“Could Marco have been saved if someone who found him had called for an ambulance?”
“It’s hard to say for sure, Grace.”
Cornelius had moved into her uncle’s former office and rented out space to a new lawyer. It seemed odd to sit in a room where Uncle Charles once talked, breathed, watched the view, and thought that his death was a far away future event.
A tabby cat sat on the windowsill, eyes blinking, uncertain if she liked the two humans she didn’t recognize.
“Cute kitty,” Grace said.
“She’s been coming around to say hello.” Cornelius pulled a jar of Spratt’s treats out of one of his desk drawers. The tabby cat jumped on Cornelius’ lap and let him hand feed her the treats.
Grace thought about how brave cats were out in the world everyday. Smaller, and more vulnerable than other animals, without a fierce bark like dogs, they relied on instinct, speed, and agility to get away from predators.
“I’m filing the will today. So I’m telling you something that will be public record. He changed his will. Left everything to Lucia.”
“Who knew?”
Cornelius showed him the witness’s signatures.
“My secretary and—” He pointed to another name.
Jean Paul had signed it.
Grace and Jack looked at each other. “Hollywood. Lets take our plane,” they said in unison.
Chapter Ten
Jack turned in flight and they moved from the coastline to flying over orange groves and miles of unspoiled land. It all looked richly Californian. From the plane, Grace saw something white on a hilltop.
Tatania fidgeted on Grace’s lap and for an instant, Grace feared she might jump out. The magical cool cat never lacked for patience though and she stopped moving and sat silently watching the landscape emerge beneath them. Southern California seemed to promise every dream was within reach. Anything felt possible in a land the sun favored.
Jack landed the plane flawlessly like he always did, next to the huge letters spelling out one word: HOLLYWOODLAND.
Jack jumped out and offered Grace his hand. Grace took Tatania’s scarf and goggles off first and the cat was ready to explore the hilltop. Each letter looked huge. Towering several feet up in the air, the sign was best approached from a distance. Tatania looked up at the letter Y and considered jumping before deciding she’d try jumping fifty feet in the air on another day. Cats never fail at anything they willingly attempt.
She paused, groomed a paw, and admired her name, Tatania, on the side of Jack’s plane while trying to identify the myriad of scents wafting up the hill. She lept over a brush just to show could do it.
“The view from here is lovely, Jack.”
He put his arm around Grace. Tatania wound through their legs, brushing lightly against them, marking both as her humans in case another cat came around.
“The hillside might be a little unstable. Hold my hand.” He began walking down the hill.
“Jack, why don’t we fly down to the movie set?” She pointed at it below the hill. One of her heels scraped across a rock. “When did you get shy about landing next to a movie studio owner’s Bentley and saying that your ride is a plane?”
“Never shy, Grace. Just wanted to stop and enjoy the view. And kiss you.” He reached for her waist, pulling her towards him. And he kissed her and reminded her why she’d wanted to be with him in the first place.
Tatania meowed.
“Do you think Zeus is okay?” Grace asked.
“Absolutely. He’s probably dining on seafood right now.”
“And planning a long afternoon nap.” Grace took off her shoes and walked carefully down the hillside. “How does it feel to be with a barefoot woman?”
“Unfamiliar.”
“Don’t get used to it. I’m buying a lot of shoes to get past the hardship of this case.”
Tatania hurried ahead of them as if she had an appointment on the set.
“Tatania would be beautiful in the movies.”
“Yes, but I don’t think she’d like taking directions.”
Grace looked at orange groves and marveled that a pricey fruit on the east coast is practically free on trees in California. William Randolph Hearst said, “Houses should look as if they grew on the land.” She thought that Southern California architects and builders were accomplishing everything that Hearst envisioned.
“Jack, I don’t want her fur to get dirty.” Grace picked Tatania up to carry her back to the plane.
And then, Jack picked Grace up, and carried them both to the passenger seat. He kissed her again before she put scarves and goggles on Tatania. And the moment would have been perfect except Zeus wasn’t there. There had been three of them. And then they had become four. And without Zeus, she no longer felt her family was complete no matter how much she loved Jack and Tatania.
Jack flew them down to the studio lot.
They easily found Lauren. She had that rare beauty that almost emitted a scent. Like an orchid. The first thing you noticed when you met Lauren was how pretty she was. She was a smart girl but she was probably never fully appreciated for her intellect.
“I wanted to be a star. That’s why I moved to California,” she said, twirling her hair.
“Did you know Marco before you moved here?”
“No. I don’t have any trouble meeting men.”
“I can see that,” Jack said.
The second thing you noticed about Lauren was how golden she looked. From her hair, to her skin, to her jewelry, and beaded dresses, she looked like she’d been touched by King Midas himself. It seemed even the sunlight had been created just for her hair. She looked like she would always live in the light and never know darkness.
“I’ll miss him. I loved him. Who do you think would have killed him? He was such a good looking man.” She twirled her hair.
“That’s what we were going to ask you.”
Lauren shrugged. “Some people thought he was a jerk. But he was really nice to me. I was surprised when people said he was a rude bastard. I thought maybe they were jealous because he’s talented.”
