Let's Play Dead

“Yes, it was over by then.”

“How did he take the breakup?”

“He was angry. I don’t know why-I never promised him anything. He couldn’t have thought we had any future together. I mean, look at me-look at who I am. He was just an electrician. It wasn’t serious.”

“So you used him for some quick sex and then dumped him,” I said bluntly.

“You don’t need to be crude, Nell,” she replied. I noticed she didn’t deny the allegation.

“Did he show you how the Willy heads worked?”

“No. I didn’t really care, as long as they worked correctly. He was helping me with them. He would show me how fast Willy could speak, that kind of thing. He wanted to be sure they would stand up to heavy handling-kids can be kind of rough, you know. But I didn’t want the final one to be too scary.”

I turned to Nolan, who had set the two remaining heads down on the floor at his feet. “Nolan, can you take a look at those and tell me if they’re wired correctly?”

“Piece of cake.” He picked up the first one and peered inside. We all waited silently while Nolan poked and prodded inside the two heads. Finally he said, “They seem fine to me. It’s a pretty simple circuit. I’m not up on all the fancy electronics like the recorded voice bit, but the connections inside look right. Can’t speak as to how they went on the body.”

That was good to know, especially since Hadley had sent Joe packing before she had delivered the head to Let’s Play. “Did Joe know which head you had chosen, Hadley?” I asked.

“I don’t think so. I really didn’t make up my mind until the last minute. Arabella was being so pushy about it, so in the end I just grabbed one.”

I could hear Caitlin laugh briefly.

“Hadley, you’d had months to make up your mind,” Arabella said, clearly exasperated. Then she turned to me. “Nell, where are you going with this?”

“I’m trying to figure out who rigged the Willy model in the exhibit. And why. Hadley, was this all just a big publicity stunt to get your name in the papers?”

Hadley jumped out of her chair. “No! Look, I know you think I’m shallow and self-centered, and maybe I am, but I would never put anyone at risk.”

“Are you sure? Maybe you didn’t think anyone would die, just get a nasty shock. Which Jason did. And maybe you were disappointed when that didn’t get any publicity and decided to up the ante the second time around. Maybe you’d already planned your tearful press conference.”

“Nell!” Arabella burst out. “That’s not fair.”

I swung back to her. “Look, Arabella, if we don’t get to the bottom of this, your museum is in deep trouble. You want me to be nice and polite under the circumstances? Hadley had motive and opportunity-and I gather she doesn’t like you or Caitlin much. Why shouldn’t she be a suspect? If she could pin this on you or Caitlin, she’d come out smelling like a rose.”

Hadley was standing rigidly, her fists clenched, and the tears were spilling down her cheeks now. “I swear, I didn’t do this. I may be a lousy person, but I wouldn’t kill anyone. Believe me, Harriet isn’t worth it. You think I don’t know she’s past her prime? Just like me? Sales are down, and so’s my income, and that’s all I’ve got. Sure, I’ve thought about how I could use this to my advantage for publicity, but when Joe died, I just couldn’t.”

Did I believe her? I decided I did. She was right-she was shallow. But I couldn’t really see her as a cold-blooded killer. I looked around at our little group. “Then what happened?”

I was surprised when Nolan was the first to speak. “Have you thought that it might have been Joe’s own doing?”

That was the last thing I expected to hear. “What, he killed himself in a very public way because Hadley rejected him?”

“Nah, nothing so fancy as that. But the lady had hurt his pride by dumping him, right? Maybe he figured messing with Hadley’s exhibit was a good way of getting back at her. And maybe he screwed up the wiring himself and paid the price. After what I’ve seen downstairs, it wouldn’t surprise me. The man took far too many shortcuts. Sloppy work.”

“And of course he had access to the figures at Let’s Play,” Arabella added slowly, “since he was part of the installation crew.”

“That’s how I met him,” Hadley said softly. Then, recovering her more imperious tone, she continued. “So let me get this straight. You’re saying you think that he might have rigged Willy’s head to get back at me?”

“I think so,” I replied. “Jason received a jolt. That incident never went public, so it didn’t get the result Joe wanted-he probably didn’t want anyone to die, but he hoped that someone would get hurt badly enough that it would make the news. His first attempt went wrong, but then he had to wait all day Wednesday. He or one of his buddies repaired the wiring, and Arabella had it checked out, twice, and then he went back and changed it back again, only this time something went wrong. He didn’t have much time, and he was probably working in the dark so no one could see him. Does that make sense?” I looked around at the group. “Nolan?”

“Could be,” Nolan said. “I’d have to see the wiring in that head to be sure. I assume the cops have it?”

Arabella nodded. “They do.”

“Then we should give them the other two, for comparison.”

“Of course,” Hadley said. “Just make sure they’re back in time for the opening.”

The gall of the statement rendered me speechless. Caitlin, who had been silent through this discussion, finally spoke. “So I was right-you were responsible, just not quite directly. But you were willing to let the police suspect me, and my mother, and Let’s Play, rather than come forward and tell them the whole story, just because it made you look bad. What did we ever do to you?” I noticed that Jason had drifted closer to Caitlin, and he now had his arm around her.

“It wasn’t personal.”

“How lame is that?” Caitlin burst out. “You were thinking, Sorry, but I’ll take any likely candidate for killer, as long as it isn’t me?” She turned to Arabella. “Is it too late the pull the plug on that damned exhibit? Because right now it would feel really good to take a sledgehammer to the whole thing.”

Arabella actually smiled. “Sweetie, I understand how you feel, believe me. But we’re only a couple of weeks from opening, and we simply can’t afford to have a huge hole in our scheduling right now. Nell, what do we do now?”

Nell Pratt, resident expert on law enforcement. I sighed. “We tell the Philadelphia Police what we know, and we give them the other two heads and tell them to compare them to the one they have. We tell them we believe that Joe may have been responsible for the faulty wiring, and he was stupid enough to electrocute himself. It’s sad, but there’s a weird sort of poetic justice to it.”

“Will they believe that, Nell?” Arabella asked.

“I don’t know. It makes as much sense as anything else, and I’m sure they’d be happy to close the case. If you’re lucky, there’ll be some evidence, if they know what to look for. And if you’re very lucky, you, the museum, Caitlin, and Hadley will be exonerated, and the exhibit goes on as planned. Hadley, you’re going to have to repeat what you’ve told us to the police, but I doubt that it will go public-unless you decide you really want that kind of publicity.”

“I think not,” Hadley said. “I’d like to come out of this with some shred of dignity. We’ll just call it a tragic accident, due to an electrician’s error, and he’s already paid the price. Is that acceptable to you, Arabella?”

“I agree that would be best, Hadley.”

“I don’t suppose we can do this in time for tomorrow’s paper?” Hadley said.

The woman was a piece of work. “Unlikely,” I said. “Besides, we-or Arabella and you-need to talk to the police before you call the news folks.”

“All right,” a subdued Hadley replied.

I needed to clear my head. Had we really figured out what had happened-and come up with a noncrime? I took a candle and walked into the hall and pulled open the door a crack to check the weather. I had expected to see ice. What I hadn’t expected to see was the massive tree trunk that spanned the road we had arrived by, and a few sparking wires that it had brought down with it.

“Uh, guys?” I called over my shoulder. “I don’t think we’re going anywhere tonight.”