Hyde (Dark Musicals Trilogy)

by Laura DeLuca

  “Look, Fernando wasn’t kidding,” Justyn said as he stole a glance behind the curtain. Even that slight movement made him flinch and rotate his bruised arm. “Darlene and Sherry really did make it tonight. They’re right there at the first table.”

  Rebecca stood on her tiptoes to peer over his shoulder, and sure enough, Justyn’s whole family was sipping—or in Sherry’s case, chugging—glasses of red wine. Darlene caught their eye and raised her glass in salute before turning back to her conversation. Even Bruce and Matt had made an appearance along with their wives. Rebecca could tell Justyn was excited to have them visit. Darlene and Matt came to all his shows, but normally his grandparents were backpacking cross-country in their RV. They hadn’t seen Justyn live onstage since his junior year of high school back in Vegas. Between the surprise guests and the generous offer from Fernando, it was turning out to be a pretty great night, one of the best they’d had in a while. Rebecca should have known something would happen to dull her euphoria.

  “What do you mean we have no chef?” Fernando stomped past them toward the line cook, who looked intimidated despite the fact he was nearly twice Fernando’s size. The cheerful smile he had graced them with a few minutes earlier was replaced with a tight-lipped frown as he stared the fry cook down. “Dinner is starting in twenty minutes! Why didn’t someone let me know earlier?”

  “Sorry, boss.” The cook scratched his shaved head and shifted his weight nervously from one foot to the other. “Al just didn’t show. He didn’t call neither, or we would’da let you know sooner.”

  “Robert!” Fernando mumbled under his breath and called his second in command to his side, “I’ll need you to take over the directing for me for a bit. I might miss the first scene while I handle things in the kitchen.”

  “No worries, Fernie.” Robert gave him a comradely pat on the back. “Do what you must. Just be sure you’re back before the board meeting scene. I don’t have an extra man to take your lines.”

  “Damn that Albert!” Fernando continued. “I guess he assumed I would let him go after what happened last night, but I was going to wait until I had a replacement. I never expected him to fail to show up. He’s only making himself look even guiltier and … and … Victoria!”

  Victoria was about to scamper over to take her place on the set. She jumped when Fernando called her name. Rebecca hadn’t seen Victoria at all in the dressing rooms. She assumed the Latina was avoiding her because of the allegations against Albert, and she appeared just as nervous about facing Fernando. Victoria’s voice was detached when she addressed her boss, but Rebecca could see her hands trembled as she smoothed down her long skirts.

  “Whatcha need, Fernando?” she asked, giving him a small smile.

  “Where is that good-for-nothing boyfriend of yours?” Fernando demanded. “He left me hanging with no chef! I suppose I’ll have to cook the entrees myself in between scenes!”

  Victoria flinched at his sharp tone. Normally Fernando was polite and soft spoken, but obviously it wasn’t a good idea to get on his bad side. He was really furious, and his red blotchy cheeks looked even more ridiculous when he was dressed in the cardinal-red robes of the clergyman. It was a side of him Rebecca had never seen before, and she was glad she wasn’t on the receiving end of his tirade.

  “Fernie, please,” Robert chastised. “It’s not poor Victoria’s fault. She’s not the boy’s keeper.”

  “Nah, it’s okay,” Victoria told him. “Fernando, you’ve got every right to be angry, but I honestly got no idea where Al is. He never came home last night. The cops came by looking for him, and I told them the same thing I’m tellin’ you now.” She shrugged and glanced at Rebecca out of the corner of her eye. “If Al really was the guy who started that fight, he’s probably hiding out until things blow over.”

  Fernando gave a disgusted huff at that explanation, and Robert patted his shoulder. “Calm down, my friend. We’ll get through this. Remember that winter when half the cast had the flu during our production of Scrooge? We muddled through somehow. What’s one missing cook in comparison to that fiasco?”

