Done to Death (33 page)

‘I'm fine, silly,' Rachel said. She pulled back and looked at Ada, and then toward the tents, which were being entered by uniformed Grenville officers and state troopers attempting to control the shoppers. ‘How wonderful.' She stared wistfully toward the estate. ‘People showed up. Do you think we'll make a lot of money?'

Not missing a beat, Ada said, ‘Without doubt. I just hope no one gets trampled to death.'

Rachel's eyes lit up. ‘There is something so exciting about all of this! And just think of how many children this will help.'

‘Absolutely.' She caught Mattie's eye; the detective looked pissed off. Her face was flushed, and not just from chasing this out-of-control heiress. Ada nodded in her direction, knowing what had to be done. Just say the mantra:
what would Lenore do?
The answer was obvious: anything, as long as it's on camera. ‘Rachel,' she said, taking the girl's hand. ‘You've got to tell me where you've been. We've been so worried.'

Rachel stopped and swept a hand across her brow. ‘I just had to get out …' She sighed. ‘So much sadness. I needed to be alone and do some thinking.'

Right
, Ada thought, realizing that this stunt had been orchestrated. ‘Completely understandable,' she said, playing along. ‘You've had a lot of people worried.' Knowing she ran the risk of triggering one of Rachel's mood swings, she pressed. ‘There was blood, and last night you called me sounding so frightened.'

‘I was.' She put a hand to her mouth. She glanced toward one of the cameras and gave a signature Lenore shrug and head tilt. ‘I cut myself shaving my legs.'

‘No one saw you leave,' Ada pressed, anticipating the questions Mattie needed answered.

‘I called someone to pick me up,' she said.

‘Who?'

‘Let's not talk about this. I want to go into the tents.'

‘Let's do that,' Ada said, ‘but I'm dying to know how you snuck out so successfully.' What she felt like saying was,
You crazy bitch, we were worried to death that someone had murdered you and dumped your body in the lake.

‘Well, if you must know, one of the producers helped.'

‘Of course they did,' Ada chuckled, noting how Mattie's face was now bright red. She wondered why the detective didn't detain Rachel and close down this insanity. But Mattie was sharp and Ada realized that she knew that Rachel would be more likely to give up the goods if she were doing it for a television audience. She caught the detective's eye and thought,
the ball's in my court
. ‘I'm guessing it was Melanie.'

‘Right in one. Has anyone bought any of the big-ticket items?' she asked. ‘I keep thinking of all the children this will help.' She smiled at the camera and winked. ‘Let's go in.'

One of the officers pressed through. ‘Ms Parks, I don't think that's a good idea.'

‘Oh please,' Rachel said. ‘It'll be fine,' and before anyone could stop her, she grabbed Ada's hand. ‘Let's go.'

In the minutes Ada had been out of the tent, the sale had turned into a melee with the police attempting to maintain control.

Tolliver was backed against a tent pole, his British accent gone, trying to explain to an enraged dealer with a bow tie and a bad comb-over, who was clutching a pair of silver candlesticks and a box of bubble-wrapped porcelain, that there were no discounts for the trade. ‘The prices are firm,' he said.

‘This is bullshit!' the dealer spat back. ‘This whole show is a sham. I can't believe it's legal. And you,' he jabbed a candlestick into Tolliver's chest. ‘If you think this is going to help your overpriced store, you've got another think coming.'

Ada recognized the dealer and knew that he'd auditioned for
Final Reckoning
and been turned down. She'd seen several such wannabes shooting angry glances toward her and Tolliver.

‘If you don't like the prices,' Tolliver said, ‘then leave. No one's forcing you to buy anything.'

‘This is rigged!' the dealer screamed. ‘You think people are going to watch this shit?'

And that's when things went from bad to beyond bizarre.

‘People!' Rachel shouted. ‘PEOPLE!' She'd grabbed a chair and, using it as a step stool, climbed on to a table covered in pink Depression glass.

Ada turned as a hush spread through the tent.

‘I wanted to thank each and every one of you for coming to my … I mean, my mother's estate sale. Lenore would be thrilled.'

