Exposed Negative: A Small Town Cozy Mystery (Shot & Framed Book 2)

by Nancy McGovern

  His chest puffed a little with pride and his smile widened. “Well, you know, if I wasn’t enjoying my retirement so much, I’d do it.”

  They were both silent as the plates emptied. After she had swallowed her last bite, Dani attempted to start the conversation about Marshall again.

  “Why don’t you want to talk about it?” she asked.

  “No good can come of it if I do,” he said. “So why bother? That’s what I think.”

  “Dad, whatever it is, it’s eating you alive. I know you haven’t slept all night. Come on, share with me. Why did you turn pale last night as soon as Marshall’s name was mentioned?”

  “It’s just that...” he sighed and to distract himself began clearing the table. Dani helped, too, despite him giving her a disapproving look and pointedly raising an eyebrow at her ankle.

  “Come on, Dad, I can hobble about a little.”

  “You should be resting.”

  “I’ll rest if you tell me what’s going on with you.”

  “Fine.” He threw up his hands in frustration. “Boy, you’re like a little pup with a rag in its mouth sometimes. Won’t stop shaking it till you’re satisfied.”

  Dani grinned. “Well, you might as well spit it out, then.”

  “Marshall Mushens. That name just led me back into a very dark period in my life,” Harry said. “This was long before I dated your mother, mind you. I was in my early twenties and all I cared about was having a good time with my friends back then.”

  “Your friends. I’m assuming Marshall Mushens was one of them?”

  “Oh, no, he wasn’t really. But I knew him, sort of. He and another enlisted man were quite friendly with us locals. They’d sneak out of camp at night sometimes to hang out with us. Got them into trouble a few times, too. But you know how young men are, always ready to get into trouble, especially if there’s a chance a girl may be impressed.”

  “So a girl was involved.”

  “Sort of.” Her father looked uncomfortable. “Her name was Juliet Francis. She’d moved into town just a year earlier and already half the boys in town were in love with her. She was unique, a real creative force. Do you know she once hosted a gender-swapped Macbeth with herself as the titular character?”

  “She was in the theater group?” Dani exclaimed.

  “Oh, yes. Of course, this was before the revival, and it wasn’t called Mace and Cage back then. It was just the Innocence Amateur Theater.”

  “And she played Macbeth...” Dani’s mind suddenly flew to Arthur’s speech. Had he ever mentioned that it was a man who he had seen that day? No. He had just used the word “actor” and of course she, like everyone else, had assumed he meant a man. But what if it was Juliet he’d been talking about? What if it was Juliet who had changed his life simply by reciting a verse?

  “Are you alright?” her father asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Dani.”

  “I’m not sure that I haven’t,” she said. “It’s funny how the world keeps reshaping itself like a kaleidoscope, the more you find out about the people around you.”

  Her father gave her a worried look. “What are you thinking?”

  “Nevermind what I’m thinking. Tell me about her, about Juliet.”

  “What can I say?” her father sighed. “I told you, we were all young and stupid and, unfortunately, she paid the price for it. It affected me for the rest of my life.”

  Dani stayed quiet. Her father was caught in his memories now, sorrow written on every inch of his face. All she had to do was let him keep talking.

  “Juliet was best friends with Linda Hofstadter,” he continued, “and Linda - she was Linda Johns back then - was keen on Marshall’s friend, Harry Hofstadter. So the four of them often went on double dates. I have a feeling Marshall himself maneuvered to make those happen. He had quite the crush on Juliet. Of course, Juliet was far too popular to settle down with one man. She went to movies or dinner with quite a few. She liked to live with no strings attached.”

  “Do you think Marshall was pushing her to go steady with him?”

  “I know I was,” her father replied. Seeing her look of utter bafflement, he laughed, “Yes, I was one of her suitors. It might surprise you, but your old father was quite a handsome man once upon a time.”

  “Old? You? Not a chance.” Dani smiled.

  “Ah, you’re good for my ego. Sharon would have poked my tummy and told me I could be handsome even now if I went on a diet.” He smiled. “I’m not sure which brand of love I prefer.”

