Murder After Midnight

by Dianne Harman

  Dino’s ears closed off for the rest of Gia’s rant. He was used to it by now. There was nothing he could do to please the woman, no matter how hard he tried, and goodness knows he’d done nothing else for many years.

  Looking at the view of downtown Seattle from the 54th floor of the Columbia Center, where his company had taken over several floors of temporary office space during construction of their new waterfront offices, he blocked out the sound of Gia’s voice. In its place, he replayed in his mind the soft strains of Dana’s whispers to him earlier that day.

  “I must leave you, my darling,” Dana had said, kissing his neck as they lay in bed after making love for what he now knew was the last time. Despite her telling him for the past few weeks they could no longer see one another, each time he’d succeeded in wearing down her defenses until she relented. But earlier that afternoon, in the suite he kept at the Four Seasons for their trysts, she was insistent that she was giving her marriage another go.

  “I promised Mickey,” Dana went on, staring up into his eyes with tears coursing down her face, “that I would give him one last chance. He’s stood by me in the past, and now it’s payback time.”

  Dino stroked Dana’s hair, inhaling the scent of her, wishing they could stay like this forever. “Those are the words I never wanted to hear, my love,” he murmured. “Isn’t there anything I can do to change your mind? You seem so…resolute. It makes me very sad.”

  Dana pulled away from him and sat up in bed. “You’re never going to leave Gia, are you?”

  Dino’s eyes fell. “You know I’d do anything for you, Dana,” he said quietly, “except that. It’s not possible, for the reasons I’ve told you many times before. I made a promise to her father, without whom I would be nothing. But my heart, my soul, belongs to you, Dana, I swear it.”

  Dana stood up and pulled the sheet around her. “And I made a promise to Mickey. So, I guess that’s it.”

  “Please, Dana,” Dino implored her. “Reconsider. I know you love me. The situation we are both in…it’s not perfect, but what is?”

  Dana’s shoulders sagged. “Don’t make this harder than it already is.” Her voice was barely audible. “Mickey needs me more than you do. My children deserve their father, and I’m the only one that can help him. Otherwise, I dread to think what the outcome will be. I can’t have that on my conscience, Dino, I just can’t.”

  “Is it money?” Dino said in desperation. “Because if you’re in financial trouble, I’ll give you whatever you need, no questions asked. Call it a loan if you like, to tide you guys over.”

  Dana’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t insult me,” she said, dropping the sheet that had been covering her to the floor. She quickly began to dress, garments flying as she threw items of Dino’s clothing about the room in the search for her own things.

  Dino stumbled out of bed, trying to calm her, but Dana was inconsolable. “Get away from me,” she screamed, beating her hands on his bare chest when he reached out to hold her. It was the kick to his knee that floored him long enough for her to grab her shoes and for him to watch her run out the door of the hotel room.

  *****

  Gia Argyros sat on the patio of their waterfront home on Bainbridge Island, watching her husband park his Bugatti Chiron and shuffle up the driveway. Glancing up and seeing her, he made a detour across the garden to the wooden dock where his cigarette boat, or rum runner, as they were now called, was tied up, and started to tinker with the engine.

  “You love that boat more than you love me,” Gia used to moan at him. “The Argyrosm—what a dumb name for a boat. I suppose that’s the nearest thing you get to ecstasy these days.” She was referring to the celibate nature of their relationship, ever since she’d moved into a separate bedroom after a petty argument. When she’d moved, she expected Dino to beg her to move back and share the marital bed with him, or even better, kick down her door and have his wicked way with her. Instead, he’d never mentioned it again. After several months had passed, not only had Dino’s general mood improved, but he was being a lot nicer to her and spending more time at home. It didn’t take Gia long to figure out that Dino was playing somewhere, and she was certain that somewhere was just beyond the garden fence.

  She’d tried many times to confront her husband about the friendship he’d struck up with Dana Donnelly, but he always evaded the topic. Gia had since resorted to taunting him with the sordid gossip peddled about Dana in the press.

