Hattie shifted on her seat once more. ‘Even though I had won over the hearts of fans and brought in incredible amounts of money for the studio, loyalty meant nothing. It didn’t help that real bullets were found in my dressing room, either.’
‘Oh no,’ said Claire. ‘How on earth did your name get cleared?’
‘It wasn’t for some time. Being a high-profile murder meant every stone had to be turned over. That takes time. George and my lawyer did what they could, but the public were baying for blood and circumstances meant it was mine. After all, I was the home-wrecker older woman who tore Reeves Garrity and Jeanne Harris apart.’
‘Though given what you’ve told me, it wasn’t that way at all.’
‘It wasn’t,’ said Hattie. ‘But because Reeves and I had snuck around like a pair of adulterers, we made ourselves look guilty.’ She let out a long sigh. ‘I would do things so very differently if I had my time again.’
‘I think we all would.’
Hattie’s smile was sad. ‘You still can.’ She sat up straight, her voice businesslike once more. ‘All evidence pointed towards me and if I were a policeman, I would have thrown me in the slammer as well. The perpetrator was clever, oh so clever. I have to give them kudos for that.’
Claire desperately wanted to hurry Hattie along to find out who’d done it but she remained silent, waiting for the older woman to tell her story. This documentary wasn’t about Claire, she was only a vehicle to help Hattie finish business that should have been over years ago. And Claire was more than happy to help.
‘So with a real gun in my hand and bullets in my purse, they were ready to throw away the key. Then George discovered the one thing that everybody had missed.’
Claire leaned forward. ‘What was it?’
‘Jeanne Harris was one smart cookie. She played the role of diva so beautifully and she never really showed how intelligent she was. Even in the time that we were friends, I never realised how cunning she could be.’ Hattie inhaled slowly. ‘Turns out she was very good at making friends with my past.’
‘Oh?’
‘Remember I told you about Dotty Parker and how I’d seen her at the premiere for one of my movies?’
‘Yes.’
‘Well, I didn’t hear from her after that and I honestly thought all was well. But I should have known better. What came out later was that Dotty had come looking for me at the studios not long before that fateful day. She’d run into Jeanne, who’d been hanging around like a bad smell, and they got to talking and discovered a mutual dislike for me. Jeanne was still furious with me for taking her “life” and Reeves, and Dotty had never gotten over the death of her brother, Charlie.’
‘The man you dated before you started working for the studio?’
‘Yes, the one I met when working at the bar.’ Hattie ran a finger along the velvet armrest. ‘He was such a beautiful man. Funny. Handsome. We were quite the item. Even Dotty approved of me courting her brother.’
‘What changed?’
‘Charlie had another he was courting—booze. Of course, working in a place with such easy access didn’t help. When he was sober, he was a lovely person but that drink … oh … it really is the devil. He raised his hand a few times and I quickly realised he was not someone I wanted to be with. Though breaking up with Charlie was way harder than it should have been.
‘He followed me. Harassed me at every turn, trying to berate me into seeing him again. When I mentioned his issues to Dotty, she refused to believe her brother could be like this.’
‘She never saw him drunk?’
‘He was a master at hiding things. Even when he hit me it was in places that could be covered up.’ Hattie swallowed hard. ‘The point is, he got drunk one night, I fought him off and he stumbled back and fell down the stairs. I am sure he was dead before he hit the bottom.’
‘That’s horrible.’ Hearing about all the traumas Hattie had gone through made Claire wonder how on earth Hattie could be the sane, loving person she was today.
‘It was. And I felt terrible. The police believed me—they had a record as long as your arm about Charlie and assaults on other women—but Dotty refused to believe it.’
‘That’s some serious sibling loyalty,’ said Claire.
‘Yes, and she never forgave me, even though it wasn’t my fault. I tried to make it right, but Dotty wouldn’t have a bar of it. So, I left without a forwarding address and not long after I was employed by Fortitude Studios.’
