Set the Stage for Murder (4 page)

“
No,” Juliet whispered, glancing over her shoulder in the direction her mother had disappeared. “I thought he might call last night when he saw the news. I guess he doesn’t know what happened.” She saw the look on Meg’s face and suddenly wanted to cry. “I don’t understand what’s happened. I want the two of you to like him. Why can’t you make more of an effort, Meg?”

“
Juliet, Connor is a troubled young man.”

Juliet struggled to keep from crying. She couldn’t afford to look like a child now. Not when she was fighting for something that was so important. “But he’s okay now. He deserves a second chance. Don’t you believe in second chances, Meg?”

The words stung like an unexpected slap. Dear God, if the girl only knew just how much she believed in second chances. And yes, she wanted Connor to have one. It just wasn’t going to be with Julie.

“
I hope Connor’s life turns out wonderfully, but he’s not right for you, my love, and you’ll see that one day.” Her face softened as she looked at Juliet. She was so innocent and vulnerable.
Oh Blessed Mother,
she prayed,
give me the strength to do what I must do
. “Julie, you know that Roz and I are never going to approve of any man who sets his sights on you,” she said with a nervous laugh, her gaze not quite meeting her goddaughter’s. “And we just think you may be getting in a little too deep. Remember, Julie; you’re about to be working with him on this play. A romantic relationship could really complicate matters. This project is a big deal and it’s
your
big chance. We just don’t want something to happen that will jeopardize that.”

Juliet slumped down in her chair, defeated. “I know. Neither do I. And I know I’m awfully lucky to have this opportunity.”

“
Well, that makes two of us, doesn’t it?” Meg laughed, relieved that the conversation was taking another direction.

“
Meg, you were in the original production. Of course you’d be in the sequel.”

“
I was your mother’s
understudy
in the original production and only fortunate enough to be that because of our resemblance to one another. No, if Roz hadn’t talked Harry into writing a role for me in the new show, I would be doing needlepoint in my dressing room for the run of the play. But you, my dear, are a talented young actress. This production is lucky to have you, no matter who your mother is.”

“
Though you can’t deny that it’s a great marketing angle, having both me and Connor performing with our parents,” Juliet said with a smile.

“
No. No, I can’t. And I’m sure Teddy will go to town with it” Meg said as she set the tray on the console by the kitchen door and came over and embraced Juliet from behind. “Just promise me that you’ll keep things with Connor casual. Your mother has so much on her plate right now with rehearsals starting; it’s not going to be easy for her, you know; she’s very apprehensive about working with your father again. And now there’s this whole mess with the note and the bouquet. It’s just too much. She needs you to be her calm in the storm right now.”

“
I will be, Meg,” Juliet said, unhappily. “I promise.” She got up from her chair and walked to the entryway, retrieving her purse from the large round table where a Baccarat crystal vase containing eighteen
Fair Rosamund
roses always sat. A dozen stems had proved to be too few and two dozen, too many, so ever since the flower had been bred and named, more than sixteen years ago, a florist had delivered eighteen perfect specimens of the hybrid tea rose to the apartment twice a week. Juliet gently cupped one of the pale buds in her hand and inhaled its familiar fragrance, closing her eyes as if she were making a wish or summoning some inner strength. Then she the turned back and gave Meg a half-hearted smile before leaving the apartment, taking extra care when shutting the door, so as not to disturb Rosamund.

“
She’s going to try and see him now,” Rosamund said from the hallway, where she stood, hidden by the shadows.

Meg glanced toward the hallway and nodded, not at all surprised that Roz had been eavesdropping. “I know.” She sat back down at the table and buried her head in her hands. “Oh, Roz, are you sure she’ll be all right?”

Roz came into the room and sat at the table, putting her hand on her old friend’s back. “Yes, Maggie, she’ll be okay. We’ll make sure. If she can’t be the strong one, then we’ll do it for her. He won’t see her. I’ve made sure of that.”

“
I still think my way may be better. I know it’s a big step, but …” She began to cry softly. ”Oh, I don’t know … I just don’t know anymore.”

