Alice Kimberley - The Ghost and the Femme Fatale

As soon as I entered the store, Brainert Parker cornered me. His brown hair was neatly combed and his scarecrow frame was dressed as smartly as ever. He had no bow tie today, but his khaki pants displayed a knife-sharp crease and his salmon-colored button-down appeared to be pressed within an inch of its life beneath his favorite blue blazer.

"Pen, you've got to tell me what happened this morning," he said in a whisper. "I tried to get the details out of Sadie, but she's been busy with the store. She simply told me that Dr. Lilly had a fatal accident, and I should talk to you."

"Yes, yes. How much do you know?"

"I know that the woman died in a fall from a ladder."

"And what do you know about her new book?"

"Excuse me?" Brainert frowned. "What does that have to do with her accident?"

"Listen to me, Brainert. I'm convinced that what happened to Dr. Lilly in our store this morning was no accident. I'm sure she was murdered and the scene was staged to make it appear as if she died in a fall."

Eyes wide, Brainert gripped my arm. "You'd better fill me in."

"I will. But first we have to take a look inside Dr. Lilly's new book. I'm betting it will give us a clue why someone wants her dead."

Brainert scanned the sales floor. "Where is the book? I don't see it on display."

"Because of what happened to her, we decided to keep the shipment boxed up in the storeroom." I waved at Aunt Sadie and called to her. "If you need me, I'll be in with the stock."

She nodded and went back to ringing up a customer's purchases. When I turned back to Brainert, Seymour was walking up to us.

"Hey, Parker, did she tell you?" he called. "Pen was run down in the woods by a mad biker!"

A few customers curiously looked our way.

"Keep your voice down, Seymour," I whispered.

"I call it as I see it," he said with a shrug then glanced at Brainert. "So? You in on the case?"

Brainert frowned. "It's a case, is it?"

"Sure," said Seymour. "Pen's running the investigation, and I'm her right-hand man."

Brainert rolled his eyes. "You have a right hand, Seymour. That's all I'm willing to concede."

"I have a fist, too, Parker. You want me to show it to you?"

"Stop bickering!" I commanded. "Just be quiet, both of you, and follow me."

I led the pair into the stock room and closed the door behind us. The cramped space smelled of ink, paper, and cardboard. The boxes delivered from San Fernando University Press were stacked where our delivery man had left them. I ripped open the top carton, gave one book to Brainert, one to Seymour, and took one to look at myself.

The three of us fell silent for the next five minutes as we examined Dr. Lilly's newly published work. As she'd promised in her speech at the theater, the dust jacket of her book featured the poster from Wrong Turn, which meant Hedda Geist's strikingly beautiful image dominated the cover. Her blonde hair flowed over her hourglass curves, encased in the shimmering silver gown she'd worn in the movie-the one that had gone missing from Gotham Features's wardrobe, if I could trust the dream that Jack had given me.

I flipped the book over. There was no text on it, only a large color photograph of Dr. Lilly-very unusual for an academic book. I opened the front, read the flap copy, and my jaw dropped.

"This isn't a film study," I said, finally breaking the silence. "Yeah," agreed Seymour. "Looks like a biography of Hedda Geist."

"You're both mistaken," said Brainert. "It appears to me that Murdered in Plain Sight should be filed under true crime."

"What are you talking about, Brainiac?" Seymour asked.

Brainert shook his head. "You two don't know the first thing about speedy evaluation. Contents reveal the outline, then skip to the last few chapters for the conclusion." He tapped his copy of the open book, his finger running down the middle of one page after another. "From what I gather, Dr. Lilly has written an expose that accuses Hedda Geist of the calculated murder of Irving Vreen back in 1948. She claims Hedda planned and executed the entire murder."

"But Pierce Armstrong was tried and convicted of manslaughter for that crime," I pointed out.

Brainert squinted at the page. "Dr. Lilly seems to be saying that Hedda Geist manipulated Pierce Armstrong and Irving Vreen into the confrontation. Her goal all along was to see Irving Vreen dead and Armstrong convicted of his murder."

"I knew it!" Seymour cried, slapping his knee. "Pierce Armstrong was a fall guy. He was railroaded. Hedda was the real vixen. She arranged everything."

Brainert shook his head. "This is quite disturbing. And, frankly, it's very difficult for me to believe that the Hedda Geist-Middleton I've gotten to know could be capable of this. As a young woman she was a gifted actress playing femme fatales to perfection, but I can't believe she actually was one. Look at the quiet, respectable life she's lived for decades. She's been an esteemed member of the Newport community for years. She's a beloved mother and grandmother. She's given tens of thousands to charity-"

Seymour snorted. "Not to mention your own pet project: restoring your movie theater."

Brainert put a hand on his hip. "What are you implying?"

"That you have an agenda."

"I'm an academic. I need to see evidence. My own observations tell me that Hedda's a class act. This alleged crime she committed was sixty years ago. Pierce Armstrong was tried and convicted of manslaughter for that crime. How in the world could anyone prove that conviction was false after all these years?"

"Dr. Lilly was an academic, too, Brainert," I pointed out. "I doubt she would have published a book without new evidence. She invited members of the press to our store today. I think she must have had solid facts to present. We just need to read them." I held up the book. "Consider this exhibit A."

"Exhibit A, huh?" said Brainert, paging through the final chapters. "All I see here related to the letter 'A' are Allegations" Brainert was silent for a minute, continuing to skim. Finally, he sighed and shook his head. "I don't even see a motive for Hedda to have supposedly perpetrated this heinous crime."

Seymour grunted with skepticism. "It sounds to me like you're more than willing to overlook your business partner's past. Obviously Dr. Lilly saw things differently."

Brainert smirked. "Obviously."

"What are you saying, Brainert?" I asked. "Do you believe Dr. Lilly based an entire book on unsubstantiated gossip?"

Brainert sighed. "If there's any real evidence in here, I'll be willing to consider it. Until then, I'm putting this theory about Hedda on the level of Frannie McGuire's story that she sold Elvis Presley take-out quahogs at the Seafood Shack in 1992."

"What's so hard to believe?" Seymour said with a wrinkled brow. "Everybody knows Elvis staged his own death."

"Now you're being ridiculous," Brainert sniffed.

"And you're being naive," Seymour charged, "to trust a spiderwoman like Hedda Geist-"

"Wait one minute," said Brainert, loudly snapping shut Lilly's book. "It's one thing to speculate about a woman's past. It's quite another to insult her with a name like that. I'll not have you slander a major contributor to the history of motion picture arts, not to mention an upstanding member of our community-"

"Our community?!" Seymour cried. "The old bag lives in Newport. Since when can we afford to live in Newport?"

"Hold the phone," I said.

"What?" they asked together.

"Hedda Geist may live in Newport now, but she didn't come from money. Not even close." While the two men were bickering, I'd continued to skim Dr. Lilly's book. I pointed to one of the early chapters. "It says here that Hedda was the fourth daughter in a family of seven. Her father was arrested for robbery when she was nine and died in a prison brawl. Hedda's mother cleaned houses to make ends meet."