  “I see our neighbor’s been playing around with the help,” Gia once said when there was a picture of Dana splashed across the front page of the National Enquirer in a compromising position with the Donnelly’s pool boy. Or there was the time when she’d said, “I see Dana D’s been at it again. This time she was pictured sunbathing topless in St. Tropez with Leonardo DiCaprio.” Dino’s eye had lingered on that photo far too long for Gia’s liking.

  For a strong woman such as Gia, it was painful watching the man she adored act like a lovesick puppy around Dana, who flirted with anything in pants if she thought it would get her some column inches in the press. Even more so now, since Dino was implicated in one of the recent stories.

  “You’re getting careless,” she declared, when Dino finally left the boat and dragged his damaged leg across the grass towards where she sat on the patio.

  “Gia, I’m not in the mood,” Dino warned her, clutching a chair and easing himself into it. His face twisted as he bent his leg. “I think I’m going to have to make an appointment for surgery.”

  “Did you get my message earlier?” Gia asked, not wanting to antagonize Dino further. She saw the pain etched on his face, and it seemed like more than just his knee was bothering him.

  “Yes,” Dino said nodding. “I was on another call. Sorry about that.” He didn’t meet her eyes, staring instead across the glistening expanse of water that began at the end of the garden and stretched for miles across the Sound .

  “You made Page Six, you know the celebrity gossip column in the paper,” Gia said flatly. “I thought you might like to know. Dana will be pleased, at least.”

  “Excuse me?” Dino turned and glared at Gia, his eyes blazing.

  “Let’s see, I’ve got it here,” Gia said smoothly, reaching for her iPad. “Now then… ‘Which Daytime Emmy award winner is spending quality seasonal time in a room with a view overlooking Elliott Bay? Maybe her ship just came in.’ Hmm, I wonder who that could be? You wouldn’t happen to know anyone in the shipping business who keeps a room at the Four Seasons Hotel, would you?”

  Dino’s face fell. “Gia, I…”

  Gia, her face red with anger, raised a finger to her husband. “Quiet, Dino, it’s my turn to speak. Hear me out, and show me some respect for a change, will you please?” She was glad to see Dino appear meek, as he silently looked over at her.

  “Dino, we have been married for twenty years, and I have tried my best to be a good wife and mother. I birthed your three healthy sons, who will inherit our business. And let me repeat that in case you didn’t get it. Our business, Dino, the one you and I own together under the community property laws of this state. You know, the business that my father’s money started, remember? Do you think I don’t know why you married me?”

  Gia watched as Dino rubbed his chin and looked down at the patio beneath his chair. “I know I’m not a beautiful woman, but I am a decent woman who honors her husband,” she continued, with dignity. “You know I came to Seattle from Greece against my wishes, because you and my father both insisted this was the best place to be in order to access the rich Asian shipping trade. I have done everything to support you and our family while you build our business. I ask one thing of you, Dino, and one thing only.”

  Dino cleared his throat. “Go ahead. ”

  “If you cannot respect me, then have respect for yourself and our sons. Do not drag our name through the mud anymore and be made a fool of by some floozie who cares nothing for you.”

  A flash of pain flashed across Dino’s eyes.


  “She loves her husband, Dino, can’t you see that?” Gia implored him. “Everything she does is to make him jealous. It’s obvious to everyone else but you.”

  “Is that it?” Dino asked her, struggling to stand.

  “No,” Gia fumed. She lifted the stiff embossed invitation laying in front of her on the patio table, and started waving it in front of him. “She’s invited us to a little party she and her husband are hosting on New Year’s Eve. If you think I’m going, you are mistaken. I will send our apologies.”

  “You will do no such thing,” Dino retorted, reaching for the card and glancing at it, his eyes lighting up. “Of course we must go. It would be rude not to. And thank you for your concern, Gia, I’ll think about what you said. Go ahead and eat without me, if you don’t mind.”

  “I already did,” Gia muttered, hardened to Dino’s pain as he hobbled away. There was no getting through to her husband. As long as Dana Donnelly was around, his heart would belong to her, not Gia. There was only one solution that she could think of, which was to get rid of Dana. For good.

