Act V (23 page)

She had nodded, not exactly happy about
this turn of events, but willing to trust Brice to do what was
right.

*****

They were seven days away from opening
and the pressure kept her focused. Aaron was feeling it too.
Despite his normally laid-back attitude, he was displaying signs of
stress from both his brother’s death and the show. “How’re you
feeling, Aaron?” she asked him after hearing him blast his crew for
the third time that day.

“
Sorry Babe,” he reached to
hug her. “Didn’t mean to act like a jackass. I’m just
stressed.”

“
Don’t apologize,” she told
him, hugging back. “You deserve to be a little high-strung right
now.”

“
It won’t affect the
performance. I promise.”

“
I know it won’t,” she said
and pecked his cheek lightly.

He lowered his head. “The police want
to see me after rehearsal. I’m not sure what it’s about, but they
sure did ask me a butt-load of questions the other day.”

“
I guess they have to cover
all the bases. Just be yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She
hugged him again. Yes, he was a possible suspect in a murder
investigation, but this gentle soul was the last person she would
imagine as a killer.

*****

The Bard was ready to take care of this
small but potentially hazardous problem once and for all. And it
would be better if she believed she was in no danger to begin with.
If she felt safe, secure, then she would be much more cooperative.
He would see to it that she believed herself to be as safe as a
babe in Mama’s arms.

*****

It was a day for calming others. At
almost five o’clock, her cell rang. Rehearsal was done for the day
and she’d gone back up to the theatre to sort through props and
make a final list of what they needed. Between the play, the
murders and the frightful realization that a killer was trying to
find her, she was already on overload. Naturally, it was
Dorsey.

“
Glynn,” his voice was shaky
but he sounded sober. “Glynn, I’m scared. I need to talk. Can I
meet you at your place?”

Brice had told her to keep her distance
from him, no matter what. “Dorsey, I don’t think that we
should…”

“
I just want to talk Glynn.
They called me into the police station today for more
questions….Please honey, I don’t have anybody else.”

While it didn’t surprise Glynnis to
hear that he had been called in for more questioning, it was still
upsetting. How could they suspect Dorsey? It was ridiculous. Yes,
he was selfish and occasionally stupid, but he just wasn’t a
murderer. No chance. She couldn’t leave him out there, they had
spent too much time as a couple, meant too much to each other.
“Okay Dorsey, meet me at the house in half an hour, but you can’t
stay long. I have…a date.” She didn’t, not officially, but Brice
would probably at least come by to check on her.

That last statement took him by
surprise. Dorsey inhaled deeply before going on. “I won’t stay
long, I promise.”

“
Alright Dorsey, I’ll see
you in a few minutes.”

*****

Addy escorted Aaron Shultz to the chair
in the interview room opposite the one in which he would be
sitting. Brice was observing from outside and would enter if and
when the need arose.

“
Are you comfortable Mr.
Shultz?”

“
I’m fine. What’s this
about?”

“
First, Mr. Shultz, I’d like
to thank you for agreeing to this interview. We have a few details
we’d like to clear up. Want some coffee?”

That was Addy,
Brice thought, watching through the two-way
mirror,
make the guy comfortable, get him
on your side, then zap him.

“
I could use some.” Shultz
told him. “It’s been a tough couple of days.”

“
I’m sure it has.” Addy
poured two cups of hot coffee adding about a pound of cream to his
own. “How do you take it?”

“
Black, thanks.”

Addy handed him the cup. “Again, I’m so
very sorry about your brother and sister-in-law. I’ll try to keep
this brief.”

“
Thanks.”

“
First, just to eliminate
all the family questions that will pop up later, where were you on
the night of your brother’s death?”

Aaron sat up, rigid in his chair. “Why?
Am I a suspect?”

“
Mr. Shultz, I know these
questions might be invasive or even insulting, but I’m trying to
establish your alibi so that there will be no reasonable doubt for
the jury when someone is eventually arrested.”

He visibly relaxed. “Okay, I was at
home in my apartment reading over a script.”

Addy wrote it down. “Anybody see you
there?”

“
I don’t think so, but
that’s where I was.”

“
How about your brother? Did
you two get along okay?”

Aaron gave him a doubtful look. “I
already told you we were fighting the other day.”

Addy just waited. Sometimes silence
produced enough discomfort to bring on a butt-load of
information.

“
I guess we got along as
well as most brothers. We fight…fought sometimes. He was an
underachiever. Smart as anything but didn’t always use it and he
still managed to get scholarships. Mama and Daddy doted on him
because he was the youngest. He was spoiled and a little lazy. That
led to fights.” He wiped a tear away. “He was still my brother. I
loved him.”

Addy wasn’t letting it go. Brice could
tell he’d push it until he got a confession or he was sure of the
guy’s innocence. “What about your mother? She doesn’t think a whole
lot of your choice of careers does she?”

Shultz was instantly out of his chair
leaning over the still seated Addison. “What the heck does that
have to do with anything? Look!” He shouted, pointing to the glass
where Brice stood, concealed, “You and your partner out there might
think I’m just an ignorant redneck, but I’m not. If you want to
know if I killed my brother, just come out and ask me.”

He was almost nose to nose with Addison
now and Brice thought about going in to step between them but knew
that this was probably the reaction Addy had been going for. He
waited. Shultz wheeled on one foot and stomped away, standing to
face the wall. His stance was rigid, but he was no longer on the
attack.

Addy, cool as a breeze, spoke softly.
“Sit down Mr. Schultz. We’re almost done.”

