A Case of Imagination

by Jane Tesh

  Jerry and I were halfway up the aisle of the auditorium when Jerry stopped. “Oh, my God,” he said.

  “What?”

  “That’s who I saw!”

  “What are you talking about?”

  His eyes were huge. “During my séance! That wasn’t Hayden’s ghost. It was Juliet’s. White dress, dark hair—it must have been her. She was trying to tell me she was going to be murdered.”

  Even for Jerry, this was over the top. “Jerry—”

  “If only I hadn’t been so surprised, she might have told me who killed her.”

  I was very glad that Evan James and Cindy were talking with Chief Brenner and not listening to this. “Suppose I believe you, just for a second. Why would Juliet Lovelace come to you?”

  “Because she knows I’m receptive to spirits. I must have been sending out a powerful signal.”

  “And why come to your house? Wouldn’t she be haunting the theater?”

  He looked around. “She probably is now. I should try and get in touch with her.”

  I took him by the arm. “You should try and get in touch with reality. Come on.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Jerry hesitated before entering the house, but nothing jumped out at him. We weren’t haunted by anything else that night except the vision of Juliet sprawled on the stage floor in her beautiful pageant gown. Unable to sleep, we sat on the porch for a long time, talking.

  Jerry passed me one of the last two sodas he’d found in the fridge. “Did you learn anything useful from the contestants?”

  “No one saw or heard anything unusual backstage. I’m going to talk with Karen Mitman tomorrow. Of all the girls, she wasn’t crying or looking very upset. I guess she could’ve been in shock. And I have something to show the contestants. I didn’t want to show them at the theater.” I took the plastic fingernail out of my pocket.

  “What’s that?”

  “A fingernail. I found it by Juliet’s body. There were a lot of sequins, too. I’m not sure, but I think they’re the same kind I found near Shana’s house.”

  “Which means?”

  “I’m a little closer to solving Hayden’s ghost story.” I put the fingernail back in my pocket. “But I never expected to have to solve a murder.”

  “Which you will solve, and then it’s ‘In your face, Reid Kent.’”

  “That’s part of it, I have to admit. But I really want to find out who killed Juliet. I want to put them away. Nobody has the right to do that to another human being. Sure, she wasn’t everybody’s favorite, but she didn’t deserve to be choked to death. She didn’t deserve to die before she had a chance to—”

  I must have sounded seriously worked up. Jerry put his hand on my shoulder. “Hey, take it easy. We’re both a little shaken by this.”

  “Did you ever think, a few days ago, when we were having lunch at Baxter’s and talking about your house, that this sort of thing would happen?”

  “You’re not sorry you came, are you?”

  “Oh, no. No.” I took a deep breath to steady myself. I thought of everything I would’ve missed, Gregory Prill’s dramatics, the exploding ghost dinner at Hayden and Shana’s, Nell’s wry observations, Ted’s flattering interest. And being here with Jerry, doing what I knew I wanted to do. “No, this is what I want.”

  He held up his soda can and touched mine in salute. “Okay.”

  Okay. I took courage from his calm gray gaze. This is what I want.

  ***

  Saturday morning, I found Karen Mitman at her parents’ home on Main Street.

  “I figured you’d come by,” she said. “Let’s sit on the porch. I really don’t want my mom to hear us. Want some tea?”

  I accepted a glass of tea and a seat on her front porch. Today, Karen was wearing a yellow tee shirt and shorts. A yellow headband held back her black curls. She could easily have been the winner of the Miss Celosia crown, except for the frown that creased her smooth forehead.

  “Last night you didn’t seem as upset as the other girls.”

  She glanced toward the door as if concerned someone would overhear. “Of course, I’m upset about Juliet, but I’m really relieved we won’t have the pageant. Entering the pageant was all my mother’s idea. I didn’t want to parade around in front of the whole town in my bathing suit. I didn’t want to try to play that Chopin étude by memory. It’s impossible.”

