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“Cerulean,” Deirdre said, the word sounding like air leaking from a balloon.
“You know about that?”
“Bu
“Selling a dream to a vast and untapped audience: women of a certain age.” Sy held up his fingers as if he were framing the slogan. Like her father, he was a pro at pitching an idea. “It’s going to be huge. Television ads. Free samples in the Oscar gift bags. International tour. She’ll be on Joh
“Arthur’s memoir would have soured everything,” Deirdre said. “Except for Walters. She’d have wanted her even more. What’s more fun than a public shaming?”
“You understand. I tried to convince him of his folly. What she would do if she found out what he was up to.”
“And she did find out, didn’t she?”
Sy didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to.
“So what happens now?”
“If I’m writing it, then you give me the last copy of your father’s memoir and I fix it.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Ah. Then Susa
“Susa
“Didn’t you think it was just a bit far-fetched that a prominent Israeli artist would want his work shown in a third-rate San Diego art gallery? So desperate, in fact, that he would pay for the privilege? I yem Avram Sigismund,” Sy said, affecting a thick accent. “I yem very well known in Israel, but I hev to show my verk in the United States. . . . Lucky for me, your partner ca
“You bastard.”
Sy looked genuinely wounded. He sat back in his chair. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you. When your father told me you were going to help him get ready to move, I needed to make sure he would be alone the night Bu
“Or that I’d pick up the shovel on my way up the driveway the next morning.”
“Yes. I do wish you had not done that. But let’s not dwell on missteps.”
The scary thing was, the scenario Sy was spi
On the other hand, Susa
“She is not. She is a rather mediocre actress. A good detective could demolish her story, and a defense attorney worth his salt could poke holes in it. But it will never come to that because after she comes forward and it becomes clear that you will be arrested and charged, you will find a quicker, cleaner way to extricate yourself.” Sy paused and thought for a moment, his gaze snagging on the umbrella she was using for a cane. “A car accident, I think.”
Deirdre felt as if ice water were trickling down her back. “You’d kill me?” she said, though she could see from his expression that he was dead serious.
“I am very fond of you, and it will make me very sad. So let’s not find out. But there is a great deal at stake. Millions this year. More millions for years to come. Not to mention the legacy of a great actress who is far more ruthless than I. Surely we can come up with a better ending.”
A better ending. As if her father could spring back to life like TV’s Bobby Ewing in Dallas. Instead this would be the ending in which someone gets away with her father’s murder.
“Step one is not negotiable,” Sy said. “You give me the last copy of Arthur’s memoir. In return, Susa
“Most of the story will be a familiar to you. The glamorous party. You were sleeping over. Your father came back to get you. Wonderful stuff, how he comforts Bu
“Is that where Tito was killed?”
“According to Bu
Deirdre closed her eyes and for a moment she was back in Joelen’s bedroom, smelling hairspray and feet and ripe pungent sawdust in the cage where Joelen’s pet guinea pigs lived. I thought I was protecting my mother. That’s why Joelen said she’d confessed. In the end, her confession had protected Bu
“Like I said, we leave all that out,” Sy went on. “Before the police arrive, your father drives off with you. Next thing he knows is the morning headlines: Joelen’s confession and arrest for murder. We add a third act. The trial. Bu
“And Henry? Is he in the movie?”
“Who’s Henry?” Sy chuckled, the sound rumbling deep in his chest.
“What about Jackie?”
“A mere footnote. Bu
“If he didn’t care, then why are we here talking about this? Why is he dead?”
“Because he would not bend. Do not make the same mistake, Deirdre.” Sy’s jaw stiffened. “So, which will it be?” He raised his index finger. “Susa
Deirdre held up three fingers. “Or I go through his papers, the way he asked me to. Sort. Cull. Inventory. Preserve. Certainly his memoir, even if it’s unfinished, gets preserved.”
“I’m ru
It wasn’t the gun that scared Deirdre. It was the cold expression on Sy’s face as he looked her squarely in the eye.