It never failed. In all the years Jack had been investigating cases, first as a Pinkerton Detective, and then with Grace, in any case where the victim was a womanizer, you’d find at least one dame who’d tell you what a nice guy he was to her.
“He had a rough childhood. He had asthma. And he had allergies too. Finally, after Marco suffered for a long time, his family accepted the doctors’ prescription that he should live by the seaside. He opened his place in Coronado when he found Lucia. And there was a movie studio in Coronado for awhile. You know that, right?”
Grace nodded. “Coronado had its own movie studio for awhile. And Charlie Chaplin rides his scooter around Coronado. When Coronado had a polo playing field, Charlie Chaplin and other movie stars came to watch polo.
“I knew I was going to be in the movies. With or without Marco.” Lauren twirled her hair again.
Grace didn’t doubt it. She expected the camera loved Lauren as much as men do. There didn’t seem to be any motive for Lauren to kill Marco. He was just another admirer. If Marco’s murder could be tied to Lauren, it would only be because someone was jealous of Marco’s adoration of Lauren.
“How long did you date Marco?”
“A few weeks. You know what they say, when it’s right, you know it’s right. He had an offer to work on a movie. And I wanted to be in a movie. Like I said at the fashion show, he had money. And I like money. It felt like the whole universe was coming into balance when we met.”
“Absolutely,” Grace said.
“It’s hard when someone picks another girl over you. I’m not talking about boyfriends. That’s never been a problem for me. I mean when someone casting a photo shoot or a movie picks another girl. One day, I felt like such a failure because another girl got picked for a movie instead of me. I was walking, crying, thinking I might just kill myself, when I tripped, and fell splat on the sidewalk. I though
t, I didn’t mean it, God! I don’t want to kill myself. I don’t want to die. I want to live.”
“Physical pain can take the focus off emotional pain,” Grace said.
“Oh, I’ve known physical pain. I once worked in a candy factory. Wrapping candy until my eyes grew blurry and my fingers cramped. My feet hurt from standing all day too. And it was all for twelve dollars a week. And at the end of the week, it seemed like my pay was always docked for something. The good news was that I never wanted to eat candy again. When I fell, I knew how great a miracle it can be to just get up everyday and walk.”
“Count your blessings.” They silently stared across the lot for a moment. The movie studio owner parked his Bentley next to a homeless camp of unemployed actors everyday. Oblivious, he would get out of the Bentley parked two feet away from where the homeless hung their clothes after washing them in the studio fountain on the lot.
Later in the day, his publicity department alerted him because he was scheduled to speak about ending poverty in America that he’d just parked his Bentley next to a homeless camp. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He served on boards of directors for charities addressing homelessness and income inequality in America.
“I didn’t even notice when I pulled up next to them. Are you sure it was two feet away?”
“It might have been a little closer. It was on the passenger side. So how could you have been expected to see it?”
“I can’t let something like that happen again. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it.” He shook his head.
“I’m going to hire a chauffeur.”
“Cat’s pajamas,” agreed the nearest sycophant.
“Lets move the Bentley. Put it next to the baseball practice field. I want to talk about buying baseballs for poor kids.”
The smell of buttered popcorn was the closest the unemployed actors were getting to movies everyday. The unemployed actors couldn’t even afford to attend movies for a dime when they weren’t getting paid to appear in them.
“I want to speak about the Better Homes in America movement. The press may ask about the brouhaha.”
“Which one?”
“The costume designer unexpectedly killed—”
“—when is one expected to get killed? When one interrupts the boss. Just kidding. Stay calm.” He patted the shoulder of his whitening publicity lackey.
“The costume designer offed in Coronado. Some people say it was related to the costume designer who replaced him.”
“There’s always something happening on this lot.” Lauren was still talking to Grace and Jack. “I have a new boyfriend. I wasn’t going to be alone forever,” Lauren said.
“Do you mean Jean Paul?”
“No. I said a new boyfriend. He’s in the distribution business.”
“Distribution? Do you mean he’s a rich bootlegger?”
“Now Jack, you know there isn’t any other kind of bootlegger,” Grace said.
“He was interested in distributing movies too. So he brought me up here and inquired about being an extra on the set. Then, there was trouble on the set during a campfire scene when we were acting like we were out camping. His pants caught on fire.”
“Was he a liar?” Jack knew he should be more sympathetic but men were so disposable to Lauren, he also knew she wouldn’t be offended.
“No. If that actually happened, every movie set in Hollywood would be on fire. Houses might burn down because all the firemen would be needed on the movie sets. Do you want to meet the stunt men?”
“Worrying about Tatania climbing out on the wing of the plane on the trip here was close enough to a stunt for me today. I don’t think I can handle a cup of joe. I’m already shaking. Coffee would probably give me tremors like Jake Leg.”
“Who’s he?”
“It’s an ailment that can come from drinking Jamaican ginger. People get poisoned by it.”
Lauren twirled her hair, laughing. “I missed Marco for a time. But there are always other men,” she said, looking at Jack.
For a time. Grace thought about what that might mean in Lauren’s world. A few minutes?
“And I believe Jean Paul can create beautiful dresses for me for this movie. Jack, you must have been a dashing flyboy.”
