Diane Vallere - Style & Error 03 - The Brim Reaper (27 page)

Dante stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked over Cat’s head. I intently studied his profile, trying to determine who or what he was watching. “Who was Lily Dache’s assistant?” he asked mechanically.

“Halston!” Cat and I said in unison.

She giggled at me and then turned back to Dante. “What are you still doing here? I thought you had someplace to go.”

“I do.”

She rolled her eyes and tipped her head conspiratorially. “Dante’s got a thing for Hedy London—ever since he first saw one of her movies. Then she spoke at his graduation. I think that meant more to him than the diploma.”

“You know Hedy London?” I asked.

He raised an eyebrow and then dropped it.

Cat leaned in. “He keeps telling this ridiculous story that she made a pass at him before she gave the speech at his commencement. I told him he could come tonight if he was on his best behavior.”

I looked back and forth between their faces. Cat’s invite and enthusiasm appeared completely genuine.

“So what do you think? Did I keep up my end of the bargain?”

She eyed the details of his tuxedo. “I thought I told you not to go with the black shirt. I like the tie, though. I mean, if you insist on wearing flames everywhere you go.”

He put a hand out and flipped a lock of her hair. “I don’t think you want to finish that sentence,
Red
.”

Neither spoke for a moment. I turned my back on their brother/sister tiff and scrutinized the crowd.

A variety of dress code interpretations wandered the room. There were cocktail dresses, gowns, sequined tops paired with skinny jeans and stilettos, and at least one purple velvet tuxedo. The few Tradava faces that I recognized played it safe: classic tuxedos on the men and little black dresses on the women. They definitely needed someone on their team to shake things up.

Cat and I shared critiques of some of the more unique outfits that circled the room. She pointed out a few faces I didn’t know: designers and critics who had made the extra effort to come to the exhibit to grab a piece of Eddie’s limelight.

And then I recognized Milo Delaney.

It made sense he’d be here. Tonight’s opening was a hat exhibit and a cross-promotional event for Tradava and I knew from working with Nick that Milo was the designer behind the Hedy London designs, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

What if Milo had knocked off the hat collection and produced two sets of samples? And kept the originals for himself? His connections with Vera at Over Your Head would provide the channels for resale. Was that why he’d cancelled his appearance at her store?

If nothing else, I wanted to ask him why he sent me the forest green fedora. He looked in my direction as I searched for loopholes in my logic. I smiled feebly and tipped my champagne flute in his direction. He turned and walked the other way.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught Dante waving too. But it was Vera Sarlow who’d stepped in his path. They hugged briefly, and he kissed her on the cheek. Her black chiffon dress had a fitted bodice and a sweetheart neckline that showed off a figure I didn’t know she had. A small wafer of felt with black net and a pheasant feather perched on her head.

The fact that Dante knew her raised questions I hadn’t considered only minutes before.

I turned to Cat. “Dante went to I-FAD, didn’t he?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s where Christian Jhanes worked.”

“I know. He was Dante’s photography professor. Christian gave him a couple of jobs on the side between classes.”

“Could Dante do film editing?” I asked.

“Sure. His junior year he duplicated our home movies and edited me out of the footage.”

Warning bells sounded in my head. “Is that hard?”

“I don’t know, but I remember he was mad because he didn’t get an A.” She looked around the crowd. “Where did he go?”

“He’s over there.” I pointed toward her brother and Vera.

“Is that Vera Engle?”

“It’s Sarlow now. Vera Sarlow. How do know her?”

“She went to school with me. I haven’t seen her in years. I should say hello. Are you okay if I leave you here?”

“Sure.”

Cat approached Vera, and Dante broke away. He stopped by a tray of champagne flutes, picked up two more, and returned to my side.

“So your boss stood you up?”

“No, not really. He’s running late. He’ll be here,” I said.

“For his sake I hope he finds you soon, otherwise I might monopolize you for the rest of the evening.” He moved closer to me and I felt his hand on the small of my back.

Just then the lights went out.

34

A collective gasp escaped from the crowd. People rustled about, wavering between excitement and nervousness over what to do next. I searched the crowd for the security guards I’d seen out front. In the dark, it was hard to differentiate between partygoers and police officers.

