Kate removed her loafers at the bottom of the staircase and crept up slowly, not wanting to alert Reuben and Ollie, who seemed to be in their individual rooms, their doors closed. A step creaked near the top, and she froze, ready to pretend she’d come upstairs to say hello, ready to explain that the flashlight in her hand was because she was afraid of the dark.
But neither door opened.
She entered Aurelio’s room, held still for a moment to listen, then turned on the flashlight and carefully closed the door behind her.
She had to hurry. Aurelio could come home at any moment.
She swung the flashlight beam across the room and found it larger and grander than she’d expected, decorated in Ollie’s days of wealth, everything a bit tattered and old fashioned. The large bed wasn’t made, and there were a few bits of clothing on the floor, but it was much tidier than most of the house, and Aurelio’s possessions seemed sparse.
Kate went to the nightstand first, not really sure what she was looking for. Some proof that he was involved in Moe Kravitz’s shady business dealings. Or some clue from Lemmy’s killing, like blood on a shirt.
The flashlight illuminated an alarm clock on the nightstand, a folded handkerchief, wooden rosary beads with a cross, and a few coins. Kate picked up a framed photo of Aurelio at a younger age, standing next to a man who looked enough like him to be his father—or maybe the uncle she’d heard him talk about.
She sat at the edge of the bed, opened the nightstand drawer, and found a small Bible with worn edges, a key, and three blue envelopes. She pulled out the envelopes and saw that they were all letters from someone named Carla Dios. A mother or sister, maybe. Or grandmother. She reached her hand into the back of the drawer and found two cough drops.
Nothing to implicate Aurelio with Moe Kravitz’s business or Lemmy’s murder.
And she knew, suddenly, that it was wrong for her to be here invading Aurelio’s privacy. She would be furious if someone went through her nightstand drawer and found the small notebook where she wrote her most personal lists and thoughts. She slid the blue envelopes back into the drawer.
Behind her, the door handle turned.
Kate jumped up from the bed, and the flashlight fell, sending a wild beam of light. She snatched it up and straightened, her heart hammering in her chest.
Aurelio stood silhouetted in the doorway, his handsome face lost in shadow. His shirt was tucked under his arm, his chest bare, his shoulders carved with tight muscle. “What’s going on?” he asked, sounding tired, not angry. “Is something wrong?”
She clutched the flashlight at her waist, wishing she had a story ready. “No, I was only—” Aurelio flipped the light switch, and she squinted in the sudden glow from the ceiling.
“You want my room after all?” he asked. “I don’t mind. You should be up here with Ollie.”
She exhaled in relief at the easy excuse. “Yes! I was looking at the room. But I can see you’re all settled here. And I like the privacy downstairs, so I’ll go. I’m sorry.” She took a step.
But Aurelio still blocked the doorway, his attention shifting to the nightstand, his eyes narrowing. “Were you … looking in my drawer?”
Kate squeezed the flashlight, her pulse racing. “No, it was already open when I—” The lie stuck in her throat. She’d come for answers, not to tell fibs and run away. She turned off the flashlight and lowered it to her side. “I was searching your room, Aurelio, because you were the last person to have Bonnie’s scarf.”
For a few seconds, he didn’t react. Kate held her breath, hoping for a confused denial. Hoping for a reasonable explanation that proved his innocence.
“So that’s it,” he said in a low voice. He tossed his shirt on the ground and walked toward her, his muscled chest drawing closer, his eyes locked on hers. Too late, Kate managed to move her feet, but he grabbed her wrist, his face only inches from hers. “Wait.” She opened her mouth to scream, but something in his eyes stopped her: he looked more miserable than dangerous. “I’m not a thief,” he said.
Thief? So it hadn’t been about blackmail photos. He’d come to steal from Ollie, and Lemmy had caught him in the act. Kate forced her voice to remain neutral. “I’m sure it was an accident, Aurelio.”
“It was.”
“I understand. Please let go of my arm.”
“Sorry.” He released her at once, looking surprised that he’d even held her. He turned and sat at the edge of the bed. “I’d give it back if I knew where it was. I apologized and promised to buy her a new one, but her mom cracked some joke about me stealing it.”
Kate glanced at the door, knowing she should run, but she also needed answers. “You’re talking about the scarf?”