Roz gently grabbed Meg by the shoulders and turned her around until they were face to face. “Meggie, we will get through this and we will protect our girl, but we have to do it my way. Do you understand me?”

Meg closed her eyes, took a deep breath and nodded. “I do. I understand.”

Roz smiled as she wiped a tear from her friend’s cheek. “Good. All of us will get through this together.” She got up and kissed the top of Meg’s head. “Why don’t you go to the church? You know you’ll feet better if you do.”

“Roz, I can’t leave you alone. Not now. I’m absolutely terrified for you. Whoever is doing this is sick and vengeful …” She looked at Roz as the realization dawned on her. “You don’t think Connor could be behind this, do you?”

“I don’t know,” Roz admitted as she lit a cigarette. “I’ve gone down my list of enemies and I can’t deny that it’s a possibility. I’ve done a horrible thing to him and he might want to get back at me.” She took a long drag from the cigarette, exhaled slowly and gave Meg a wry smile. “Of course, he’d have to stand in line.”

“Well, I’m not leaving you alone.”

“I’ll lock and bolt the door behind you. The building has excellent security. No one could possibly get in here. Besides, I don’t think this person, whoever it is, wants to hurt me physically. They just want to ruin my career. I’ll be fine, really. Besides, you need to light a candle for me … for us”

“Well, maybe you’re right,” Meg conceded, smiling for the first time all day. “We all could benefit from a little prayer right now. I’ll go once I finish these dishes.” She rose and picked up the tray she’d begun to clear earlier. She started toward the kitchen but stopped and turned around before going through the door. “Roz, promise me you’ll be careful. You and Julie are everything to me. I couldn’t bear to lose either one of you.”

Roz smiled tiredly. “I’ll be careful, Meggie. I promise.”

***

Juliet called Connor’s apartment once she was off the elevator and on the street. Once again, she got the machine. She tried his cell but was sent to voice mail after only one ring. She hadn’t spoken with him since Friday afternoon. Why was Connor suddenly avoiding her?

Vicki sat back on her heels, spade in hand and stared out over the Hudson River. Even after three years of calling Lenore’s Folly hers, it was hard for her to believe that she actually lived on this particular piece of land and enjoyed this particular view. This vista, which had inspired artists for almost two hundred years and was depicted on countless canvases, was hers to gaze at any time she wished.

She said a silent prayer of thanks for a life that had always been a good one, even before Teddy McDowell came along with his charm, his money, and his devotion. She was fortunate that the two parents who had raised her in a loving home full of humor and possibility were still around and still healthy. Arthur and Nan Locke, a retired mail carrier and his wife, still lived in the house where Vicki had been raised and not because she hadn’t offered to help them move elsewhere, but because it was theirs and it was home. She was lucky to have two slightly older brothers, Artie and Jesse, who had made sport of picking on their little sister and, later, frightening off her potential boyfriends. They were the same brothers who stood first and cheered louder than anyone at her first curtain call in high school and the same brothers who had given her a nice selection of treasured nieces and nephews.

And Vicki had been blessed to have a successful career on the stage for several years, having become one of those performers directors loved to cast just in case the rest of the show stinks. She wasn’t a household name, but she worked steadily. Audiences left the theater discussing her performance and wondering why she wasn’t more famous, scratching their heads because they hadn’t seen her on a television series or in the movies. For some actors, most, perhaps, this near anonymity would have been maddening, setting off frantic calls to agents, nights of binge drinking or, more likely, both. For Vicki, it was exactly where she wanted to be and what she wanted to be doing - working in the theater.

