Murder Can Ruin Your Looks by Selma Eichler Read Free Book Online

managed to speak with all the authority and composure you’d expect from a confident, in-control, Sam Spade type of investigator. ‘‘I’d like to talk to the cast about Meredith Foster; my name’s Desiree Shapiro,’’ I said, addressing the large, sandy-haired man who had so unequivocally requested my departure. ‘‘It won’t take long,’’ I assured him, waving my license at him. He bent down and reached over the footlights to accept it, then quickly returned it to me.
    ‘‘The police have already questioned the entire com
    pany,’’ he informed me, not unkindly, ‘‘and I’m sure we’ve all told them everything we know. Which I’m afraid isn’t much.’’
    ‘‘I’m sure you have, too, but I’ve got some additional questions.’’ I could see a look of apology begin to form on the well-lived-in, fortyish face, so I quickly intercepted it.
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    ‘‘It’s very important. And we’re all interested in the same thing, aren’t we? Making sure this murderous slime is caught.’’
    ‘‘All right,’’ the man agreed with a sigh. ‘‘C’mon in back. You can use my office.’’
    ‘‘I guess I should introduce myself,’’ he said when he was leading me backstage. ‘‘I’m Larry Shields; I’m directing this play.’’ He showed me into a room so tiny it could barely contain its sparse furnishings. Sharing the extremely cramped quarters were a smallish, badly scarred desk, which was piled unbelievably high with papers of every sort, and a pair of identical and extremely rickety straightbacked chairs. ‘‘Have a seat,’’ Shields said, indicating the chair nearer the door. Then he lifted the other chair from behind the desk, placing it a couple of feet from where I now sat nervously shifting my buns and praying that my own chair would not let me down. (And I’m talking liter
    ally .) ‘‘I’ll have the company come in one at a time; I as
    sume that’s what you want,’’ Shields told me.
    ‘‘Thanks. I’d appreciate it.’’
    From the first five people to enter what I now regarded as my interrogation room, I discovered that everyone liked Meredith Foster. Of course, she didn’t really socialize much with the other cast members, I was told. But that was be
    cause she was so committed to her craft. She was always sitting there studying her lines whenever she had even a few minutes’ free time, her fellow thespians said admiringly. As for Lucille Collins originally having been promised Meredith’s role, no one seemed to know a thing about that . Okay. So who took over the part after the shootings? I wanted to know.
    We-e-ll, it was reluctantly conceded, Lucille was playing Hope now . However, a suggestion from me that there was some ill-feeling between the two actresses, that even Mere
    dith thought Collins resented her, was met with firm deni
    als, a couple of them pretty impassioned. Everyone, I was informed again and again, liked Meredith Foster.
    Then Tara Wilde walked in. Small and dark, with huge brown eyes and a totally ingenuous manner, she couldn’t have been more than nineteen years old. I immediately pegged the young actress as my best hope.
    ‘‘Someone mentioned that Lucille Collins was all set for
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    the part of Hope before Meredith came along,’’ I said, not even bothering with foreplay.
    ‘‘I never heard that,’’ the girl responded, eyeing me warily.
    ‘‘From what I understand, it was a pretty good part, so it would—’’
    ‘‘ Pretty good? Are you kidding? Any actress would kill for a part like that!’’ Tara’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘‘Oh!
    I didn’t mean it like that! I would never . . . Lucille would never—’’
    I interrupted quickly. ‘‘Oh, I don’t think either of you would, either. Still, if what I heard about Lucille’s losing out is true, it would be understandable if she’d been a little jealous of Meredith, don’t you agree?’’
    ‘‘Lucille liked Meredith