“Wait a second. Where did you get all these photographs?”
“Courtney herself. They’re publicity photos.”
“She carries them with her?”
“Yes. Well, not exactly. They were in a large briefcase, but I think someone else on her staff actually carried them.”
“Doesn’t that seem a bit conceited?”
“She’s a celebrity. That’s what celebrities do.”
“Oh, I guess. I haven’t known a whole lot of celebrities.” Josie picked up her wineglass and took a sip. “Do they come in here a lot?”
“Every single night since we opened.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You can go get an autographed photo if you want.”
“But Courtney’s not here.”
“No, but I noticed the briefcase lying on the floor.”
“You mean they pass out her photos even when she’s not here?” Sam asked.
“Yeah, nice, huh?”
“Do you wait on them every night?” Josie asked.
“All except for the first night they were here. I hadn’t figured out how to trade stations then.”
“And when did Courtney disa-stop coming in?”
“A few nights ago. It was weird.”
“Why?”
“Her crew was planning to have some sort of celebration for her. Champagne was ordered. Basil was planning a special dinner. Then she didn’t show up.”
“You’re kidding!” Josie exclaimed.
“Nope. They waited for over half an hour, then Bobby insisted everyone drink the champagne and eat. It was odd.”
“And she hasn’t been here since then?” Josie asked.
“Nope. And that’s strange, too, because Bobby was sure she’d be back. He said she never, ever missed a day of shooting.”
“Really?” Then he had lied to her. Josie smiled and drained her glass.
TWENTY-ONE
THE WAITER WAS called away to another table and they were left alone. “I think you have a lot to tell me,” Sam said, glancing down at his watch.
“I have no idea where to begin,” she said honestly. Or how much to say, she added to herself.
“Why don’t you start by telling me where Courtney is.”
“Where she is? Why do you think I know?”
“Just an impression I got when you and the waiter were chatting.”
“How? What did I say?”
“It wasn’t what you said but what you didn’t say. You wanted to know when she stopped coming here and what Bobby Valentine said. You didn’t ask if anyone knew where she had gone.”
“Oh.”
“I know you, Josie. You were quizzing that young man. If you hadn’t known where she is, you would have asked him.”
“Do you think he noticed?”
Sam smiled. “Nope. I think he was absolutely thrilled to talk about Courtney.”
“Yeah, he was, wasn’t he? It’s weird how much people like to talk about her.”
“It’s because she’s a celebrity. Some people love getting close to celebrities; it makes them feel that a bit of that fame rubs off on them.”
“I suppose.”
“So where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Josie…”
“No, it’s true, Sam. I did know, but now I don’t.”
“Then I’ll change my question. Where was she?”
“In-” A waitress arrived carrying steaming plates and Josie stopped speaking. It took a few minutes-and two refusals of freshly ground pepper and one for fresh shavings from a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano-to regain their privacy.
“So where was she?” Sam repeated his question.
“She was in the canoe hanging from the ceiling of the living room.” Her food smelled wonderful. She didn’t want to answer these questions. She wished Sam would leave her alone and let her eat.
“Courtney Castle was hiding in a canoe hanging from the rafters of the house you’re remodeling? I can’t believe that!”
“It isn’t exactly like that,” Josie admitted. “You see, she was dead… is dead.”
Sam looked at her, reached for his wineglass, changed his mind, and folded both hands in his lap. “Say that again.”
“She’s dead, Sam. Someone killed her. I think,” she added.
“You know she’s dead, but you think someone killed her.”
“I know she’s dead. And someone must have killed her. She didn’t climb a ladder up to the canoe, get in, cover herself neatly with a blanket, and die. Besides, we put the ladder there. Later, we put the ladder there later.” She took a deep breath and tried again. “There was no ladder up there. Someone on my crew put it there, and climbed up, and looked inside. And there she was. Am I making any sense at all?”
“Are you hungry?”
Surprised by the change of topic, she looked down at her plate. “It looks delicious, but I did eat earlier. Why? Do you want to leave?”
“No, I’m starving and this looks wonderful. I want to eat it while you tell me the entire story-from the beginning to the end.”
“I…”
“And you shouldn’t leave anything out, Josie. Because it sounds to me like you might be needing my help-and I can’t do anything unless I know everything.”
Josie sighed. “Okay. You’re right. Just let me get my thoughts together.” She sipped her wine, sighed again, and began the tale.
“It started when she didn’t show up. I didn’t know what to think. Bobby acted as though it was nothing. He said Courtney went off and did things-fund-raising, stuff like that-all the time. I didn’t give it another thought, frankly. At least, not until I climbed the ladder and found her.”
“Josie-”
“Sam, just hear me out. I’ll tell you everything. That is, everything I know.”
“Fine. Why don’t you start with why you climbed that ladder?”
“Because Dottie told me Courtney was up there!” Josie continued, telling him of her crew’s discovery and how she had been forced to stay up there with the dead body while Bobby Valentine, pretending to be Courtney Castle, had interviewed her. “It was creepy.”
“I can imagine. Did you get the impression that he knew she was up there?”
“I thought about that, but I have no idea if he did or not. I know he wasn’t in a position to look in while he was talking to me. I’m sure of that.”
“But he could have done that before, right?”
“I guess.”
“And what about later?”
“Yeah, he might have come back later and looked in, but… Do you think he took her down?”
“I suppose. The canoe was on the floor when I picked you up there. Did you take it down or did you find it that way?”
“Found it that way.”
“And she wasn’t in it.”
“No, it was empty. Except for the blanket.”
“The body was gone, but the blanket was left behind?”
“Yes.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Why?”
“Whoever moved her didn’t use the blanket to do it.”
“Obviously, but so what?”
“It might not mean anything, but it might mean that whoever did it came prepared with some means of transport.”
“Or maybe they just picked her up, plunked her in one of the wheelbarrows out back, pulled a tarp off the wood back there, tossed it over her, and rolled her away.” Josie picked up her fork and stuck it in her pasta. Excellent!
“Good point. So go on with the story. What happened between the time you did the interview on the ladder and I arrived at the house?”
“We worked.”
Sam put down his fork and looked at Josie. “You mean you left the body alone?”
She heard the disapproval in his voice and hesitated. “Well, not exactly alone. We were shocked, of course, but we discussed the situation and decided to do nothing until we could spend some time alone and discuss the problem. We took away the ladder, of course, so no one could get up to the body.”
“You thought that by ignoring it, it would go away.” He saw the expression on her face and stopped speaking. “I’m sorry. Of course you didn’t. It’s just that this whole story is a bit hard to understand. Go on. When did you find the body?”