from the prop table this morning, he spent an hour looking before he had Dinky Holloway report it to Detective Fraymore. You know, because of what happened last night. Nobody knows when it disappeared…'
'I do,' I interjected.
'You do?' Three pairs of eyes searched my face.
'It was missing when I looked at the props during the donor party,' I said. 'I remember seeing the empty orange outline on the table. At least it was something shaped like a knife. I didn't worry about it, though. It wasn't my problem.'
'It's somebody's problem now. Dinky came back to the theater practically tearing her hair out. Fraymore was going out to the farm to take Tanya's fingerprints.'
'Tanya's!' Kelly exclaimed. 'Why would he do that?'
'Don't worry,' I assured them. 'It's just routine. If it is the knife from the show, both Juliet's and Romeo's prints may be on it. So a print technician will take both Tanya's and James Renthrow's prints as well as any stagehands who may have handled the knife. Once they catalog the known prints that should be there, then they can sort out the unknown ones that shouldn't.'
'I see,' Jeremy said. 'So it's a process of elimination?'
'Right,' I answered. 'It's called disqualifying prints.'
Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief. 'I'm glad to hear that. I was afraid it meant she was really in trouble.'
'Any reason why she should be?'
'Daddy,' Kelly complained. 'Stop being a detective.'
'I can't help it. Curiosity becomes a way of life.'
Iced tea and eggplant had evidently propped up Jeremy's confidence. He was feeling expansive. 'It's just that Tanya's had so much bad luck,' he said. 'First her parents died in that fire when she was twelve. Then she got in a beef with her guardian and ended up on her own by the time she was fourteen. She's been self-supporting ever since. In all that time, she never lost track of her goal.'
'Which was?'
'To be an actress. And look at her. She is. For someone her age, she's accomplished a lot. Especially when you consider she's raising Amber all by herself.'
'What happened to her husband?'
'Oh him.' Kelly sniffed disapprovingly. 'I guess Bob couldn't stand the competition. He was ten years older than Tanya. When she landed better parts than he did, he took off.'
'How old was Amber when he left?' I asked.
Kelly and Jeremy exchanged veiled glances before Kelly answered. 'Tanya told me he left the day he found out she was pregnant.'
Oops. One more time, open mouth and insert foot. Once again Alex came to my rescue. 'How old is Amber?'
'Two and a half.'
'I know what actors make around here,' Alex continued. 'It isn't much. How has Tanya managed?'
'She couldn't have if it hadn't been for Marjorie,' Kelly explained. 'That's Marjorie Connors,' she added for Alex's benefit. 'Our landlady. She runs Live Oak Farm, where we all live. Tanya couldn't afford an apartment by herself. She was about to be thrown into the street when Marjorie invited them to come stay with her.'
Jeremy nodded. 'Marjorie's great. That's the kind of thing she does. She was volunteering at the theaters when she heard about what was going on with Tanya and Amber. She knew Tanya was broke, so they worked out a way Tanya could help around the farm in exchange for the rent. That's what we all do, more or less.'
'Is that how you ended up there, too?' Alex spoke with her eyes focused on Kelly's face. If I had asked the question, Kelly probably would have thrown the remainder of her eggplant burger in my face, told me it was none of my business, and stomped off in a huff. Since Alex asked, though, it was okay.
'Pretty much,' Kelly answered.
'Sounds like a nice lady,' Alex went on. 'I'd like to meet her sometime. Maybe at the wedding.'
Jeremy shook his head. 'I doubt that. Marjorie doesn't like weddings. She says marriage is a barbaric holdover from the Middle Ages that turns women into slaves and men into tyrants.' Jeremy delivered that last sentence in a brusque voice that mimicked Marjorie Connors' clipped delivery perfectly. Both Kelly and I laughed. Maybe Jeremy was an actor after all.
For a change, since Alex alone of the three of us had never met Marjorie Connors, she was the one left out of the joke.
Jeremy glanced down at his watch. 'Sorry to rush. I've got a cast call pretty soon. If we don't leave now, I won't have time to take Kelly home and bring the others into town.'
'I take it you operate the Live Oak Taxi?' I asked.
He grinned. 'Like Kelly said, it helps pay the rent.' He started to fumble gamely for his bill-fold, but I told him to forget it, that I was buying. They left a few minutes later, even though it was just barely twelve-thirty. Alex and I lingered at the table. It was hot in the restaurant, and I switched from coffee to iced tea.
'What do you think?' I asked.
'Of them?' Alex shrugged. 'They're sweet. And very much in love.'
She sat there stirring sugar into her iced tea in an artless, casual gesture. Watching her, I was surprised by how much I liked it; by how much I liked her. It was as if she had somehow tiptoed around the defenses and crept into my heart through a back entrance I didn't know existed.
'Could I ask you a personal question, Ms. Downey?' I asked.
'Shoot,' she said.
'Let me lay it out for you this way, ma'am. Here we are having lunch with my daughter and the young twerp who is all set to marry her without so much as a by-your-leave. In the middle of this highly pressurized lunch, you come right out and ask if they've invited Karen to the wedding. Don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining, but would you mind telling me why you did that?'
She looked up at me and smiled, her deep blue eyes flashing in merriment. 'You really don't know?'
'Haven't a clue.'
'Karen's Kelly's mother, right?'
'Right.'
'She's also your ex-wife. Divorces notwithstanding, mothers expect to go to their daughters' weddings. Period.'
'So?'
'So, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not interested in a one-night stand or even a several-month stand with you, Mr. J.P. Beaumont. I'm not that kind of girl. I like you a lot, but if there's ever going to be anything permanent between us, then we'd better make damn sure that if we're invited to Kelly and Jeremy's wedding, Karen and Dave Livingston are, too.'
Just like that, I got the picture. Talk about a slow learner! So when we went to see The Majestic Kid that afternoon, I sat up and paid attention, and not just because my future son-in-law was playing a lead role. I figured since this was a play about a girl who kept bailing her boyfriend out of the drink, then I needed to take lessons.
During intermission, Alex excused herself. I thought she was going to the rest room. Instead, she must have used a phone. When she sat back down beside me, she squeezed my arm.
'It worked,' she said. 'I checked with Kelly. She and Jeremy talked it over on the way home. Karen and Dave are invited to the wedding after all.'
'Hot damn!' I breathed. By then I understood Karen's presence at the wedding was in my own best interest.
'Well,' she hedged. 'It's not all smooth sailing.'
'Why not? What do you mean?'
'They want you to make the phone call.'
'Me!' I choked. 'I have to do all the dirty work?'
Alex smiled and nodded. 'I told Kelly you wouldn't mind at all. That's what fathers are for. We'll call Karen as soon as the play is over and before we meet Dinky for dinner.'
I watched the second act of The Majestic Kid, but I can't say I enjoyed it very much. Alex, of course, savored