‘I don’t quite understand the connection with Jeanne.’
‘It all comes together, don’t worry.’ Hattie looked away then focussed on Claire again. ‘So, Jeanne and Dotty met at the studio, realised how much they despised me and set about formulating a plan.’
‘How could anyone do that to you?’
‘I represented what they didn’t have—I had the role meant for Jeanne and I also had Reeves’s heart, and in Dotty’s eyes I took the life of her beloved brother Charlie. I’m assuming that once Jeanne heard my story about Dotty’s brother they figured that I’d already been arrested under suspicion of murder and even though I’d got off, there was always that question mark about whether I did it. Framing me this time meant I had a higher chance of landing in the clink.’
‘Wow.’
‘It was a very dark time in my life.’
‘I don’t quite understand how shooting Reeves would help Jeanne get revenge.’
‘Ah.’ Hattie held up her finger. ‘That’s where everything unravelled. My dress was too tight and I fell when Alan, the novice actor, tripped. The bullet was meant for him.’
‘Why?’
‘Because if I got arrested for shooting someone—anyone—then I’d be out of the way.’
‘But you didn’t have any reason to shoot Alan. Hadn’t you just met him?’ Claire couldn’t quite get her head around this complicated, and very depressing, story.
‘Jeanne and Dotty were so intent on setting me up I don’t think they thought it through.’
‘Hmm,’ said Claire. ‘What did George discover that pieced it all together?’
‘No one was aware Jeanne was hiding and watching on, waiting for me to pull the trigger on innocent Alan. When the gun went off and we realised Reeves had been hit, she ran from the sound studio. George had been passing and she collided with him, her purse spilling contents everywhere.’
‘Bullets?’
‘Only one. She must have lost count of how many she’d left in my room as “evidence”.’
‘Oh, Hattie, I’m so sorry you went through all this. I’m so sorry for Reeves as well.’
‘I like to think I’m past it all, but I’m not. You never forget your grand love.’
Claire nodded. After meeting Luke, she now knew what Hattie meant. ‘Did George keep the bullet?’
‘No. He let her pick it up then he called security. They looked through her purse and found the bullet that matched the others found in the gun. It took some time before everything fell into place with getting his statement and the detectives doing all that they needed, but they eventually got to the truth. Jeanne and Dotty may have teamed up to see my demise, but there was no loyalty between them. Both pointed fingers and both got what they deserved.’
‘Jail?’
‘For some time, though Jeanne went away longer as she was the one who exchanged the fake pistol for real.’
Claire sat back, trying to take it all in. ‘It sounds like the plot for a classic Hollywood movie.’
‘It surely does.’ Hattie fell into silence and Claire let her be. Recounting such a torrid and heartwrenching story would surely take a lot of energy. ‘I think of him every day.’
‘He sounds like a very special man.’
Hattie’s smile reached her eyes. ‘We weren’t together very long, but it was some of the best days of my life. I loved him so.’
‘I can see,’ said Claire.
‘There are some days I wished I’d stayed and ridden out the tide. I was just getting
started with helping women in my industry. I wanted to use my voice to help them.’ Hattie reached for Claire’s hand and held it gently. ‘You and I are cut from the same cloth, you know. We’re determined, we play on our strengths but are smart enough to work on our weaknesses, and we want to change the paths of the women that come after us.’
‘You make it all sound so noble,’ said Claire.
‘During my time in Hollywood I would never have said it was noble, but now, looking back on the lives I was able to change because of my position of power, I’m proud of what I’ve achieved. Even if the end of my career brings me heartache.’ Hattie stared into the distance, then shook her head, as if bringing herself back to the present. ‘George and Anna May—the young actress I first helped—continued with the home for actresses with the money from Reeves’s estate. Unbeknownst to all of us, he’d changed his will prior to his death. Anna May became famous in her own right so she banded with a few other high-profile actresses to continue the legacy and that network still exists—at least half a dozen houses now, I understand—and well-known actresses still go there and give guidance and free acting lessons to those just starting out.’
