Alan Cook - Catch a Falling Knife

“Since Donna couldn’t be Elise, or at least be her partner, she killed her,” Albert said, thoughtfully.

Good. Now if only Albert had enough sensitivity not to say anything more about Mark and Elise.

“Donna became Elise, temporarily,” Cherub said, “by pretending that she was the Shooting Star.”

“That’s the best explanation I’ve heard yet,” I said, looking at Cherub with new respect. “But as far as events leading up to the murder, Elise had just made plans to sing with a band for the second summer in a row. She didn’t need Donna for anything and Donna knew it.”

Albert looked at Mark and said, “I understand that the harassment charge against you has been dropped.”

“Yes,” Mark said. “Apparently I’m off the hook. I have been asked to resume my teaching duties. Whoopee.”

“Are you going back?”

Mark shook his head. “Apologies to all the educators present, but I’ve been soured on teaching. Although I don’t want to go through life as a bartender, either. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“What about the murder charge against you?”

“We expect that to be dropped shortly,” I said. “Burt is working on it.”

“But we got sidetracked,” Albert said. “What was Eric’s part in l’affaire Donna? Why didn’t he turn her in to the police?”

“I gather that Eric’s wife treats him like a demented cripple,” I said, “and won’t have much to do with him, physically. Donna appeared to like him, at least, and showed him some physical attentions that I won’t go into here because I don’t know the details. When Eric found Donna with a bloody knife in her hand he apparently decided that this was too close for comfort to the urges he had after he discovered Elise was the Shooting Star. He didn’t want to have to explain to the police why he was at the apartment. So he made some sort of a deal with Donna that again I don’t know the details of.” And I suspected that not all the details would come out during Donna’s trial.

“Which brings us to Elise, herself,” Albert said.

“Ah, the Shooting Star,” Lefty said, rapturously. “The purest girl who ever worked for me-and one of the best draws, to boot.”

“You never told me you looked for purity in your dancers,” Cherub said, acidly. “And Elise wasn’t all that pure.”

Sandra chimed in, “Apologies to you, Cherub, but if Elise wasn’t pure, what does that make the others?”

“Elise had a conflict,” I said, saving Cherub from having to answer. “She was trying to escape from her father’s control, but at the same time she had a need to please him. Witness her boyfriend, Ted, who didn’t seem to have much going for him except that Eric approved of him.”

“In other words,” Sandra said, “she was like all girls.” She gave her father a dig in the ribs.

“Her theme-song was ‘Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes,’” I said, “but she had stars in hers, I’m afraid. And a Shooting Star glows brilliantly and then flames out. Or, to invoke another Perry Como song, she tried to catch a falling star, but ended up catching a falling knife.”

“I saw a star last night,” Winston said. “It was near the moon.”

“I didn’t know you were a poet, Lillian,” Lefty said.

Sandra said, “I think she’s mixing her metaphors.”

“I’ll do the dishes,” Sandra volunteered, when we had finished eating.

“I’ll wash the pots and pans,” Lefty said, heaving his bulk out of his chair. “You can wipe.”

“But you’re a guest,” Sandra protested.

“I started out as a dishwasher. I’m a trained professional.”

Lefty rolled up his sleeves and put on an apron. I suspected what he wanted was to talk to Sandra alone, but he had earned the right. And he didn’t have an icicle’s chance in a furnace of convincing her to become a dancer.

Cherub came to me in the family room while Lefty and Sandra slaved away in the kitchen and Albert and Mark talked about Mark’s future. Cherub hadn’t volunteered for dish duty; she didn’t look like the domestic type.

I had wanted to ask her a question. I said, “Cherub, did you or any of the other girls ever give Elise marijuana?”

She looked startled and glanced over her shoulder at Lefty. The kitchen was three steps higher than the family room and separated from it by a wooden railing. Lefty and Sandra were making too much noise banging pots and pans to hear what she was saying.

Nevertheless, Cherub lowered her voice to a whisper and said, “Lefty don’t allow drugs at the Club. He gave us a hard time after he heard the Star might have got a joint from one of us. Anybody caught with anything could be fired. He likes to think he runs a clean establishment.”

“But…”

“But-and don’t tell him this or my ass will be grass-occasionally somebody might have a little pot. And I liked the Star better than I let on. Like Lefty said, she had class.”

“Thanks. I won’t pry any further.”

“I appreciate that. May I say something to you now?”

“Sure.”

“When I started out as an exotic dancer it was a lot of kicks, you know what I mean? But I’ve been doing it ten years now and I don’t want to end up as a 50-year-old dancer. Every year I stay in it I lose some self-esteem.”

“Why don’t you do something else?” I asked.

“Because I’m scared. And because I have no training for anything else.”

“But you have a lot of good experience you can use in any job,” I said, trying to see the bright side. “Look at all the people skills you’ve acquired. Controlling a roomful of unruly men, that takes a lot of skill. I’ll tell you what. I know a nonprofit organization that helps homeless people prepare to get back into the workforce. They help them find job leads, prepare resumes, practice interviewing-the whole works. You’re not homeless, but you are trying to change careers. I’ll put you in touch with them.”

“I appreciate that, Grandma-Lillian. You know, not everybody treats us like real people, like you do. Some folks treat us like scum. Thank you for your help. And thank you for inviting me here today.”

“You’re welcome. For my money you’re as good as anybody-and a whole lot better than people like Donna, or Eric Hoffman.” And I could go on and on with my list. But I won’t because at heart I’m an optimist. I really believe that the good people in the world outnumber the bad.