| |
THE KNOCK ON MY HOTEL door startled me. I glanced at the digital clock on the end table. It was 3:15 a.m. Maybe I imagined it, I thought. I lay back down but heard the knock again as soon as my head hit the pillow.
“What is it, Gertie?” I yelled.
“It’s not Gertie,” I heard a male voice say. It was Carter Le Blanc.
“Carter!” I yelled. “What the hell are you doing here?”
I opened the door. There he stood. Normally clean shaven for duty, he had a two-day-old scruff on his face that made him look even hotter than normal.
“I may have to leave Sinful for a while,” he said. “I wanted to see you again before I left.”
“That’s so sweet,” I said. I felt myself blushing.
“Are you all right?” he asked, stepping forward. He was close enough that he was nearly touching me. Instinctively I stepped back. It was then I realized I was dressed in only a sheer half shirt and tiny panties that barely covered my...
“In case something goes wrong, I...” he added.
“What could go wrong?” I asked.
He reached up and touched my hair, pulling it away from my face and behind my ear.
“I don’t know,” he said. He put his right arm around my waist and gently pulled me into him. He gave me a long, warm kiss. It made me feel as though I was melting.
I heard a knock at the door. I ignored it.
“Carter...” I began. “Tell me why you are really here.”
“I think you know,” he said, looking deeply into my eyes. “I’ve been thinking. It’s silly for us to be apart. Fortune, I love you. I always have. I want to be with you forever.”
At long last, I thought. It was out there. I would not let it pass.
“I want to be with you, too,” I admitted. Tears welled in my eyes. “I’m so happy we are saying it.”
Carter kissed me again. It was passionate and lingering, unlike any other kiss I’d ever known. His hands rested on my lower back, just above my hips. I moved into him feeling the warmth of his body. His hands drifted lower.
The annoying knock came again.
“Fortune!” I heard Ida Belle calling.
I broke the kiss off and looked at Carter. He looked deeply into my eyes. He smiled and then slowly... he... faded... away.
“Fortune!” Ida Belle called again. “Wake up!”
Wake up?
Once again, a beautiful dream had been interrupted. My eyes opened. I was still in the bed and not in my panties and sexy t-shirt. I was in my flannel pajamas. No Carter. No kiss. No... nothing. I looked at the digital clock. It was 1:30 a.m.
“What is it, Ida Belle?” I replied. “Can’t it wait until morning?”
“No, it can’t,” she said.
“Let us in, Fortune,” Gertie called.
I opened the door. Ida Belle and Gertie blew past me into the room. Ida Belle was carrying her laptop. “Wait until you see what we found out,” she said.
Ida Belle sat the laptop on the small table which served as a desk. She opened it. “I couldn’t sleep, neither could Gertie,” she said. “There’s something about being in a strange room. You know when I was younger and, on the job, I could sleep just about anywhere, anytime, but these days...”
“Please, ladies!” I called out, interrupting. “Get to the point. What is it?”
“Watch and see,” Ida Belle said, opening the laptop. “Do you remember Marge telling us about the actor who gave Mr. Teller the Fedora, Billy Caesar?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“She said he was an actor who never really got anywhere.”
“That’s right,” I said; I yawned.
“Gertie and I downloaded the movie that Marge said was a Grindhouse cult classic, Blood Swath.”
She paused.
“And?” I asked.
“Oh, it was horrible,” she said.
“It was,” Gertie added. “Nothing but gore and boobs, blood and boobs, guts and boobs and...”
“You woke me up at 1:30 in the morning to give me a thumbs-down movie review on an old B-Movie?” I said in an annoying tone.
“No,” Ida Belle said. “You know how Gertie has been on this kick of late? Celebrity trivia?”
“Yes, yes, can you both please move to the end of the story?”
Gertie stepped forward. “While we were watching the movie, I Googled Billy Caesar and found his biography online. You want to hear what we found?”
I nodded, thinking to myself, not really.
“I pulled his biography with all his acting credits,” Gertie said. “Caesar was a stage actor in his early career. He made his first Grindhouse flick in 1985, She Wolf from Hell. He had a tiny part.”
“Wow, that sounds like a timeless classic. And this is relevant... how?” I asked.
“While he was establishing his movie career, he continued acting on the stage in between movie parts,” Gertie said, thumbing through the plays he performed in.
“I’m still not following you.”
“Here is an interesting discovery,” she said, “In 1986, Billy Caesar played the lead role in a Broadway tour of the stage production of Biloxi Blues.”
A bell went off in my head.
“That was the Broadway show advertised on the brochure you found in Glory’s room,” Ida Belle said.
“The same play that was running in New Orleans the weekend Glory was murdered,” Gertie added.
I bolted out of my chair toward my suitcase and opened it, pulling the collection of papers I’d taken from Glory’s room. I found the brochure advertising Biloxi Blues. It had been with me the entire time and I had not seen it.
The New Orleans Theater presents
Biloxi Blues
Starring
Billy Caesar as Arnold Epstein
“Billy Caesar was in Louisiana the night Glory Peterson was killed,” I said.
“You mean Fedora-wearing Billy Caesar was in New Orleans the night someone killed Glory,” Gertie said, smiling and nodding.
“No,” Ida Belle objected. “You mean the 6-foot-4, bodybuilding, Fedora wearing Billy Caesar was in Louisiana the night someone murdered Glory.”
“That’s what I thought you meant,” Gertie said.
“Woo hoo!” exclaimed Ida Belle.
Gertie and Ida Belle gave each other high five.
“Owwww,” Gertie yelled, rubbing her wrist. “That hurt.”
“Don’t be a baby,” Ida Belle said.
“This is huge,” I said.
“There are questions still,” Gertie said.
“Like how did they meet?” Ida Belle said.
“And if he was in the play, when did he find time to meet her and kill her?” Gertie added.
“They had to have met through Steven Teller,” I said. “Billy Caesar was his client. It’s the obvious connection.”
“We need to see Steve Teller again,” I said. “First thing in the morning I will call Harrison and see if I can get him to run a background check on Caesar, and we will head out to see Mr. Teller. Good job. Go to bed ladies. We may have a long day tomorrow.”
For the first time I felt like we made serious progress.