It was as if she needed validation of her beauty from every man she met. And she was still waiting for more from Jack.
“How did you know I was a flyboy?”
“The jacket and goggles you wear. You look like a flyby. And you strut like one too.” She giggled. “I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep,” she said, looking inexplicably well rested.
She pulled a silver flask out of her black lace garter. Her knees were rouged and powdered.
“Care for something to drink before your next flight, Jack?”
“Oh yeah.”
Grace grabbed his arm.
“My boyfriend was in trial. And the jury drank all the evidence.” Lauren giggled again. “He was acquitted. He sent the jurors wine for parting gifts. Not everyone gives a gift after the verdict. He’s thoughtful like that. And he took them out to dinner and left hundred dollar bills under everyone’s plate”
“We’re going to the wrong parties, Jack.”
Lauren didn’t seem to need sleep. It was as if sleep was the provenance of beings less golden and gifted than her.
“Was Nelly the only assistant to Marco?”
“Yes, he tried having another assistant to help for awhile because Nelly is always complaining about having too much work to do. But the assistant to Nelly was always getting sick. She’d take time off, feel better, come back, and then get sick again. Then Nelly said it was too much work for her to have an assistant.”
Chapter Eleven
Tatania smelled bacon. She’d always thought bacon shouldn’t be just for breakfast and decided that visiting the set’s commissary would be imperative to solving the mystery. While Grace and Jack talked gibberish to the blonde human, she went out for a bite.
She hadn’t walked on a dirt road in awhile. After walking a few feet, she turned and admired her paw prints. She had delicate, lady-like paws. She didn’t like an abundance of dust. But a smattering of dust was interesting for the different scents it could carry.
She smelled human sweat, fear, and anxiety. In Coronado, she rarely felt a human’s fear or anxiety. A calmness came over her two legged friends on the enchanted island.
The humans on the movie studio lot didn’t seem calm. Tatania walked past houses that seemed to be merely facades. As if the builder had built the front of the house, but couldn’t be bothered with the rest. She followed the intoxicating bacon aroma to a grill behind a counter. A woman wearing a hair net flipped bacon. She turned, looked at Tatania, and smiled. She put a few pieces of bacon on a plate for her, checking the temperature first and breaking it into bits.
Tatania thought the woman with the name tag that said Clara Bow was as charismatic as a cat. She’d never seen a human female with that much charisma before. Of course, all cats have charisma. Tatania believed charisma is that indescribable something that makes you never want to take your eyes off someone. Without her powers of invisibility, sleuthing would be a lot harder because humans usually adored watching her.
Tatania ate the bacon and let the woman pet her. She looked up and since no one was watching, she licked her chops like a dog. Tatania loved bacon.
“What a beautiful little stray. Or maybe you’re not a stray. Maybe you’re the best actress here.” She laughed.
Tatania walked lightly around her legs. She was a smart human. Another girl sat at the counter staring into her compact mirror. Tatania jumped up on the stool next to her. She looked like she needed a nap.
There were rows of Campbell’s canned soup on the shelf behind the counter.
“Would you like tomato soup today?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to bloat from the salt.” She rubbed her flat stomach.
“The most popular item on our menu is The Starlet Speci
al.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a lettuce and tomato sandwich. Without the bread.”
“I’ll have that. I want to be thinner and more beautiful.”
“I don’t think that would be possible.” A man appeared behind her, talking closely in her ear.
“Jean Paul,” the women behind the counter said in unison.
Tatania read their lips. She decided this would be a good time to begin investigating fashion designer Jean Paul. After pausing to separate his scent from the girls by sniffing a scarf he wore around his neck, she jumped down from the stool, swivelled her ears three times, became invisible, and bounded out the door. She followed his scent to a trailer.
There were racks of clothes inside and three full length mirrors. She looked for a suitcase. She spotted the San Diego Union newspaper on a table with a small folding chair in front of it. The story of Marco’s death was on the front page. Tatania tried rolling around on the newspaper. But it felt less satisfying to roll around on the paper when there wasn’t a human trying to read it at the same time.
There was a Sears Roebuck catalogue on the table too. If she had time, and a checking account, she’d order fish bait for her fishermen in Coronado. Give a man fish bait, and he’ll be able to fish for his favorite cats all day long. Tatania loved her own humans, Grace and Jack, but fishermen always had a special place in her little self-serving heart.
She rolled over and read an ad for cigarettes. She’s a Lucky girl proclaimed the Lucky cigarettes ad. If they wanted to show a lucky human, they should photograph him or her next to a cat.
The floor vibrated. A human was opening the door. It was the girl at the counter with Jean Paul. She began taking off her clothes. Tatania decided whatever happened next was something she could live without seeing. She grabbed a business card in her mouth, pushed the door further open, and lept outside. It appeared only the trailers had anything behind their facades on this lot.
When she found Grace and Jack again, she dropped the business card on the ground.
“It’s Jean Paul’s card. He has a trailer here and a house in the Hollywood Hills.”
Magical Cool Cat Mysteries Boxed Set Volume 3 (Magical Cool Cats Mysteries) Page 13
