Cherry Cheesecake Murder (8 page)

“What do you mean?”

“Sharyn is flying in on Tuesday night.”

“Who’s Sharyn?”

“Dean Lawrence’s wife.”

Andrea looked completely astonished. “Don’t tell me you know her, too!”

“No, I’ve never met her. All I know is, Ross said they were flying in on Tuesday night for the last few days of shooting and they’ll stay for the wrap party on Saturday.”

Andrea looked envious. “That’s so exciting. I guess you’ll be going, especially since you know Ross and Lynne. I saw him with his arm around you and he’ll probably ask you to be his date. I don’t suppose I’ll get invited.”

“I’ll make sure you get an invitation,” Hannah promised, 99 percent certain that Ross would grant her that small favor. “Besides, if Tracey gets the part, you’ll both be invited.”

“You’re right. I didn’t think of that. Uh-oh!”

“Uh-oh what?”

“I’m being summoned.”

“Who’s summoning you?”

“Mother and Carrie. They probably want me to take Tracey. I’d better go.”

“I’ll go with you. I haven’t said hello to Tracey yet.”

The two sisters got up and walked toward the table where their mother and Carrie were sitting across from each other. Tracey was nowhere in sight.

“Where’s Tracey?” Andrea asked, pulling out a chair and sitting down next to her mother.

“With Mr. Barton. He asked if he could take her over to his table and introduce her to the actress playing the lead.”

“Oh boy!” Andrea breathed, and then she turned toward Hannah, who’d just taken the chair next to Carrie. “That’s got to be good, doesn’t it?”

“It couldn’t be bad. I don’t think he’d introduce her to a member of the cast unless he was interested.”

“Interested in what?” Delores asked.

“Using Tracey in the movie.” Andrea beamed from ear to ear. “We ran into Mr. Barton on the way in, and he invited us to the auditions this afternoon.”

“Do you have a copy of the script?” Carrie asked, leaning closer to Andrea, even though no one else at the table was paying the least bit of attention to them.

“No. Do you have one?”

“Of course we do,” Delores opened her tote bag so that they could see the script inside. “Mr. Barton sent it to us right after we agreed to collect all the props his man couldn’t find and check everything for authenticity. Take the whole tote, dear. There’s a copy machine in the library. You can get the key from Marge and run upstairs to make a copy.”

Andrea took the tote with a smile. “What a great idea! Then Tracey can rehearse before we go to the audition. Thanks, Mother. You and Carrie are the best!”

Once Andrea had rushed off to find Marge and get the key to the library, Hannah stood up to go. “I guess I’d better see if Edna…”

“Aunt Hannah!” a small voice interrupted her and Hannah turned to see Tracey and Ross heading their way. “Hi, Honey.”

“Hi!” Both Tracey and Ross spoke at once and then they turned to each other and laughed.

Hannah laughed right along with them. “Not you, Ross. I was talking to my niece.”

“And here I thought you were really warming up to me.” Ross gave her a slightly crooked grin.

Tracey glanced from her aunt to Ross, and then back again. “You’re probably going to tell me it’s none of my business, but are you two flirting?”

“No,” Hannah said, overlapping Ross’s reply of “Yes.”

“I see,” Tracey said, giggling. “Just let me know when I should stop calling you Mr. Barton and switch to Uncle Ross, okay? I’m going up to the buffet table to get some dessert.”

Ross waited until Tracey had left and then he mopped his brow with his handkerchief. “Whew! She’s a real pistol. I bet you were just like her at that age.”

“Not at all. I was a shy, retiring child.”

Hannah’s smile belied her words and Ross laughed. “Right. I just can’t get over how bright Tracey is. When I introduced her to the head of the makeup department, she asked about the differences between stage makeup, movie makeup, and street makeup.”

“That’s Tracey,” Hannah replied, proud that her niece could phrase intelligent questions. “Did Lynne like her?”

“Lynne was crazy about her. They talked for a couple of minutes and then Lynne said if she ever had a daughter, she’d want her to be just like Tracey.”

“What did they talk about?”

“Lynne’s career. Tracey said she’d seen her in one of her TV dramas and she wanted to know if Lynne was really crying in one scene. Lynne said no, she was acting, and Tracey could hardly believe it. She said it looked so real to her that she started to sniffle.”