  Dino can have it his way and we will go to the party , she thought, and I will make sure it’s the last one that witch next door ever hosts.

  CHAPTER 5

  “Have you seen Page Six?” Jerry McGee scowled at his publicist, Laura Danner. “Is that the best you can do?”

  “I thought you’d be pleased, Jerry,” Laura said, looking up from the iPhone that seemed like it was permanently glued to her right hand. “You told me to plant a story to put Dana Donnelly in a bad light, and I did. It’s not hard to figure out she’s the celebrity they’re referring to who’s meeting her shipping magnate lover at The Four Seasons every day after her morning show.” She yawned and raised a hand to her mouth. “Sorry, late one last night at The Pink Door hanging out with Ben Affleck.”

  Jerry reached across and pulled the rose-colored jewel-encrusted device out of the young woman’s hand. “Will you put that darn thing down when I’m talking to you?” He slammed it on top of the low coffee table where they were sitting in the hotel’s lobby. “I don’t give a rat’s you-know-what about which Hollywood slime balls are in town, got it? The only thing I care about right now is how you’re going to fix the damage that woman has done to my reputation, and how you’re going to ruin hers.”

  Laura glared at Jerry as she inspected her phone to make sure it hadn’t been damaged. Slowly placing it in her purse, she folded her arms and sucked in her cheeks .

  “I’m not sure I like your attitude, young lady,” Jerry railed, before she could speak. “Look at you. You’re nothing but a short skirt and lipstick. There’s just no substance in young people these days.” He raised his eyes upward. “Why I ever hired you is beyond me. I’m not sure you realize who you’re dealing with, missy. Do you have any experience working with A-listers like me?”

  Laura gave him a slow, lazy smile. “Patience, Jerry. My contact at the Four Seasons is trying to get compromising photos of Dana in a clinch with Dino Argyros. The tide will turn against her soon enough, you’ll see. She’s a married woman with four young children, and her lover boy is married too. No one likes home wreckers. If she keeps carrying on like this, she’ll probably be fired from her TV show, never work again, and we could get a six-figure sum for the photos if they’re juicy enough. Will that make you happy?”

  Jerry grunted. “Based on your performance to date, you’ve got a long way to go.” He pointed a finger at Laura, who shrank back. “The mess my career is in right now is all because of you. If it wasn’t for you putting me on her show, I’d still be the lead in the most popular Emmy winning sitcom since Two and a Half Men. Instead, what do I get? A canceled show and no prospects for a new one, that’s what.”

  Jerry had played the lead role of Vern Lundy in Four Kids and a Dad for thirteen seasons. The pilot show, about a widowed father in his thirties with four children under ten, had been a quiet hit and was cautiously commissioned for one season. It had been extended after the ratings kept creeping up, until by its fifth season, it had blown every other family friendly TV show out of the water. The way things had been going, Jerry thought it was a job for life.

  Set in Hawaii, the show followed the trials and tribulations of the Lundy family as the children navigated their teens and early adulthood, and Vern found love again after several false starts. Jerry McGee was cast as Vern Lundy, the dad every kid wished they had. Kids and parents stopped him on the street asking for advice and autographs. Jerry had reluctantly been forced to move from his home in Seattle to Bainbridge Island for privacy reasons, after fans found out where he lived in Seattle and started camping on the sidewalk in front of his house.

  However, sitting in the busy lobby of the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle three days after Christmas, few guests had even given him a second glance. Six months was a long time in show business, and that was precisely how long Jerry had been out of work.

  Laura leaned in towards Jerry. The calm look on her face belied the anger that was in her steely voice. “Listen to me you low-life,” she said through gritted teeth. “Don’t try and pull that one on me. I recall that you begged me to get you a segment on the Dana D show, because we all know it’s the hottest ticket in town. It’s not my fault your lies caught up with you. If anyone ruined your career, it was you, Jerry. You only have yourself to blame. Do yourself a favor and lay off the aggravation, or…” She sat back and smiled sweetly at the concierge who was hovering nearby.