“I know it was stupid to take it, but I just wanted something of hers. I’ve seen her next door but never thought I’d meet her. Then she handed me that scarf, and it was like one of those princesses giving a kerchief to a knight, and I wanted to keep it.” He sighed and leaned his elbows on his knees, tilting his head to look up at her. “I lied and told her I lost it, and she got upset. I didn’t know it was some special thing from Paris. I was going to give it back and say I found it in my jacket at home, but when I looked in the pocket, it wasn’t there. So I really did lose it.”
“You … you don’t know where you dropped it?”
“No, I looked everywhere. I said I’d buy her a new one, but I don’t get paid until Friday.” He looked up with worried eyes. “How much do you think a scarf like that costs?”
“Aurelio…” She spoke carefully. “I found the scarf.”
He sat straighter. “You did? Where is it?”
“You dropped it near Captain Powell’s sword case, the day Lemmy was killed.”
He frowned, confused. “You sure it’s the right scarf? I haven’t been in there. I thought maybe I dropped it in wardrobe, but I looked all over and can’t find it.”
Kate watched him closely. “I think the scarf I found was dropped by the person who killed Lemmy.”
“Oh,” he said glumly. “That’s not it, then.” He looked dejected, not guilty. “I only wanted something of hers. I didn’t think it was stealing.”
Not a killer hiding his tracks, just a boy who liked a girl.
Aurelio didn’t kill Lemmy. But he was the last person to have Bonnie’s scarf, and since he’d never been in Ollie’s office—he’d barely even been home since getting the part—the scarf they’d found probably wasn’t hers, just part of the mess of that room. A red herring after all.
“I’m not a thief, Kate.”
“I know. I’m sure Bonnie’s scarf will turn up. You better get some sleep.” She made her way to the door, grateful he hadn’t picked up on her real reason for searching his room.
“Kate.”
She looked back.
“They aren’t going to fire me at Falcon Pictures, are they?”
“Fire you? Over a missing scarf?”
“Because I messed up on the voice recording today. We had to do it a million times, but I’ve never done a recording before. I’ll do better next time.”
“Aurelio, you’re doing great. Really. Everyone’s calling you a young Fred Astaire.”
He didn’t look convinced. “Being in a movie is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I’ve been on stage all my life, but this is different. More money and everyone telling me what to do. And that fake accent. I don’t mind doing it for the movie, but they want me to do it in interviews and say the studio taught me how to dance. My uncle isn’t going to like that. He taught me everything I know.”
“I’ll talk to Tad about it, but he seems pretty set on that being your image.” Kate hesitated. “From what I’ve seen, actors don’t have a lot of control over their careers once they’re under contract with a studio. But you do have one power over them, Aurelio.”
“I do?”
“Your talent. Just keep dancing the way you do.”
She’d meant it as encouragement, but he only looked more exhausted. “I’m trying.”
“You’re doing great, Aurelio. You really are.” She looked at his tired face and felt guilty for ever suspecting him of murder.
Tonight, for the first time, Kate closed her bedroom door—most of the way, still cracked an inch for the electrical cord.
She pulled out the small, private notebook she kept in her nightstand drawer and wrote a new list:
Ollie—crying because of bird, not murder—innocent
Reuben—would have used his gun—innocent
Hugo—only hid sword to protect Ollie—innocent
Aurelio—different scarf, no motive—innocent
Bonnie—dancing and laughing right after—innocent
She closed the notebook with a sigh of satisfaction and returned it to the drawer. No one in the house had killed Lemmy, and as soon as Detective Bassett reached the same conclusion, she and Hugo would give him the sword and her days as Nancy Drew would be over.
Although, she wasn’t quite ready for it to be over. Now that she was safe in her own room, she could see that it had been rather exciting, searching the glovebox and sneaking into Aurelio’s room. Tomorrow, she would tell Hugo what she’d learned.
Kate pulled up the covers, but then lay awake, more interested in staring at the mermaid lamp than sleep. It seemed too bright for sleeping, even though it was dimmer than her bedside lamp in San Francisco. She’d gotten used to the distant glow from the kitchen and missed the hum of the refrigerator.
She heard someone entering the house, followed by two deep voices. The deeper voice was Reuben’s, she decided. And, as the voices moved toward the back of the house, she recognized the other voice as Hugo’s.
Kate sat up, glancing at the alarm clock. Only 10:20 p.m.—too early for him to be home. She remembered what he’d said about low attendance and wondered if the play had closed.
