Judith ascended to another plain door and opened
it. She came out into another narrow hall, where she
saw two identical doors.
The first one led into the main corridor, but judging
from her position in the restaurant, the second door
had to go into the Smith party’s private dining room. In
the shadows just beyond the door was a busing area.
On tiptoes, she approached the second door and cautiously opened it just a crack.
“. . . lose my investment” were the first words she
managed to hear, and they were spoken by a nasal male
voice she didn’t recognize. Heathcliffe MacDermott,
alias the Wienie Wizard? Judith peered through the
sliver of open doorway. All she could see was Morris
Mayne with his head down on the table and Dade
Costello’s blunt profile.
“Not necessarily,” said a smooth voice that Judith
identified as belonging to Vito Patricelli. “Paradox
may not shelve the picture. They have an investment,
too, even larger than yours, Mr. MacDermott.”
“Idiots,” snapped a waspish female voice that didn’t
sound like Winifred, Ellie, or Eugenia. “Idiots,” the
woman repeated. Judith figured the speaker had to be
Mrs. MacDermott.
“I don’t get it,” declared Heathcliffe MacDermott.
“The movie’s a dud. If I made wienies like Zepf made
movies, I’d be wearing a paper hat and peddling hot
dogs at minor league baseball games instead of running a billion-dollar empire.”
“The studio can make changes,” Vito said, his voice
unperturbed. “They’ll have free rein—under the circumstances.”
“You beast,” murmured Winifred. “How can you
say such things when Bruno has been dead less than
twenty-four hours?” Though Judith couldn’t see her, it
sounded as if Winifred was close to the service door.
“What kind of changes?” Ellie asked, not quite as
pert as usual.
“Cutting, for one thing,” Vito replied. “No one can
argue that the picture should be shortened by at least
an hour.”
“Are you saying,” Heathcliffe asked in a slightly
confused voice, “that Paradox can do whatever it wants
now that Bruno Zepf is dead?”
“Exactly,” Vito responded. “The studio has the
major chunk of money invested in the picture. They
can do as they please.”
Except for the creak of chairs and shuffling of
limbs, a silence fell over the room. Judith glanced at
the door to the stairs to make sure the coast was
clear. As far as she could tell, no one seemed to be
