A Knife to Remember

“You'll do fine,' Jane assured him.

He was gulping down the sandwich now, his mind obviously on the important work ahead, so she left him alone.

Jane looked around for Shelley, but couldn't spot her anyplace. Maisie, however, waved her over to where she was using an unexpected bit of leisure to rearrange her first aid kit. Maisie's springy dark hair looked electrified, but whether it was from the humidity or neglect, Jane couldn't guess. 'Hi, Jane,' she said, ticking off small boxes of gauze on a checklist.

“What's with everybody?' Jane asked. 'There's suddenly a different mood.”

Maisie finished her chore and closed the box her equipment was in. 'Oh, partly it's the end of the film hysteria. It sometimes happens that way. But mostly it's because there's an important scene this afternoon that calls for everything in the book. Cameras panning on tracks, lots of extras, different scenery, possibly a special effect if the 'rain man' can get his rain machine fixed. There's some kind of problem with the hydrant the water's supposed to come from.'

“So is that why the magazine and television people are here?'

“No, they're here on the scent of blood. Jake's. Hoping there might be a spectacular arrest. It's the one kind of publicity nobody wants.'

“But I haven't even seen the police,' Jane said, meaning she hadn't seen Mel all day even though she thought she'd noticed his little red MG parked way down her block. But with all the extras' cars clogging the street, she couldn't be sure.

“Oh, they're here in droves. Roaming around on the set, driving everybody mad. The police can't seem to grasp why everybody's going on with a silly movie in the face of murder and Roberto can't grasp why the police keep interfering in an important thing like a movie for something as trivial as murder. I wouldn't be surprised if Roberto doesn'tend up in jail himself eventually on a charge of tangling the wheels of justice or something.'

“Maisie, who do you think killed Jake?' Jane asked, imitating George Abington's apparent bluntness.

“I can't imagine,' Maisie said, not the least surprised by the question. 'I really can't. I don't know anybody who didn't find him offensive, but there's a lot of people in this business who make a life's work of being offensive and they don't end up murdered.'

“But Jake was blackmailing people. That's a considerable step up from 'offensive.' '

“Was he really? I'd heard gossip this morning. To be honest, Jane, I don't put much credence in blackmail as a motive. Not with actors anyway.'

“What do you mean?'

“Well, actors love to talk about themselves, get `reputations,' be closely involved in scandals. Not all of them, of course, but most of them will tell you their life stories at the drop of a hat. They never get tired of hearing about themselves, even if it's from their own lips.'

“So I've noticed.'

“So it's hard to blackmail a performer. And especially so nowadays. It used to be that a charge or alcoholism or homosexuality could destroy a career, but these days it's the 'in thing' to share their most intimate secrets with the public. Anybody who's anybody has been in drug rehab. In fact, I understand there's quite a hierarchy of places to go for it. Some of the rehab units even have their own publicist handing out 'star-studded' lists of former patients.'

“So is nothing worth keeping a secret?'

“You tell me. Willie Nelson has told the world about his tax problems. Everybody on the screen or stage wants to talk about their infidelities and brushes with the law.'

“I guess you're right.'

“Even the things they haven't done are on the front page of the tabloids and most performers seldom even bother to sue the rags. Sometimes they even have their staff plant the fake stories. I guess they figure any publicity is good publicity. Besides, Jane, the blackmail didn't work.'

“What do you mean?'

“Angela didn't get the part. That's what the gossip mill says he was working on, getting Angela the vacant part yesterday afternoon.'

“Oh, I found out something interesting about Angela. At least I think I did. George Abington says Angela was Jake's niece.”

Maisie laughed. 'Oh, was she?'

“George Abington says so. Do you suppose he's right?'

“I have no idea. Never met the man before. He could be a pathological liar for all I know. But — he could be right. I just assumed it was a romance from all the attention Jake paid to her, but it could have been plain old nepotism. Come to think of it, she looks sort of like him. The same coloring and the sharp planes of their faces. They could be related.'

“But she told me he was trying to seduce her.'

“That's when she was trying to impress you, right? I heard about you being a famous scriptwriter. That doesn't happen to be true, does it?'

“No, of course not. But it does make people talk to me. I didn't come up with it. Shelley did.'

“Then that's why Angela lied. She was trying to get you to see her as the poor, virginal heroine and write her a tasty role.”

A hand fell heavily on Jane's arm.

She turned and looked at Shelley, who was wide-eyed and stunned-looking.

“Shelley, you look like somebody just hit you with half a brick,' Jane said. 'Come sit down and tell me what's wrong.”

They took up their positions in their lawn chairs. 'I've been talking to Lynette Harwell. Or rather, I've been being talked at by her. I knew you wouldn't want to have a chat with her, so I gave it a shot.'

“And. .?'

“And she's amazing. Amazing..' Shelley's voice trailed off as if she were remembering a horrible event from the distant past. Like the Black Plague.

“Shelley, get a grip!'

“Yes, yes. She ought to be institutionalized. She's not quite human. Jane, she knows and cares about positively nothing but herself. Nothing, I tell you! I asked her about other people in the cast and she quite honestly didn't seem to know who I meant. She seemed to dimly remember George Abington. Not because she was once married to him, mind you, but because she had some scenes with him.

I'm not kidding! George only exists, in her mind, to fill in spaces in the script with talk so that the camera can focus on her reactions.”

Shelley was hanging onto Jane's arm, as if it were her last link with the real world.

“What about Jake?'

“She didn't seem to really know quite who he was. I asked her if she'd ever worked on a set with him before and she looked at me as if I were crazy to expect her to remember anybody she's ever worked with. Her only interest in Jake was that he 'got himself killed'—that I assure you is a direct quote — and has perpetuated the myth about her being bad luck on a set.'

“No!'

“By that time I was so fascinated, that I asked her what she knew about his death and she knew nothing. Not that he was stabbed, or where or when it happened. I tried to make her speculate on who did it and she just said, 'Well, I didn't.' Understand this, Jane, that wasn't a denial of guilt, it was a statement that if she didn't do it, who could possibly have any interest in who did? Amazing.'

“That all fits with what George Abington said about her. I'll tell you about my conversation with him in a minute. So you're pretty sure she was telling the truth? About not killing Jake?'

“Positive. When she ran out of self-praise for a second, I quickly asked her if Jake had been blackmailing her and she was genuinely astonished at the question. Blackmail, she explained rather patiently to me, requires that a person has done something wrong. She — it should have gonewithout saying — had never done anything wrong.' 'But she was in drug rehab, wasn't she? Why didn't you bring that up?'

“Oh, I didn't need to. She did. She was put in some kind of institution. She went on about it until I was ready to throttle her,' Shelley said. 'I didn't exactly get the idea it was to do with drugs, but it was hard to tell. She's