  I could certainly sympathize with Karen. “What did you think of Juliet?”

  Karen sighed. “Well, I hate to talk about her when she’s dead, but she was so mean to all of us. She bragged about herself all the time, especially in front of me. I guess, in her white world, I didn’t exist.”

  “Did she make racist remarks?”

  “Oh, she was real careful about that. She made sure no one ever heard her. But I heard her, ’cause she’d say them to me, like when I couldn’t get the dance steps, she’d say, ‘I thought all you people had rhythm,’ or ‘Have you heard about the Miss Watermelon Pageant in Far Corners?’ Things like that.”

  “You should have told someone.”

  Karen shrugged. “She said equally mean things about Donna Sanchez being Mexican and Randi Peterson having a drunk for a father. Mama said Juliet was just common, just showing her ignorance. Then Juliet said she’d win because she’d slept with all the men judges, even Mr. Hofsteder, and he’s really old. She said she’d slept with Mr. Stacy, which I knew was a big fat lie.”

  I almost rocked back in my chair. “Ted Stacy?”

  “Yes, the insurance man.”

  I hoped I didn’t look as surprised as I felt. “Why didn’t you believe her?”

  “She tried to bring a sexual harassment suit against him.” Karen set her tea glass on the porch railing. “See, she was one of his summer interns. She complained to Mason and Freer, but they just laughed it off. And when she complained to the police, they didn’t do anything, either.”

  No, not good, at all, I thought.

  Karen had a lot more to say. “She thought she was such hot stuff. She wasn’t happy with just the guys our age. She chased after all the men. She tried to get her claws into Mr. Amry, too.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because Shana blessed her out on Main Street, that’s why.”

  “Tell me about that.”

  “I was in the drug store getting a Coke, and I heard them. Shana and Juliet were across the street in front of Georgia’s. Shana said, ‘You’d better leave him alone.’ And Juliet said, ‘You can’t tell me what to do.’ Things like that.”

  Karen’s eyes gleamed. I could tell she enjoyed relating anything that showed Juliet in a bad light.

  “Then Juliet said, ‘It’s a free country,’ and Shana said, ‘You can’t go around treating people like that, one day you’re going to be very sorry.’ She’s got a horrible temper, Shana does. I think they would’ve gotten into a fight except Officer Johns came by and told them to stop.”

  Karen picked up her tea glass and stirred the ice. I noticed her fingernails were cut short and painted with clear shiny polish.

  I reached in my pocket for the fingernail. “Do you recognize this?”

  Karen frowned at the fingernail. “I’m not sure. Is it Juliet’s?”

  “Did she wear this color?”

  “I guess. I didn’t really pay much attention to what she wore, to tell you the truth. I just tried to keep out of her way.” She gave the door another worried glance. “If that’s all, do you mind if I say good-bye? If my mother sees me talking to you, she’ll think I’m interested in being in another pageant, and that’s the last thing I want to do.”

  “It’s okay, Karen.” I got up. “Believe me, I understand.”

  ***

  As I walked back to my car, my cell phone beeped. Ted Stacy’s name and number appeared on my caller ID. Ted’s voice was strained.

  “Madeline, are you still investigating the pageant?”

  “Yes.”

  “Could you come over to my office
right away?”

  Ted’s office was in shambles.

  I paused in the doorway and stared. Everything that had been on Ted’s desk was on the floor. The desk drawers hung open, their contents mangled. The bookshelves had been stripped, books tossed in untidy piles, their covers torn and bent. All the pictures and the mounted fish hung askew. I stepped over a pile of twisted folders. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  Ted paused in his cleanup efforts to run his hand through his hair. “I’m fine. I surprised someone rooting around in my office.” He pointed to the shattered window. “He got away.”

  “What was he after?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Did you get a look at him?”

  “He bolted right out the window. I saw a blur of black, that’s all. I don’t usually come in on Saturday mornings, but I had some work I wanted to finish.” He looked around at the mess. “If I can find it.”

