Curtain Call by Blake Banner

Author:Blake Banner [Banner, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime Fiction, Crime thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Police Procedural
Published: 2023-12-10T16:00:00+00:00

Twelve

She sipped her tea, and I pulled off half my beer.

“I mean,” she said, setting down her cup carefully in the saucer, “I know on a gut level. I know I’m right, but there are problems.”

“There always are. Hit me.”

“What was her name? Captain Essential at the studio.” She wagged her fingers at me like she wanted me to give her something. “We told her our suspicions, that Kate had become intimate with somebody, remember? She asked for your card and said she’d think about it and get in touch.”

“Bella, Bella Milano, the gaffer. Electric cable and a Taser.”

“Right. Short blond hair and intense enough to spit in any guy’s face.”

“But wait, wait, wait.” I held up both hands. “What are we saying? First off, what reason would Bella have to kill Kate? And—”

“None! On the contrary, Stone. Think about it. What if Bella was falling for Kate? What if the person Kate was becoming intimate with was Bella? It’s not hard to believe, Stone. This is a woman who has had no male relationships but has devoted herself to another woman for years. Maybe she was a lesbian in denial. Maybe Bella, who takes care of everything, helped her out of the closet. Maybe she and Bella fell for each other.”

I thought about it. It was more than feasible.

“Kate wants to break free and make a life with her new lover. Maybe she starts making demands and/or threats. Anyhow, Silva for some reason, perceives her as a threat to America’s sweethearts and kills her. The case goes cold, but something in what we said to Bella made her connect the dots, and she came up with him.” I was saying it, but I knew it was wrong. I shook my head. “No.”

Dehan took the words from my mouth. “No. We didn’t tell her anything that would incriminate Silva. But remember she told us Jane had come to depend on her almost as much as she did on Kate? And that you didn’t become indispensable without listening to gossip? Remember?”

“Yup.”

“You grilled Danny and broke their collective alibi. Danny told Jane, and Jane told Bella. Somehow she knew it wasn’t Danny. Maybe he’s not made of the right stuff, or maybe she knows his proclivities include making out with unconscious hookers. Point is she was convinced that if the alibi was fake, Silva was her guy, and she went and paid the debt.”

I was nodding a lot. The pizzas arrived, and after Emilio had gone, I shook my head at her.

“It is compelling, and I confess my gut is telling me it is really close to the truth. But we have a big problem, Dehan. The killer is a man. Bella is a woman.”

“Are you sure? How do you know?”

I stared at her. “You mean she was a guy before and changed over?”

“I don’t know. But it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility, is it? It would not be hard to imagine her as a guy.”

“No, but”—I winced and frowned—“it’s a hell of a reach.

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