‘Talk about game changers,’ Melanie said, and she stepped in close to Ada and Rachel. ‘Yes, I slept with her. I’m not sure if it’s what I wanted, but there wasn’t much choice.’
‘Can you explain that?’ Ada asked. The on-screen proximity created an intimacy that forced the onlookers to stay deathly silent if they wanted to hear.
‘She was going to pull the plug on our team. Wow, this really is reality TV, and I’m about to come off as a big whore.’
‘You said you didn’t have a choice,’ Ada offered.
‘We always have choices,’ Melanie replied. ‘She told me that if I did what she wanted, even if Barry’s team was laid off, I’d still have a job, and I knew she wasn’t lying.’
‘Because?’ Ada prompted.
‘Because there were others, and they still had jobs.’
Rachel snorted. Her hands pressed her temples and she shook her head. ‘You’re not kidding.’ She turned and bumped a table; several mugs crashed to the ground. ‘This feels good,’ Rachel said, as she stared at the broken crockery, then at a woman across the table whose cell phone was being held in a shaky hand. Rachel caught her eye. ‘Use your other hand to steady it,’ she said.
What came out of Rachel’s mouth next sent chills through Ada. It wasn’t just the words, but her pitch-perfect imitation of Lenore’s going-to-commercial tag line, as she stared into the camera. ‘And whatever you do, don’t go away, because what’s coming up next, you will not want to miss.’
THIRTY
It was all Lil could do to keep from running to Ada. What held her back was Barry. ‘She’ll be fine,’ he said, as they stood transfixed by the unfolding drama.
At least the shoppers had quieted, their lust for Lenore’s worldly goods momentarily stemmed by Rachel’s salacious revelations. Lil’s stomach was in knots, but what could she do? She knew Ada wouldn’t lose her head, and if Barry were telling the truth − a big if − the crowd would be gone before long, and they’d finish the day and be back in the security of their own home. But there was more; she knew that Ada wouldn’t stop until she’d wrung the truth from Rachel, possibly dangerous truths at the heart of two murders. Be careful, Ada.
Nervously, she glanced back toward the mansion at Jeanine, who was sipping tea and chatting with Rose while her little girl played with the plastic pony. She had images of Marie Antoinette: Let them eat cake.
Barry’s hand went to his ear bud. ‘What?’
Lil inched closer, barely able to hear a woman’s voice, possibly Melanie’s.
‘Of course we keep filming.’ His eyes were fixed on Rachel, Ada and Melanie, who was saying something into her headset.
‘What did Melanie just tell you?’ Lil asked.
‘Shh,’ he said. ‘Something’s happening.’ His hand was still to his ear. ‘No. Damn it! I told you, keep filming. That’s an order, Mel … I don’t care. Film it!’
Lil watched as Ada put a hand on Rachel’s shoulder and led her toward the edge of the tent.
Like a giant amoeba, the shoppers surged and followed, leaving just enough room for the three women in the center and the two camera crews.
Lil, with Barry at her side, raced around the back of the tent to keep them in view.
‘See,’ Barry said. ‘Ada’s fine. And this is fabulous TV.’
Rachel raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun that was just over the mansion. With her other she tapped Ada on the shoulder and then pointed her forefinger in Lil’s direction. For the briefest of instants Lil wondered if the FWT was outing her and Ada on national TV. But as she stared back she saw that Rachel’s finger was pointing a bit to the left of her and Barry, toward Jeanine and Rose.
For Lil, that moment lengthened like time frozen, Rachel stock still in pink and white, her hand outstretched, surrounded by a red-faced mob.
Jeanine stared back and then sprang to her feet. Her tea dropped from her hand. She looked at her daughter playing on the ground. ‘Get her out of here!’ she shrieked to Rose, the crowd’s continued hush letting her words carry across the distance. ‘NOW!’
Barry looked up the hill at his wife. ‘Jeanine, what’s going on?’ His right hand was cupped over his ear. ‘What’s she saying? … Hell no!’ He stared at his wife, his mouth hanging open and his head shaking. ‘No … that’s not true!’
Rose was visibly startled by Jeanine’s frantic change. She stared at the broken tea cup and then back to the distraught young woman. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Please,’ Jeanine said, her expression panicked. ‘Get my daughter out of here. She can’t see this. She can’t hear this. Please. Help me.’