Aaron Shultz fell into his chair, the
adrenaline from his angry outburst suddenly draining away. He
appeared exhausted. He dropped his head on the table. “My mother
doesn’t like my job. She thinks only fa…gay men go into theatre,
and she’d be the first one to tell you that that’s okay for
somebody else, but not her son. She’s from a whole different world
of thought. Mama thought I should pursue medicine or law like
Kenny, or go to work at the BMW plant. That’s a manly job.” He
lifted his head and ran his fingers through his hair. “It doesn’t
change the fact that I loved my brother. I didn’t kill
him.”

Addison played his last card. “Did you
know Hamilton Danning?”

Shultz was dumbfounded. “I worked
summers for him while I was in high school and college.”

“
He helped you pay for some
of your college tuition, didn’t he? When your parents couldn’t…or
wouldn’t.”

“
He was a good man. I got
enough scholarships to cover most of the expenses. He covered the
rest, even when I was in grad school. He was a big theatre
man…thought I had a future in it.”

“
So he supported you when
your parents didn’t.”

“
Yeah.”

“
How’d it make you feel when
he died and eventually, his brother, Claude married Hamilton’s
widow?”

“
Does it matter how I felt?
She could marry whoever she wanted.”

“
You didn’t feel that Claude
Danning had betrayed his dead brother?”

“
What? No…”

After waiting to see if anything would
follow, Addy said, “Thank you Mr. Shultz. You can go home, but stay
available.”

*****

After Shultz had left the building,
Brice approached his partner. “You don’t think it’s him do
you?”

“
Even if I did, we don’t
have any physical evidence against him. He might just be a real
good actor, but I can’t get a feeling that he did it.”

“
Sociopaths are often good
actors. Plus, he has ties to both murder victims.” It was like this
with the two of them; one took a position and the other played
devil’s advocate. It kept them from making serious mistakes,
overlooking possibilities. It was one reason they made a great
team.

“
So does Timmons. Can’t pin
it on him either, even with the second interview we did today. We
don’t have enough to arrest either guy.”

Brice thought about that. “There’s
something else that’s been bothering me the whole time too,” he
said, “and now I’m beginning to get a better grasp on
it.”

“
Well don’t keep it to
yourself boy.”

“
The thing is, this guy
wants us to think he’s obsessed with Shakespeare. He’s gone out of
his way to make his crime scenes very obviously
Shakespeare-oriented and to call attention to that
fact.”

“
Okay, I got that
already.”

“
But he’s had a couple of
blatant discrepancies in his crimes that a true Shakespeare lover
would never have had.”

Addy waited patiently for his partner
to reveal the rest. You couldn’t rush Brice when he was on a
roll.

“
One, he used belladonna on
our Romeo, but according to scholars, and our medical examiner,
that’s supposedly what Juliet used. Glynnis told me that Romeo used
a different poison that he brought along for another purpose. Two,
he used a nineteenth century dagger to kill the girl. It should
have been a sixteenth century model.”

“
Maybe those were the only
things he could get his hands on at the time.”

“
Maybe, but if you were
truly obsessed with the forms of death in Shakespeare’s plays,
wouldn’t you try to make it as authentic as possible?”

“
Probably, but maybe he
thinks the general public won’t know the difference.”

“
We’re back to square one.
Okay then,” Brice conceded grudgingly, “we go back to the drawing
board in the morning.”

*****

Glynnis took Carl for a quick walk and
Dorsey was sitting on her doorstep when she got back. “Come on in,”
she tilted her head toward the door.

Dorsey followed her inside and sat down
on the couch without being invited. Glynnis could only dredge up
mild irritation about that. Two years ago he would have landed on
her bed naked without being asked. Time changed many things. She
sat beside him. “Tell me about what happened today,” she
said.

“
They wanted to know about
Danning again.” He rubbed both temples with his fingers. “I told
them the same thing I told them last time. But then…” He stopped.
“Glynnis, this is hard.”

“
Just tell me, Dorsey. We
have too much between us to play games.”

He nodded. “They asked me about
Gabrielle Richardson…Shultz.”

“
Why would they ask you
about her? Did you know her?”

He lowered his head even further and
Glynnis wondered if he planned to dig a hole in the floor and crawl
into it. “Dorsey?”

“
She and I dated for about
three months.” Then he added quickly, “But we broke up almost a
year ago.”

“
You were…You were dating
her?” Glynnis couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Are you
insane? She’s just eighteen now!” Glynnis realized what she’d said.
“I mean she was eighteen when she died,” she said in a much softer
tone. “Dorsey, she was a baby when you were dating her, not even
legal. You were almost twice her age.” Then she did the math.
Almost a year of breakup plus three months of dating would have put
them together while she and Dorsey were still engaged.

He watched as her eyes darkened and
widened. Her fury began to grow and as if he knew that she had
figured it out, he added, “I’m sorry Glynn. It was a mistake. She
came on to me and I was flattered.” He was talking so fast now that
Glynnis doubted he even knew all that he was saying. “I was stupid.
I had you and you were having the medical trouble and…and I was
stupid.” He stopped because there was nothing left to
say.

Any compassion she’d had for
him had gone with Dorsey right down the
stupid hole
. “Why did you break up?”
She shoved the words at him like hot coals in a bucket that was now
too steamy to hold even by the handle. “Why?”

“
She met the Shultz guy.
Said I was too old. Guess I was.”

The compassion was working its way back
in through Glynn’s tight lips and she felt them ease just a little.
She knew the girl had hurt his pride. Glynnis understood how that
felt, from experience. She wasn’t ready to forgive and forget, but
she took his hand. “Ah, Dorsey, what a mess.”