way you did with the Lockridge apartment?”

  “If I have to,” he admitted. “But let me try something else first. If I can get her to ask me up to her apartment, maybe I could find out about it.” He grinned at Dani. “With my swift wit and beautiful body, what woman wouldn’t be thrilled if I asked her out?”

  She ignored his jabs, warning, “It had better be quick, Ben. We can’t afford to waste any time at all.” Her eyes took on a worried cast, and she said, “I’ve got the feeling that we’re playing with fire.” She got up and walked nervously around the room. “I was in a car wreck once,” she said suddenly. “My brakes went out, and I ran into a bridge abutment. It was terrible! I saw that I was going to hit it, but there was absolutely nothing I could do! I feel like that with this case.”

  Savage nodded. “Kind of feel that way myself.” He got to his feet and started for the door. “I’ll have something about the typewriter tonight. If my manly charm doesn’t work, I’ll burgle her place.”

  “Be careful, Ben,” Dani cautioned. “Don’t get yourself killed.”

  He paused, giving her a serious look, then pointed out “I’m just a stagehand, Dani. You’re the one who’s on stage. If you have to stay, I want to nail this bird before he gets any funny notions about you.”

  “Don’t worry about me.”

  He said only, “I do, though,” and left the apartment. Dani slowly walked back to the bedroom and pulled off the sweater, dwelling on his comment. Looking at herself in the mirror, she asked her image, “Are you really the earthy type?” Then she pulled on a robe and started through the stack of folders again.

  She stayed at the portfolios until it was time to dress. There wasn’t much to be gleaned from them, she thought as she left the apartment. How would Ben find out about the typewrit
er, she wondered, but her mind held no doubt that he would. He was the most determined man she’d ever met; whatever he set out to do, he would accomplish, as long as he was on his feet.

  Her thoughts turned to Carmen. She tried to think of the dark woman as the murderer they were seeking. She hates Jonathan, Dani thought as she rode through the busy streets, insulated by the cab against the crowds of the city. Physically speaking, it’s not impossible that she could have written all the notes. She could have tried to run Jonathan down, and she could have cut the rope holding the chandelier. But I can’t imagine her slugging Ben—or making a bomb, for that matter.

  Getting out of the cab, she went into the theater’s side entrance, where Tom Calvin met her. The look on his face made her ask, “What’s wrong, Tom?”

  “Another threat,” he said. “Jonathan found it on the floor of his dressing room. I guess someone must have slipped it under the door.”

  Dani walked toward the dressing room with Calvin, asking, “How did Jonathan take it?”

  “Not too well,” he admitted. “In fact, I think worse than the last time. He’s been drinking some, to steady his nerves, but naturally that hasn’t helped much.” As they reached the door of Ainsley’s dressing room, Tom excused himself. “He’s been pretty hard to live with, Dani. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll let you go in alone.”

  “Of course, Tom.” Dani knocked on the door, and Ainsley said, “Come in.” When she entered, Ainsley was sitting in the chair before his mirror. He turned and Dani saw that he was half drunk. “Hello, Jonathan. Tom told me about the letter. Is this it?”

  “Yes.” Ainsley picked up a half-empty bottle of whiskey, filled the glass in front of him to the brim, and drank it down. He lowered the glass and watched as she read the letter. “I’d hoped we’d seen the last of those.”