“So what did you do?”
“What could I do? I sued, of course!”
“You sued Donna Bruce?”
“Of course. She was ruining a movie I’d already sunk a big chunk of my own money in. So I sued.” He sagged a little. “And lost.”
Odelia glanced around at the rundown porch, paint peeling everywhere, the clapboards crooked and rotten in places, and the porch creaky and on the verge of collapse.“And then you ended up here,” she said softly.
The man nodded and took a swig from his‘apple juice.’ “Lost everything. My production company, my marriage, my life. And I’ve got Donna Bruce to thank for it.”
“It’s an odd coincidence that you ended up living not far from her, then,” said Chase.
The man laughed a humorless, hacking laugh.“Me not living far from her? Her not living far from me! I was the first to discover Hampton Cove. Used to live down the lane from the Donna Bruce place, long before she ever moved here. This was when I was still a big shot in the movie business. I had a condo in New York, a mansion in LA, another mansion in Colorado, and a beach house in Florida.” He gestured at the old porch. “Now this is my home, and Flea over there is my best friend.”
Flea, who’d patiently been waiting for Ransom to throw the stick again, his tail pounding the floor and his tongue wagging excitedly, gave a short bark. Ransom picked up the stick and threw it as far as he could aim it, which was a little too close to the road this time. A truck came roaring up, just as Flea hurtled into the road to pick up his stick.
“Flea!” cried Ransom, rocketing up from his seat.
But luckily the dog was smarter than his owner, for he deftly avoided the truck’s fender, waited patiently until he was safely out of the way, and then picked up his stick.
Ransom sat back down again, shaking his head.“Dumb dog,” he muttered.
Dumb human, Odelia thought, also shaking her head.
“So where were you this morning between seven and eight, Mr. Montll??” asked Chase.
“Right here on the porch, sipping my juice,” said the producer. “Why do you want to know?”
“That’s when Mrs. Bruce was murdered,” said Chase.
“Murdered!” the producer cried. “Donna Bruce was murdered?!”
“Didn’t we already establish that?” asked Chase with a frown.
“Murdered!” muttered the producer, staring before him. Then a keen look came into his eyes. “So that’s why you’re here, bugging me with all these questions.” He thought for a moment. “If I were you, I’d take a long, hard look at the husband. Tad Rip. He was the main reason Donna pulled out ofA Star is Born. Wanted his wife all to himself. Jealous of her career and jealous as hell of her co-stars.”
“So jealous he forced her to stop acting?” asked Chase.
“Pretty much. Couldn’t handle his wife being more successful than him, I guess.”
Odelia shared a look with Chase. This was the second person who’d pointed at Tad Rip as a potential suspect.
“Did anyone see you on your porch this morning at seven, Mr. Montll??” asked Chase.
“Of course.”
“Who?”
The man gestured at his dog.“Flea saw me. And he’s as honest as can be.”
Chase grimaced.“I’m afraid I’m going to need a human witness, sir.”
The man gestured around.“Ask anybody. They’ll all vouch for me. I never leave this porch. Heck, I almost live on this porch these days.”
“Don’t you have any plans to return to the movie business?” asked Odelia.
The man smiled a crooked smile.“Oh, I’ve got plenty of plans, honey, but no money to back them up. And ever since the Donna Bruce thing no friends to help me out, either.” He patted Flea’s back. “Except for Flea here. He’s been my loyal companion for years. Wouldn’t dream of deserting me, would you, old buddy?”
The dog barked once, acknowledging his master’s words. For an ex-green beret, Ransom Montll? looked pretty harmless, Odelia decided. And what was more, he hardly looked capable of carrying out such a sophisticated murder. Stealing and transporting a beehive, breaking into Donna’s house, locking her into her sauna and siccing the bees on her? Not exactly his cup of tea.
Chase seemed to feel the same way, for he thanked Mr. Montll? for his time, and then they were off.
“I don’t think he did it,” Chase intimated as they returned to their cars.
“I don’t think so either. And if he wanted to kill Donna, he would have done it years ago. And not way out here in the middle of nowhere with his brown paper bag and his dog called Flea.”
They looked back at the boarding house and Ransom gave them a wave. Odelia waved back. No, he looked harmless enough, she reckoned.
“Sad story, though. To be on top of the world one minute and down in the dumps the next.”
“Yeah, almost like the story ofA Star is Born,” Chase said. “Donna Bruce went on to become a big star with her website, while her mentor became a washout.”
“Ransom was her mentor?”
“Sure. Ransom Montll? was the man who gave Donna Bruce her very first shot at fame and stardom. He cast her in her breakout role. A prostitute with a heart of gold who gets involved with an honest man who tries to get her out of that racket.”
“The remake ofPretty Woman?”
“No. The remake ofIrma la Douce. Though I prefer the original.”
“Of course you do. So what’s next?” she asked, leaning against her car.
“Now we talk to the ex-husband.” He tapped the side of his nose. “And if my intuition is right, he just might be our guy.”
Chapter 13
It took us a long time to find out anything from the Internet. Cats aren’t exactly equipped to work on computers. For one thing, we don’t come outfitted with a set of digits that make for good typing, and if you use your claws it’s easy to totally wreck a regular computer keyboard. So Harriet tried to use her paw pads, but that proved really hit and miss. And we were just about to give up, when Dooley saw a picture of a nice kitty on the screen and touched it with his paw.
“Don’t touch the screen!” I yelled, but too late. And then the small picture of the kitty suddenly blew up into a big picture of the same kitty and we all stared at it.
“What just happened?” asked Brutus.
“I don’t know,” said Dooley. “I touched the screen and something changed.”
“Do it again,” Harriet urged.
So Dooley touched the screen again, careful not to use his claws, and the screen changed again, this time to a set of pictures of the same kitty posing up a storm.“So weird,” he said, staring from his paws to the screen. “Do you think I have magical paws? That must be it, right? I must have magical paws.” A look of absolute delight came over his face. “Imagine what I can do with my magical paws! Maybe everything I touch changes into something else!” And to try out this new theory of his, he immediately touched Harriet’s face.
“Hey!” she yelled, slapping his paw away. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I just wanted to change your frown into a smile,” he said sheepishly.
Harriet’s frown only deepened, debunking Dooley’s magical paws theory.
Meanwhile, Brutus had also put his big paw on the screen. Nothing happened and he growled with annoyance.“Stupid screen,” he grumbled.
“I think it’s one of those touchscreens,” I said, a memory stirring in the back of my mind. The computer Odelia had set up for us was her old work computer, and I seemed to remember her once telling me something about it being one of the first models with a touchscreen. Since I had no idea atthe time what a touchscreen was, I hadn’t really paid any attention to her words, but now it dawned on me. You touch the screen, and something happens!
“Touch that kitty,” I told Brutus.
“You’re not touching that kitty,” Harriet said when Brutus made to follow my instructions.