“Cavagnari keeps looking Jake's way," Shelley said.
“Right, maybe because Jake's the only one who appears to be listening to him. Or maybe because he's 'listening' to Jake," Jane said.
“Angela and the intern are at the end of the table," Shelley went on. "It's hard to tell from this angle if they could see his right hand, what with all the drinking glasses that might have been in their line of sight."
“Angela must know signing," Jane said. "She was Jake's niece and it was one of his professional gimmicks. The intern had to learn it to work with him."
“The problem is, we have no way of knowing who else was just out of camera range," Shelley said. "No, the problem is that this gives Lynette a very slight, possible reason to have killed Jake, but nobody a reason to have killed Lynette," Mel said harshly. "I'm sorry, but it's really no help at all. Charlene, thanks for coming over so quickly," he added to the secretary.
She was a plump, pretty woman of about thirty. She sighed and picked up her purse and sweater. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to help more. This is such a sad, sad thing, Lynette Harwell dying like that. I've sort of followed her career. Seen a couple of really bad movies just because she was in them and I kept hoping she'd be terrific again someday."
“Well, she was terrific yesterday," Jane said. "Shelley and I watched from a distance and really couldn't hear much, but everybody on the set said she gave her best performance ever."
“Well, at least she went out in style then," Charlene said. "Not all of us can lay claim to that much."
“I'm afraid that's true," Shelley said.
“And to think she was a—" Charlene stopped. "Well, it doesn't matter now, does it? She's got at least two really outstanding performances that will outlast her. Her family and friends and all her many fans will have to find a way to take comfort from that, I suppose. Mel, I've got some papers in the car for you. If you want to walk with me—”
They headed out through the kitchen, where two men were carefully taking fingerprints from every surface.
“Jane, I hope they clean up before they leave your house," Shelley said. "That black powder is making a mess. It's a good thing we had all the kids fingerprinted last year when they had the program at school. That way, you don't have to involve them any more than — Jane?"
“What?"
“I said — Jane, what's the matter with you?" "I think I know. It was what Charlene said." "Know what?"
“Everything. Why and who and even how!" She leaped up and ran after Mel. "Wait!" she shouted at him. "Come back. We have to talk!”
"All right, I'll admit you could be right," Mel said twenty minutes later.
“It all fits! What do you mean I 'could' be right?"
“It's all circumstantial, Jane."
“But the fingerprints in the kitchen will prove it, won't they?"
“The fingerprints will only prove that someone was in your kitchen. Not why or when or with what intent."
“But it's obvious! To find the tape and to pick up a handy weapon!"
“Jane, a trial lawyer would make mincemeat of that. He'd say his client just took an irrational, overwhelming dislike to you and trashed the kitchen as an expression of it. He'd say he was so sorry to have it brought out. It wasn't reasonable or nice to do, but still, we all do stupid, ugly things sometime in our lives and it doesn't make us murderers."
“Oh, Mel!" Jane felt like stamping her foot like a thwarted child. "Why are you countering everything I say?"
“Because I have to. If you can't even convince me a hundred-percent that this is the only possible explanation, how could I possibly convince a prosecutor to go to court with it? And if I don't know I can convince a prosecutor, I can't make an arrest. I don't dare!"
“Okay, okay. I see that. But Mel, just tell me unofficially, do you think I'm right?"
“I'm sure of it."
“So what are you going to do about it?"
“Everything I'm legally able to. Complete detailed questioning of all the suspects and witnesses, file a million reports, crawl over the evidence, look for new evidence to corroborate this theory — and hope for some damned good luck.”
Thelma was delighted at the prospect of having Katie and Todd spend the night with her. "I was going to call you anyway," she said. "I just saw on the noon news that that actress died practically in your yard. It's not a healthy environment for children.”
Jane couldn't imagine how Thelma could have heard about Lynette's death, still officially assumed to be a suicide, without also hearing about Jake's very definite murder the day before, but she cast her eyes heavenward and whispered, "Thanks."
“What was that?"
“Nothing. I'll bring them straight from school then. And pick them up in the morning?"
“Oh, Jane. Leave them all day. I want to take them shopping. I noticed that Todd's jeans are looking a tiny bit worn." That was Thelma's euphemism for "shabby." Jane didn't bother to tell her mother-in-law that Todd worked very hard at getting them that way.
“Then I'll pick them up around four.”
She got all their things together and headed out.
“Scott's got some little cousins visiting," Mike said when she got to the high school. "He promised to take them to the Museum of Science and Industry tomorrow, so it'll be an all-day thing. Give me my stuff and I'll just go home with him. Be back tomorrow for dinner unless I call first.”
That was when a couple of very disparate, but interlocked plans started to take shape in Jane's mind.
“Mom, don't you think you ought to go stay someplace else? A hotel or something?”
She smiled. "I'll be fine. Really fine. Don't worry about me. But if you call home and I'm not there, it's just because I decided to do that. In fact — oh, there's Scott's car. Here's your stuff.”
She checked that she had a credit card with her. made a couple of stops and smiled all the way home. She even smiled through a whole telephone conversation with Thelma. Then she went looking for Shelley to lay out her plan.
25
By seven o'clock much of the heavier equipment was gone. The props truck had been removed, as had the wardrobe trailer, the condor, the scenery trucks, and one of the electrical trucks. There were no cameras in sight, no microphones, and the heavy cables that once snaked all over the field had disappeared.
The wardrobe tent remained, however, and the center partition had been removed to make a large eating area. A dozen round tables and their chairs now filled the area and spilled out into the yard beyond. With the scenery flats gone and most of the big reflectors and the lighting equipment missing, the field behind the house was beginning to look like it did before the movie production company arrived.
Jane let the cats out to explore and put Willard in his dog run, where he could now bark his brains out if he wanted without disturbing the filming. Jane rescued her lawn chairs before they could be accidentally packed up and hauled away. According to her contract with the production company, by Monday evening everything would be gone and she and theneighbors would have new fences installed.
When she brought Willard back in, the catering truck was just arriving, as were some of the party attendees. The street in front of her house was starting to fill up with the cars of the extras and local crew members who were entitled to attend the wrap party and wanted to be there early to enjoy every minute of it.
But her plan, if it were to work at all, couldn't be executed until everyone had arrived. She took a long, soothing bath, washed her hair and took special care with drying and curling it, and put on a slinky peacock blue dress she'd bought to attend the theater on her weekend in New York with Mel. It was a remarkably flattering dress, which she wouldn't have even bothered to try on if Shelley hadn't insisted. Even on the hanger, she'd found the plunging neckline downright alarming. She had great shoes to go with it, but they were high heels and she couldn't walk around the yard in them without nailing herself into the ground, so she settled for some taupe flats that were decent enough as long as nobody looked too closely.