Silver Scream : A Bed-and-breakfast Mystery

Best Supporting Actor this year. You were a really

great villain in To Die in Davenport.”

“Thanks,” Ben Carmody replied with what appeared

to be a genuine smile. “Face it, I was up against some

pretty tough competition.”

Judith was startled by Carmody’s benign appearance. She was so used to seeing him as the embodiment of evil that she scarcely recognized him. He was

tall and lean, much better looking in person than on the

screen. Judith shook Ben Carmody’s hand and also received a warm smile.

Like Dirk Farrar, the next arrival ignored Judith and

the others. Unlike Dirk, the pencil-thin black woman

in the gray Armani suit glided over the threshold as if

she had wheels on her Manolo Blahnik pumps. Once

inside, she joined Bruno Zepf, who had migrated into

the front parlor. The woman closed the parlor door behind her, leaving the cousins and Arlene staring at each

other.

Last but not least was a small, exotic creature who

apparently was communing with the squirrels in the

maple tree near the front of the house.

“Who is that?” Arlene inquired, her pretty face perplexed. “She reminds me of someone.”

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Mary Daheim

“Ellie Linn-MacDermott,” Renie said. “Except I

think she’s dropped the MacDermott.”

“Y-e-s,” Arlene said slowly, “that’s who she reminds

me of. Ellie Linn-MacDermott. I’ve seen Ellie in two

or three movies. Funny, this girl’s a dead ringer for

her.”

“She is Ellie Linn,” Renie responded, making way

for the chauffeurs, who were carrying in the luggage.

“She has a role in The Gasman.”

“Oh!” Arlene’s hand flew to her mouth and her blue

eyes widened in surprise. “Of course! The actress! Or

is it hot dogs?”

“Both,” said Renie, then jumped out of the way as

the wheels of a large suitcase almost ran over her foot.

“Her father, Heathcliffe MacDermott, is the Wienie

Wizard of the Western World.”

Arlene again looked puzzled. “But this girl . . .” She

waved an arm toward the young woman who was trying to coax one of the squirrels down from the maple

tree. “She looks Chinese.”

“Her mother’s from Hong Kong,” Renie said. “Or

Shanghai. Or someplace like that.”

Judith excused herself to show the drivers where to

stow the luggage upstairs. When she started down

again, Angela La Belle met her on the second landing.

“Where’s my room?” she asked, blinking big brown

eyes that were offset by long lashes that might or might

not have been her own. The lashes, like the eyes, were