  I picked up his pencil holder and set it back on the desk. The pencils had rolled under the desk and across the carpet. I stooped to gather them. “You keep any money here? Important papers someone would want?”

  “No, nothing like that.” His hands were unsteady as he straightened the mounted fish. “I wanted to talk to you. This happening right after Juliet’s murder makes me worry the police might think I had something to do with it.”

  I found his stapler and desk calendar by the wall. “Why would they think that, Ted?”

  He paused a moment. “When Juliet worked for me, she made some very inappropriate remarks of a—sexual nature.”

  “She made a pass at you?”

  Again he ran his hand through his hair. “I probably should have known better than to hire her, but I thought I’d give her a chance. I told her that sort of behavior would get her nowhere, that she was better than that, she had brains and ability. I also told her if she did anything like that again, she’d be fired. I wanted her to understand about consequences. Well, she got upset, and later she went to the police and claimed I was the one making advances. It was certainly embarrassing, but I’d never do anything to harm her.”

  “Do you have an alibi for ten o’clock last night?”

  His smile was wry. “You don’t waste any time, do you? Last night, at ten, I was here in the office, catching up on some paperwork. Missy went home at five, so I was alone.”

  “Have you called the police?”

  “They’ve already been here. They got what they needed, so I’m cleaning up the rest.”

  “When was this?”

  “I came in around eight this morning, saw the mess, called them. They were here a couple of hours. Which reminds me, do you see my clock anywhere?”

  I found his desk clock beside the trashcan. “Did you get the impression they suspected you?”

  “I hope not.”

  We gathered the remaining folders and stacked them in a chair. Ted swept the broken glass into a dustpan and tossed the pieces into the trashcan. He set his swivel chair upright and sagged into it. “Do you think we could leave the scene of the crime? I could use a drink.”

  “Ever since you mentioned Big Sid’s House of Ribs, my mouth has been watering.”

  This finally made him smile. “We can fix that.”

  ***

  Big Sid’s was everything a rib house should be, bright, noisy, and full of meat. Ignoring Ted’s chuckle, I piled my plate with juicy ribs. He had a salad and a drink. We sat down at one of the picnic tables outside.

  “If you like barbecue, I know a great place,” I said. “Baxter’s Barbecue in Parkland. Have you ever been there?”

  “No. I’m not as carnivorous as you are.”

  “That’ll be my treat next time.”

  “I’m glad to hear there’s going to be a next time.” Ted took a couple of bites of salad and put his fork down.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.

  “There’s something else I need to tell you.”

  The tone of his voice made me stop eating.

  “Juliet called me yesterday. She was upset. She said she’d done something foolish, and was in over her head. She said I was one person who’d understand. She wanted us to meet. I admit I hesitated, and she picked up on my hesitation. She said she had to go and hung up.” He pushed his salad plate away. “I feel awful about this. Maybe if I’d met with her, she wouldn’t have been killed.”

  “You have no idea what she meant?”

  “Everything Juliet did was foolish. She had no direction. I tried to help her, and I almost lost my reputation.”

  What would Juliet have considered foolish? Burning the curtains? Pushing over the set? Taunting the other contestants? If she did those things, she probably enjoyed it. “The point is you tried, Ted. Maybe you’re the only person who cared enough to try, and that’s why Juliet called you.”

  “I don’t know.” He smiled a wry smile.

  “What?” I asked. “Do I have sauce all over my face?”

  “Just thinking. You’re trying to solve the mystery, right? You’ll be like that woman on TV who comes to town and immediately someone is murdered.”

  I laughed. “Oh, I know the one you mean. I always thought she was probably the killer, going from town to town, knocking off the most unpleasant citizen. It would be a great disguise.”

  “You won’t be going from town to town, though.”

  “I won’t?”

  “You’re going to stay in Celosia, aren’t you?”

  “I’m thinking about it.”

  Ted wiped his mouth with his napkin. “Well, I have a suggestion for you. There’s an empty office in my building. Why not rent it and set up your own agency here in town?”