  “You’re right.” Fernando wiped the sweat from his forehead with his handkerchief. “I apologize for shouting at you, Victoria. Of course none of this is your fault or your problem.”

  Victoria still acted nervous as Fernando stomped back to the kitchen. A few minutes later, the show began and the crowd seemed content, so Rebecca could only assume their dinners were satisfactory. Robert was in his element taking over the role of director and shooed them all to their appropriate positions. Rebecca hoped to get a chance to talk to Victoria about what was happening, if only to make certain she was safe all alone with her son when Albert might be on a rampage. But one of them was always on the stage during the first act, and the best she could hope for was to catch up with Victoria at intermission.

  It didn’t take long before they reached the final scene in the first act. Victoria had a big solo before Hyde appears to cause a cliffhanger halftime. Rebecca listened to Victoria sing and admired the quality of her range. She had more of a pop voice than an opera voice, but somehow that worked perfectly in the role of the streetwise Lucy. Rebecca was trying to concentrate on Victoria’s song as she pretended to stroll through a park, but the voices around her distracted her from the music she loved. It was impossible not to overhear Steve and Petya’s malicious whispers when they were a few feet in front of her.

  “Did you hear Albert’s gone missing?” Steve asked.

  “So? That is not so unusual. It would not be the first time one of the ex-cons in the kitchen went AWOL,” Petya replied in her thick accent. There was definitely an eye roll involved, based on the tone of her voice. “What else do you expect with a seasonal job? All the decent cooks head to Atlantic City, where the work and the pay are year round.”

  “This is different,” Steve insisted. “I know Al, and he wasn’t about to give up this gig. Something’s not right here, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. The cops are already looking into foul play, from what I hear. If Al’s really missing, I’d bet my life that Patko kid had something to do with it. I’m not afraid to tell the cops that either.”

  “Do as you wish, love,” Petya patronized and patted her husband’s cheek. “But I must get onto the stage.”

  The Bulgarian bounced out to the platform in a crimson gown almost the same color as the wig she wore. Instantly, her accent converted from Bulgarian to German as she sidled up to Fernando and held her palm open for payment. Carmen was beside them with her dark hair in a braid. In this scene she was playing a very young prostitute, and Fernando was the scoundrel of a bishop who’d recently had his way with her. The bishop was wrapping up business with the madam and waving goodbye to the traumatized girl when Justyn appeared on the stage, acting even more convincing than normal in his role of Hyde. He eyed up Fernando and teased and taunted him a bit before finally going in for the attack.

  This was Hyde’s first official murder, and the chilling finale of the first act. It always made Rebecca a little nervous, watching Justyn become so convincingly violent and vengeful. The bishop was one of the people who had nixed Dr. Jekyll’s experiment, calling it ungodly. Nonetheless, Hyde catches the man in an ungodly act of his own and has every intention of making the bishop pay for his immorality.

  As Justyn pretended to beat Fernando with his walking stick, he seemed more angry and brutal than any of the other times he had taken on the role. The words of his song rang out in a deep baritone laced with an evil cackle that made Rebecca’s blood run cold.

  “Your virtuous lives are all scandalous lies.

  It is an animal that lurks deep within.

  Now you will face the evil you hide.

  There is no way to escape from your sin.

  You were the predators stalking your prey.

  Pretending to be meek, mild, and true.

  Now you will reckon not with heaven but hell.

  This time the devil has come to claim you.”<
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  Behind her, even Steve was struck silent as he watched the realistic fury on Justyn’s face and the wild, brooding eyes his tangled hair could not hide. Rebecca wondered if Steve was still considering speaking with the cops when he saw how convincing her fiancé could be as the monster out for revenge. But it wasn’t Steve’s thoughts Rebecca was really concerned with as she watched Justyn laugh with glee over the bloody and broken body of the bishop. Rebecca found herself having a few unsavory contemplations of her own. Albert was missing. The cops couldn’t find him. And Justyn had disappeared for hours the night before and had no real explanation of where he’d been. Could he have gone out to search for Albert to get revenge?

