Deadly Dozen: 12 Mysteries/Thrillers (59 page)

“What’s lucky is that a doctor pulled her out of the house.”

“Well, he’s not that kind of doctor. Oates is a plastic surgeon. He has a swank office in Brentwood. However, let me tell you, if I were looking to go under the knife, I’d look elsewhere. He cut the nerve in Paula Wintrie’s eyelid and now it droops, which is criminal because Paula’s eyes were her one and only good feature and —”

“Belle, we were talking about the doctor saving Sybil,” Piper cut in.

“Oh. Right. She was unconscious, but breathing. I overheard Oates telling the paramedics he thought she passed out from excessive alcohol consumption, and not the smoke. He smelled it on her breath. In other words, the ol’ gal was three sheets to the wind. Drinking and smoking, followed by loss of consciousness … quite a lethal combination, that. The firefighters lifted a cigarette butt from the smoldering chair.”

She gave Piper a hand and pulled her from the puddle.

“You know, it’s not the first time she’s had too much to drink and suffered the consequences. Emily Crammer, her neighbor on the other side, said she fell down the stairs early this year. Sybil’s housekeeper found her the next morning lying on the bottom step with a nasty bump on her head. Ambulance carted her off to hospital. She was fortunate to get only bumps and bruises. Drunks are resilient, you know? Like cats, nine lives and all that.”

“A drinker.” It was not a question. Sybil had kept the drapes open late into the night. For the past week she’d seen her roam the house every night, cigarette in one hand, glass in the other.

“Drinker? Ha! Your shining star is a stumbling calamity.”

Before leaving the grounds, they called out and knocked several more times. No one answered.

#

While Sybil recovered in the hospital, the housekeeper came everyday to air out the house, collect the mail and, Piper assumed, to care for the canaries. Their sweet singing resumed the following day, though not as spirited as before. The housekeeper came early and left before Piper rolled out of bed, the sound of the VW waking her as she drove away. Piper learned from Dr. Oates that Sybil had been taken to a small private hospital in West Hollywood. When she called the nurse’s station to inquire about her condition, she was told the patient was recovering well, but was not taking calls or visitors.

Late one balmy evening, unable to sleep, she went out onto the deck. From there she caught a glimpse of a flashlight beam moving around in the sunroom, the only room in the house next door where the drapes now remained open around the clock. She called the police and reported a possible break-in and burglary. A police cruiser responded within twenty minutes but found no sign of an intruder. If the person with the flashlight had returned in the subsequent days, he was careful to keep his nighttime roaming a secret from prying eyes.

CHAPTER FIVE

The Star Tattler
—
January 1942 [Archive]

Sources report the estranged mother of sixteen-year-old Sybil Squire was forcefully escorted off the RKO lot yesterday after causing a scene outside of the actress’s dressing room. Annamaria Robles, drunk, cursing, and destroying props on Stage 54, threatened to kill herself if she couldn’t talk to her daughter. “I don’t have a mother,” Miss Squire told our source.

—Cricket Summers: Columnist to the Stars

Sunlight spilled across the floor of the commissary at the Warner Brothers Studio and highlighted a tall purple floral arrangement nearby. The shiny black of the lacquered chairs contrasted sharply with the white tablecloths and the overall pale cream of the interior. Understated elegance. Piper felt more comfortable in the cafeteria commissary, the one for the not-so-famous, but this was part of her turf, her old stomping grounds when she’d edited films for WB.
Before
she married Gordon. Her turf again, at least for the next couple of weeks. Sandy Goodmore, an editor friend at the studio, agreed to let her assist on a horror film she was cutting. It was like an internship, wages at scale, yet it gave her a chance to jump back in, hands-on.

Lee had invited her to lunch. On the lot with paperwork, Lee had signed an A-List actress making the move up with an Academy win. Lee finessed her own win. She couldn’t go two paces without being greeted. Everyone knew her, or knew
of
her. Despite her gender change, which had tongues wagging for two seasons back, she’d made her mark with killer instincts, sharp business tactics, and superb people skills. With all the schmoozing and constant bullshitting, she rarely got down more than three bites during a meal. Her cell phone never stopped ringing, beeping, or vibrating, linked to a half dozen neurotic and often hysterical clients.

Lee took a long drink from her iced tea. Piper watched her Adam’s apple bob with each gulp. It was the one thing Lee couldn’t do anything about, her prominent Adam’s apple. Yet she didn’t seem bothered by it. In fact, she displayed it like a badge of honor with open necklines and no scarves or jewelry. Was it a last testament to a previous life? To Leroy?

“He’s such a dick,” Lee said, referring to Gordon. “He was always a dick.”

“Unlike you,” Piper said, not unkindly.

“I was a dick when I had a dick. Now, according to my enemies, and some whiny producers, I’m a big C. And proud of it.” She chewed a piece of ice. “I told you, I warned you, that Gordon was a control freak before you married him.”

“And I’m supposed to listen to my ex-husband bash my future husband?”

“Why the hell not? We parted friends. You know what a good judge of character I am. I chose you, didn’t I?”

“That only proves you have good taste.”

She smiled. “Has the Gorgon tried to contact you in any way?”

“Nothing. I thought I’d hear from him after the papers were served, but not a word.” Piper lowered her voice. “There’s been a car cruising my neighborhood since I moved in there. Odd hours of the day and night. Tinted windows. Belle never saw it before I moved in. You think he’s having me watched?”

