Several Deaths Later

'Well, I can't write the story without some help from you but if you go along, I think I can piece together something you'd really like.'

'You think you can find out who killed Norris as well as Iris and this guy Sanderson?'

'Yes.'

'You got any hunches right now?'

'Not right now. But speaking of Sanderson-that would be my first question.'

'So we're going to make a deal?'

Tobin knew there was a special place in hell for people who worked with Snoop but he also knew that $10,000 was the equivalent of five appearances on 'Celebrity Gardener.'

'Just one thing,' Tobin said.

'Way ahead of you. You want me to absolutely guarantee you your anonymity.'

'Right.'

'Because you'd be ashamed to be associated with a rag like ours.'

'Right.'

'But you'd be more than happy to take our money.'

'Right.'

'What a hypocrite.'

'Were they working together?'

'Iris and Sanderson?'

'Yes.'

'No.'

'You're sure?'

'I talked to her the day she died. She said she was getting close to finishing her story but that there might be an even bigger one because of Sanderson.'

'And that's all she said?'

'Right.'

'So what was her story?'

'I'm not sure.'

'I thought we were supposed to be cooperating.'

'Actually, it's true. I was on vacation and she suddenly took off on this cruise. All she told me was that she was going to expose a very big scandal about 'Celebrity Circle.''

'And that's all?'

'That's all. She had this thing-she hated talking about stories before they were finished. Bad luck. I know a lot of fiction writers who are like that.'

'She use the word 'payday?''

'Huh-uh.'

'She say anything about any of the panelists on the show?'

'I told you, she didn't like to talk about the story.'

'You want to give me your phone credit card?'

'You serious?'

'Of course I'm serious. I'm going to have to reconstruct what Iris was working on and since I'm in the middle of the Pacific, the only way I can do that is with phone calls.'

'I thought you TV guys made a lot of money.'

'Not when you do 'Celebrity Fitness' and stuff like that.'

'You need the money, huh?'

'To be honest, yes.'

Conroy said, 'Then let's make it I approve the phone tab up to two grand and I pay you eight grand if the story goes in as our lead.'

'I'm paying for my own phone calls?'

'Two grand's more money than you had five minutes ago, Tobin.'

Tobin swore.

'And we won't use your name. I promise you.'

Tobin said, 'Deal.'

27

8:41 P.M.

'You're not going to the costume party?' Cassie McDowell said.

'I just haven't come up with a costume yet.'

'You've only got about an hour or so before dinner.' She herself was ready to go as Bo Peep, complete with bonnet and petticoats and big, clunky children's-book shoes. 'You like it?'

'You going to invite me in?'

'Really, I need some positive reinforcement. Now, do you like it or not?'

'It's cute. Now, are you going to invite me in?'

He was in the corridor outside her door. Passengers got up in rigs ranging from Donald Duck to Darth Vader squeezed by. He felt foolish standing out there, as if they all knew that she wouldn't let him in.

'What do you want?'

'Just to talk.'

'About what?'

Any notion he'd had that she'd been interested in him in any personal way was long gone. He stood there in jeans and his I SURVIVED THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE II T-shirt and said, 'It's just a friendly visit.'

'Right.'

She turned just so in the light from her cabin, and he could see how quickly her face was aging and there was something sad about it, because her youth was all she'd had on 'McKinley High, USA.' No talent; not even animal charm. Just that cuteness, and now it was resisting the skin lotion she smelled of, now it was resisting everything she put up against the inevitable.

'We didn't kill anybody-none of us.'

'I was just curious,' Tobin said, 'why you slapped Todd in the face last night.'

'Strain, and nothing more. I'm not exactly used to people being murdered. I was just reacting to the strain was all.'

'Sanderson, the private detective who was killed, had something in his belongings that made me very curious.'

She looked surprised. 'You have his belongings?'

'Yes.'

'How'd you get them?'

'Captain Hackett.'

'Isn't that cozy?' From the pocket on her dress she took a package of Salem Lights and lit one. 'I really don't have time for this. We're supposed to have an open bar for the passengers up on the Promenade deck in ten minutes. I wouldn't expect you to lower yourself for anything like that.' She seemed agitated- and had been ever since he mentioned Sanderson's belongings.

'I didn't know you'd won a beauty contest in Indiana.'

'What?'

'A beauty contest in Indiana.'

'I never have been in Indiana. I was born and raised in Culver City. The only thing I like about the Midwest is that it's so far away I never have to go there.'

'You're sure?'