Shadowtown by Lutz John;

Author:Lutz, John;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller
Published: 2017-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

Harry Overbeck—11:40 P.M.

“Lana,” Overbeck said into the phone, “I heard it on the news while I was waiting to watch Johnny Carson. Good Lord! Are you all right?”

“Of course I am,” she said. “As if you cared.”

Overbeck felt a rush of relief. He cared not about Lana Spence, but about her continued existence and ability to act. “Shadowtown” could ill afford to lose its resident vixen. The character the audience loved to hate and envy. And sometimes emulate. Delia Lane—Lana—had even inspired a line of designer fashions. The country was teeming with Delia Lanes.

“What did the newscast say, Harry? I haven’t even seen a reporter. The police wouldn’t let them upstairs.”

Stupid cunt! “Haven’t talked to the media? Listen, Lana—”

She laughed. “It’s all right, Harry, sweet, I’ll hold an ‘impromptu’ press conference tomorrow in the lobby. The show will reap the benefits of the publicity. Now, what did the newscast say?”

Overbeck smiled faintly. “Aging actress Lana Spence claims to have been threatened by a vampire at her apartment in Manhattan. Police Detective E. L. Oxman arrived on the scene and scared the supernatural creature away! Or something like that, Lana.”

“You bastard, Harry.”

Overbeck’s grin widened. He did hate this bitch, he realized. When he let his emotions about her really run, he was surprised at their depth. She’d used him, dumped him, spread terrible rumors about him—and now he needed her. Only the spiraling numbers in his bank account and mutual-fund statements made the situation at all bearable.

“The news also mentioned that you’d identified the vampire as Edgar Grume,” he said. “Did you say that?”

She didn’t answer right away. “Not exactly.” Her voice sounded strange. Scared, Overbeck suddenly realized. That wasn’t like her. He’d never heard Lana sound frightened unless she was faking it.

“What did you say to the police, Lana?” he asked.

“I don’t remember exactly. But, Harry, so help me it did look like Grume.”

“Like Allan Ames, you mean.”

“Of course like Allan! I’m not going crazy, Harry.”

“You saw his face?”

“Not really. He held his cape over most of it.”

“Christ!” Overbeck said.

“The light seemed to bother him.”

“Of course.” He wanted to sound skeptical, make her feel he wasn’t taking her seriously. In the vampire, or whoever was pretending to be a vampire, Lana had finally encountered a man she couldn’t bend to her will. That was something about all of this that Overbeck enjoyed immensely.

“He had a knife, Harry.”

Overbeck sobered. That she’d seen a knife was serious; it posed a definite threat to the show. “The news didn’t mention that,” he said.

“Maybe the cops didn’t tell the reporters about the knife.”

“How’d Oxman scare the guy off?”

“Grume—I mean the vampire—heard the elevator arrive a moment after I opened my apartment door. Either that or the light made him run. Oxman saw him and chased him. Did everything but fly after him.”

“Your hero, huh?”

“Yes, that’s what he is.” She sounded indignant, defensive. “There are real-life heroes, Harry.”

“There’s no such thing as real life,” Overbeck said, wondering about Lana and Oxman. Did she have her hooks out for that poor cop? If so, he wouldn’t have a chance.

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