Kiss and Tell (5 page)

“If she doesn't like it, she can fire me,” Nancy heard Kim grumble.

“She's got attitude,” Bess whispered to Nancy.

“You don't know the half of it,” Nancy said. She was about to pull Bess aside to tell her about what she'd overheard, when Esme's screams filled the studio.

“Help!” she cried. “Someone help!”

Nancy was the first to react. She raced to the
dressing room and frantically knocked on the door.

“Esme, it's Nancy. Are you okay?” she asked. “Is something wrong in there?”

Esme, who was still dressed, threw open the door and rushed out of the room. Her hair was disheveled, and her face contorted with fear.

“In my suitcase!” she cried, barely getting the words out. “There . . . there . . .”

“Esme, calm down,” Janine said as she approached. She put her arm around the romance writer. “What's wrong?”

Carefully Nancy and Bess walked into the dressing room and stepped over to the suitcase. Then they saw what had made Esme so frantic. Nestled among the folds of Esme's white lace blouse, they spotted a black mound with eight hairy legs.

It was a deadly black widow spider.

L
OOK AT THAT
!” E
SME
said, pointing out the spider to Janine and Giancarlo. “They're poisonous. And they bite! Think of what could have happened to me.”

Nancy started to slam the lid on the suitcase, but just before she did, she noticed a typewritten note in the suitcase: “How does it feel, Black Widow, to know you're a liar?”

With a shiver, Nancy pointed out the note to Esme. Now, the romance novelist let out another wail, one that brought Helen, Bob, Todd, and Kim to the dressing room.

“What's going on?” Helen asked. She took one glance at the distraught Esme and shot her partner a look of dismay. “Are you okay, dear?”

Esme quickly put up a hand and patted her hair, laughing nervously. “I must look like a mess. I was in the middle of changing when I found
that
in my suitcase. Needless to say, it gave me a shock!”

Nancy stepped back to let the group view the black widow spider before slamming the lid of the suitcase. “It can't hurt us now. What I'd like to know is, how did it get into Esme's suitcase?” Nancy made a point of directing her gaze at Kim as she asked the question.

Helen Klein smiled grimly. “I hope you find out, kid.” She checked her watch and, giving her partner a knowing nod, said, “Bob, we'd better go if we don't want to miss that meeting.”

“Right,” Bob Samuels agreed. He pecked Esme on the cheek. “Keep a stiff upper lip, Es. We're going to need you to write that screenplay. Take care of her, G.C., would you?”

Giancarlo put his arm around Esme. “I intend to, you can be sure.”

As soon as Helen and Bob left, Janine went off to give instructions to the photographer, leaving Nancy, Bess, Esme, Giancarlo, Kim, and Todd standing outside the dressing room.

“I think you've got a few questions to answer, young lady,” Esme said to her assistant. “You were responsible for that suitcase. Would you care to explain how someone managed to slip a deadly spider—and a threatening note—inside it?”

Kim crossed her arms and narrowed her dark eyes on Esme. “Your guess is as good as mine,” she said.

“That's no answer!” Esme cried.

After pouting, Kim then addressed the rest of the group. “After I packed the suitcase, I left it in Esme's room during the press conference. Where I
thought
it would be safe!”

“Obviously someone broke into Esme's hotel room during the press conference and put the spider inside the suitcase, or else it happened here at the studio,” Nancy concluded.

“But that would mean it was one of us,” Bess concluded.

“Don't look at me!” Todd protested. “I hate bugs.”

“Kim, you had the suitcase with you once we arrived here,” Esme pointed out.

There was an awkward silence. Esme stared at Kim, who started to say something but seemed to think better of it. She just turned and stalked away. Before she turned, Nancy thought she saw tears in the young woman's eyes.

“Kim!” Giancarlo cried. “Don't be that way!” He gave Esme an imploring look. “You know she wouldn't do such a thing. You should go apologize to her right now.”

“Oh, please,” Esme said with a sigh. “I pay her well enough. I don't have to apologize to her, too.”

“You're a cold woman, Esme,” Giancarlo said.
His eyes narrowed on her for a moment, and then he went after Kim, who had disappeared.

“Harsh words,” Todd said lightly.

“You'd probably be the first to agree with him,” Esme said, her lips trembling. Nancy felt as though she and Bess were about to witness something very private. She coughed lightly to remind Esme and Todd that they weren't alone. Then she edged away from them, trying to find a way to exit gracefully. She headed back toward the darkroom. Despite her obvious interest, Bess also did the diplomatic thing and turned her back on Esme and Todd, joining Nancy by the darkroom.

“I've told you, Esme, I take the blame for everything,” Nancy heard Todd say. “If I thought you would ever forgive me, I'd be down on my hands and knees in a second. Why can't you believe it was someone else who did those things?”

“Todd, please.” Esme took a long pause before continuing. “That's all in the past.”

“But your book—” Todd protested.

“The book will tell only the truth,” Esme countered. “No one can stop me from doing that.”

“Think about what I asked you, Esme,” Todd implored. “If you could simply hold back just a little . . . you and I both know it would help me out a lot.” Todd's voice grew gentle. “We shared quite a bit,” he said. “I find it hard to believe you can't remember our good times.”

