Beth re-checked her door locks and showered quickly. Normally, her showers with shampoo would last about fifteen minutes—with five more if she shaved her legs. Mostly wearing slacks or jeans didn’t require as precise shaving attention as it would if Beth often wore hose and heels.
Over an hour later, she was curled up in bed reading. She was exhausted from the day’s activity, especially standing on concrete for so long. Beth’s brain was awhirl with this new data about Lynette, the silent movie star. How sad it must be to die without heirs and have family treasures tossed in a dumpster.
That reminded her to check the Internet for additional information. Her search pulled up numerous links. Not much more than Tanya previously noted, however. Lynette was in forty-five silent movies—many were shorts but a few were features. She was born in November 1882 in England and died a few days shy of age eighty-eight in November 1970 in Los Angeles. That was strange. If the old lady died in late 1970, why were her belongings trashed over thirty-five years later? Lynette, where was your stuff all that time?
Beth put away her laptop and got back into bed to continue reading. Moments later, her phone rang. Shane again.
“You scared me!”
“Sorry, Bethany.”
“Never mind.” Beth punched a pillow and propped it behind her. “Do you remember all the stuff in that antique overnighter you used to have?”
“Well, I haven’t seen it in a long time... years.”
Oops. Beth had forgotten that Shane didn’t know she had it. “Well, I didn’t completely realize this, but it kinda got mixed in with my load when I moved.”
“You’ve got my suitcase with my movie pictures?”
She gulped. “Yeah... and I’m really sorry, Shane. I was in a hurry...”
There was a long silence. Shane didn’t like people messing with his stuff.
“Well, anyway, it’s here... and it’s safe.”
He still had not responded.
“I should have told you the case was here. I’m sorry.” She waited for a reply, but there wasn’t one. “Anyhow, the reason I brought it up is... well, we think it might contain something that both robbers were looking for—your break-in and mine.”
“Who’s we?”
“Uh, two friends here. They’re helping me out.”
“By going through my stuff?”
“Shane, I told you I’m sorry. It was a mistake. But I need you to forgive me long enough to focus on one of the items in the overnighter. Do you recall seeing a diary?”
He probably wanted to sputter a bit, but he finally focused. “Yeah... from back in the fifties, I think. Some old lady.”
“You never found out who she was, did you?”
“There might have been a name in it.” Shane cleared his throat. “But there’s lots of old ladies in North Hollywood. Why?”
“Well, I know her. I mean, who she is. The same lady’s in the movie publicity stills and those old Vaudeville programs, and it’s her family in the photo album.”
“For real? So, who was she?”
“Lynette Harte. A silent movie star in the same studio with Chaplin... for a while, anyway.”
“Can’t believe you found some names. I thought I’d looked through everything.”
“Did you have your reading glasses on, Shane?”
Brief silence from his end. “Uh, no. Not usually.”
Beth chose not to rub it in.
“Wait. Back up a minute. How’d you hook all that together?”
“We went through everything in that musty old case. Well, nearly everything.”
“So what made you—and your friends, evidently—decide to look for that old diary?”
She explained about its similarity to her stolen day planner.
“Sounds like a stretch to me. If he stole your planner, I’d say that’s what he was after.”
“Nobody in their right mind would break in to steal my diary, even if they knew I had one. It has to be a mistake—the robber’s mistake.” Beth wished she’d paid closer attention to the overnighter’s contents when Shane had tried to interest her years before. “Do you remember much about how those scavengers said they’d found the case?”
“Not sure what you mean.” Shane sounded completely exhausted. “But I think they opened it and saw there wasn’t much inside, so they heaped some other dumpster stuff in there to save space. I never could get a straight answer from those tweakers about what else they scooped up from the trash around it.”
“Well, apparently a good bit is connected to Lynette the actress.”
“So how much do you figure is not connected to her?”
“Hard to say, but some of the souvenirs and magazines seem too new. Some of the clippings seem too old. Plus there’s still some real old paperwork in the bottom that I haven’t had a chance to look at yet.”
Over the phone, Shane’s stifled yawn was audible.
“You sound really beat.”
“I am, Bethany. Plumb wore out.”
Her chest tightened. “Shane, did you quit your job to make this wild hare trip?”
“How could I quit working at a chopper shop? That’s a life-time enlistment.” He chuckled slightly. “No, Doc let me off. He’s been after me to take some vacation. His CPA’s been ragging him about benefits for employees.”
“Doc has benefits in that junk yard?”
“It’s not junk—that’s the museum part he’s planning to build. Who knows, I might be the curator someday. It’s all good.”
“Where are you, anyway?”
“I’m at a rest stop just west of Albuquerque. I don’t think I can ride much more tonight.”
“Why didn’t you just take a plane? You could’ve been here in one afternoon.”
“For what I figure I’ll be doing, I’ll need my bike to get around. I don’t think I can track Ricks in a rented minivan.”
Beth wanted to ask what he had in mind, but figured she already knew. And it wouldn’t be pretty.
“But I’m worried about you in the meantime.”
“I’ll be okay, Shane. Me and my friends have this under control. We’re just trying to figure out why somebody would be after that diary, if that’s actually what they want. Or maybe something else connected to it.” Beth rubbed her sternum where a pain burned like indigestion.
Another long pause from New Mexico. “There’s a lot of screwy stuff going on, Bethany. I don’t understand it all, but it seems to involve Ricks, and he’s totally unpredictable. If you’re right about the little suitcase, then somebody wants it—or something in it—real bad. Bad enough to break in, follow you on the street, and whatever. Plus, I think my break-in back home is somehow connected to you.”
“Sometimes things just happen, Shane. You’re being too paranoid.”
“And sometimes paranoid people just happen to be in the middle of several connected situations. Bad situations. We’ll straighten them out when I get to Verde-town.”
“Verdeville.”
Yeah, she was confident in Shane’s ability to straighten things out.