‘What a wonderful legacy you’ve created.’
Hattie sighed. ‘I wish I could have seen it all through. Anna May writes often and tells me how it is all going and what the latest success stories are.’
‘What about George?’
Hattie dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief. ‘He passed away a few years back. That’s one of my biggest regrets, you know. I never saw him after I left Los Angeles. We talked, and we wrote, but it just wasn’t the same. He was my dearest friend and I miss him.’
‘Did George ever find love again?’ She was met with a bright smile from Hattie.
‘He did. A young man from New York. A banker, of all people! An interesting match but George and Ethan were extremely happy and for that I am thankful. They still had to be secretive about their life together but at least they had a grand love and George left this world in peace and his heart full.’
‘I’m so happy to hear this,’ said Claire. The way Hattie spoke about them, with such detail and emotion, it was impossible not to feel like she had met them herself. ‘Would you ever go back?’
‘No.’ Hattie shook her head. ‘Too many ghosts.’
‘Ghosts can find us no matter where we are,’ said Claire.
‘This is true.’
‘How hard was it to adjust back to life in Starlight Creek? After all, you’d spent years going to glamorous parties and wearing designer gowns, only to return to overalls and gumboots.’
‘It took me a very long time to be happy about living in Australia once more. After all, I hadn’t had any plans to leave Los Angeles, yet I found myself hounded out of there clutching a fistful of broken dreams. I laid low for a long time, living with my parents out on the sugarcane farm. My mother still ran the cinema, but I never went near the place. Once they’d died and I inherited the cinema, I discovered all the reels of every movie I’d made. Aside from the one with Reeves that was never released.’ Hattie sighed. ‘That was the best work I’d ever done. Our chemistry on and off the screen was incredible. But I digress.’ She rolled her shoulders back. ‘I inherited the cinema and they’d even written into the will that I was welcome to sell it. Living on the farm had become difficult because I was now a city girl trying to fit in a country girl’s shoes.’
‘I can relate to that.’
Hattie laughed. ‘I think you’re more country than you realise. Anyway, I needed some space to myself and the cinema was the only place around here that afforded me that opportunity. Remember, I’d gone from a mansion in the heart of Hollywood to a tiny two-bedroom house on a farm that housed a lot of people. Besides, I had the solace I needed because by the time my mother and father passed, the cinema had been closed for a few years.’
‘That’s such a shame.’
‘It was,’ she said. ‘TV changed everything. The cinema used to be a huge event where everyone would gather with their families and discuss the latest goings-on in the town but television fragmented that sense of community. Instead of chatting with friends between short films, people opted to stay in their homes and watch TV. Don’t get me wrong, I quite enjoy snuggling up on my own couch and watching a movie, but it’s not the same as going to the cinema. Maybe that’s where it all started going wrong.’
‘What did?’
‘This town. Maybe this lack of community started when people exchanged a large screen for small.’ She shrugged. ‘Who knows, this is just the speculation of an old woman.’
‘It’s a fair point,’ said Claire. ‘Do you think, though, that things are swinging around again? That movies will become a big social occasion? That they could bring a community together once more?’
‘You could be onto something.’ Hattie tapped her fingers on the armrest. ‘So anyway, I moved into the cinema as it had run its course and wasn’t operating anymore. I originally thought it would be like living with ghosts, though somehow it was strangely comforting. Maybe being able to come in here and sit in the quiet and remember fonder times of my life as a starlet was what I needed to do. I’m sure it helped me come to terms with realising that part of my life was forever over.’
Claire hesitated, not sure about asking the next question. ‘I imagine painful memories would crowd in on the good.’
‘Yes,’ said Hattie. ‘I look on those early years living here as therapy. Mental health professionals might call me crazy, but it worked. I managed to face my demons. Well, most of them. In a way, this cinema became my crutch.’ She slowly looked around, taking in the expanse. ‘I don’t know how I would have got through it all without this.’
