Chapter 34

“Is she here now?”

Gabriela looked at me. She knew. She knew Trixie was real.

She looked around the empty lobby. “Trixie? Are you here now?”

“She isn’t,” I said. My voice was so faint I was surprised she could hear me.

“But you’d know if she were,” Gabriela said evenly.

I thrust a thousand images of psych wards out of my mind and nodded.

“And she talks to you?” For the first time Gabriela looked a little freaked out.

I couldn’t speak. I nodded again.

“Okay.” She looked away, and I could see that she was trying to process everything. When she looked back to me there was something else in her expression. Determination.

“Well, then. This changes everything.”

  

The following Tuesday the lineup changed again, Kristy was released from the hospital, and I received a thick envelope containing all the paperwork necessary to authenticate six glamorous gowns, and prove they were now mine.

“Trixie, do you know what this means?”

“It’s good, right?” She was standing behind me, watching anxiously as I hammered a small nail into the office wall.

“It’s really good. We’re going to have a film festival, and show the movies, and exhibit the gowns, and charge a bloody fortune for it.” I tugged on the nail to make sure it was secure.

Trixie clapped. “Oh, Nora! What fun!”

I went over to the desk and unwrapped a photo that I’d had enlarged and framed at a shop near Union Square. I took it over to Trixie and hung it on the nail.

“Oh,” Trixie said softly.

It was the photo of her mother with Albert’s mother and grandmother, standing outside the Palace.

“Gee, Nora. This is wonderful.” She reached out to hover her fingertips above the image of her mother’s face. “I just can’t thank you enough.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said.

“Who’s being ridiculous?” Callie was standing in the doorway. Trixie gave a startled squeak and went poof.

“What?” I said to Callie. It was always a great comeback.

“Who—Never mind. Have you seen this?” She held up her phone.

“What is it?”

“They just announced who’s got the lead in the new franchise based on those Scandinavian books.”

“Right, with the fjords,” I said, waving my hand. “I know.”

“I don’t think you do.” She passed me her phone.

Priya Sharma to Helm New Franchise

 

In a gender-bending piece of casting that has us beyond excited, Hampton Productions announced that the damaged ex-CIA reporter at the center of the eagerly anticipated adaptation of the bestselling Scandinavian Quartet will be the kick-ass beauty Priya Sharma.

This should be interesting, as Sharma previously dated Otis Hampton, head of Hampton Productions, before leaving him for her current beau, Ted Bishop, who was reportedly a contender for the part himself. All the action may be behind the scenes on this one!

 

It was a while before I could stop laughing long enough to explain to Callie what was so funny.

“But Otis totally screwed you,” she protested. “You had a plan.”

“I had a partner with the attention span of a goldfish,” I said. “We’re talking about Otis Hampton. The odds were never great that he’d have had the patience to stick to a plan for more than a day or two. Why do you think I insisted that Ted send the dress receipts before he got the offer?”

“You knew this would happen?”

“Not this,” I admitted. “This is twisted on too many levels for me. But I knew that if Otis saw a chance to screw Ted sooner, he’d conveniently forget anything we’d ever planned. And wow, does this screw Ted. I can just imagine what this is doing to him.”

Callie grinned. “I mean, it must be killing him that Priya got the part.”

“But he can’t say a damn thing about it without looking like a jerk,” I said.

“Which he is.”

“Which he very much is. But he can’t afford to look like one when he’s standing next to her on red carpets.”

“How long do you think they’ll last?” she asked.

“That’s Otis’s concern, not mine. I just have to figure out what leverage I have now to get Ted to give me that damn divorce and get out of my life forever.”

  

As if I needed more incentive to get that damn divorce, Hector picked me up after the last show that night.

“Hey, have you heard from Gabriela?” he asked as we went around the theater turning off lights and checking the locks.

“Um, why?” I’d heard from Gabriela about fifteen times a day since telling her about Trixie. She was working like a madwoman on a new ghost-accessible prototype. One that could change Trixie’s whole world.

“She hasn’t been answering her texts,” he said.

“I’m sure she’s just busy,” I told him as we got to the lobby. “She told me she’s coming to Friday’s midnight movie.” Coming with a present for Trixie, I hoped.

I flicked off the last of the lights and opened the panel by the lobby doors to set the alarm.

“Hey,” Hector said, “have I ever told you how good you look in the light from the emergency exit sign?”

“You’re a true romantic,” I told him.

“Yes I am.” He was about to prove it when my phone pinged with a text.

“Maybe that’s Gabriela now,” I said, slipping from his grasp.

The text was not from Gabriela. It was from Otis Hampton.

 

I guess I should apologize for switching the plan about Ted. I couldn’t help myself. But I want to make it up to you, so I got you a gift. It’s information. You know how you thought I bought Tommy’s share of the theater? I found out who really did. You’re not going to like it. The new owner of one-quarter of the Palace is Ted.

 

I stared at the phone.

“Nora?” Hector said. “Is everything ok?”

I looked up at him. “No.”

Everything had just gotten a lot more complicated.