A Merry Christmas Wedding Mystery, Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery #4 (Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery Series)

by Anna Celeste Burke

  Miles and Ella were happily devouring their evening snack when Miles suddenly went on point. He bellowed just as I heard my garage door opening. I had given Jack a clicker and a key to the house so he could come and go as he needed while moving items from his condo. The storage space in the garage was rapidly filling up. A happy sight. Every inch taken up by Jack’s belongings made our life together feel closer, and more real.

  When Jack stepped into the kitchen, the three of us were waiting. Jack took the bait immediately, pulled me close and made me glad we had decided to keep our engagement short. Two jealous Siamese cats could not bear being left out of the hugging and kissing. Ella stretched as far as she could from her perch on the table near the door. She pulled at Jack’s arm. Miles used his preferred method of communication and roared his demand for attention. Jack accommodated them both, and then followed me to the kitchen sink to wash up for dinner.

  “How was the rest of your day?” I asked as I led him into the dining room where dinner was waiting.

  “No more major incidents at Marvelous Marley World—which isn’t always so marvelous, by the way.”

  “You figured that out, too, huh?”

  “All by myself. See what a bright guy you’re marrying?” Jack smiled in a way that instantly boosts my spirits. “Ben Davies is still alive, so that’s good. For a homicide detective, a day that ends without a dead body is sometimes as good as it gets. Our dinner together is way better,” he said as we seated ourselves near the French doors in the dining room with a view of the Pacific Ocean shimmering in the moonlight.

  I understood what he meant, savoring a moment of domestic bliss that a year ago would have been unimaginable. The house seemed full when Jack was present and empty when he was not. How difficult Brigit’s absence must be for Todd, I thought.

  “Todd must be a wreck. I take it no one has tried to contact Todd or Max or anyone else about Brigit’s abduction?”

  “No. The longer we go without a ransom demand, the less likely this is about money.”

  “Did you ask Todd about the conversation I overheard when Brigit was on the phone? Was she being tested for drugs? Could this be a drug deal gone wrong?”

  “Todd didn't know anything about a test of any kind and was emphatic that she does not use drugs. She’s a health freak—his words, not mine. He claims you caught her at a difficult moment. Brigit does sometimes pour herself a stiff drink or two when she’s upset. They have a deal that Todd’s going to quit smoking, and she’s going to give up drinking.”

  “They both blew it today, then, with Todd’s confession that he was sneaking a cigarette when he said he was on his way to her dressing room.”

  “Yes. It's not that surprising. Those are hard habits to break. Any luck finding a picture of the man you saw with that coffee cart?”

  “No. Mara went through the online stories about Brigit’s stalkers. She even called the firm that represents Brigit to see if they knew anyone fitting his description. Brigit had told Mara that Katherine Dempsey, one of the office assistants working there saves every bit of creepy email, notes, weird gifts, marriage proposals, and other odd things like that. The assistant was friendly enough, but not helpful. She did say there hadn’t been any recent incidents reported by Brigit or anyone else. If you want your investigators to go through that file, you’re welcome to do it. Brigit’s agent, David Ludlow, sounds like a real piece of work, as you now know. I hear he turned up and pitched a fit about the fact you hadn’t contacted him the moment Brigit went missing.”

  “How’d you hear about that?”

  “News travels fast at the Cat Factory.”

  “I guess so.”

  “The truth is, I was worried about Imogene, so I tracked her down. When she took my call, she was still at Soundstage 4 and happened to be within shouting distance when David Ludlow made his dissatisfaction known. Not the first time he’s stormed in there irate about something, if what Imogene says is true.”

  “Yeah, Max chewed him out for being as high maintenance as the talent.”

  “That is the pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it? Who’s higher maintenance than Max? Although I must admit, he was more angel than devil today, wasn’t he?”

  “Yes, he was. Max can be a very likable guy when his good side is in charge. Why was Imogene still hanging around the soundstage when everyone thought she had left?”