“I wouldn’t put anything past him. He’s a sore loser and a grudge holder. Like I said, he’s a dick.”

A waiter in white set down their orders, two swordfish sandwiches. Lee asked for extra mayo.

The comedy sitcom star, Ted Truman, stopped to pay tribute to Lee. Although she rarely represented television actors, there was always the exception. If she consented to take on a TV personality, it was to launch him or her into major motion pictures. Her clientele list was small, but impressive. It included Oscar winners and a few Emmy winners. Lee wasted no time on small-scale actors and politely dismissed the comedian after assuring him he was bound to be nominated for an Emmy next time around. He returned to his table grinning like a delirious chimp beneath his bearded face.

“That one has potential,” Lee said, looking after him. “But he’s too high-maintenance. A babysitter for TV talent, I’m not.”

Throughout their meal, they talked about the biz, the new crop of young executives, the wannabes infesting the industry, and those struggling to stay on top and those on the way out. Lee waved at George Clooney who sat at the table next to them. Lee and Piper briefly chatted with several studio execs, dinosaurs at Warner Brothers, who had stopped at their table on their way to a major meeting.

Gary Ott, the director who gave Piper her first big break, left his table to come to theirs. He held her hand, made a fuss over seeing her, and asked if she was back in the saddle. She took that to mean back to work in film editing. “I’m back.” He told her he might have a project for her if she was interested. “I’m very interested,” she said. He kissed her temple, a real kiss that made contact, not the airy kind, and then returned to his table and the young gum-chewing starlet who gazed at him with adoration and hope.

“Look out,” Lee said. “‘Back in the saddle’ to that horndog can mean a number of things. All sexually related.”

“I’m too old for him. He only likes to bang starlets. Young ones. Impressionable ones. Nothing impresses me these days. So how’s
your
love life?”

Lee rolled her eyes. “Erica and I are going through a rough patch. We’re far enough into the relationship to start screwing with each other’s heads. She knows she’s more than just a piece of ass, so she wants to mess with me, try to break my balls whenever she can.”

“What balls?”

“The quasi balls. The ones up here.” Lee touched a fingertip to her temple. “The ones she knows I’ll always have because she has them too.”

Erica was a transsexual Lee had met in group therapy six months earlier.

“You’re perfect for each other, why can’t you two get along?”

“Just because we’re both male-to-female transsexuals doesn’t mean we’re perfect for each other. Erica is high risk,” Lee said, tucking a strand of shiny hair behind her ear with a perfectly manicured nail. “She’s bisexual, you know. Not that that bothers me—her sexuality—it’s the damn relationships she gets herself into. Jesus, the last one was right out of
The Crying Game
. The guy didn’t know she was TS until … well … you know? She spent three days in the hospital after that gross error in judgment.”

“Speaking of hospitals, Sybil’s still in that private clinic and she isn’t taking phone calls or visitors. She doesn’t seem to want company.”

“Send her flowers.”

“I tried. The florist said they were undeliverable.”

“Wait till she’s home.” Lee raised a perfectly arched eyebrow and added, “I might be able to get her unlisted phone number.”

“Could you? Would you?”

CHAPTER SIX

The Star Tattler
—
June 1943 [Archive]

Certain rumors have surfaced that one ‘South of the Border’ actress of mystery movie fame, before being legally adopted by her high school drama teacher, may have been a product of child prostitution and child abuse. An anonymous source reports photographs have surfaced in the child porn rings being investigated by the police

Looks like she made her theatrical debut long before the RKO studio screen test had them scrambling to sign her up.

—Cricket Summers: Columnist to the Stars

Late one unseasonably hot autumn afternoon, Piper heard the soft whirring of the air-conditioning unit at the side of the Squire house. She saw lights upstairs in Sybil’s bedroom and knew she was home again. The aging actress stayed seven days in the hospital. Two silhouettes behind the window shade of the bathroom told her she wasn’t alone. Piper looked for the housekeeper’s VW. Except for the Lincoln parked in the carport, there were no other cars on the property. The hospital or social services had probably sent along a nurse to care for her.
Good
. It eased her mind to know Sybil was not stumbling around alone in that huge house with her liquor and cigarettes, a calamity waiting to happen. Of course, what Sybil Squire did or didn’t do was none of her business. Although she was eager to make a courtesy visit, she held off rushing right over. She’d give her a day or two to settle in.

Early the next morning, before leaving for the studio, she heard the housekeeper’s VW pull into the driveway next door. Minutes later, she heard a vocal commotion at the back door of the mansion. She recognized the voice of the housekeeper, raised in anger. Strings of words drifted in the air, “… the hell you say … ain’t leaving till … Just who do you think you are?!” Then she was shouting, “Sybil, honey, it’s Vera! Can you hear me? I ain’t leaving till you talk to me! Sybil-l-l!” Ten minutes later she heard a car door slam. The VW started up with a roar, backed erratically down the driveway, then tore off down the street.

All day at the studio, Piper thought about the episode outside the Squire mansion. What was that all about? A falling out between the housekeeper and her mistress? Over what? The two had seemed so close, so compatible.

#

Lee came through with Sybil’s unlisted home number. Piper called that afternoon. A woman who identified herself as a registered nurse in charge of Mrs. Squire said her patient was not accepting calls or visitors. Piper called two days later and was told the same thing. When she tried to inquire about her health, the connection was broken. She decided to bide her time. If she saw Sybil in her yard, she would make a move to reach out again.