Doppelgangster - Laura Resnick [4]
“Ah. Yeah, I noticed that the night I came to see you. A lot of empty seats.”
I nodded morosely. “That’s a bad house—one with a lot of empty seats. And Sorcerer! is an expensive show. Golly Gee’s salary alone . . .” I trailed off, since I’d just accidentally stepped into territory I tried to avoid when I was with Lopez.
Golly Gee was the surgically-enhanced, B-list pop star who played the female lead in Sorcerer! I was a chorus nymph and her understudy. My involvement in fighting Evil with Maximillian Zadok had begun after Golly had vanished one night during the show’s disappearing act. I mean, really vanished.
Lopez knew from interviewing us during the course of that investigation that Max and I both believed Golly had vanished magically. (Which was indeed the case.) He thought this was crazy, which Max assured me is a very common reaction to paranormal events. I understood Lopez’s point of view, since it was initially my reaction, too. Only overwhelming evidence to the contrary, right before my eyes, had convinced me to believe in things now that I knew Lopez still did not believe in.
And any attempt to convince Lopez of what had really happened would no doubt wind up leading, in the end, to admitting that Max and I had killed Hieronymus. Or sort of killed him. (The fact that any such explanation would also convince Lopez I was nutty as a fruit-cake concerned me, too, since I didn’t want him to stop asking me out.) True, we had saved Golly Gee and the other disappearees, but Lopez would insist on knowing how. And he was good at questioning people and putting together scattered details until he figured things out. I knew that if I let the subject be opened, there was no chance that Lopez would let it be closed until he knew everything.
So, having foolishly lowered my guard enough to mention Golly, I tried to backtrack. “Anyhow, musicals are very expensive, and without enough revenue coming in, they’ve decided to close the show.”
“It probably hurt the budget a lot when Golly, er, disappeared for more than a week?” Lopez said, watching me with cop eyes now instead of potential-lover eyes. This was exactly the sort of thing that had made our first two dates a tad awkward.
“Yes. Keeping the theater dark for that long was expensive.” I had refused to go on in Golly’s place and do the disappearing act without knowing what had happened to her. It was the only time in my entire life I had let a show down. And it’s a good thing I did! If I had performed, I would have become one of Hieronymus’ victims. The show only resumed ten days later, when the evil apprentice was dead (or dissolved) and Golly was back where she belonged. “Losing all that income hurt us.” I took a bite of my ice cream.
“Golly has never been very clear about where she went.” When I didn’t reply, Lopez added, “You haven’t, either.”
“Oh, it’s all over now,” I said, scooping up another bite of ice cream and offering it to him. “So I don’t see why—”
He pushed the spoon aside as he said, “Because filing a false report with the police is illegal.”
“No one filed any false reports!” I put the spoon back in the carton.
“And now Golly’s explanation—like yours, Esther—is vague, contradictory, and makes no sense.”
“I haven’t given you an explanation!” I snapped.
“That’s right. You really haven’t.” His expression said he was waiting for one now.
Oops.
I decided to change the subject. “Can we please focus on my crisis for a minute? I’m out of work!”
He had the grace to look a little contrite. “Okay. Fair enough. Are you—”
“Worried about bills? Yes! I’m also worried about paying rent! Worried about when I’ll get another acting job! And trying to find a way to earn a living until then.”
He let go of my sticky hand and put his arm around me. “I’m really sorry this happened,” he said soothingly. “I know you were hoping the show would run a while, maybe even move to Broadway.”
I leaned into his arm. I’m not prickly, I like being comforted. I admitted, “I guess I wasn’t being realistic. We never really got off the ground, and an expensive show needs to come out