Done to Death (28 page)

‘Yeah, weird.' They crossed the street, and Aaron tried the door. ‘Locked.' He knocked and looked for a bell. ‘Maybe there's a secret code or something.'

Lil strained to hear any noise or music, but there was just traffic in the background, and a distant subway.

Aaron knocked again.

‘They're closed,' said a woman out walking her miniature dachshund.

‘On a Friday? That's odd,' Lil said.

‘Closed as in shut down,' the woman said. ‘Under-age drinking. They'll pay a fine and be open by tonight.' She bent down to scoop up her dog's leavings in a plastic bag. ‘Good girl, Millie.'

‘How long have they been closed?'

‘Since the night that Parks girl got carted out. I guess she's nineteen, and drinking age in New York is twenty-one.'

‘You don't know who owns this place, do you?' Lil asked.

‘I do,' she said. ‘Why?' She deposited the plastic bag in the nearby garbage can.

‘I'm a reporter,' Lil said. ‘I'm working on a story about Lenore and her kids.'

‘I can make a call. Who do you write for?'

‘I've got a syndicated column,' Lil said.

‘Would I know it?'

‘It's about antiques. Lenore's production company is in my hometown shooting a reality show …'

‘Where her brother was shot?' the woman asked.

‘Yes.'

‘Interesting. And why are you tracking down Rachel's haunts?'

‘Not certain,' Lil said. ‘Kind of why I'm here.'

Aaron squatted and started to play with the long-haired black dog.

‘Hmmm. I'm May, by the way, and this slice of cuteness is Millie.'

‘She is gorgeous.'

‘Yes,' May said, ‘and she knows it.' She tapped the screen of her cell and held it to her ear. ‘Casio, I'm outside with a lady reporter from Connecticut. She's doing a piece on Rachel.'

Even from a distance Lil and Aaron could hear loud swearing in an Italian accent through the phone. May held it away from her ear. She mouthed,
not looking good
. ‘Casio, is that a yes or a no?' There was silence. ‘He's coming down.'

‘He lives here?' Lil asked.

‘He and his wife own the building. Murielle's is kind of a local institution and he's pissed at getting shut down.'

They heard deadbolts turn. The door opened on to a short dark-haired man with a couple days' growth on his chin. He looked at May, and then to Lil and Aaron. He squinted against the light. ‘Who are you?' he asked.

‘Lil Campbell,' she said and extended her hand. ‘And this is my assistant, Aaron Gurston.'

‘Huh …' He hung back in the door. ‘What do you want to know?'

‘About the night, I guess the early morning, that Rachel got hauled away.'

‘Bitch,' he snorted, followed by several choice words in Italian. ‘And the worst part was she didn't have a drop of alcohol, at least nothing served here. My bartenders know to check and we card everyone. They know Rachel, and if they want to keep their jobs they'd never serve her.'

‘You use a bracelet system?' Aaron asked, and before Lil could ask for clarification, he added, ‘So if you're under age you get one color and if you're legal you get another.'

‘Yes. We did not serve alcohol to Rachel Parks. I don't know what twisted game that bitch was playing, but she wasn't drunk. If you write the truth I'll give you the number for our bouncer; he saw the whole thing. He told me she left the club without stumbling, and just lay down on the sidewalk. He tried to get her up, but she wouldn't move. And because she's famous people started taking pictures, someone called nine one one and now my club is closed for a liquor violation. And there's not a damn thing I can do.' The man's face turned red. ‘They want to fine me fifty thousand dollars! We never served her alcohol, and there's nothing I can do to prove it.'

Lil stared at the man. ‘I believe you,' she said, thinking of her conversation with Ada. Rachel knew she was pregnant; she wasn't drinking. ‘I might be able to help.'

‘How?' The man opened the door wider, affording them a glimpse of high ceilings and a long corridor.

‘Do you have a card?' Lil asked. She fished out one of her own.

‘Not on me,' he said. ‘I'll give you my cell. I'm Casio Gomez … this is my club, and if you can get me out of a fifty thousand dollar fine and get me back open, you'll get a lifetime membership.'

May snorted.

‘What?' he said.

‘Seems like she'd be getting the short end of the deal.'