Smart move, Hannah thought, but she didn’t say it. Actors always loved to hear their work praised.

“Then she asked Lynne to please not mention it to her mother, because the program was on after her bedtime and she sneaked downstairs to watch it.”

“And Lynne promised?”

“Of course.”

Hannah just shook her head, remembering a psychology class she’d taken in college. The professor had said, “Get someone to do a favor for you, and their opinion of you will rise.” At first that hadn’t made sense to Hannah, but then she’d thought long and hard about it. She believed that she was a good judge of character and if she took the time and the trouble to grant a favor to someone, then that someone must be worthy. Asking for a promise from Lynne was a favor, and Lynne had granted it. That meant her opinion of Tracey had risen. Tracey might not know the psychology behind manipulating people, but she’d accomplished it with amazing acumen. Of course she’d learned from a master, her mother. And also from the grand master of manipulation, her grandmother Delores.

“So Tracey charmed everyone?” Hannah asked, certain that Ross’s answer would be in the affirmative.

“Even Erica and her mother, and they were sitting there glaring at each other before Tracey came on the scene. She had both of them eating out of her hand and smiling at each other within two minutes. If she does a good job of reading for the part, I’m going to cast her.”

“You won’t be disappointed,” Hannah promised. “Tracey’s a talented girl with a sunny personality, and she gets along with everybody.”

“I can see that.”

Hannah smiled as they walked over to the table where Delores and Carrie were sitting. As coincidence would have it, she’d watched a documentary about stage mothers on television last night and they’d mentioned several who’d been positively spiteful when the demands they made for their child stars weren’t met. And as Ross greeted Delores and Carrie, Hannah couldn’t help thinking, I just hope Andrea isn’t like that!

“Just between the four of us, I think she’s perfect for the part,” Ross said, glancing over at Tracey, who sat two tables away with her friend, Karen Dunwright. “I wish I’d brought a copy of the script with me. Her mother could read it to her.”

“You mean, she could read it to her mother,” Hannah corrected him. “Tracey reads on a fifth-grade level.”

“I thought Tracey was in kindergarten!”

“She is. She taught herself to read about a year and a half ago, and she’s been checking out library books ever since.”

“Maybe I should run back to the trailer and get her a copy of the script.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Delores said, and a bit of guilty color rose in her cheeks. “Carrie and I gave Andrea our script. She’s upstairs in the library, copying it.”

Ross didn’t look upset at this news, and Hannah figured he didn’t mind at all that Tracey’s family had banded together to give her an edge at the auditions. “How are you ladies coming along with the props?”

“Just fine,” Delores answered for both of them. “We’ve spent the past several weeks going through farmhouse attics and storage sheds. I think we have everything on that list your prop man gave us. We have to talk, though. We found a couple of discrepancies for something that’s set in the fifties.”

“Like what?”

“Your prop man wanted us to find a period cable box for the television set. Small towns in Minnesota didn’t have cable in the fifties.”

“Good for you for catching that!”

“That’s not all, but we can go into it later,” Carrie spoke up. “Delores and I were around back then, and we remember what it looked like.”

Delores flashed Carrie a dirty look. “What Carrie means is, people in Lake Eden don’t redecorate until things wear out. That means the fifties look stayed around for at least twenty years.”

Good save, Mother! Hannah thought silently, hiding a most unladylike snort of laughter by coughing into her napkin. Delores was an expert at thinking on her feet, and she’d crawl through a field filled with cow pies before she’d divulge her true age.

Ross exchanged a glance with Hannah and she thought she saw an amused twinkle in his eyes. Then he turned back to Delores. “Michelle told me how you decorated your store to look like the first mayor’s house for the Winter Carnival.”

“That’s right. We didn’t have pictures, of course, but there were letters from the first mayor’s wife to her sister back east and she didn’t stint on words describing the new house that her husband built for her. With a little more research, Carrie and I were able to replicate that house. It was a showplace for its day, built shortly before the turn of the century.” She gave a little laugh. “The last century, that is. Eighteen ninety-three, to be exact.”

“Very impressive. I know it’s a lot to ask, but Michelle thought you might be able to do it again, but this time make it a house in the nineteen fifties.”