‘Is that why you didn’t sell?’
‘When I first inherited it, I tried, but who wants to buy a cinema that’s gone broke?’
‘I’ve heard of people buying old churches and renovating them into bed and breakfasts.’
‘Pfft.’ Hattie waved her hand. ‘Those yuppies and their money.’
Claire tried to contain her amusement.
‘Oh, laugh all you like, but these young folk with money often don’t have taste.’ Hattie rolled her eyes. ‘Will you listen to me? I sound like my grandmother! Ha!’
‘Well, I, for one, think you have a very progressive view on the world.’
‘I like to think I do.’
Claire looked at her extensive notes. ‘After the Hays Code was abolished in the late sixties, do you feel women in the industry have more opportunities to play more substantial roles and show our value?’
‘To be honest, I’m not sure if we’ll ever get to the point where women are valued as highly as men—at least on the payroll.’ Hattie rubbed her finger on her chin. ‘I wonder if the wheels I started turning would have sped up if I’d stayed in Hollywood.’
‘From what I understand, you made a very big difference in a very short time.’
‘I did.’ Hattie leaned her head against the back of the chair. ‘Maybe leaving was a mistake.’
‘Was there any way you could have stayed, though?’
‘No. My time there was done. Besides …’ She leaned forward. ‘My heart wasn’t in it anymore. How could it be? I’d lost the love of my life, my career, my dreams. There was nothing to salvage. Oh my.’ Hattie sat back. ‘That took more out of me than I’d expected.’
‘How do you feel?’
Hattie drew her brows together. ‘Good. I think.’
‘Maybe it will take some time.’
‘Yes, I suppose it will. So what now?’ Hattie asked.
‘We’ll head back to Melbourne and work on everything we’ve filmed. We’ve already had interest from distributors.’
‘Already?’
‘Yes,’ Claire said. ‘But it won’t go out until you’ve approved it.’
‘Just show me when you’re done. I know you will do this justice.’
‘Thank you.’ The words just didn’t seem enough.
‘You remind me so much of me when I was younger.’ Hattie’s smile was slow and warm. ‘You’re strong, independent, and want to change the world. I did—for a time. And I suspect you will as well—with longer-lasting effects, I hope.’
‘I’m not so sure you’re right,’ said Claire.
‘Why not?’
‘You set up an organisation to help protect women and give them somewhere safe to live and skills they needed. What have I done?’
‘Oh, my dear girl! You are helping me put a matter to rest.’ Hattie picked at an imaginary fleck on her jacket. ‘You’re helping me honour my Reeves. To honour those whose voices have been lost over the years.’
‘There are so many lost voices.’
‘Exactly,’ said Hattie. ‘And it’s high time they were heard. You can do this, Claire. You have the perfect medium to help and you’re talented and passionate.’
Claire let Hattie’s words wash over her. Everything she said made sense and it spoke to her heart.
‘Women,’ Claire said.
‘Pardon?’
‘Women’s voices. That’s what I need to do. I need to seek out women who are struggling to be heard, whose voices are suppressed for whatever reason, whether they were born into a world that silences them or have had their voices taken away.’ Claire sat forward, her body buzzing with energy. ‘This is it. This is what I’m supposed to do!’
Hattie grasped Claire’s hand. ‘I couldn’t think of anyone more perfect for the job.’
Claire wrapped her arms around Hattie and squeezed her tight. ‘I don’t know how to thank you!’
‘You’ve just thanked me by following your heart.’
CHAPTER 36
1995 – Starlight Creek, Queensland
Claire sat in the front row of Hattie’s deserted cinema, hardly able to believe that six months had already passed. The TV mini-series that had originally brought Claire to Starlight Creek was well into the final stages of production, with the premiere scheduled in a couple of months. Tonight, though, was the opening night of another project—one very close to Claire’s heart.
The Cinema at Starlight Creek Page 34
