Castle Fear (2 page)

Frank hung up. Then he lifted the receiver again, quickly unscrewed the mouthpiece, and removed a small electronic device - a bug. He looked toward Jed Shannon and said, "Can you tell me who Jillian is?"

The actor started as if the fireplace had suddenly burned him. "Who was that on the phone?"

"I have no idea. But whoever he was, he sure doesn't want us to help you find Jillian."

Joe asked, "Does this tie in with your gunman?"

"You got it," Frank replied. "Unless we drop the case, the next shots won't miss."

"Then suppose you tell us who she is," Joe said to the actor.

Berman sank low in his chair. "You might as well, kid."

"If any of this winds up in some scandal tabloid," warned Shannon, "I'll - "

"Before you go further," cut in Frank, "I'd better explain something. Unless you feel you can trust Joe and me, there's no use trying to do business with us."

"But if we do tackle your case," added Joe, "then you're really going to have to tell us the truth."

"Do it, kid," said Berman.

Shannon sat on a long, low black leather sofa and ran a hand over his face. "I shouldn't have been screaming at you guys. But this whole situation has me a little hyper."

He sighed. "I guess it began about ten months ago, doing the location shooting for A Punk at Oxford. I met a girl. Her name is Jillian Seabright - yeah, that's her real name. She's an actress, a very good one. Nobody's ever heard of her in the States because she's mostly done stage work and a little television here in London. Jillian had a small role in my movie, which is how I met her."

Frank asked, "Did you date her?"

"Not exactly. Nothing formal, anyway. We had lunch once or twice at an out-of-the-way inn she knew about, and we mostly just sat around and talked for hours. You know how it is when you really hit it off with someone. We became friends, actually."

"Jillian really isn't like any of the actresses I've known," he explained. "She doesn't seem like a show business person at all. She's bright, caring, and - I just like her." He rose up, pacing again. "Fact is, it wasn't until I was back home in Los Angeles that I realized how much I liked her. So I started calling her long distance."

"Expensive," commented Joe.

"I can afford it, and Jillian is worth it." The actor gave them a sheepish shrug. "She's a very special sort of girl. Anyway, we agreed that when I came over here to promote the opening of my movie in England, we'd get together."

"I nearly had to tie him down to keep him from hopping over here weeks ago to see her," Berman chipped in. "That would have fouled us up with promoting A Punk at Oxford. We were nearly number four at the box office for almost - "

"Enough, Larry."

Frank asked the actor, "So what happened when you got to England?"

Shannon shook his head. "I didn't find her."

"Wasn't she expecting you?" Joe frowned.

"Sure she was. I talked to her on the phone just a few days before I left L.A."

"She didn't hint that anything might be wrong?"

"Nothing like that. We had a dinner date set for my first night in town." Shannon dropped onto the sofa. "But I couldn't get any answer to my phone calls. Then I went over to her flat in the St. Marylebone district, and she wasn't there."

"What did they tell you at her building?" asked Frank.

"A neighbor said Jillian is still living there. I mean, she didn't move out or anything. But nobody had any idea where she's gone to."

"The kid's tried everything he can think of," said the agent. "The West End theater where she was doing a play, the - "

"What happened at the theater?" asked Joe.

Shannon replied, "Jillian had a small part in this Restoration comedy called: 'Tis a Pity She Won't Be Woo'd. But she'd been replaced, and nobody knew where she'd gone off to."

"When's the last time she was in the play?" Frank asked.

"She did the part till about three days before I got to town."

Frank said, "Does she have an agent?"

"Some seedy guy named Ian Fisher-Stone," said Shannon. "I checked with him, too, over the phone, and he didn't know a thing."

"You mean," said Frank, "he had a client working and didn't even wonder why she quit a play and disappeared?"

"Fisher-Stone told me Jillian was just off on a holiday. But he didn't know where she'd gone."

"How did he know she went on a vacation?"

"He wasn't very clear on that, but he gave me the impression it wasn't Jillian herself who told him."

Frank looked closely at Jed. "I don't want to set you off again, but is it possible she has another boyfriend?"

"She told me she didn't, not anyone serious."

"Did she mention anything else to you?" Frank continued. "Somebody who was annoying her? Or maybe some out-of-town acting job that might be coming up?"

Shannon started to shake his head, then stopped, frowning. "Wait now," he said. "She did tell me once or twice that maybe she was going to be a star, too. She didn't give me any details, but I had the idea she was probably being considered for a big part in a movie or play."

"You didn't know what it was, though?" Frank asked.