Their voices entered the kitchen, hushed and anxious. Kate slipped out of bed and stood next to the cracked door.
“It’s on page three,” Reuben murmured, followed by the crackle of the newspaper she’d seen on the table. “His arrest got a first page headline, and his release barely gets a mention. There it is, bottom right.”
Had Moe Kravitz, the owner of the Galaxy, been released from prison? Kate tried to remember page three but wasn’t sure if she’d gotten that far; she’d skipped ahead to the entertainment section—a first for her.
Hugo whispered, “I thought they had lots of evidence this time.”
“They did. That’s why he had to stay in for so long, waiting for the story to die down, so no one would notice when some crooked judge dropped the charges.”
“Well, don’t worry about it. You quit the Galaxy months ago, and he’s been fine with that.”
“I gave him Lemmy, and a lot of good that did me.” A pause, then a muttered, “He probably left the books a mess. It’s going to take months to straighten out.”
“You’re not going back there. Moe will hire another bookkeeper.”
“He doesn’t want just anybody looking at his books, learning his dirty secrets.”
“What’s he going to do?” Hugo asked. “Drag you back by your hair? You don’t have any.”
“Very funny. He owns me, so why hire somebody new when he can just order me back? I’ve got no choice.”
“You’ve got a choice. This is America.”
“Jeez, you don’t know how naive you sound.” Kate heard a few shuffling steps, and then Reuben said in a voice so low she had to press her ear to the door’s cracked opening, “I told you how I picked up that guy at his house and drove him to the meeting.”
“I know, but you were just doing as you were told. You didn’t know they were going to kill him when he got there.”
Kate covered her mouth with one hand.
“I knew I wasn’t taking him to a birthday party. His wife got a good look at me in the car, and this scar isn’t so easy to forget. If I don’t go back to work, Moe will snap his fingers, and I’ll be arrested for murder. And there won’t be some nice, crooked judge letting me out. He’ll be obeying orders to make sure I hang, silencing all those secrets.”
“Come on … you’re not that important to Moe Kravitz. He isn’t going to waste his leverage with some judge because his bookkeeper wants to quit and be in pictures.”
“He’s got two people who know all the details of his racket, and I’m one of them. He’s going to order me back, and the only way I can refuse is to get on a steamer ship and disappear in Brazil.”
“You gave up that idea,” Hugo said. “You don’t want to spend the rest of your life in some foreign country where everybody speaks Portuguese.”
“Look at the map, you dope. It’s in South America—Spanish.”
A breathy laugh from Hugo. “See, you can’t go there because you don’t even know what language they speak. Stay here with us. You’ve been happy since you moved in, right?”
“I’ve been poor since I moved in. I had money for Brazil, and you convinced me to stay, and now I’ve spent it all and have to work for Moe to save up again.” More shuffling steps. “Jeez, he’s going to be on a warpath, making sure everybody knows he’s back in charge. This town is going to rain blood, and he’s going to make sure my hands get dirty.”
“Reuben…” Hugo’s voice stretched in a low plea. “You can’t go back to that life. When you started there, you didn’t know what you were getting into. But now you do, so if you go back, you’re making that choice. That makes you … responsible.”
“Don’t give me your Catholic guilt.”
“Then go to Brazil. I’ll get you the money somehow.”
A snorting laugh. “With all those acting jobs? And that’s another thing—one phone call from Moe, and no studio will hire me.”
“Now you’re being paranoid. Why would a movie studio take orders from a mobster?”
“Again, you show your ignorance. Half the producers in this town owe him money, and the other half have big shot movie stars on their payroll who owe him money. Plus, Moe has his thumb on their unions. A word from Moe, and the whole industry shuts down.”
“That’s twisted.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
“Well, you can’t go back to that life. I’ll get you the money for Brazil. Ollie can give you all the money from the George Washington letters, not just a finder’s fee. He owes you that much for all the time you’ve spent organizing his stuff.”
A grunt from Reuben. “Yeah, I’ll have sweet dreams tonight thinking about all the money I’m going to get out of Oliver Banks. I’m going to bed.” Their footsteps retreated, and Kate heard Hugo leave through the back door.
She went to the window and watched him enter the pool house. But he left the door open, spilling golden light, and emerged a moment later. He walked to the pool area and disappeared into the shadows.
Kate pulled on her silky robe, tied it around her waist, and made her way outside.