Ada watched as people paused in mid grab and shove to get a look at the celebrity. Hundreds of cell phones were out and raised overhead as people filmed, clicked, tweeted and posted to Facebook. On the one hand, Rachel looked young and attractive in her pink-and-white get-up, her wrist scars concealed beneath chunky silver cuff bracelets. On the other, she was a ringer for Lenore
circa
1980.

Ada looked around and, with the crowd in Rachel's thrall, she spotted Lil at the edge of the tent. Her camera was out, likely in video mode. Next to her was Barry Stromstein, who was starring at Rachel. At one point he turned to Melanie and pointed. She smiled. He shook his head.

Ada wondered if Barry knew about this stunt. How could he not? Although … as the crew had described the principles of FWT − sometimes FWC − a key element was the surprise, to throw people off balance and capture their reactions on camera.

Through the tent opening she spotted Rose in the distance chatting with Barry's little girl and his gorgeous wife. The trio seemed removed from the chaos of the tents and Rachel's dramatic entrance. There was something idyllic in their little picnic with her white-haired mother, the titian-haired beauty and the little girl with her toys. An idea formed, fueled by Lil's
What would Lenore do?

Her train of thought now shifted to Rachel's tabletop soliloquy.

‘Every fifty dollars is a little boy or girl whose cleft palate will be repaired,' Rachel said with an impassioned throb. ‘Two hundred dollars fixes an infant's life-threatening heart condition.' She paused and took a deep breath. Her voice cracked with emotion. ‘And a thousand dollars is a prosthetic leg for a young victim of a landmine in Afghanistan.'

Ada watched and thought,
It's the second coming of Lenore
. But something about the girl had both calmed the crowd and ennobled their pawing through her mother's possessions.

She spotted Melanie looking on, a woman who'd had an affair with, or at least slept with, Lenore, whether by choice or career necessity Ada didn't know. So perhaps it wasn't just
What would Lenore do
, but
WHO would Lenore do?

Finished with her spiel, Rachel gave the crowd one final exhortation. ‘Now go out there and shop for the children!' Her smile was bright as she stepped down on to a chair and then to the ground. ‘What do you think?' she asked Ada.

‘I think you did good,' she replied, knowing that was what Rachel needed to hear.

‘You think so?' Her every word and movement was captured by multiple cameras.

‘I do,' and Ada moved in close, as she'd learned over the past few days of filming. With the fabric of their dresses touching, Ada and Rachel strolled through the packed tents, like a pair of generals surveying a battlefield. With two camera crews in front of them and one behind, Ada scanned the activities. Rachel signed autographs and reminisced over the merchandise.

‘That was Richard's bike, I remember when he first got that. He taught me how to ride.'

Tolliver and his film crew had made their way through the crowd, and he interjected a few quick sentences on whatever object Rachel picked up. ‘A lovely nineteenth-century Imari punch bowl made for the European trade.' He flipped up the tag. ‘Priced to sell at three hundred dollars.'

At this a woman in the crowd shouted, ‘I want it!'

Tolliver nodded as a camera framed the excited woman, who was already burdened with several bulging totes slung across her back and shoulders. He handed over the colorful porcelain. ‘Enjoy, it's lovely.'

As they walked, Ada felt as though her mind had been split in two. She kept a smile on her face, aware of the cameras and how she needed to keep in tight frame with Rachel, while behind that facade her thoughts skittered over more dangerous realms. Something evil lurked below the surface, something that had led to two murders. Another of Lil's truisms, this one a hand-me-down from her physician husband, popped to mind:
pus under pressure must be lanced
. Lenore had kept secrets. She had used people in despicable ways and had ruled her empire through the manipulation of fear and desire. It was time to lance that boil. It was time for her own FWT.

‘So Rachel,' she said, her expression pleasant, ‘other than within the inner circle, why did Lenore never come out as being gay?'

Silence spread through the crowd, like ripples from a pebble dropped into a pool. The shift was eerie, as shoppers whispered and strained to hear.

Rachel's eyes widened as she looked from Ada to the camera.

‘My mother wasn't gay.'

‘Yes she was,' Ada said, her tone matter of fact. ‘And more than that, she used her fame and her position to get young women to sleep with her.'