Soft emergency lights glowed by the exits. A rush of air overhead ruffled my hair, punctuated by a loud clank. A power outage would have been too much of a coincidence on a night like this.

Footsteps sounded behind us, followed by a second clank. A light sliced through the darkness and threw a spotlight on a cloaked twenty-foot-long banner hanging from the balcony of the upstairs galleries.

The silhouette of a woman appeared behind the cloak. Raising a microphone to her lips I heard a gentle, sexy voice tease the audience with a song.

The singer was Hedy London herself. She worked the stage with a thick feather boa and a dress of sequins. Catcalls and wolf whistles accompanied her singing. She stepped out from behind the white cloak and made her way down the spiral staircase. She reached the bottom step and punctuated the final words of her song with hip thrusts. I stood, mesmerized. I hoped I had half that much sex appeal when I was her age.

Applause met her performance while the crowd watched the white cloak drop and unveil the banner promoting the exhibit. It was a blown-up fake movie poster modeled after her most famous movie, with “
Millinery” After Midnight
in the title space instead. This must be what Eddie had picked up from the sign shop. I had to hand it to him, he’d created a great opening for what I hoped was a great exhibit.

My heartbeat was still racing from the panic when the museum went dark, and my close proximity to Dante didn’t help matters. He, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to my presence now that Ms. London was here. I guess Cat had been telling the truth about that crush. He was entranced.

“I’m going to try to find Eddie,” I whispered in his ear.

I weaved through the crowd. Before I got far, Eddie appeared at the top of the stairs by a podium I hadn’t noticed earlier.

“Friends, patrons, and guests of the museum, welcome to our tribute to the iconic nature of the chapeau. As we’ve worked on this exhibit we’ve come to view this collection of memorabilia as more than a collection of hats from different movie sets, but as pieces of a different sort of artistic history, unique with their intrinsic value. Join us upstairs to view our collective ideas of millinery as memorabilia, of fashion as art. We hope you enjoy what we’ve assembled for you. A special thank you to Ms. London for her presence here this evening.” He paused while the crowd applauded the film star. “Now, I know it’s only eight o’clock in Ribbon, but it’s midnight somewhere. Enjoy your private viewing of
Millinery After Midnight.
”

Applause once again rang out through the foyer of the museum, this time for Eddie. No one in the room would have suspected that the speaker who addressed them so eloquently had been in hiding for most of the week. His confidence generated a buzz around him. Within minutes he was engulfed in popularity and sequins. There was no point in trying to reach him now.

The fact that no one had formally introduced him only added to his cachet, as if his identity transcended his name. I couldn’t believe Christian hadn’t even bothered to be there to give him formal credit for what he’d accomplished.

Then it struck me. The publicity-obsessed crafty museum director who’d kept maniacal deadlines in place to open this exhibit was nowhere to be found. But surely he was here somewhere. Was he watching us right now? Or had that been the real motivation behind getting the exhibit to open on time—that it was the perfect chance to make a clean getaway with a trunk filled with collectibles?

I sipped the last of my champagne and watched the crowd overtake the massive marble staircase. Others stood in line by the elevator. The lobby had thinned out. All was under control. I could relax. I took a deep breath and exhaled.

“Pssst,” Eddie hissed from behind me. “Come with me.” 

He held a finger to his lips to indicate silence and pushed me toward the gift shop. I wasn’t prepared to be pushed anywhere, and I took an awkward step back, shifted my weight at an unpredictable angle, and felt a shooting pain through my ankle. I turned to face him. His eyes darted back and forth.

“Christian never showed up, and Hedy London appeared out of nowhere. It’s like I’m trapped in the middle of someone else’s funhouse, and I don’t know which direction to go.”

“Still, that was a nice opening,” I said. “Cutting the lights for her musical number.”

“The lights? I wouldn’t know how to cut the lights like that. Your friend the detective is supposed to be around here somewhere, but I checked in when I got here and he hasn’t made contact.” He pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the door to the gift shop. “Get behind the display cases.” He shut the door and ducked behind the register. I followed.

“Is that why no one introduced you?”