‘OK.’ She didn’t understand what was happening, but Rose was aware that the little girl needed to be away from whatever situation was unfolding. ‘Come on, Ashley,’ she said, ‘let’s take your pony inside and pretend to give it a bath.’
‘Mommy.’ Ashley stared up wide-eyed at her distraught mother. ‘Mommy?’
‘Be a good girl and go with Rose, baby.’ Jeanine looked at her little girl. ‘Mommy loves you,’ and then she sighted Barry, who was running ahead of the advancing crowds and cameras.
‘Jeanine, what’s happening?’ he called out, and then spoke into his mouthpiece. ‘Yes, stop the cameras. Shut them down! That’s an order!’ He ran toward his wife as she backed away.
‘I’m sorry, Barry. I did it for you, for us. Always.’
The crowd, led by the backwards walking film crews and by Rachel, who’d linked her arm through Ada’s, was less than thirty feet from the dainty picnic tent. Rachel’s voice was clearly audible to Barry, Lil and Jeanine. ‘Her,’ Rachel said.
‘No!’ Jeanine shrieked.
‘Yes, and you can’t deny it, sweetheart,’ Rachel said, as one of the cameras swung around to capture Jeanine Stromstein’s anguish. ‘It’s all on tape.’ As though having a normal conversation, Rachel explained to Ada, ‘Lenore taped all of her assignations. It’s quite naughty, but sometimes Richard and I would watch.’ Her voice shifted, and it sounded like she’d gone from impersonating Lenore to being little older than Ashley. ‘It was icky.’
‘Barry.’ Jeanine backed away from the tent. ‘It’s not true … I did it for us. For you. It was always for you. I love you.’ And then she bolted. Her hair was like fire in the sun as she sprinted toward the pool, where Rachel’s pink balloon, now mostly deflated, flopped in the breeze.
‘Stop filming!’ Barry screamed into his mouthpiece and at the camera operators. He glared at Melanie, who was shaking her head in the negative as she stood between the cameras that were trained on Ada and Rachel.
Lil realized that even if they followed his order, which seemed unlikely, there were hundreds of camera phones capturing the scene, which now included the fleeing Jeanine being pursued by uniformed officers. From the mansion’s elevation she was able to follow their progress as they vanished into the woods.
The crowd split apart. Some followed the cameras, cops and Jeanine, others stayed to hear Rachel, while other determined shoppers scurried back to the tents. Lil had no such dilemma and moved in next to Melanie, who was transfixed by the scene between Ada and Rachel.
‘Your mother was having an affair with the producer’s wife, Jeanine Stromstein?’ Ada asked.
‘Oh yes,’ Rachel said in a lisping little girl’s voice. ‘They did naked things together. Dirty things.’
‘How do you know that?’ Ada asked.
Lil started as she felt Mattie Perez’s shoulder nudge hers. The detective put a finger to her lips, as though she didn’t want anything to interrupt Ada’s interview.
‘The tapes.’ Rachel’s tone modulated back to that of an adult. ‘It was important to know what … who … my mother was up to.’
‘So both you and Richard would have known who her current girlfriend was?’
‘Put an “s” on that. Lenore wasn’t monogamous. And it’s a shame. I think she could have been a decent human being if she’d just come out of the closet and been wit
h one of the women who really liked her.’
‘Like Peggy?’ Ada said.
‘She’s cool … Jeanine’s tapes are sad. What she said is true.’ She looked across at Barry, who stood next to Lil, his gaze darting between the crowds pursuing his wife and Rachel’s on-screen revelations. ‘She did it for you. Lenore was going to pull the plug on your crew, said you “hadn’t lived up to your potential”. Your wife made a deal. She traded her body to buy you time.’
‘No,’ he stammered. ‘You’re lying.’
‘I’m not, and I wish it weren’t true,’ Rachel said. ‘It wasn’t a one-time thing, either.’ She stared at him. ‘This is so sad. You really didn’t know.’
He shook his head and stared down. ‘This can’t be true.’ He turned toward the direction in which Jeanine had run. He looked as though he might vomit as he stared past Lenore’s pool to the edge of the woods. ‘Jeanine,’ he whispered, as horrifying connections sank in. He went from total disbelief to knowing it was true. His beautiful Jeanine’s words, ‘It was always for you.’ He felt them looking at him. He raised his head and caught the detective’s gaze.