‘If I can get you proof that Rachel Parks wasn't drinking,' said Lil, ‘do you think that would do it?'

‘What kind of proof?'

‘I imagine they did a breathalyzer on the ambulance and probably a toxicology screen in the emergency room. The trick is going to be getting protected medical information.'

Casio's shoulders slumped. ‘The girl used drugs, lots of them. And what if she'd been drinking before she came to the club?'

‘Then it won't work,' Lil admitted. ‘But I've got good reason to think – and what you just told me about the doorman makes sense − Rachel Parks was sober as a judge when she lay down on your sidewalk. What I don't understand is why she did it.'

Back in the car, Lil had Aaron drive as she made calls on the speaker phone, first to Ada. ‘Have they found her?'

‘No, and the show goes on,' Ada said. ‘I'm in Lenore's bathroom getting my hair and make-up done,' she added, to let Lil know their conversation wasn't private. ‘And by bathroom I mean something the size of one of our condos. She has an entire beauty parlor in here.'

Speaking softly, Lil gave her the upshot on the visit to Murielle's.

‘Excuse me,' Ada said. ‘Guys' – she was talking to James the hairdresser and Gretchen the make-up artist – ‘I need five minutes of privacy.' There was a pause on the line. ‘OK Lil, Rachel's psychiatrist is with Mattie. I'm sure he can get copies of all of her medical stuff. And if Mattie doesn't know this part … I'll tell her. It's bizarre. Why would Rachel just lay down on the sidewalk?'

‘For attention,' Lil said.

‘From whom? Her mother? The papers? Her brother?'

‘It could have been for an alibi,' Aaron chimed in from behind the wheel. ‘If she's in the emergency room when someone kills her mother, no one can say she did it.'

‘Smart boy,' Ada said. ‘Let's take it further. We know that Richard was her guardian angel.'

‘Not to mention some less savory brother and sister goings on,' Lil added.

‘Yes, well. A bit of a fallen angel then. But if she were in the emergency room, Richard would come to her rescue. He always did. So not only is it her alibi, but his as well. The two of them were in the hospital the morning Lenore was shot. And if the whole thing was a ruse on Rachel's part, maybe it wasn't for attention, at least not this time.'

‘So they hired someone to kill their mother?' Aaron asked. ‘Then who killed Richard? And for all we know, Rachel …'

‘Don't say it,' Ada whispered.

‘It's a possibility,' Lil said. ‘She could be dead, and if we follow this through then maybe the killer is cleaning up loose ends, as in anyone that could implicate him or her.'

‘It doesn't sit right,' Ada said. ‘Look, give Mattie a call and try to track down those medical records; let's at least see if this much is right.'

‘So how are they planning to film without Rachel?' Lil asked.

‘Melanie says they've got more than enough from yesterday. She says they can cut and slice till no one would ever know. Don't ask me how … and you want to know what they're planning? Apparently it was even Rachel's idea.'

‘What?' Lil and Aaron said in unison.

‘A tag sale, even though they're calling it an estate sale, but we both know it's the same thing. The ad is going in today's paper, and tomorrow they're going to hold it right here in the driveway. They're going to film the whole thing and at the end of the day tally up the takings. To keep it from being totally gruesome, Rachel wants the proceeds to go to charity. Today we film the three dealers who think they're competing to liquidate Lenore's estate.'

‘But if they've already decided to hold an estate sale?' Lil was perplexed.

‘Surprise!' Ada said. ‘I don't know how this is going to play out, but we have three dealers chomping at the bit to get on TV, and whoever wins could come off looking like an incompetent fool.'

‘Grandma,' Aaron said, as he took the turn for the Brooklyn Bridge, ‘what about you?'

‘Good question, and I'm not entirely happy with the answer − I am having fun.'

Aaron snorted. ‘I love you Grandma, but you do realize you are one very twisted woman. You both are.'

‘Lil,' Ada said. ‘Call me if you learn anything new.'

‘Will do. I want to go back to the LPP building.'

‘Why?'

‘Well, if we're doing the Miss Marple thing – and let's face it, we long ago passed the point of innocence – I want to walk in the footsteps of Lenore's shooter.'