"She didn't give more than hints. Lots of actors and actresses are very superstitious, and they won't talk about a big part until after they've signed for it."

"Even if she has a part in a big-budget movie," said Joe, "that doesn't explain why people are threatening you."

"And Jillian is involved in the threats - right?" asked Frank.

Jed Shannon sighed. "Yeah. Both the phone calls and the letter warned me to forget about Jillian."

Eyes narrowing, Frank glanced from Jed to Larry Berman. Something was wrong with this case, right from the start. 'There's got to be more to this than what I'm hearing here. This girl didn't just go off to star in a movie."

"I'll tell you what I'm afraid of," said Shannon. "That's, she's been kidnapped or something, and that I'll never see her again."

Frank said, "This doesn't sound like a kidnapping."

"What do you mean? She's vanished, and nobody can find her."

Frank gave him a long, hard look. Shannon seemed sincerely upset, but actors - even bad actors - could be hard to read. "Kidnappers do it for money," he said, probing. "Here you are, a guy making a huge salary. Instead of trying to scare you off, the bad guys should be hitting you up for a fat ransom."

"What about her family and relatives?" said Joe. "Could be they've been approached about a ransom."

"No. Jillian's an orphan. There's no family at all."

Frank said, "All that's clear right now is that wherever Jillian Seabright is, there's somebody who doesn't want her found."

Shannon asked, "But why?"

"That's what we'll have to find out." Frank rose up. "We'll need all those addresses. Her home, the theater, her agent."

"I've already checked all those out," Shannon said.

"But we haven't." Joe got to his feet, too. "And how about a photo?"

Shannon shook his head. "I don't have one," he said, a little embarrassed. "Well, I have a dozen, actually, but I left them all at my beach house in Malibu."

"What does she look like?" Frank asked.

"She's very pretty."

"Can you get a little more specific?"

Shannon closed his eyes. "Five foot four, about a hundred and ten pounds, blond hair, shoulder length. Jill's got a heart-shaped face, dimples, big eyes. They're ... they're ... well, sort of gray-green." He looked a little flustered as he opened his eyes. He took a big breath and said, "I really am worried about her."

"We'll find her," Joe assured him.

"Now, let's take a look at these phones," said Frank.

The fog was even denser when the brothers left Jed Shannon's town house. It closed in tight around them as they started walking back toward their car.

Joe said, "Think we'll be able to trace that bug you found in the phone?"

"Probably not."

"Maybe we ought to persuade Shannon to go to the police again."

Frank said, "You heard me suggest that to Larry Berman. But he's convinced the London police think he's just a publicity nut."

"We've got evidence now, since that bug was real."

"We've only got evidence that there was a bug on the phone." Frank shook his head. "There's no way of proving who planted a snooping device there."

"Meaning Berman himself could have done it?"

"I don't think he did, Joe, but the police might."

After walking a few paces in silence, Joe remarked, "I hope we find Jillian Seabright."

His brother grinned. "That's part of our job now," he said. "Find her, and we should find whoever is threatening Jed Shannon. But you sound like you have other motives."

"Hey, I'd just like to meet the lady," said Joe. "Think about it, Frank. A multi-million- dollar Hollywood actor like Jed Shannon must meet dozens of incredible girls every day. You know - actresses, models, heiresses, maybe even a princess or two."

"True." They'd reached their parked car, and Frank fished the keys from his pocket.

"But he flies all the way to London from far off California to see this one girl again," Joe said.

Unlocking the door on the driver's side, Frank said, "He had to come to London anyway. He's promoting his new movie." He slid in behind the wheel, reaching across to open Joe's door.

"No, I think he really is in love with Jillian. You could hear it in his voice."

"He's an actor. He can make you hear anything in his - What's the matter, Joe?"

Joe held out a file card to his brother. "I just found this on my seat."

Neatly lettered on the white card were six words.

This could have been a bomb.

"Well, that was considerate of someone to give us such a break," Joe said with a smirk. "I wonder if this was put in the car before or after we were shot at."

"Whoever it was must have dropped it in through the crack in your window," Frank said as he started the car. "Maybe it was put there by the person I had that nice chat with on the phone."

"Or a certain red-haired girl who lost her dog," Joe mused.

Frank took his eyes off the road to look quizzically at his brother. "What are you talking about?"

As they made their way to the hotel Joe told his brother of his encounter with the girl in the doorway.

When they let themselves into their room Frank took the card from Joe and inspected it. "Too bad Jed got rid of that letter telling him to leave town. We have no way of knowing if this was written by the same hand."