‘You’ll need to come with me, Mr Stromstein. I have some questions to ask about your wife and her whereabouts.’
He nodded. ‘I’m not saying a word without an attorney.’
‘That would be wise.’
He realized that the cameras had never stopped running. He glanced back at the house, glad that Ashley hadn’t seen or heard. Then he looked at Ada. His gaze narrowed. ‘You did this.’ His tone was harsh.
‘She didn’t,’ Rachel said. ‘But she did figure it out.’ She looked at Ada and then Lil. ‘And this is just the tip of things, isn’t it?’
Ada nodded. ‘I think so.’
‘You think she killed my mother and my brother?’
‘I do,’ Ada said simply.
‘Why?’ Rachel gasped.
‘For love,’ Ada said, her eyes on Barry. ‘When the truth comes out, I’ve no doubt that we’ll find she did it all for love.’
THIRTY-ONE
Barry Stromstein’s migraine, triggered by stress and the pine-scented cleaning fluid in the Grenville police station, was blinding. He had no medication on him and once the wavy lines and bright lights at the periphery of his vision had danced away the headache, like a sledgehammer, pounded with the beating of his heart. He sat in a hard-backed chair in the lobby. The detectives had told him not to leave and, while he wasn’t under arrest, he had no doubt that the two uniformed officers behind the counter, and the two outside the door, would stop him should he try to leave. He thought of his daughter and knew that Rose, Ada and Lil would watch after her until … But it was Jeanine … how she’d looked sprinting toward the woods. He’d wanted her to escape, knowing it was unlikely. His world was falling apart, as the mystery of ‘who shot Lenore and Richard Parks’ came into focus. He replayed conversations with Jeanine. The day he’d been chewed out by Lenore and feared he was about to get the ax. Hours later and Lenore was dead, shot a single time by someone who knew their way around the studio, Lenore and a gun, like his raised-on-the-farm wife, who’d apparently slept with his boss. And earlier in the week, when Richard Parks had nearly pulled the plug on Final Reckoning, again he’d confided in Jeanine, bared his insecurities to the one person in this world he knew loved him unconditionally. Not twenty-four hours later Richard was dead.
‘Mr Stromstein.’ He looked up and saw the shorter of the two female detectives. With his migraine on the rampage, he couldn’t remember her name.
‘Yes,’ he answered, remembering that it started with a P … Parlour, Parvez, Pomanade …
‘Mr Stromstein, I know you’re waiting for your attorney, but we think you should talk to your wife. She’s refusing representation.’
‘Yes, detective. Please, let me talk to her.’
He followed her behind the counter through a locked door and then through a second that led on to a hall with three cells. The pine smell was overwhelming. Even so, it didn’t fully conceal other earthy scents − sweat, piss and microwave popcorn. ‘She’s in the one on the end,’ the detective said.
‘Are you taping this?’ he asked.
‘No,’ she said. ‘But she needs an attorney. She’ll be charged with the murders of Lenore and Richard Parks.’
He wanted to ask what proof they had, but that would come. Usually so quick with words, it was all he could do just to nod. ‘I’ll talk to her.’
‘Good. Last one on the right. It’s unlocked.’
His footsteps landed loud in his ears as he walked the hall. He saw Jeanine on the edge of a bare cot through the wire-mesh window and pushed the door open. ‘Baby,’ he whispered.
She turned at the sound of his voice. Her full-lipped smile, the perfect teeth and green eyes. ‘I’m so sorry.’
He was at her side. He wrapped her in his arms. He breathed in the smell of her. The pounding in his skull eased. ‘We’ll get you out of this. Marvin’s sending the best criminal lawyer in the business. I’m going to get you out of this.’
‘Oh sweetie.’ Her hair tickled the side of his face and neck, her voice soft as a spring rain. ‘I don’t need a lawyer,’ she said. ‘I don’t want one.’
‘Jeanine.’ He pulled back, surprised at the determination in her tone. ‘This is serious. They’re going to charge you with murder.’