  “How about the brand that offers you more bacon?” Dani asked.

  “I had a heart attack two years ago, remember,” he said regretfully. “No extra bacon for me.”

  “Anyway, you were saying about Juliet?”

  “Oh, yes. Well, I was pressuring her to go steady with me but she always put me off with the same words, ‘Life’s not important enough to waste with just one man.’ She said it so sweetly, too, that I could never hold a grudge. Still, I never knew what she was talking about. Being in a real relationship was important to me, always has been.” He paused as he said this and Dani felt a sudden pang of grief.

  It wasn’t fair what her father had been through. He was a man full of love, honest and steady. Husband material, in short. Yet he had spent most of his adult life as a single father, devoted to his daughters and never even bothering to date. It wasn’t for lack of offers. A lot of women in town had their eye on him. It was because for years he’d never been able to get over the disappearance of their mother. Even now, when rumors of her death had become fact, he acted as though the wound of her leaving them had been freshly reopened. Dani wished that he’d move on, but she knew that asking him to do so would be futile. It seemed he had made up his mind to stay single for the rest of his life.

  As though sensing her thoughts, he said, “Hey, don’t feel bad, Dani. You and your sisters gave me so much happiness I never had time to go out hunting for women to date. I honestly don’t regret it at all.”

  When she didn’t look convinced, he changed the topic by switching back to Juliet. “Anyway, you’ve probably heard the story of what happened to Juliet, just never connected it with her name,” he said.

  “I don’t know,” Dani said, mystified.

  Her father shook his head. “It was horrifying. I will remember that night all my life. See, Juliet’s parents were away for the weekend and she decided to throw a party at her house. She invited all the usual crowd - her theater friends, her ‘boyfriends’, Linda and the other girls.”

  “Was Marshall there?”

  “You bet he was. So was Dante’s father, Harry Hofstadter, along with a few more of their army buddies. Well, Lin and Harry vanished into a room early in the party, while the rest of us sat around, you know, just hanging out with each other.”

  “Sure,” Dani said.

  “Way past midnight, when we were all rather drunk, someone shouted that the cops were coming,” he said. “We were young and dumb and we panicked and ran off.”

  “Why would you panic? You were legally old enough to drink, weren’t you?”

  “Some of us were, some of us weren’t quite,” he replied, “Also, there was quite a bit of marijuana floating around the party. This was a long time ago, remember, and I was a young, reckless man once.”

  “Did you have any?”

  He gave her a rueful grin. “What can I say? I was your stereotypical hippie. Achieving a higher consciousness was important to me. This was long before your mother put me on the straight and narrow, you understand?”

  “Oh, I think I do.” Dani gave a little laugh. “Still, I can’t believe you ran from the cops. I would have loved to have seen it.”

  “The night didn’t end there, sadly,” he said. “I wish it had. All of us scattered but, then, half an hour later…” he paused and his voice cracked. “Half an hour later, smoke started bellowing from Juliet’s house.”

  Dani’s eyes grew wide.

  “I wasn’t there to se
e it, of course. I’d come back home. But from what I later learned, some careless person at the party had left the screen off a fireplace and, well…”

  “Her whole house burnt down?” Dani asked, horrified.

  “With her inside,” he said, nodding. “By the time the firemen came, there was no hope for rescue. She was gone. Just like that. What a cruel, unnecessary death.”

  “Why didn’t she run out?”

  Dani’s father sighed. “We think she was too intoxicated. She was probably fast asleep when the fire happened.”

  “Wow.”

  “It was a terrible shock to us all. That was the first time it hit home for me, just how fragile life is. I know it sounds like a cliché but, at 22, it was a revelation. It changed my life forever. Changed a lot of lives forever. Harry and Linda got married soon after. It’s like they couldn’t wait, once they figured out how quickly time can pull the rug out from under you.” He gave a bittersweet smile. “Strange to think that they’re divorced now. I was always so sure they’d last forever. Linda really loved him, you know. But I guess Harry was the type to stray. Still, he did love her deeply at one point. Just not enough to waste an entire life with her, as Juliet would say.”

