On Saturday morning, the Community Center was crowded with young playgoers and their parents. The makeshift puppet theater stood close to the lip of the elevated platform and included a waist-high screen that featured an elaborate and colorful forest motif. The screen concealed Toni, Heather, and two other actors, who threw themselves into the rousing conclusion of The Frog Prince.
Toni spotted Michael watching from the rear of the room. Smiling, she and the other actors, each holding the puppet they had voiced, took their bows to the squealing approval of the children. Joy permeated the building. That was why she loved to perform there.
When the applause finally died down, the puppets were placed in their carrying trunk and the screen folded, she joined Michael. He ducked aside from the tide of children and adults streaming toward the exit.
“How did you enjoy the show?” Toni had not seen him during the week, hadn’t expected him to come to the puppet show.
“Very much, but you were certainly cast against type for this production.”
“I was believable, though, right?” She relished the role of the wicked witch who casts an evil spell on the Prince.
“It’s a mystery to me how you play villains so well.”
“Practice?”
“Talent, I think.”
“Almost every time I play Alexandra, I get to do something wicked.” She grinned.
They walked together toward the exit. When they gained the sidewalk, Toni glanced up at the sky. Clouds had darkened it since she entered the building earlier that day.
They walked to his car parked in a nearby open lot. When they were settled in the Audi’s front seats, Michael rolled down the car windows but didn’t start the engine. A bank of clouds, as dull as antique pewter, grew even darker.
The air was thick with humidity, and Toni gazed out of the windshield. A big drop of water splashed on the glass in front of her. “Oh, it’s beginning to rain.”
He started the car, turned on the air conditioning, and raised the windows. “It’s about time this heat wave broke.”
He made no move to drive out of the lot. Toni sensed he didn’t want to leave any more than she did, but she had an important errand to do.
“I have to pick up Oscar at the animal hospital, remember?”
He grinned. “I’m sure you’ll be glad to have him again. What time did they tell you to be there?”
She glanced at her watch. “I have almost an hour.”
“Plenty of time.” He still made no move to go. He seemed pensive.
She filled in the silence. “The temperature first hit ninety-five the week before Craig was killed, and it’s stayed around there ever since.” She felt silly talking about the weather. Still, wasn’t that what people did when they couldn’t say what was really on their minds? How could she ask if she would ever see him again?
Michael, who seemed to suffer from the same affliction, remained quiet, head down. She leaned against the headrest and let a dozen memories of the past two weeks flood her senses.
Finally she said, “I still can’t believe Ted was involved in those robberies. And that Craig tried to cut himself in on his partner’s scheme.”
He nodded. “Apparently, Craig used the darkroom one night and developed a roll of film that belonged to Ted, thinking it was his own. It turned out to be photographs of jewels stolen by the petty crook who was Flax’s secret partner. So Craig, thinking he could make some easy money, insisted Ted cut him in.”
“He wound up with a bullet for his trouble.”
“The police found the murder weapon,” Michael said. “A rifle, the kind hunters use.”
“I knew Ted had been in the Marines. He was obviously a very good shot to fire a rifle from across a street, even a narrow one.”
“He had to be to fire accurately through the window, missing you and hitting Craig. I understand he won a number of medals and trophies for marksmanship.”
“Of course, he didn’t know he’d have to miss me. He probably had a clear shot at Craig until the last minute. Then, when Craig told me to move over to the window, it was too late to stop.”
“Everyone assumed the shots came from the office doorway,” Michael said, “but apparently when Craig fell, he got tangled in the umbrellas and light cords, and his body turned. It appeared from the entry wound in his chest that he’d been facing the doorway.”
“I was also facing Ted when he fired the shot. That was what I blocked out. He thought I’d seen him do it, so he stalked me after that, in case my memory returned.” She frowned. “After that he killed Suzanne.”
“Unfortunately for her, she found the same pictures Craig accidentally developed and decided to pick up where her husband left off. Blackmail is a dangerous game.”
“She wasn’t very smart.” She paused again. “Although I feel silly for believing Ted when he called and said he was Suzanne, just to lure me there so he could lay the blame for her death on me. It’s true that I didn’t know her that well, but even if I didn’t recognize her voice, it should have registered that she sounded awfully strange. I guess the idea of semi-nude photos of me getting into the hands of the tabloids was so horrifying that I wasn’t thinking clearly, and Ted counted on that. But also, I should have known that Craig couldn’t have pictures like that. The only way he could have gotten them was to set up a secret camera in my dressing room, and he genuinely liked me; he wouldn’t stoop to that.” She paused. “I think it’s so sad when otherwise bright people don’t use their intelligence to do something worthwhile.”
“You think Ted was smart?”
She thought for a moment before answering. “He was a good photographer and smart enough to accept the job with Craig. Plus, it was rather clever of him to use different weapons for each crime. He shot Craig, then stabbed Suzanne. Don’t most murderers, if they repeat their crimes, tend to repeat the method, too?”
“Yes, most do.”
“Instead, he used my knife to throw suspicion on me. Then, on the set at the last, he came after me with that wire.” She touched her throat.
“You really kept your wits about you. I’m glad you remembered the prop gun.”
“If it had been a real gun, I’m not sure I could have used it.”
“When your life is in danger, you have to protect yourself, and you did just that.”
“I was buying time. I know you’re not supposed to aim a prop gun directly at someone and at close range. I was pretty sure it would only stun him, not kill him.”
“It did a little more damage than that. It slowed him enough to let the detectives and me get to the studio in time.”
“I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life.”
Michael took Toni’s hand in his, and she wished they were not sitting in a car in a parking lot. “With everything that’s happened lately, I don’t know if I told you Leo made it official: both Alexandra and Isabelle Winston are remaining in the show.”
“So life at Beekman Place will go on as usual.”
“Not quite. Veronica is leaving. Leo was finally able to persuade her to put her career on hold, at least temporarily, and go back to school. He and his ex-wife stopped fighting long enough to decide on a finishing school in Switzerland. Also, I suppose Kristianna’s baby will inherit a good portion of Craig’s estate. She might even be named executor.”
“That’s good.” Another long pause while he stared at the sudden torrents of rain that sluiced down the windshield. “The weather in New York is really awful, isn’t it?”
Not the weather again. She gave a deep sigh. “I don’t care. I love this city.” She turned to him. “And you grew up where?”
“Everywhere.” He waved his hand.
“Nathan told me your father was an Army general and you moved around a lot.”
“That’s right. I enjoyed going to different places and learning about different cultures. Living in New York is almost as good. People from all over the world seem to congregate here. So, like you, I love it and don’t plan to leave.”
“What about eventually retiring to Florida? Isn’t there a law that New Yorkers have to go to Boca Raton when they turn sixty-five?”
He threw his head back and laughed. Then his arm dropped onto her shoulder, and he moved closer to her.
“It’s nice to know that, with eight million people living here, you can still find someone who becomes important to you.” He laced his fingers through hers.
She didn’t speak for a moment. Finally, she stared into his eyes. “Then I suppose the Labor Day picnic is still on?”
He grinned before he kissed her.
* * *
Carolann Camillo is an award winning romance and short story writer. A former New Yorker, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her college professor husband and cat, Peaches. Her romantic suspense novel Forever Mine was published in September 2014.
You can find her online at www.carolanncamillo.com.
Phyllis A. Humphrey has sold 14 romance novels and several short stories. In 2002 she won the San Diego Book Award and was a finalist in St. Martin’s Press Malice Domestic Mystery Contest. Phyllis is a mother of four and lives with her husband in Southern California.
You can find her online at www.phyllishumphrey.com.