“We could do it, Delores!” Carrie spoke up excitedly.

“Well…I’m sure that we could, but…” Delores stopped to give a little sigh, but Hannah, who was watching her mother closely, saw the gleam of avarice in her eyes. “It would be a lot of work. And we’d have to store the antiques from other periods.”

“I have a whole crew at my disposal and my carpenters can build you a temporary storage facility. Actually, we could do it according to code and make it permanent. That way, you’d be able to keep it for future use.”

“That would be nice. We could always use more storage.”

“Of course my crew would be at your beck and call for painting, wallpapering, moving furniture, whatever you’d need. It would be a matter of just dressing the downstairs. Michelle showed me pictures of the inside and we won’t need any structural changes. We might have to take out a window or two to get a particular shot, but naturally we’d replace those.”

“How long would we have to decorate it?”

“That’s part of the problem. I’d need it by Wednesday afternoon.”

Ross turned to look at Carrie, who was wise enough to realize who was running the show. “That’s up to Delores,” she said.

“Delores?” Ross gave her a smile. “Did I mention that you’d be paid very well for your trouble? And that after we’re through shooting, my crew will put everything back exactly the way it was?”

“No, you didn’t mention that.”

Cut to the chase, Hannah thought, but both Ross and her mother remained silent. Perhaps it was time for her to take the initiative and get this thing settled before the whipped cream on top of Edna’s Jell-O parfait turned into a milky lake.

“How about screen credit?” Hannah threw out her suggestion.

“Good idea! Screen credit for both you and Carrie. And there may be a part in the movie for you. Just a small walk-on with one line apiece, but that might be fun for you. Do we have a deal?”

Delores glanced at Carrie, who was nodding like one of the old-fashioned dipping birds that Doc Bennett used to set up on his windowsill to keep his young patients occupied while he drilled.

“We have a deal,” Delores said.

“Thank you all for inviting us here this afternoon,” Ross stood in front of the crowd at the podium Mayor Bascomb usually used to open town meetings or call everyone to the table at potluck dinners. “You’ve shown real hospitality by inviting the cast and crew to brunch. I’ve got to tell you that if this movie is half as good as the food we had here today, it’ll be a huge box office success.”

There was laughter and Ross waited until it had died down. Hannah was impressed. When she’d first known him, he’d been shy around people, but he’d certainly gained a lot of self-confidence in the years they’d been out of touch.

“Michelle Swensen is my local production assistant, and she tells me that in a town the size of Lake Eden, all you have to do is mention something to one person and before the day’s out, everybody in town knows about it. Does everyone know that we need extras for the crowd scenes and we’re hoping you’ll help us out?”

There was more applause and a couple of whistles from some of the high school crowd. “And do you know that we’re holding auditions at the school this afternoon for some walk-on parts in the movie?”

“We know!” someone shouted out, and Ross laughed.

“I figured you’d know all about it, because Michelle said if I told one person that would do it. And I told Michelle.”

This time the whole room exploded into laughter, and Michelle stood up and took a bow.

“Auditions are at Jordan High auditorium from two to four. There’ll be sign-up sheets for extras, and a half-dozen or so walk-on parts we need to fill.” He turned to Michelle to confirm it, and she shook her head. “Okay, I’m wrong. How many parts, Michelle?”

“Twelve, counting the plumber.”

“I stand corrected. It’s twelve parts. I hope you’ll all drop by to sign up to be an extra in the crowd scenes and to try out for the bigger parts. We need…” Ross stopped speaking and held out his hand to Michelle. “Do you have that list?”

Michelle walked up to the podium to hand it to him, and Ross began to read. “We need a plumber, two waitresses for a cocktail party, a grade school teacher, a florist, a caterer, a bus driver, a party planner, a pianist, a filling station attendant, a mailman, and…” Ross paused to let the tension build, “…a really lousy driver who’s just been in an accident. But don’t go out and wreck your cars or anything like that. We never get to see this person drive on screen. All he has to do is go to makeup so our talented team can outfit him with fake bruises, a couple of bandages, and a pair of crutches.”

Ross referred to the sheet again. “There are also a couple of larger parts we need to fill. We need two policemen, two local women who come for the cocktail party, someone to play the female lead as a child, and a mayor. That’s it, except…we also need a cat.”