‘You know,' Ada said, ‘speaking of footsteps, and I don't know if this matters, but I'm thinking about everything Rachel did yesterday … not just the way she looked, and not just her mannerisms, but putting it all together. There are times when I truly believe she thought she was her mother. And the more I think about it, this show, and holding an estate sale in front of a multi-million dollar mansion and then giving the proceeds to charity – it's pure Lenore. Tacky as hell, but making it seem piss elegant in the end.'

‘I think you're right,' Lil said. ‘I don't think Rachel's dead,' she added, and the thought lifted her spirits. ‘If she faked being drunk, for whatever reason, it's no stretch to think this is another stunt.'

‘Last question,' Ada said. ‘I've now got hair, make-up and Peggy the wardrobe lady all giving me the stink eye, but why, Lil? Why, in God's name, would she disappear?'

‘I think I have the answer,' Lil said. ‘So I'll answer your question with the one we should have been asking all along: what would Lenore do?'

Ada hung up, and accepted her third cup of tea from a young man whose job description likely included a line or two on beverage preparation. That he had no hesitation about popping into Lenore's show-stopping bathroom seemed typical for this bunch. She mused over Lil's parting question:
what would Lenore do?
The answer was obvious: anything and everything for ratings.

As Gretchen, the make-up lady, finished applying a layer of miracle spackle, she thought about the more curious question of why Rachel would pretend to be drunk.

‘OK,' Gretchen said, and she pulled off the shiny smock.

Ada looked in the mirror at the elegant woman with her flawless make-up, dressed in a black lace slip. ‘It's good,' she said, gently touching one of the stiff peaks of her hair.

‘Careful,' warned James, the hairdresser.

She smiled. ‘I really like it. You have to teach me how to do this.'

‘It's mostly the product,' he admitted. ‘And I have a secret or two.'

‘Would you share?' she asked.

‘Please, if this show is a hit I'm sticking with you like glue. You'll never have to do your own hair again.'

‘Did the two of you know Lenore well?' she asked, looking from James to Gretchen.

‘Not much,' James said. ‘She had her own team, although your dresser was hers for years.'

‘Peggy?' And then it clicked. ‘She's the one who found Lenore after she was shot.'

‘Yes,' Gretchen said as she assembled her touch-up kit. ‘Peggy Stark.' She was about to say more when the heavyset woman with the elaborate braid down her back appeared, pushing a garment rack. Under her breath Gretchen added, ‘Speak of the devil.' She turned from Ada. ‘Hi, Peggy. She's looking good.'

Peggy maneuvered the rack flush against the wall and turned to Ada. A pair of wire-rimmed glasses sat on the end of her slightly upturned nose. She studied Ada, her expression serious. ‘I was thinking green,' she said. She selected a voluminous hunter green silk dress with tulle petticoats and a tight bodice.

Ada regarded the garment. ‘That doesn't look like one of mine.'

‘It's not,' Peggy said, not meeting Ada's gaze. ‘I got your measurements and have been doing a bit of shopping.'

‘Really?' Ada said. ‘It's beautiful. Is it new or old?'

‘It's new, but retro,' Peggy said. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. ‘It's by a young designer in Nolita. I sent him your picture and told him what we were going for. You won't need a slip with it, it's fully lined. No bra either.'

‘It's lovely,' Ada said. She glanced at the open door, then at Gretchen and James, and finally at Peggy, who was holding the shimmering dress and looking at her expectantly. She had a moment's clarity and wondered if this were an important piece of things. Lenore lived without privacy. It wasn't just that she put her life on display for the viewing public, but that there was this whole other world of invisible people, like satellites around her star.
In for a penny
, she thought, and eased the slip's straps off her shoulders. It fluttered around her feet, leaving her in bra, panties and old-fashioned silk stockings and lace garter belt
.
She suppressed a giggle.

Peggy looked up at her as James and Gretchen went out, leaving the bathroom door wide open.

‘You don't want to know,' Ada said.

‘I might,' Peggy said.

‘Always wear clean underwear,' Ada said, as she unhooked her bra.

‘Absolutely,' Peggy said, as she unzipped the back of the dress and placed it on the tile floor. ‘Probably best to step into it. You're in good shape,' she commented. ‘Pilates?'