  “She joked that she had to rest before she could go home and rest. Imogene doesn’t have a dressing room of her own to use like the talent, but she does have a lounge area off her workspace downstairs. That’s where she takes breaks. She’s not herself, Jack.”

  “I’m not surprised. The woman must be as old as Max, right? That puts her in her 70s. The pressure to keep up with Max and Nelson's requests can’t be easy for her on a good day. Today was not a good day.”

  “True, but she’s always been a professional on top of details. It was still early in the day, before Brigit’s disappearance, when we had that odd dispute about the dress and she made misleading comments about who wanted me to wear it. Something’s up, Jack, I can feel it.”

  “We took her statement, but if you think she has more to tell us, I can send someone to interview her again. You don’t think she’s holding Brigit hostage until she agrees to wear hoops, do you?”

  “No, of course not, Jack. I’m going to head back over to Soundstage 4 in the morning to view the video footage from today with Max and Nelson. Not that I could tell you what I expect to find out by doing that. It’s not like that coffee guy is going to go wheeling by on camera.” I shrugged as I stabbed at the bowtie pasta on my plate. “After that, I’ll have another talk with Imogene, face-to-face.”

  “This pasta is delicious. The guys at work are still talking about it after we brought it to that potluck. The legend of Georgie Shaw has spread to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.”

  “Hopefully that has little to do with the fact that I was once a suspect in one of your murder investigations.”

  “Nah, your wealth, beauty and culinary skills have drawn far more attention than the possibility that you offed the boss’s daughter.”

  “That’s good to know. I wouldn’t want your friends and colleagues to think you’re marrying a suspicious character.”

  “The character part would be right.” I got a kiss to go with that comment. Then an admonition from Jack, the crack detective. “I’m sure you’ll call me if Imogene shares information with you that might help us figure out what’s going on. Or, if it turns out that big, burly guy you bumped into puts in a cameo appearance as a sorcerer’s apprentice or something like that when you review the film clips.”

  “He’d have to be the sorceress’s apprentice, in this case, with the Black Swan Queen vying for control of Swanderland. In the story, she doesn’t have an apprentice, but she does have a Legion of Cygnet Knaves.”

  “Oh no, what are those?” Jack asked, pausing mid-bite to hear my reply.

  Before I could answer Jack’s question, his phone rang. He put that fork down and looked at the information about that incoming call.

  “Hang on. It’s my office. I’ve got to take this.” He stepped away from the table to deal with that call. I sighed realizing this was also going to be a regular part of our lives together. Jack was on call, not just for homicides, but a variety of other violent crimes. I hoped his day hadn’t just become a bad one.

  “Please, please, no dead bodies,” I said aloud. Two cats looked at me with great concern. “Don’t worry. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

  10 Publicity Stunt?

  “Sorry about that,” Jack said as he sat down. I scanned his face seeing no sign that his day had just gotten worse. “They found that truck in a Walmart parking lot. No sightings of the driver or Brigit, but I’ve had them tow it into the police lab. We’ve put a task force together, so we’re operating around the clock at this point. I’m going to join them again later. Where were we?”

  “I was just about to answer
your question about Cygnet Knaves, remember? They’re young men of Swanderland brought into service to the Black Swan Queen against their will by sorcery. Under her spell, they do her bidding.”

  “Well, that could certainly be a part played by a big burly man. Maybe that’s how Brigit’s abductor got onto the studio property.” Jack began to eat again.

  “Except that they have to be able to wear tights and dance—more athletic than burly. At one point, they capture Christiana and carry her off to the Black Swan Queen’s Tower of Dreams. That’s where Tristan rescues Christiana once he’s discovered that love is the secret to combatting the evil queen’s ambition. That along with the magical powers restored to him when he accepts the ring given to him by his father after they reconcile.” Jack shook his head as he stuffed food in his mouth.

  “Quite the epic, huh?” I asked.

  “You could say that. Max has a grandiose imagination, doesn’t he?”

  “Oh yes. How else could he have come up with the idea to build an entire city out in the desert?”

  “That Mad Max label sure fits—whether he’s in angel or devil mode.”