  *****

  Chapter 9

  Photographs

  The theater was deserted. After Arthur’s death, Dante had announced that they should all take a week off while he figured out what to do. Arthur’s understudy, a young boy in his teens named Michael, was trying to persuade them that he was ready to be Othello, but Allie knew Dante wanted to rope in Paul if possible. So far, however, Paul was still playing games, and now Michael was developing an ego about the whole thing.

  In the basement, Allie’s curly-haired head was bent over a script and, with a huge neon marker, she highlighted parts of it, occasionally scribbling notes in the margins. She sat on a wooden chair masked with tape, her feet drawn up to her chest and her toes tucked under each other. Outside, a thin rain fell steadily and she could hear water rushing into the gutters.

  She gave a little jump when the door opened and Dani hobbled inside.

  “Aren’t you supposed to stay off your feet?” she asked. “You gave me a fright.”

  “The door was open,” Dani shrugged, ignoring her question. “How come there’s nobody about?”

  “Ask Dante,” Allie said, sounding a little grumpy. “The way he’s going, we may not have a play at all! He’s stubbornly insisting on Paul being cast. I know Paul is a better actor but we have to be practical and use Michael. It’s just an odd situation.”

  “I understand,” Dani nodded. “I hope your boyfriend sees sense soon.”

  “My boyfriend?” Allie laughed and then blushed. “No, he’s not my boyfriend! Far from it. Whatever gave you the idea?”

  “Oh, I just, I don’t know. I assumed you were dating.” Dani felt herself turn a little red, too.

  Allie smiled. “Not a chance. Dante’s not my type.”

  “So what is your type?”

  “Oh, you know, lumberjacks,” Allie laughed. “Dante’s a little too sensitive and mystical for me. I like my men to be, well, more manly. I guess being surrounded by drama queens doesn’t give me much of a chance to find a guy like that. So if you have any eligible men you can think of, let me know.” Allie grinned.

  “Maybe you can change professions, start cutting down timber,” Dani joked. “That would help you find the right guy.”

  “Don’t tempt me.” Allie tossed the script onto a nearby coffee table, and stretched. “Why are you here anyway?”

  “Photos,” Dani said. “I wanted to look at the photo Arthur was talking about.”

  “Photo?” Allie frowned. “What photo?”

  “In his speech, Arthur mentioned that he was an extra in a play right here in Innocence. I thought I’d like to identify a photo of him as a younger man.”

  “There’s a bunch of photos on the walls upstairs,” Allie said.

  “I looked through those already,” Dani said. “Nothing.”

  The basement walls, one of which was a floor to ceiling collage of photographs from various plays, were the next obvious choice. Infected by Dani’s enthusiasm, Allie scanned through photo after photo with no results.

  Dani had a hand on a photo of a laughing woman dressed in a wedding gown. A peculiar look, part grief, part love, was etched on her face.

  “That’s your mother, isn’t it?” Allie asked.

  “Yes,” Dani swallowed, looked away for a second, and then began scanning the rest of the pictures.

  “I heard the story,” Allie said. “About her, I mean. I’m sorry you and your family had to go through that.”

  Dani gave a stiff shrug and a semi-polite smile. “Well, we’re alright.”

  “Do you feel more vindicated now?” Allie asked. “I mean, knowing that she loved you after all?”

  Dani bit her lip. They were surrounded by a peculiar, echoing silence, with the white noise of falling rain in the background. Allie was staring at her with a questioning look on her face.

  “I miss her every day,” Dani said. “It’s all the more painful because I spent so many years building up this wall against her in my heart. Now, I miss her fiercely, and I feel so guilty for being bad to her. It’s even worse that it took getting wrapped up in a murder case to learn the truth because now that memory has become a part of it. As for my family, I’m not sure about them. We never talk about her. I want to, but I’m afraid of opening new wounds. So we just… let it go unsaid.”

  Allie smiled. “I had a complicated relationship with my mother, too, you know. I was raised by my grandparents because she was focussing on her career.”