‘I know,’ she said. ‘It’s not so serious. You are. You and Ashley. An attorney will just suck away everything we’ve worked for. Look at me.’
He found himself caught in the depths of her gaze, like seeing his wife for the first time. ‘Yes?’
‘What Rachel said is true … and there’s more. Do you believe me when I say that everything I did was for us, for you?’ Her upper teeth bit the lower corner of her lips. She waited for his answer.
‘I do.’ And he did. ‘I’m so sorry, Jeanine. I would never have asked that of you.’
‘I know, and I never wanted you to know. As long as I know you love me, this will be OK.’
‘Of course I love you.’
‘Good. I’ll tell them everything, but I’ll tell you first. It gets bad. Promise you won’t hate me.’
‘I could never hate you. And no matter what you tell me, I will love you till the day I die. I don’t care if you killed them, or even that you slept with her. I get it. I get why. And all this time …’
‘It’s OK.’ Her fingers stroked the side of his face. ‘I knew you’d understand. I never cared about the Birkin bags or the clothes or the apartment. It’s just you, it’s always been you.’
‘Oh my God! You threw the final competition in Model Behavior, didn’t you?’
‘Of course I did. The prize was a year’s around-the-world modeling contract. I had no intention of leaving you. And I was worried that if I won people would say the competition was fixed because you wanted to get in my pants.’
‘I did want to get in your pants.’
‘I know.’ She leaned in and they kissed. ‘So sweetie,’ she pulled back, ‘no lawyer.’ She looked down, and then toward the half-open door. ‘Not for that anyway,’ and she whispered in his ear.
Barry pulled back. ‘No. That’s a joke, right?’
Jeanine bit the corner of her mouth. ‘It’s not. She said if I did it …’
‘Right.’ Tears tracked down Barry’s cheeks. He looked around the small cell, and then back at Jeanine. ‘You did it for me.’ His gaze landed on her still flat stomach. ‘It’s OK. I get it. But we will need lawyers … and a publicist.’
‘Yes,’ she said, knowing her husband and loving him with all her heart. ‘A publicist would be best.’
THIRTY-TWO
The rest of that Sunday at Lenore’s mansion passed in a blur for Ada. With the cameras still running and the crowds thinning, Rachel begged Lil and her to stay. ‘I can’t be alone. I don’t trust myself.’
Ada heard both a plea and a threat. ‘Of course we’ll stay,’ she said. ‘Maybe Dr Ebert could come an
d see you for a bit.’
‘Do you think he would?’
Ada held her tongue, knowing the Manhattan-based psychiatrist was well compensated for his twenty-four seven availability. ‘I think he’ll find the time.’
Melanie wrapped up the shoot. ‘We’ve got more than enough. We could easily stretch this into three or four shows. Tomorrow we can film the Final Reckoning spiel, where we say just how much we raised for charity.’
Ada’s heart sank at the thought of another day. ‘The show goes on?’
‘Absolutely!’ Melanie’s excitement was like that of a child who’s found the golden Easter egg.
‘Right,’ Ada said.
‘You were fabulous!’ Melanie gushed. ‘I cannot wait to work with you again. This show is going to be huge.’
Ada kept quiet.
Melanie’s expression darkened as she stared at Ada. ‘What?’
Ada glanced around. Barry had been taken away for questioning, and it seemed they had a strong murder suspect in Jeanine. The red lights had gone off the cameras, and the crowds had dissipated. A glance back at the tents showed a long line at the checkout registers where Tolliver Jacobs was soldiering on with a cast of extras, as people clutched Lenore’s possessions and paid with plastic and wads of cash.
‘Please don’t judge,’ Melanie said. ‘You don’t know what this industry is like.’
Lil stood at Ada’s side. ‘We don’t,’ Ada said. ‘But aren’t you concerned?’ She looked at Rachel, who was quietly staring at the tents. ‘If all Rachel said is true.’
‘It’s all true,’ Rachel said, her voice dull. ‘All of it, and more. My mom was a pioneer, in lots of ways. And she was a narcissist, probably a sociopath, who treated everyone around her like shit. She went through people like they were tissues, something you use once and throw away.’ She shook her head. ‘It feels good to clean out the secrets. She’d have hated it. Richard would have hated it. But they’re both gone … just crazy Rachel and the baby I’m going to have.’
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