Castle Fear by Franklin W. Dixon Read Free Book Online

pretty informal lot - don't pay much, either. So if Jilly had a chance to do better for herself, I wouldn't stand in her way."
    "Did Jillian ever discuss this big part with you?" Frank asked.
    "Never said a word, but that's not unusual." Estling put on a wild black wig, then slipped into a padded coat. Joe stared. He'd watched the actor transform himself from a burly but mild-mannered type to a rather scary-looking bully.
    "When did the agent call you?" Joe asked. Before or after her final performance?"
    "Morning after." Estling's voice became a booming growl as he started getting into character. "Good thing we had an understudy. She's not quite as good as Jilly was, but more than adequate. Well, my lads, I'm in the first scene, and the curtain's going up very soon. Any more questions?"
    "Not now," said Frank, grinning at the transformation. "But we'd like to talk to some of the other people in the company who knew Jillian."
    "I'll allow that. Just don't make anyone miss his or her cue." Estling gave a final fluff to his false beard, made a low rumbling sound in his chest, and strode to the dressing room door, grandly yanking it open. "If you run into Jilly, give her my best."
    The Hardys split up, Frank hitting the dressing rooms while Joe checked the green room, where the actors congregated between scenes.
    After knocking on two doors and getting no answer, Frank heard a reply at the third. A high, fluting voice said, "Come in."
    A plump sixty-year-old actress introduced herself as Beatrix Graill. And from the look of things, she didn't intend to leave her dressing room for a while.
    "We have plenty of time for your questions, young man," she told him as she heated water for tea on a hot plate. "Lady Victoria Gadabout doesn't make her entrance until the second act."
    "You knew Jillian well?"
    "We were friends, yes. I'll explain why I'm so interested in talking to you - in addition to concern for the girl, that is." The actress sat down, carefully shifting her wide skirt with its rustling petticoats. "Two years ago I played Mrs. Dillingham on television."
    Frank nodded. "That's right, the lady detective. I thought you looked familiar. We saw that on a public broadcasting station in America."
    "The old girl's dottier and frowzier than I am." Frank noted that she looked a lot different now, in an elaborately curled and powdered wig. "Playing a detective got me interested in investigating. I read lots of mysteries - you might call me an amateur sleuth." She grinned. "Or an annoying busybody. Jillian probably would describe me the second way."
    "Was there some reason - "
    "Yes - and its name is Nigel Hawkins." Beatrix Graill deftly poured boiling water from a saucepan into a cracked china teapot.
    "You sound like you're describing some kind of awful insect."
    "Rather close," she answered. "The acting profession, alas, has many a shady person on its fringes. Nigel is one of the shadiest. It pained me to see Jillian dining with him at one of my favorite Soho restaurants a few weeks ago."
    "What does this Hawkins do?"
    "He's a producer of low-budget films, at the rate of about one every other year or so. Dismal things, designed to cash in on some current fad - punk music, celebrity lawsuits, political scandals. Although Nigel seemingly makes a good living, none of his movies ever pays off for the investors. Or for the poor actresses and actors - and they certainly don't help their careers."
    "Was Jillian planning to be in one of Hawkins's films?"
    "I certainly hope not," Ms. Graill said. "The fact that she departed so suddenly, however, makes me worry. Maybe she did agree to work for that dreadful man."
    "But Jillian didn't actually tell you she'd signed up with him?"
    "She acted very odd when I mentioned that I'd seen them together." The plump actress suddenly dug a hand into an open trunk nearby. Ah, look at this." She held up a framed photo. Nigel in the flesh. He's the handsome chap at the left of this garden party group, just