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“Good. Hey, honey, I gotta apologize. I was pretty stewed when you guys showed up at my place yesterday.”
Pro shrugged. “It could happen to anyone…”
“Yeah, well after you left, I realized you’re Max’s kid. I certainly wouldn’t have talked about your old man the way I did if I had known,” she said and looked at herself in the mirror as she completed another curl.
She grabbed a small electronic cigarette off the table and took a drag, which she held and then slowly released in a thin cloud of vapor. “Not that I said anything that wasn’t true. But Max actually was always pretty nice to me, though not interested in a physical relationship.” The older woman turned around with a huge smile. “Hey, think of that! If Max had given me a tumble, I coulda been your stepmother!”
“No, thank you,” Pro blurted. “I have had quite enough stepmothers, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh yeah, Max did like the ladies. I once told him that he should just bang ‘em and not marry each one. Oh, but I shouldn’t talk like that in front of you. I never met your ma. Is she a nice lady?”
Pro stared at the floor. “To be honest, she’s the best.”
“That’s good, that you like her and all,” she said and took another drag as the device lit up with a blue light and she expelled another mouthful of fog that smelled like peppermint. She held up the electronic cigarette. “You gotta excuse me. I like
to vape before a show. It’s actually good for my throat and gives me a kick of nicotine.”
“Well, I should get back to Mister Shaut.”
“Wait, wait. I heard that you and your partner found Mike Mystique after you left my place. Is that right?”
“That’s correct. We believe he was killed by the same man as Al Floss and Louie Tanner.”
“Oh? Well, then that couldn’t be your father.”
“Why not?”
“‘Cause he was hiding in my secret room until you guys were long gone,” she said simply.
Pro turned toward the woman and closed the space between them to pull the curling iron from her hand and put it on the ledge. “Run that by me again.”
“Max needed a place to crash, so I hid him in my secret room,” she said with a giggle. “I’m a magician. I got one of those.”
In one quick move, Pro grabbed the arm holding the electronic cigarette and twisted it behind Adrianna’s back and slammed her face down on the ledge.
“Ow!” Adrianna whined. “Go easy, I got a show to do.”
“You were aiding a fugitive?” Pro demanded. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t take you to lock-up right now and put your sculpted ass in a cell.”
“I was just trying to tell you that your old man didn’t kill Mike Mystique, that’s all. Ease up. You’re hurting me.”
Pro let the woman go and took a step back. “Let me make it clear, girlie. After the curtain comes down, you are on your way to interrogation. I’d take you in now, but I gotta keep an eye on Mister Shaut.”
“Max didn’t kill anybody, don’t you see?” Adrianna yelled at Pro. She then rubbed her arm and looked in the mirror. “Geez, now I gotta start over with my hair.”
Unable to stand the self-absorbed performer any longer, Pro stepped back into the hall and slammed the door. She quickly texted her partner and told him to meet her backstage. She would need all the backup she could get.
At least she now knew where her father had hidden out once he checked out of the Waldorf and disappeared. Pro now had an inkling that Gray’s drunken confessions the previous day may have been staged for her benefit.
And the ME said it was two different killers, or at least the possibility of two. And Mystique was found in his bed. Did a woman tempt him and then kill him? But did the time line work? Was there enough time for Adrianna to kill Mystique and then be back at her apartment to be interviewed by the police? If the entire drunken act was fake, there could have been. Pro had assumed she’d been drinking for hours before she got there.
Then again, Shaut had hinted that Mystique was gay. Did that suggest a man was the one to tempt him into his bedroom? The ME report and forensics didn’t say the body had been moved, but it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.
She had an overwhelming desire to burst back into the room and twist Miss Gray’s arm until she told her everything. She took several deep breaths to calm down. Adrianna wasn’t going anywhere.
Pro would make sure of it.
She continued to the last dressing room, which had three guys all dressed in suit jackets, two had ties. There were also three cases similar to Shaut’s on their makeup ledge.