Amid the stunned silence Ada saw dozens of phones raised in the air and pointed in their direction; others were more subtly held, as though the operators were too embarrassed to admit they were filming such an awkward moment.

‘Why are you saying this?'

Ada wondered if she'd miscalculated. Perhaps the things Peggy had told her were lies, but Peggy wasn't the only source. The rumors and jokes at LPP were rampant. If she'd been Lil writing a story she'd have had someone get confirmatory proof. ‘Rachel,' she said, turning to the young woman, whose eyes were bugging out, ‘it's OK … or maybe it's not. But for all of her supposed openness and honesty, your mother kept some big secrets.'

Rachel's Lenore-like mask crumbled. Tears welled in her eyes. ‘It is true,' she said. She looked from Ada around at the crowd. Her gaze took in the cell phones, some of them already uploading this to the Internet. ‘It is true,' she repeated. ‘There were lots of women, young women.' She found her camera and spoke directly into it. ‘I don't think they were all gay, and some of them didn't want to. She didn't think that Richard and I knew … that we saw … that we heard.'

‘What did you hear?' Ada asked.

‘The deal being struck,' Rachel said. ‘Although I don't know if deal is the right word. With Lenore, there wasn't much negotiation.'

‘Do you remember specifics?' Ada pressed, noting the silence.

Rachel looked past her camera. She pointed. ‘There's one. Melanie, Melanie Taft.'

Ada looked as the field producer stared back. Her eyes were wide, her jaw hung open and she was shaking her head.

Ada watched as camera phones shifted to catch a glimpse of the attractive brunet.

Time hung suspended. Melanie looked at Rachel. She nodded. ‘Yes.' She swallowed and seemed uncertain of what to do.

Ada had no such uncertainty −
pus under pressure must be lanced
− ‘Was it your choice to sleep with her?' she asked.

‘Talk about game changers,' Melanie said, and she stepped in close to Ada and Rachel. ‘Yes, I slept with her. I'm not sure if it's what I wanted, but there wasn't much choice.'

‘Can you explain that?' Ada asked. The on-screen proximity created an intimacy that forced the onlookers to stay deathly silent if they wanted to hear.

‘She was going to pull the plug on our team. Wow, this really is reality TV, and I'm about to come off as a big whore.'

‘You said you didn't have a choice,' Ada offered.

‘We always have choices,' Melanie replied. ‘She told me that if I did what she wanted, even if Barry's team was laid off, I'd still have a job, and I knew she wasn't lying.'

‘Because?' Ada prompted.

‘Because there were others, and they still had jobs.'

Rachel snorted. Her hands pressed her temples and she shook her head. ‘You're not kidding.' She turned and bumped a table; several mugs crashed to the ground. ‘This feels good,' Rachel said, as she stared at the broken crockery, then at a woman across the table whose cell phone was being held in a shaky hand. Rachel caught her eye. ‘Use your other hand to steady it,' she said.

What came out of Rachel's mouth next sent chills through Ada. It wasn't just the words, but her pitch-perfect imitation of Lenore's going-to-commercial tag line, as she stared into the camera. ‘And whatever you do, don't go away, because what's coming up next, you will not want to miss.'

I
t was all Lil could do to keep from running to Ada. What held her back was Barry. ‘She'll be fine,' he said, as they stood transfixed by the unfolding drama.

At least the shoppers had quieted, their lust for Lenore's worldly goods momentarily stemmed by Rachel's salacious revelations. Lil's stomach was in knots, but what could she do? She knew Ada wouldn't lose her head, and if Barry were telling the truth − a big if − the crowd would be gone before long, and they'd finish the day and be back in the security of their own home. But there was more; she knew that Ada wouldn't stop until she'd wrung the truth from Rachel, possibly dangerous truths at the heart of two murders.
Be careful, Ada.

Nervously, she glanced back toward the mansion at Jeanine, who was sipping tea and chatting with Rose while her little girl played with the plastic pony. She had images of Marie Antoinette:
Let them eat cake
.

Barry's hand went to his ear bud. ‘What?'

Lil inched closer, barely able to hear a woman's voice, possibly Melanie's.

‘Of course we keep filming.' His eyes were fixed on Rachel, Ada and Melanie, who was saying something into her headset.