  “You are a quick study. It took me much longer to reach that conclusion. Mad Max won’t hang on long without a meltdown if there’s no news about Brigit. Can’t you track her using the GPS on her cell phone if she has it with her?”

  “It wasn’t in that mess in her dressing room. In theory, we can track people using the GPS on a cell phone. No luck, so far. I’m surprised it still worked after it bounced off the wall and hit the floor when she missed hitting Gloria with it. Maybe it quit working later. Her captor or captors may have destroyed it since we’re getting no signal. Another possibility is that it’s in a privacy case. Todd said he gave her one when she complained about being hassled by paparazzi and stalkers.”

  “She would have had time to put it in a case, but why? Brigit wasn’t going anywhere with her plan to stick around and practice dancing in that dress. Besides, it sounds like Todd left voice mails and text messages only minutes before Imogene began to hear that commotion coming from Brigit’s dressing room. That case couldn’t have been on it then.”

  “Yes, that’s true. Who knows? Brigit may have left that privacy case at home. We have a team searching Brigit’s condo in Westwood. Not just for that case, but anything else that might give us a clue about what’s happened to her.”

  “She doesn’t live with Todd?”

  “No. Todd says the two of them have kept separate residences to cover up their relationship. What a sad way to start a marriage.”

  “You checked to make sure she hadn’t gone to his place?”

  “Yep. We went with him to his house in the Hollywood Hills. No sign of her. Todd also made calls while we were there to her friends and family. He’s a decent actor from what I could see as he casually asked if Brigit had called or dropped by. No inkling that he was as desperate as he was when those calls turned up nothing. Brigit’s not on any of the video security footage that Ralph and his team have gone through. She’s vanished.”

  I reached out and covered Jack’s hand with my own. The tension in his jaw relaxed a little. He was still more worried than I had ever seen him.

  I’d heard that the odds for a safe recovery of someone who’s been abducted drop after 48 hours, or if a victim sees the face of her abductor. I was tempted to ask about that. It was more than curiosity. Brigit’s vulnerability had touched me in a personal, almost maternal way. I’d Google the answer to my question later, rather than add to Jack’s stress. I was developing quite the browser history since meeting Jack.

  “You’re doing everything you can, Jack,” I said in a reassuring tone.

  “We’re certainly trying. We may not have her phone, but we expedited the request to get her phone records and should have those, tomorrow. Now that you’ve told me more about the movie plot, there are some parallels, aren’t there? You don’t think Max or Nelson would have cooked up an abduction as a publicity stunt, do you?”

  “No. If those two had done something that ridiculous, Max and Nelson wouldn’t have left Brigit in the dark about it. If she was in on the scheme, I could imagine stuff being thrown around in her room, but that blood makes this seem like a more serious situation. I hate to ask this over dinner, but is it her blood they found?”

  “Some of it is a match for her blood type. We won’t get DNA test results for another day or so. The CSIs identified a second blood-type. Most of the blood in that room isn’t Brigit’s. If there’s any good news so far, that’s it,” Jack said.

  “Brigit wouldn’t have fought that hard if this had been a stunt—unless the blood was put there to make it look more realistic. These are theater people who know how to stage a scene.”

  “The CSIs can tell us more, tomorrow, about what the blood evidence reveals. If it’s staged they should be able to figure that out. Who would do something like that?”

  “I didn’t mention it, Jack, but I wondered if GloBrad might. The two lovebirds sure are happy to capitalize on the buzz they create as a couple. Brad seemed especially keen on the idea that what happens off screen can draw attention to what’s going on at the film studio and boost box office sales. What if they paid the coffee cart guy to snatch Brigit, not realizing it would all go so terribly wrong for poor Ben Davies?”

  “That’s no stunt. Nor is hiring someone to grab Brigit without her knowledge and consent. I’d hate to think those two are stupid or greedy enough to try such a thing. Conspiracy isn’t always easy to prove, even if we can make a connection between Brad or Gloria and Brigit’s abductor. Brigit’s agent seems to like throwing his weight around. Maybe he’s ruthless enough to use a fake kidnapping to advance her career and his. If we can find the man behind the wheel of the delivery truck, he might tell us who put him up to abducting Brigit if it wasn’t his idea.”