  That’s insane.

  Those kinds of thoughts would take them right back to high school when she had suspected the worst of him. Rebecca knew better now. Justyn wasn’t capable of hurting anyone. The problem was the police didn’t know that. If Albert really was missing and not simply hiding from the cops as Victoria implied, their number-one suspect would have no solid alibi. Rebecca started biting her nails as the curtain closed on the last scene of the first act. She had a feeling the fairytale wedding they were planning might not be the magical happy ending she was hoping for after all.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Oh my goodness! That was simply marvelous, Justyn!” Darlene gushed. “You look so deliciously evil! It was delightful!”

  Justyn raised an eyebrow. “Only my mother would be happy about my ability to be convincingly evil. And people wonder how I turned out this way.”

  “Well, I prefer poor melancholy Dr. Jekyll over that awful Hyde,” Sherry told them. “But you’re definitely fantastic in both roles. Which doesn’t surprise me one bit. Talent runs in the family, you know.” She winked at Bruce. “My side, of course.”

  “Justyn, I thought you were amazing on video, but seeing you perform live is ten times better,” Justyn’s grandfather agreed. “Finally, a limb on the family tree I can be proud of!”

  Despite his earlier sarcasm, Justyn couldn’t stop grinning as his family congratulated him on his performance. Rebecca knew they hadn’t seen anything yet. The second half of the show was when things got really intense. There would be mass murders and the chilling scene where Justyn had to pull off both Jekyll and Hyde at the same time. If Darlene enjoyed his creepy persona in the first act, wait until she witnessed the two personalities battling it out on the stage. The spotlight would flicker on and off as he switched from one character, altering voices with each couplet, and had an argument with himself in lyrics and rhyme. It was one of the most disturbing scenes Rebecca had ever seen him perform, and he handled it masterfully, despite the limited props the dinner theater afforded. The act often had people dropping their silverware. However, at the moment, the cast and audience alike were enjoying bathroom breaks, smoking sessions, and the chance to stretch their limbs.

  Justyn’s family decided to take advantage of the reprieve to receive a tour of the theater, courtesy of Fernando, who was in a much better mood now that dinner had been served without any disasters. Only coffee and dessert remained, and cakes were ordered in from a local bakery. Fernando was relaxed and already engrossed in sharing the building’s history with a new audience. Rebecca followed along at first, but she had heard all his stories a dozen times already. Even the tale of the doctor’s wife and her untimely demise was getting old.

  When Rebecca spotted Victoria trying to scoot past them, she reached out and tapped her arm, glad for the excuse to break away from the sightseeing. Victoria’s nervousness seemed to ratchet up a notch upon her noticing Darlene and Matt behind Rebecca. The couple had decided to bypass the sightseeing tour as well.

  “Hey, Victoria.” Rebecca smiled. “I’m glad I caught you. I was sort of worried. I hope you and Elliot are okay … I mean with Albert running off like this…”

  Victoria shrugged. “He wasn’t ever around much anyways. My sister’s the only one who helps out with Elliot. When Al does come home, he complains ‘bout every little thing.”

  “I can only imagine.” Rebecca sympathized as Darlene watched with evident curiosity. Not wanting to appear rude, Rebecca began a formal introduction. “Victoria, this is Justyn’s mother Darlene and his stepfather Matt.”

  “We met briefly at the engagement party,” Darlene reminded them.

  Victoria nodded. “Yeah, I remember.”

  The Latina was trying to be polite, but it was obvious she was anxious to escape. She probably thought the two of them were going to double team her for information about who set Justyn up or cast blame for the parking lot brawl. Even Darlene’s glowing smile didn’t thaw her exterior, at least not at first.

  “You did a spectacular job up there tonight,” Darlene said with honest enthusiasm. “I was especially impressed with your dancing skills. You’re by far the most professional dancer on the stage.”