“Hedy London was here when I arrived. She said she and Christian had this whole opening act planned, not to worry, and if he didn’t appear at the end, I was supposed to address the crowd. ”

“Sounds more like they planned a massive distraction, don’t you think? She shows up and does a little number and he’s gone? Like maybe she gave him a head start out of town?”

“I thought he was the one controlling the lights and that he probably couldn’t get back upstairs in time.”

We sat in silence for a couple of minutes. I was bothered by Hedy London’s pop-up appearance and the fact that Dante knew her, Christian, and Vera. Plus, it wasn’t sitting well with me that Officer Loncar hadn’t approached Eddie after he’d checked in. Any number of people had access to our plans, whether it was because they kept popping up at the least expected times or because we trusted them and told them what we were up to. It was starting to look like we’d better watch our backs.

I gave up trying to ask Eddie why he wasn’t mingling with the crowd. There was a good chance that he wanted to ask me why I wasn’t with Nick, and I didn’t want to answer. The good thing about friends is that sometimes you can hang out in an off-limits gift shop together and respect each other’s secrets without a second thought.

I gave up trying to sit like a lady and flopped onto the rubber mat behind the register, pushing my legs out in front of me. The hem of my dress rode up to near-peek-a-boo levels. I pulled a scarf from a pile on the floor and set it on my lap like a dinner napkin.

“I ran into Dr. Daum when I got here. Did you know Thad was released today?”

“Who told you that?”

“Dr. Daum. He said Thad wanted to be here tonight.”

“You don’t suspect him again, do you?”

“I can’t justify the stabbing if Thad’s involved. But he did take that list of collectors from me, which means someone might have attacked him over that.”

“Dude, I’d feel a lot better about tonight if I knew the detective was out there.”

“I don’t know where Loncar is, but there are cops all over this joint. Vera Sarlow is here too. So is Milo Delaney.” I put my hand on top of the pile of scarves and pushed myself up. Something sharp pierced the palm of my hand and I screamed.

A security guard flashed a megawatt flashlight in our direction. Eddie dropped to all fours and crawled to the corner of the store behind a bean bag chair. I stepped out from behind the glass counter.

The security guard came into the gift shop. “Who’s in here?”

I held my hands over my head, looking very much like a guilty partygoer. Blood trickled from my palm from three small puncture wounds.

The security guard covered the distance between his post and the gift shop faster than I’d expected. “Ma’am, what happened to you?”

I held up my hand. Eddie scooted out behind his back unnoticed. “I was hoping to find some kind of first-aid kit in here.” It didn’t take much to convince him, considering the red droplets falling onto the rubber matt.

“How did you get in?” His flashlight danced around the store for a few more moments. “This store was supposed to be locked. Come with me.”

He pulled the door shut and turned a key in the lock. “Are you alone? I thought I saw two people.”

“Must have been my shadow. My date didn’t realize I’d left.”

He eyed me up and down but said nothing. I followed him out of the gift shop to a table tucked into a corner, where he pulled out a first-aid kit and dressed my wounds.

“Are you a cop?”

“Nope. Security officer. Don’t get me wrong. There’s cops all over this place tonight. A bunch of us were hired for general security. You know, take care of small problems.”

“Like what?”

He wound my hand with an adhesive bandage. “Like this.”

“Gotcha. Have you had any other small emergencies tonight?”

“Just the lights going out, but the guy in charge said that was supposed to happen. Shoulda told us ahead of time. Coulda caused some panic.”

“You saw the guy in charge? Golden hair, deep tan?”

“Yeah, that’s him.” He secured the bandage with white medical tape and turned my hand over. “He’s in the Frowick Gallery upstairs. The elevator will take you back of the party. Don’t let me catch you in the gift shop again.”

I thanked him and stood, adjusting my very short dress.

“And ma’am? That’s a shame if your date didn’t notice you were gone. If my date wore a dress like that, you can bet I’d never let her out of my sight.”

I smiled and crossed the lobby to the elevator. My ankle throbbed, my hand throbbed, and I wasn’t sure which direction to turn next. The doors opened and I got on. I pressed the button for the second level. The doors closed but the car descended instead.