  “I’m sorry,” Dani said.

  Allie shrugged. “She passed away five years ago. I never really knew my father well, either. So the theater is my life now. Still, I sometimes wish I could go back in time and cherish my moments with her. Instead, I spent them fighting over stupid things, trying to be rebellious for no reason.” Her eyes were welling over and she dabbed at them with the edge of her shirt. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten so sentimental. I guess she’s just been on my mind.”

  Dani put a hand on her shoulder. The loneliness she’d felt lightened just a little as she realized that Allie was going through a similar struggle. For a moment, the two were bonded in an unspoken sisterhood.

  Then, Allie yelped, “Is this it?”

  Her hand was shaking slightly as she pointed to a photo that was placed low on the wall, almost touching the floor. Both of them sat down cross-legged and stared at it. Dani shook her head almost instantly.

  “It’s a production of Macbeth, but it’s not the production of Macbeth.”

  “Are you sure? I think this must be it. The man in the shadows looks like he has Arthur Chamberlain’s facial structure.”

  “No. It isn’t him. Looks alike, but it’s not him.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Allie asked. “I mean, I think it’s him.”

  “The production of Macbeth that Arthur was talking about starred a woman named Juliet Francis,” Dani said. “She produced a gender-swapped Macbeth.”

  “Interesting!”

  “Have you heard of Juliet at all? I mean, since you’re part of the theater group...”

  “Never heard of her, sorry,” Allie shrugged. “Maybe someone else can help you out?”

  “Yes...” Dani bit her lip. “It’s just funny, that’s all.”

  “What is?”

  “I expected to find photos of her,” Dani said. “But both she and Arthur Chamberlain are missing.”

  Allie shrugged. “It can happen.”

  “But why would it? We’ve got photos here right from the 1950s. Is there some sort of storage room where we could look for more photos? I know that the era we’re looking for is sometime in the 70s.”

  Allie groaned. “Is it really worth going through all that dust just to see a photo of Arthur as a young man? What do you need it for anyway? We can probably call h
is agent and get his photos.”

  “Oh, but I specifically want photos of him in Innocence,” Dani said. “I couldn’t tell you why. Just a hunch.”

  “Well, good luck. I have to be getting back to my script now, but I can show you where the old records are stored in the attic.” Allie jumped up, and stretched like a cat, yawning loudly. “This was a good break, though. Just remember not to scare me half to death next time you come into the basement.”

  “Sorry,” Dani grinned. “I’ll let myself out.” She paused as she was about to open the door and asked. “By the way, since you’re not Dante’s girlfriend, do you know who is?”

  Allie looked confused. “Dante doesn’t have a girlfriend.”

  “Oh, I thought I saw him with someone at the party,” Dani said. “He seemed to be having an argument with her.”

  “An argument? Dante?” Allie was even more confused. “Are you sure? He’s usually so light-hearted. A little sarcastic, yes, but not the type to argue.”

  “Well, people act differently with their friends and their significant others,” Dani pointed out.

  “Maybe so, but I’ve known Dante for a while and, believe me, he’d tell me if he had a girlfriend. No, you must be mistaken. He’s very much single.”

  Dani must have looked like she didn’t believe it, because Allie continued, “I mean, he and I aren’t exactly best friends, but I’ve worked so much with him, I know him. He’s still really bitter about his parents divorcing.”

  “I guess that’s hard at any age,” Dani said. “Still, I’m sure he wouldn’t put his own life on hold just because his parents divorced.”

  “He’s lost his faith in love since they divorced,” Allie said. “He told me he’d always had a strained relationship with his father. His father wanted Dante to be tougher, to be a football player. Dante, himself, was a skinny kid who hated any kind of physical activity. He resented his father’s constant pressure.”

  “I got that feeling in the hospital,” Dani remembered.

  “I think he hates his father because he’s convinced that his father was very bad to Linda,” Allie said. “I mean, he doesn’t talk about it much, but the few hints he’s given me lead me to believe his father used to stray a lot.”