Alan Cook - Catch a Falling Knife

“I wish we could hear what they’re saying,” I said.

“This has something to do with the Shooting Star, doesn’t it?” Lefty said, as he recognized Mark.

I nodded.

“I’ll tell you what we can do. I’ll invite them up here to the skybox. I’ve got this room miked. We can listen to what they’re saying in my office. I’ll tell them it’s to make the lady more comfortable, since there aren’t many of them in the audience. And drinks are on the house.”

“That will convince Mark,” I said. “He doesn’t have much money.”

“That other window overlooks the lap-dancing area,” Lefty said, pointing to an adjacent wall. Would you like to take a look at what’s happening there before we go downstairs?”

“Thanks, we’ll pass,” I said, quickly, before Sandra figured out what he was talking about.

The first snatches of conversation we heard were between Mark and Donna and the waitress who had guided them up to the skybox, as Lefty liked to call it. She offered them another round of drinks, free. Mark, who sounded somewhat puzzled as to why they were getting special attention, said they would have one more round.

When the waitress left we listened, intently, for what we didn’t know. Lefty, Sandra and I were standing in his cramped office, too nervous to sit, while he adjusted knobs on an amplifier that projected their voices through several speakers. At first we heard nothing except occasional notes of the music from the main room. Then Donna spoke.

“I’m glad they brought us up here,” Donna said. “It’s easier to talk and easier to see the disgusting things that girl is doing. That’s what Elise did. You can see that any girl who would do things like that wasn’t worthy of your attention. I would never do anything like that.”

Mark didn’t reply at first. Donna prattled on in the same vein.

Finally, Mark said, “If what these girls do is so disgusting, why did you pretend to be the Shooting Star?”

There was a pause, during which we strained to hear.

Then we heard Donna say, “Elise was my best friend. I…was just trying to protect her memory. You know how her father felt. What if he had found out that she was the Shooting Star? I wanted…”

“Now wait a minute, Donna.” Mark’s voice drowned hers out. “You told Lillian-Dr. Morgan-and me that you were the one who told Elise’s father that she was the Shooting Star. So how can you say you were trying to protect her?”

“She changes stories as often as she changes clothes,” I said.

“I got mad at him because he insinuated that I killed Elise. I…wanted to hurt him.”

“But you didn’t kill Elise.”

“I loved her like…a sister.”

“But you also envied her because she was better looking than you and because she was a good singer who didn’t need your song lyrics to be successful and because…well, because you thought that I was attracted to her and not you.”

“You can’t tell me you weren’t hot for her.”

“Let me make one thing very clear. There is only one woman in my life and that’s Sandra. I liked you and Elise, but only as my students, nothing more.”

I looked at Sandra. She listened intently.

Mark spoke again. “I know more than you think I do. I know that Elise’s dad came into Club Cavalier the night she was killed. I know that he saw Elise dance. I know that he recognized her. He was with her boyfriend, Ted. He took Ted home and then he went somewhere. I bet he went to your apartment. I bet Elise was already there. I bet you were already there.” A pause, then, “I’m right, aren’t I?”

Mark was doing a high-wire act without a net. During the ensuing silence we held our collective breath. What was going on up there? Did we need to break in on them?

Finally, Donna said, “I might as well tell you the truth. I picked Elise up from Club Cavalier that night and drove her back to our apartment. On the way she smoked a joint in my car to help her wind down. It always took her a long time to wind down and get to sleep after she danced.”

“The police didn’t find any pot in your apartment.”

“I don’t indulge. Somebody gave her the joint-at the Club, I think. Anyway, when we got to the apartment she took off her costume and was kind of wandering around without any clothes on, feeling no pain. She told me about this guy who had put a fifty-dollar bill on the stage. Can you imagine? Fifty dollars to see her boobs? I mean, you’ve seen her boobs. Tell me, are they worth fifty dollars?”

“Donna, I haven’t seen her boobs.”

Mark had just dodged a bullet.

After a beat Donna continued. “Anyway, I kind of dragged her into the bathroom and helped her take her off makeup. Then I got her into bed. She had a nightgown, but I didn’t try to put it on her. She kept talking about this guy and the fifty dollars.”

During a pause that followed I said, “I had always meant to ask Donna whether Elise usually slept in the nude, but, somehow, I never got around to it.” I hoped to distract Sandra from associating Mark with Elise’s breasts.

Donna said, “Soon after I got Elise into bed I heard a loud pounding on the door. It made me jump. I went to the door and asked who was there.”

“Were you still dressed?” Mark asked.

“Yes, because I had been dealing with Elise. Mr. Hoffman yelled to let him in. I recognized his voice. I told him just a minute and ran back to the bedroom and hid Elise’s dance stuff-her g-string, bra and wig-at the bottom of my underwear drawer and put a sheet over her. Then I let Mr. Hoffman in.

“He started yelling for Elise and went into the bedroom. He was raving and waving his cane around. There was nothing I could do to stop him. He screamed at her about being the Shooting Star.”

“What did Elise do?”

“What could she do? She was helpless. She pulled the sheet up around her neck and stared up at him, not saying anything. I’ll never forget the look in her eyes. Or his eyes. He swung his cane above her. I thought he was going to hit her with that or start punching her. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I went into the kitchen and got the biggest knife we had, with the idea that if he starting hitting her I would protect her.”

“You didn’t think that he might take the knife away from you?”

“No, but that’s what he did. He saw me behind him and swung around and knocked it out of my hand with the cane so fast that I didn’t know what was happening. The knife fell between us. He warded me off with the cane and picked it up. Then he ripped the sheet off her. He stabbed her-over and over again. It was awful.”

We heard what sounded like sobs coming from the speakers. Sandra, Lefty and I looked at each other. Lefty made a move as if to go for the door, but I raised my hand to stop him. I said, “Let’s hear the rest.”

We heard Mark say, “Why didn’t he kill you?”

Donna’s choked voice said, “I thought he was going to. I was frozen. I couldn’t run or even move. After he stopped stabbing Elise he seemed to calm down a little. He looked at her for a while, still holding that bloody knife. Then he looked at me. He finally told me that he wouldn’t kill me if I would keep quiet and not tell the police anything. But if I didn’t keep quiet he would get me. He scared me out of my wits.”

“Was it his idea, then, that you become the Shooting Star so he wouldn’t appear to have a motive?”

“Well…yes, but he said to do it only if necessary-if somebody associated Elise with the Shooting Star. He said it might not happen.”

“So Ted didn’t realize that Elise was the Shooting Star.”

“He said that Ted never caught on. He didn’t think Ted would be a problem. But then Dr. Morgan talked to me and said she thought Elise was the Shooting Star. That’s when I had to start pretending.”