Let's Play Dead

In a way it made sense to me. Caitlin had done a great job under difficult circumstances, and I couldn’t blame her for overreacting when it looked like it all might come to nothing. Maybe the Taser was a bit over the top, but as Caitlin had said, it had worked, and here we were.

Arabella looked from Caitlin to Hadley and back again. Then she straightened up and said gently, “All right, Caitlin, we’re listening now. What is going on?”

“She”-Caitlin pointed at Hadley-“she’s the one who sabotaged the exhibit. She’s the one who’s responsible for Joe Murphy’s death. The one who nearly killed Jason.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Hadley said. “Arabella, I hate to tell you, but I strongly suspect that your daughter is mentally unstable. Can’t you control her? If you don’t remove her from my house, I am going to call the police.”

“Hadley,” I said, “I’m not sure you want to do that-it would make all our lives a lot more complicated. I for one am willing to hear what Caitlin has to say. Besides, I don’t think they’d get here very fast, and I don’t think any of us will be leaving for a bit. If that crash was any indication, I think there’s a pretty big tree down out there.”

Caitlin gave me a long look, then nodded once. “Thank you, Nell. I don’t trust Hadley. I’m sure she could tell you a great tale and convince you of her side of things. After all, she’s a storyteller, or she used to be. I’m not as good with words. All that I ask is that you hear what I have to say. She”-Caitlin jerked her head toward Hadley-“can have her turn when I’m done.”

I looked critically at Caitlin. She seemed to be under control, and she knew she had our attention. Hadley, on the other hand, looked ready to foam at the mouth. “Then let’s all sit down,” I said.

Hadley rallied enough to bristle. “Excuse me, this is my house. Who are you to give orders?”

I spat back at her, “The sooner you sit down, Hadley, the sooner we’ll sort this all out.”

Arabella and Hadley both sat, as did I. Nolan and Jason stationed themselves against the wall on either side of the arched doorway. Nolan’s eyes were wary, but Jason focused only on Caitlin. Caitlin began to pace back and forth. I hated to admit it, but I did feel better having a couple of men watching my back, at least where Hadley was concerned. Nolan could probably be counted on to side with his daughter in any argument-I just hoped she had something worth hearing.

I cleared my throat. “Caitlin, you’ve accused Hadley of being a party to Joe’s death. What’s the story?”

Caitlin continued pacing back and forth, keeping a safe distance from Hadley. “Hadley and I have been working on this exhibit, what, two years now? She’s a bitch to work with.”

When Hadley started to protest, I gave her a look that shut her up. She could wait her turn.

“I know I’m not really good with people-I never have been,” Caitlin went on. “But Hadley was something else. I mean, she did everything she could to slow things down, mess things up-and then she tried to blame it on me. I had misunderstood her instructions, she said. I had forgotten to order something, or tell the workmen to do something. After a while I started making detailed notes after each meeting with her, just so I’d know it really wasn’t me. It wasn’t.”

“Caitlin, darling, why didn’t you tell me about any of this?” Arabella asked.

Caitlin looked at her mother briefly. “You’d given me this project to manage. I wanted to prove I could handle it. I mean, even I know that difficult people are part of the business, and I wasn’t going to run to Mommy every time I had a problem.”

“She’s making this up,” Hadley spat. “I made reasonable requests, suggestions, and she ignored them all. She was going to do things her way, no matter what. But Harriet is mine-of course I fought to maintain my vision.”

So far I thought both women’s accounts sounded equally plausible. So how did any of this bickering lead to a death? “Hadley, this is Caitlin’s turn-let her finish.”

Caitlin smiled briefly. “Thank you, Nell. So, like I said, I started keeping notes. I can tell you about every conversation we had, and we had plenty. You know, Hadley, I was beginning to wonder just why you spent so much time on-site, ‘supervising.’ ” Caitlin made air quotes. “I mean, I know you didn’t particularly trust me, but there was a lot of day-to-day construction stuff that you didn’t need to approve, not personally. And then there was the whole business with the weasel heads.”

Arabella and Nolan looked confused, so Caitlin explained. “Hadley pitched a fit the first time she saw the model for Willy the Weasel. Dad, you probably don’t know, but he’s the bad guy in the stories, only he’s not completely villainous, so we didn’t want him to look too smarmy. Anyway, Hadley thought we got his expression wrong the first time around. Okay, I could understand that. After all, she created him, and I agreed that it was important to get it right. So I asked our fabricators to make another one-at our expense. They did-and Hadley hated that one, too.”

“He looked mean,” Hadley said, pouting.

“Maybe he did,” Caitlin replied, “but I thought it was interesting that you didn’t complain about any of the other figures, including Harriet, who’s the centerpiece of the show. But I went along with you, and we had a third head made. So we had three heads, and I showed number three to Hadley, and she still wasn’t happy. Then she decided to take all of three them home and study them for a bit, get to know them, and then decide which one she preferred. I said, fine, sure-just make sure you bring back the one you decide on by the beginning of the month, because we have to install it and make sure everything works the way it should before the exhibit opens for the public. I didn’t want any screwups.”

Like a fatal accident? Or a murder? “Then Hadley made a decision?” I prompted.

“Yeah, at the last possible minute. She sat on them for weeks, and then finally, after about seven reminders, she came waltzing in with head number two and told me that she thinks it’s the one that best captured the spirit of Willy, even though it wasn’t perfect. So I gave the head to the installers to, well, install. Which they did, that same morning. That was the day that Jason almost got killed.”

“Wait a sec-we’d tried it out that morning and it worked just fine. And then I got zapped in the afternoon,” Jason protested. “What happened in between?”

“Good question, Jason,” Caitlin said to him. “Well, you might recall that Hadley here just happened to stop by at lunchtime that day, to be sure we had it right.”

“Caitlin, love, would you mind telling me just what goes on with this Willy creature of yours?” Nolan said.

“Oh, right-you haven’t seen it. It’s what we call an interactive exhibit. The kids can touch the figures and make them do something. Since Willy’s the villain of the piece-the one kids love to hate-the kids get to twist his nose. It’s a switch-if you twist it hard enough, Willy says Ow! It’s hard on the piece, so we had to make it sturdy, and we’ve got lots of spare parts on hand so we can replace them regularly.”

“We want children to be able to play with our exhibits, Nolan,” Arabella explained. “That’s the philosophy of Let’s Play. We don’t want to keep telling them, Be careful, don’t touch.”

“So you’ve got a simple switch rigged up in Willy’s nose,” Nolan said, “and when the nose is twisted, the circuit is closed, it activates the voice recording that goes Ow?”

“Exactly,” Caitlin said. “Willy’s bending down to shake hands with the children, and the kids can grab his nose easily. It worked fine the first few times we tried it. Then Mom invited Nell to see it in action, and Jason was trying to demonstrate how it worked when he was knocked out. He grabbed the nose and zap!”

Nolan looked troubled. “Sounds like a simple connection-hard to go wrong with it. You’ve worked with your installers before?”

Caitlin nodded. “Plenty of times. Plus we’ve had the city inspectors in more than once, to make sure everything was up to code. I’ve got the paperwork. We didn’t cut any corners.”

“So you’re saying that nothing could go wrong, but it did,” Nolan said slowly. “And you think Hadley here had something to do with it?”

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing!” Hadley jumped out of her chair, then retreated behind it when Caitlin glared at her. “I’m an author, for God’s sake-not an electrician. I wouldn’t know where to begin to tamper with it.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” I said. “What about one of your boyfriends?”

Hadley’s stricken face was a treat to observe.