Yeah, Helen thought. Little Jason.
“I assumed she’d lock up after that. She was going to send someone to open the church for me at six a.m. I found the door open when I got there.”
There was a loud silence.
“Helen, do you think it was open
“I do,” she said.
One call down, one question answered. But before Helen could do more investigating, she had to deal with more customers. Millicent was caught up in the bridal chaos. She even smiled when Cassie came in, towing a short, shy woman.
“This is my Aunt Nita!!” Cassie said. “She wants to see my dream dress. Nita’s like my second mom. I couldn’t buy it unless she approved.”
Helen hauled the wedding gown back to the dressing room one more time. Maybe she should just leave it there, Cassie was in so often showing it off.
“Aunt Nita loves it!!” Cassie said, when she came out of the dressing room. Aunt Nita nodded and smiled, but stayed silent. “I just have to show my dream dress to one more person!!” And she was out the door, Aunt Nita obediently following.
“Her dream dress is turning into my nightmare,” Helen said.
“She’ll buy,” Millicent said.
It was another hour before Helen was free to call the Shakespeare Playhouse office.
“We can always use volunteers,” said the woman who answered the phone. “In fact, could you usher this evening?”
Helen was startled. “So soon? Well, uh—”
“If you can’t, we’ll try to find someone else. We’ve had two ushers call in sick.”
“No, of course, I’ll be there.”
“Good. Wear a black skirt or pants and a white blouse. Be here at six.”
Helen checked the time: twelve forty-five. Perfect. She called the law offices of the bride’s father. “Could I speak to Donna Sue Hawser?”
She was transferred twice before she heard, “Donna Sue here.”
“My name is Helen Hawthorne. I saw you last night at the theater. I just wanted to tell you that you were terrific as the queen.”
“Really? Why that’s so nice. But how did you get my number?”
“From Desiree.” It was only a little lie.
Helen waited for the telltale silence, but there wasn’t any. Donna Sue apparently liked the bride. “Well, wasn’t that sweet? That poor little thing. There she is, her mother just buried, and she took time to compliment me.”
That wasn’t quite how it went, but Helen didn’t straighten her out. “I was so impressed, I’m volunteering. I’m ushering tonight.”
“Good. Although with Luke out of the show, we may not get the crowd we had last night. So what can I do for you?”
Helen took a deep breath. This was the big lie. “I talked with Desiree and Luke the other night. They asked me to look into their mother’s death.”
Well, they had.
“Isn’t Luke the greatest actor?”
“Yes,” Helen said, glad to be telling the truth again. “I wondered if I could come talk to you.”
“Are you like a private detective or something?”
“Yes,” Helen said. She was something, all right.
“And you’re definitely helping Desiree?”
“Trying to,” Helen said.
“Well, I’m in favor of that. I think what her father did is rotten. Why don’t you meet me in half an hour at the office? We can talk in the conference room. He’ll be out until two thirty.”
Helen hung up. That was one strange conversation.
The office of Shenrad and Gandolf, known to insiders as Shag and Gonef, looked like a men’s club with filing cabinets. Helen wondered what the attorneys told the decorator when they ordered dark wood and wing chairs: “I want a law office that looks so successful I can charge four hundred an hour.”
Donna Sue was about ten years older than she’d seemed onstage: fifty-something with thick dark hair going gray and good cheekbones. She’d been heavily made up for the play. Today she wore only a little lipstick. Her gray eyes were startling. Her skin was acnescarred, the occupational hazard of stage makeup.
Helen poured on the praise. “You were a brave queen. That was a nice bit with the lace handkerchief. You were good.”
“Thanks,” Donna Sue said. “Excuse the salad. This is my lunch hour.” Helen’s stomach growled. This interview and an energy bar were her lunch.
“I’m proud to be part of the production,” Donna Sue said. “But it won’t be the same without Luke. He’s special. He left to do that movie with Michael Mann. Some people get all the breaks.”
“You didn’t,” Helen said. “You’re good enough for New York.”
Donna Sue colored with pleasure. “I used to think so. But I fell in love with a lawyer in Lauderdale. I put him through school and he dumped me. The old story. You can’t go to New York with two kids. I’m getting back to acting now that my youngest is in college.
“I’m sure you didn’t come to hear about me. I want to be up-front with you. I’m leaving here. I’ve got a better job. I want to help that poor little girl. She’s always been nice to me, unlike some people I could name. It’s so unfair. She’s his daughter, after all. She can’t help who her mother is.”
Helen began verbally feeling around. “I was at the wedding. I found her mother’s body at the church.”
Donna Sue’s eyes grew wide. “You did?” She lowered her voice. “Was it horrible? Was there lots of blood?”
“Kiki didn’t look bad,” Helen said. “She was definitely dead and she wasn’t prettied up like at a funeral parlor, but she wasn’t horrible.”
Helen saw that rigid corpse again, the clipped claws reaching for her, and shuddered.
“Are you cold?” Donna Sue said. “I swear the men in this office turn the air-conditioning up till it’s a meat locker.”
“No,” Helen said. “I lied. There wasn’t any blood, but finding her was still awful. It makes me shiver just thinking about it. The day before Kiki had been so alive.”
“And driving everyone crazy.”
“You knew her?” Helen said.
“I knew she called Mr. Shenrad twenty times a day and chewed him out,” Donna Sue said. “He had his new wife screaming at him on line one and his old wife yelling at him on line two.”
“What was his new wife screaming about?” Helen wondered if Donna Sue would hesitate to reveal inner- office secrets.
“Money,” Donna Sue said. She must really be ticked at Brendan. “Shannon, his new wife, didn’t get enough. She didn’t get enough of something else, either, if you ask me. Brendan fired the pool service a couple of months ago. Said the guy didn’t need to come to his house twice a week. Shannon came here nearly hysterical. You could hear them arguing all over the office.”
My, my. Brendan had himself a regular soap opera.
Donna Sue had a Shakespearean interest in murder. “Was anyone around when you found the body? Did people scream and faint?” Her eyes were bright with curiosity.
“The whole wedding party was there,” Helen said. “The bride, the groom, Mr. Shenrad. Everyone was screaming. I felt so sorry for Mr. Shenrad. It must have been a terrible shock.”
“Are you kidding?” Donna Sue said. “He practically did cartwheels around this office.”
“I know Kiki’s death saved him a bundle,” Helen said. “And he gave her a lot of money to get free.”