  “Or if Ben Davies’ condition improves, maybe he’ll have additional information that will help you locate the man.”

  “I hate to think this was all about creating buzz. I don’t pay attention to Hollywood gossip. Does buzz work?”

  “Well, studios pay big bucks to get their productions noticed by the public. Old school movie studios used to adhere to that ‘any publicity is good publicity’ idea more than Max does. He makes a lot of kids’ movies and objects to any media story that taints Marvelous Marley World’s image. If that is what this is about, and he finds out whodunit, they’re in big trouble with him.”

  “That news hasn’t leaked about Brigit’s disappearance. Is there buzz about anything else going on backstage?”

  “When Mara and I got back to my office, she and Carol did their best to answer that question. They spent the afternoon hunting for information about Brigit’s stalkers and Todd’s love life. They found a lot of stories about his tryst with the recent winner of America’s Hottest Model, Cara Orwell. The love affair is over, for sure. A nasty breakup, too. If Todd had disappeared, I’d put her at the top of the suspect list, but there’s not a peep out of Cara about Brigit,” I offered.

  “We’re going to interview her tomorrow. She may not even know about Brigit since she and Todd have kept their relationship hush-hush. Odd, huh? I guess they’re not publicity hounds.”

  “Todd may not have wanted to antagonize his ex by making his new relationship public. For teen heartthrobs like Brigit and Todd, getting married might not work out as well as it has for GloBrad. Gloria and Brad both have more established careers and appeal to an older crowd than Brigit or Todd.”

  “I hear you, Georgie. Harder to sell Todd as a pop idol if he’s an old married man.”

  “Aging’s a problem for pop stars and leading ladies, married or not. That’s a bigger problem for women than men in Hollywood. You heard Gloria’s take on that. She was annoyed at Brigit’s antics, but didn’t seem angry enough to resort to force to end the rivalry. Gloria’s a skilled actress, so maybe taking the high road with Brigit was an act. You know from that way I handled the murder at Catmm
ando Mountain, it wouldn’t be the first time I read someone wrong.”

  “I’m no better at judging Gloria’s true feelings than you are. She has an alibi at the time Brigit went missing, so she didn’t do it. Security confirmed Brad’s story that they found him in the fitness room, but no one saw him working out. The tension between Gloria and Brigit does give GloBrad another motive. If this is about a scheme to grab headlines, it might explain why they chose Brigit. Why hasn’t anyone leaked the story?”

  “I don’t know, Jack. Maybe the coffee guy is a stalker, as Mara suggested. We pursued that possibility a little more this afternoon. I reviewed all the pictures Mara located about Brigit’s incidents with overly zealous fans and members of the media. No big, burly men. Nothing much in the way of new gossip about the making of the film or trouble on the set in the tabloids or online media. Although Carol did find a snarky bit in a movie-business forum about Max ‘making do’ with his ‘second choices.’ It’s even gossipy on the business side of movie-making.”

  “Does that mean someone else was asked to play Christiana or Tristan?”

  “No. If that report is true, it’s not about the actors, but the crew. Imogene, Nelson, and Karl were all ‘second-string’ players sent onto the field when Max couldn’t recruit the costume designer, director, and puppet master he wanted.”

  “Can that be true?” Jack asked.

  “Max hasn’t said anything about that to me or the rest of the Executive Committee members. I’m not sure he’d share information with us about the negotiations that went on unless there was a big change after everyone signed their contracts. That might explain Imogene’s peevishness lately.”

  “I’ll ask. I could imagine Imogene or Nelson or Karl being annoyed by finding out they weren’t at the top of Max’s list but that must have happened to them before. I don’t see how that would be connected to Brigit’s disappearance.”

  “Mara said something else that I skipped over at the time.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. Mara said a lot of things today,” Jack said, smirking.