The Blue Movie Murders (20 page)

“Thinking back now, I should have been suspicious of something. Your early morning phone calls, your obvious deep interest in the case—this should have told me something. And then there was the matter of Xavier Mann. Even though you'd campaigned the state for governor, and actually stopped in Rockview, you'd never met Mann—the city's leading citizen. I think you carefully avoided meeting him, because though Mann never knew Sol Dahlman, his wife Elizabeth certainly did.”

“Yes,” Sam Holland said.

“And that was another clue I should have caught. The other day on the phone, when I was telling you of Mrs. Mann's involvement in the filming of
The Wild Nymph
, you pretended surprise—but you used her first name, Elizabeth, even though I had never mentioned it to you. Since you'd never met Mann, and I hadn't told you her name, how did you know it was Elizabeth?”

“She was a beautiful woman, Mike. Is she still?”

McCall nodded. “She is.”

“I've often wondered why she never recognized me as Sol Dahlman, the director of
The Wild Nymph
. As Governor of the state, my picture is in the paper very often. And around campaign time I was on television a great deal.”

“I think I can explain that, Governor. She knew you in those days mainly as a close friend of her lover and co-star, a boy named Fred.”

Sam Holland nodded. “Fred MacDonald. I knew him well.”

“Going along with your understandable wish for anonymity, Fred never told her your real name. And to her, at that time, you were merely a very young college student. I know myself from your old photos how much you've changed.”

“Don't we all?”

“We do indeed. Twenty or twenty-one years can be a lifetime. And I imagine Elizabeth was caught up in her love for Fred. She told me that during the love scenes she could shut out the cameras, forget the directors, imagine they were alone together. You were someone merely glimpsed on the fringes of her love. Then, when Fred was killed in Korea, she imagined you had died with him. Certainly, twenty years later, she had no reason to connect a crusading governor named Sam Holland with a gangling youth named Sol Dahlman whom she'd barely known and thought was dead. Especially when they now looked so little alike.”

“God, Mike, I'd like to see her again! Do you know I haven't even looked at that film in over fifteen years?”

“Tell me about it, Governor. Make me understand why you did it.”

“Well, I was just starting law school at the time, at Stanyon University near Rockview.”

“Another clue I should have caught. I knew you attended Stanyon Law School, and your age would have made it just about 1950 when you were there.”

Governor Holland nodded. “Fred was a friend of mine, and I knew he was living with this girl, Elizabeth. I was interested in films then, and I'd made a couple of arty short subjects at Stanyon. I heard about Mann's project from someone else who'd made a film there, and I was just at the right age when the idea of directing a truly artistic piece of pornography appealed to me. First I used the Damlon name, then switched to Sol Dahlman. Fred introduced me to Elizabeth and we started filming—working from a more or less improvised screenplay I'd written myself. I think it came off quite well for what it was.”

“It did,” McCall assured him. “It could be shown in theatres today. Ben Sloane was right about that.”

“After Fred's death in Korea, I felt rather bad about the whole thing. I saw Elizabeth's picture in the paper once, during my campaign, and knew she'd married Mann. But of course I made no effort to get in touch with her. The whole incident was something from my past, almost from another life. I became a lawyer instead of a film maker, and found myself in state politics.”

“Were you ever sorry you made the film?”

“No,” he told McCall with a smile. “Not for a minute.”

“So where does that leave us?”

Governor Holland shrugged. “It leaves me in your hands, Mike. You can call in the newspapers and tell them the full story if you want to.”

McCall stared down at his hands. “You know I wouldn't do that, Governor. We've been friends too long. Besides, you committed no crime—certainly not by today's standards. In fact, I only wish you could take credit for
The Wild Nymph
.”

“It's good of you to say that. Unfortunately, there are still a great many people around who would consider it an inappropriate activity for a governor, even in his college days.”

“What if Elizabeth Mann recognizes you some day? It could happen, you know.”

“Oh, of course it could. But I rather doubt if she will after all this exposure of my face over the years. To her I'm the governor of the state, someone far removed from her youthful film making.”

“But if it did come out somehow?”

Sam Holland shrugged. “Mike, when you sit behind this desk you have to be ready for anything. Strikes and scandals and even a would-be assassin or two. In recent years our country has had a govenor who admitted to being a reformed alcoholic, and a candidate for governor who admitted to once operating a house of prostitution. I think the people are mature enough to judge a man by what he is today, and what he's doing for the state, rather than what he once did far in the past. If it ever came out about
The Wild Nymph
, I'd trust the judgment of the people.”

“So would I, Governor,” McCall said.

Governor Holland came around the desk to shake his hand. “Mike, thanks for everything. At times like this I don't know where I'd be without you.”

McCall grinned. “Probably in Hollywood, directing films.”

As he left the Governor's office and walked quickly down the steps to his car, McCall saw a nondescript little man detach himself from the side of the building and walk quickly towards him.

“Micah McCall?”

“That's right.”

The little man shoved a folded paper into his hand. “Summons to testify before a Congressional committee investigating interstate traffic in pornographic films. They want you in Washington on Wednesday morning.”

“What? Who wants me?”

The man grunted vaguely. “The committee.”

“But—”

“I understand your presence was specifically requested by one of their investigators.”

A slow grin began to form on McCall's face. “That wouldn't be a girl named April Evans, would it?”

“That's the one.”

McCall nodded and slipped the subpoena into his pocket. “I'll be there,” he said, suddenly feeling good. “I wouldn't miss it for anything.”

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1972 by Ellery Queen

Copyright renewed by Ellery Queen

Cover design by Kat Lee

ISBN: 978-1-5040-1998-9

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