Yes, she’d always had a good life. So when Teddy McDowell came along and made her fall in love with him, a few short years ago, it was like finding the ideal icing for an already near-perfect cake. And Lenore’s Folly was the cherry on top of everything. Teddy’s great-great grandfather had acquired this magnificent one hundred and thirty five acre property in 1887 at the insistence of his wife, Lenore. Lenore Dewitt, like her great-great granddaughter-in-law, was an actress. In a time when New York society barely acknowledged stage performers, James Theodore McDowell, eldest son of a prominent family, not only acknowledged Miss Dewitt, but also hounded her until she agreed to marry him. Society could no longer ignore Lenore, because she had married the heir to one of the city’s most substantial fortunes with the apparent blessing of the entire clan McDowell. She now not only had to be included in everything, she also had to be favored by the doyennes of society, sought after to attend the best dinner parties and listened to whenever and wherever she chose to speak. But then something occurred which was totally unforeseen, except, perhaps, by her husband. Everyone fell in love with her. In addition to great beauty, she possessed, by all accounts, a genuineness of spirit and a delightful sense of humor that soon captivated even the most rigid of her one-time detractors. Before long, Lenore Dewitt McDowell was leading society and bringing everyone along with her. If she served Cornish hens in fig sauce at a dinner party, everyone else served Cornish hens in fig sauce for the rest of the season. After Lenore arrived at the opening night of the opera in a Worth gown with a lavender satin bow, the House of Worth was inundated with orders for gowns with lavender satin bows. In fact, the only thing she ever did wrong, according to the denizens of Manhattan’s finest neighborhoods, was to select the piece of land on which Vicki currently kneeled. Lenore had fallen in love with the same view Vicki now gazed upon, and James had purchased the property for her that same day. However, according to popular opinion it was too far north and too remote. Someone referred to it as “Lenore’s Folly” and the phrase caught on quickly. When she overheard it, Lenore was delighted and insisted that James call the property just that.

Like his peers, James built the expected, European-inspired, granite and marble mansion, which, once completed, left the McDowells feeling indifferent and a little disappointed. The structure was massive and, if truth be told, a little menacing. Upon Lenore’s suggestion, her husband had another house built on the property farther up the river. They called it the Cottage and both of them fell in love with it immediately. In truth the Cottage was a three story, yellow and white, twelve bedroom Victorian, complete with turrets, wraparound porches, and nine stained glass panels designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. In addition, The Cottage had its own separate, three-bedroom guesthouse and a carriage house. For all practical purposes, James and Lenore, along with their children, lived at the Cottage when they were upstate, using the main house only when the number of guests invited demanded it. Now Phoebe lived in the main house, which still looked foreboding and austere from the outside, but was lovely and comfortable on the inside, thanks to her exquisite taste. The Cottage belonged to Teddy and Vicki; well, actually to Vicki herself, as Teddy had presented her the house as a wedding present. Like Lenore, she had fallen in love with the place the first time he took her here. Now it was her haven. So this morning, upon leaving her mother-in-law’s apartment, she had made the impulsive decision to head upstate for Lenore’s Folly. She kissed her husband goodbye in front of Phoebe’s building, and after picking up their pug, Clementine, from their apartment, on Riverside Drive, she retrieved the car from the parking garage and drove north on the winding Taconic Parkway. After all, she reasoned, she really needed to be at the house supervising all the preparations for the weekend.

This was totally untrue, of course, and she knew it. Marc and Ethan would have everything under control; any idea Vicki could come up with which would make the gathering a success had already been guessed at and implemented by the couple. In addition, there would be a litany of surprising details attended to which would impress not only the guests but Vicki and Ted as well. The boys had a knack for discovering which single malt scotch a guest might be overly partial to or who preferred a
Times
at the breakfast table but a
Post
slipped under his or her bedroom door. In addition, Marc would already be busy preparing incredible food while Ethan was combing the gardens and pinpointing which flowers would go into arrangements and then contemplating in what rooms they might look best. No, she was comfortable in the knowledge that everything was humming along like a finely tuned engine and there was little left for her to do.

The truth was that she was running away. Last night had left her head spinning, and she was tired of thinking about the whole mess. Once she and Clementine got to the house and into her garden, the rest of the world would disappear, and the most important thing would be making sure she dug up the dandelions properly, roots and all. There was only one problem; it wasn’t working. Because as she sat in a sea of poorly extracted dandelions, staring across the river at the Catskills, she saw nothing but last night’s events at the Duchess playing over and over in her head.