  Rebecca had to smirk when Petya, the former ballerina, walked by in time to hear that proclamation. The Bulgarian beauty crinkled her nose in distaste and huffed as she passed. That actually got a chuckle out of Victoria.

  “Darlene is a dancer too,” Matt revealed with a wink and a not-so-agile shake of his hips. “She’s an exotic dancer.”

  Darlene rolled her heavily outlined eyes. “He means a belly dancer. Which can be erotic at times, but I assure you, there’s nothing improper about it. In India the professional belly dancers are held in the highest esteem. It’s often a spiritual practice as well as a living work of art. Of course, my version is a little more eclectic than what you’d see in the Middle East.”

  “Sounds … interesting.”

  Rebecca noticed Victoria was blushing and uncomfortable, and she felt a little sorry for her. After all, she had worked at a topless bar until recently, and there was a good chance she would wind up back there once the summer show at Tamilio’s ended. There weren’t a whole lot of employment options available in tourist towns. Rebecca was going to try to steer the conversation in another direction, but she didn’t get a chance.

  “Well, since it came up, I have a bit of an idea,” Darlene continued. “I’ve been thinking about taking on an apprentice. Matt and I will be relocating to New York sometime in the next year or so to help Justyn and Becca when the baby comes. My boss at the Kairo Café has been absolutely wonderful to me, and I would hate to leave him hanging. I wonder, Victoria, how would you feel about learning the ropes of belly dancing and taking my place when I leave? I think you’d be perfect for the job.”

  Rebecca wasn’t sure whose jaw hit the floor first, hers or Victoria’s. Rebecca had no idea Darlene was planning to move to New York. No one had said a word about it. Beside her, Victoria was just as stunned.

  “A-are ya serious?” Victoria stuttered.

  Darlene threw back her head and laughed, a musical sound. “Of course, darling. Justyn and Rebecca told me a little about your situation. I know how hard it can be to raise a child when you’re young and alone. I think this job would be perfect for you. It’s year round, it pays well, and I’m certain you’ll excel at it.”

  Victoria blinked a few times. “I really don’t know what to say, Mrs…”

  “You can call her Grandma.” Matt snickered and stuck out his tongue when he was able to duck before Darlene could punch his arm.

  “You can call me Darlene,” Justyn’s mother corrected, turning her attention back to Victoria. “There’s no need for formalities if we’re going to be working together.”

  “All right then … Darlene,” Victoria agreed.

  “So, will you be available at least three days a week for lessons at my house, starting immediately? You can bring your son along, of course.”

  “Yeah, for sure!” Victoria exclaimed. “This is so amazing. I mean … gosh, I don’t know what else to say except … except thank you! Thank you so much for givin’ me a chance!”

  Darlene programmed Victoria’s number into her cell phone so they could make firm arrangements later. “I’m hoping
, Victoria dear, that this job will be the new start you need to leave anything … negative behind.”

  “A new start,” Victoria repeated with a dreamy expression. “I think you’re right. That’s exactly what I need.”

  Victoria stuck out her hand to shake on the agreement, and Darlene startled her a little when she pulled the Latina into a tight hug. Justyn’s mother always did have a pronounced effect on people. She always lifted their spirits. Once Justyn’s mother finally set her free, Victoria skipped off, looking more excited than Rebecca had ever seen her. Still a little stunned over the whole turn of events, Rebecca realized it was her turn to thank her future mother-in-law.

  “Darlene, did you really say you were going to move to New York to be our babysitter?”

  Matt gave Rebecca a good-natured smirk and pinched his wife’s bottom. “I’m sure we’ll find one or two things to keep us entertained in the Big Apple in between diaper duty.”

  “Matt and I are getting tired of the suburban life anyway,” Darlene continued. “It’s either the lights of the city or backpacking in the wilderness for us. This middle ground gets boring after a while. Besides, I can belly dance and drive an ambulance anywhere, but I can’t watch my grandchild grow up if I’m living in another state.”

  “B-but what about your house?”