  Instead of envisioning a new office in Ted’s building, I had a sudden picture of the upstairs parlor of the Eberlin house. The perfect place for an office.

  Is that what I really wanted?

  I must have looked stunned. Ted held up a hand. “Just a suggestion.”

  I came back to reality. “It’s a terrific suggestion, thank you.”

  “So you’ll do it?”

  “Let me see if I can solve this case first.”

  He smiled. “I know you can.”

  Ted’s smile was genuine and warm. Big Sid’s ribs were tasty and juicy. But my mind wandered from both delicious sights. The upstairs parlor of the Eberlin house! What was I thinking? This was an even bigger mystery.

  ***

  The Sanchez home was on Peacock Lane near the Wal-Mart. Donna Sanchez was still upset about Juliet’s murder, but for a different reason today.

  “I hate her! Selfish, evil bitch!”

  I thought for a moment she was going to slam the door in my face. “It’s probably not a good idea to talk like that.”

  “I don’t care. You realize, don’t you, that she got her wish? Nobody won the pageant. There’s not even going to be a pageant, and all the attention’s on her. Even when she’s dead, she’s screwing me over.”

  I’d been through this kind of temper tantrum before. Backstage at pageants, sometimes all it took was a stuck zipper. “I realize you’re upset. Could I ask you just a few questions?”

  “Are you going to find the guy that killed her?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to do.”

  She opened the door wider. “Good. ’Cause when you find him, I want to thank him.”

  The Sanchez family living room was decorated in Early American. Pictures of Donna sat on every available surface. Donna in her cheerleading outfit. Donna in her prom dress. Little Donna holding a kitten.

  She flopped down on the sofa. I chose one of the recliner chairs facing the wide-screen TV. Donna in a Christmas dress beamed from the top of the TV.

  “I can’t believe this.” She was back to her rant. “I’ve waited my whole life to be in the Miss Celosia Pageant, and that stupid Juliet has to go and get herself killed and ruin everything. Why couldn’t we have the pageant next month? That’s plenty of time before Miss North Carolina.”
/>   I took out the piece of pink plastic. “Recognize this?”

  She looked. “Looks like a fingernail.”

  “Juliet’s?”

  “Probably. She always liked that garish shade of pink.” She handed it back to me and rubbed her hands on her shorts. “That’s kind of gross. Did you take it off her hand?”

  “Did anyone else have nails this color?”

  “Don’t look at me. I only use shades of magenta. That shade of pink would be too bright on me. There are probably hundreds of these things backstage. I guess you noticed they hardly ever clean up or sweep. That could be a relic from last year’s pageant.”

  I put the fingernail in my pocket. “So no one else was wearing this color?”

  “If Juliet was wearing it, we wouldn’t touch it.”

  ***

  Randi Peterson wasn’t angry. She was scared. In fact, she was too scared to open the door. She spoke through a crack.

  “I don’t want to talk about it. Oh, my God, I could be next. What if this is a serial killer who targets beauty pageant contestants? What if he’s making some sort of weird statement about women? It had to be one of those protesters. You know, they’re not attractive women, and they’re bound to be jealous.”

  I held the fingernail at her eye level. “Randi, would you please take a look at this and see if you recognize it?”

  “What is it? Is it part of her tongue? Oh, my God, take it away! Go away!”

  “No, no, it’s a piece of plastic fingernail.”

  “That’s horrible! Did you take it off her body?”

  “Do you recognize it? Could it belong to someone else?”

  She began to sob. “Just go away. I never want to see anything about a pageant ever again.”

  “I’m sorry you’re so upset, but we’re going to find out who killed Juliet. You shouldn’t feel threatened in any way.”

  “This is Celosia. Things like this don’t happen in Celosia.”

  “Things like this happen everywhere. You have to learn to deal with life, Randi.”

  She shut the door with a firm click.

  Okay. That’s one way to deal with life.

  ***