  It was Jerry’s turn to lean in. “Or what?” he asked. The veins in his neck were pulsing, and his face had turned red. “Are you threatening me?”

  Laura nodded at the concierge, who took a step closer. “Of course not, Jerry. With your history that would be risky, wouldn’t it? Let’s just say I’ve got TMZ on speed dial. Unless you want any more skeletons coming out of your closet, I suggest you sit tight, shut your mouth, and wait for your ship to come in.”

  She stood and flipped her hair, a yellow shade of blonde, over her shoulder. “For what it’s worth, I think Dana truly admired you. There was no malice on her part, she was just doing her job. The way you handled the situation was the problem. Maybe you both can hug it out at the New Year’s Eve party she invited you to. Goodbye, Jerry.”

  Jerry watched Laura walk through the lobby and out through the revolving doors onto University Street. Deciding whether to have a drink at the bar, or go home, he decided on the latter. If he was going to drink alone, he’d prefer to do so in the privacy of his own home .

  On the ferry ride from Seattle to his home on Bainbridge Island, he chose to stay in the darkness of his car rather than go onto the passenger deck, not that anyone would recognize him anymore. Closing his eyes and sinking back in the car’s seat, the footage of his fateful interview with Dana Donnelly played through his mind. He squirmed, the memory making him uncomfortable.

  He remembered when his and Dana’s paths had crossed for the first time a couple of years earlier, not long after he moved to Bainbridge Island. Anxious to get involved with the island’s movers and shakers, Jerry had attended a charity event and ended up bidding against Dana for a piece of art by Naoko Morisawa that was in the auction. Although Dana had outbid him, she’d generously offered to give Jerry the artwork if he liked it that much.

  A woman like Dana was too brash for Jerry’s taste, but he nurtured the friendship all the same, in hopes of a guest appearance on Dana’s show. Through a stroke of good fortune, he’d met Laura Danner at a barbecue at Dana’s home. It was only when he hired Laura, who through work, moved in the same circles as Dana, that he was finally invited to appear on Dana’s television show, New Day NW.

  The day he was scheduled to appear on the show had dawned bright and clear, a beautiful June morning. Jerry was in the car that was taking him to the studio when his producer from Four Kids and a Dad called.

  “Jerry, it’s Barry. New Day NW just hit the top of the national ratings for the first time ever. Dana D’s bru
nch interview with the President and their sparring over his foreign policy problems has divided the nation, and the whole country wants into her world. You, my friend, are about to be on the most talked about show in the United States. Just wanted to say, enjoy every moment.”

  “Thanks, Barry,” Jerry said, buzzing with excitement. From the moment he stepped out of the town car, went through hair and makeup, and walked onto the set an hour later, it was shaping up to be the best day of his life .

  “Today, we’re happy to welcome Vern Lundy, or should I say, Jerry McGee, to the show,” Dana had said, beaming into the camera before turning to Jerry. “Jerry, you’ve shared in the past how your own life and Vern’s have a lot of parallels, is that correct?”

  Jerry cleared his throat, and reached for a sip of water before speaking. He was used to being on camera, although not when the show was being broadcast live on air. But Dana’s was an easy question, and one he’d answered many times before. The story of how he grew up in Hawaii and swam in the ocean there as a child, with a large family of brothers and sisters and an eccentric widowed father, was so familiar to him that he’d almost come to believe it himself. Which is why, when he’d recounted a few of those happy fake memories to Dana, he was blindsided by what came next.

  “Jerry,” Dana said, looking deep into his eyes, the camera panning in for a close-up of the two of them. “The real story is a lot different, isn’t it? It’s understandable why you might not want to share the truth of your childhood, but why do you think it’s something to be ashamed of?”

  A stunned Jerry sat in silence, unable to comprehend what was going on. He and Laura had discussed the questions in advance, and this wasn’t part of the script.

  “Jerry?” Dana prodded. “I’m sure viewers would love to know the real you and how you overcame adversity to get to where you are now.”