Esme let out a long sigh. “I do, Todd, I do. Please leave me alone now. So far, this hasn't been the greatest day.”

“I understand,” Todd said. “Will I see you tonight? Will you save a dance for the man who once had your heart?”

At this, Bess clutched Nancy's arm and made a face of disbelief. “Can you believe this creep?” she whispered. “Esme's got to see through him.”

“She made the mistake of trusting him once before,” Nancy reminded Bess, her voice low.

“We've got enough shots without the change of clothes,” Janine announced, coming toward the dressing room. “Let's call it a day. I think it's time we went back to the hotel and you had a nice long sauna, Esme.”

“That sounds like heaven,” Esme said. Then she called Nancy and Bess over. “You girls are coming to the masquerade ball I'm hosting tonight at the hotel, aren't you?”

“You're kidding!” Bess said.

Nancy had heard Bess mention the ball, but it was by invitation only. Excited, Nancy realized it would be a chance to keep an eye on all the suspects—including Kim and Janine.

“But we don't have costumes,” Bess pointed out.

“I wouldn't let that stop you,” Esme said with a laugh. “Janine can give you the address of a costume shop where we all got ours. By the way, you have to come dressed as a character from one
of my novels, so pick your costumes accordingly.”

“That sounds like fun,” Bess said. “Thanks for inviting us.”

Janine led a weary Esme out of the studio with Todd following. Nancy waited to see if Giancarlo and Kim might appear, but they seemed to have left while Esme was talking to Todd. Nancy and Bess hailed a cab and headed back to the Barrington to pick up Nancy's car. Bess was eager to go straight to the costume shop, but since Nancy had to stop by the police department to turn the suitcase over to Sam, the girls split up. Bess caught a cab and would pick up two costumes. Nancy was free to drive over to the River Heights Police Department then.

Sam wasn't in, so Nancy left the evidence with the sergeant on duty, and also wrote a note to Sam about the latest incident, asking him to call when he got in. On the way home Nancy tried to make sense of what she knew so far. It was obvious that whoever was harassing Esme knew her well enough to know her old nickname. That person held enough of a grudge against Esme to want some serious revenge. Most of the harassment was centered around
Telling All.
The note writer had warned that if Esme went ahead with
Telling All,
her life would only get more miserable. The question then was, why would someone not want Esme to publish the book? Better yet, who would want to stop Esme from writing it?

One person came to mind right away: Todd Gilbert. He could have a lot to lose personally and professionally if the book painted him in a bad light. But would he go so far as to threaten Esme's life?

Meanwhile, Kim Scott had the means to put the spider in Esme's suitcase. There appeared to be more than a little tension between Kim and Esme, but was that enough for Kim to go after her boss? Or was she working with someone else, someone like Todd?

And then there was Janine. The publicist had access to the press room, and also had a key to Esme's hotel room. She might have gone up to the room and put the spider in Esme's suitcase.

By the time she pulled into her driveway, Nancy was so keyed up she didn't feel like sitting around and waiting for Sam to call. After saying hello to Hannah and pouring herself a glass of juice, Nancy sat down in her father's study and plotted her strategy. It wasn't too late to make some phone calls to New York. Nancy quickly put in a call to Janine at the Barrington, and five minutes later she had the numbers for Esme's publisher, editor, and agent in New York.

Conrad O'Brien, Esme's editor, was actually on his way to River Heights to attend the masquerade ball that evening, but his assistant was able to answer some of Nancy's questions. Apparently, along with the notes there had also been a series of phone calls made by someone using a
voice disguiser. The caller warned that Esme's life would be in danger if she went ahead with the book. Susan Segal, Esme's agent, was able to give Nancy an even better lead. Although she hadn't gotten any phone calls, she had noticed that the notes began to arrive around the time that Kim Scott had called Susan, asking if she would represent her work.

“Kim is a writer?” Nancy asked, perplexed.

“Of course,” Susan Segal told her. “That's why Kim went to work for Esme in the first place. Esme promised to help her with her career, but Esme didn't know that Kim wasn't very good. She's done what she can to help, but I think Kim holds it against her that she hasn't been able to do more.”

Nancy thanked the woman, and after hanging up the phone, it rang almost immediately. It was Sam. “I hear there's a hot party at the Barrington tonight,” he said.

Nancy laughed. “Who told you that?”

“Never mind,” he said. “Since I'm invited and you're invited, how about going together?”

“As in a date?” Nancy asked.

“Well, actually, yes,” Sam said.

Nancy was surprised to find herself blushing, and she was suddenly aware of what a nice voice Sam had: low and intense. “My friend Bess is going, too,” Nancy reminded him.

“I'll pick you both up,” Sam said. “I don't mind the company.”

“I just got off the phone with Esme's agent.” Nancy then proceeded to explain what she had learned from Susan Segal.

“It looks like we've got a solid lead there,” Sam agreed. “Let's keep our eyes on Kim Scott.”

“Did you get anywhere with the notes?” Nancy asked.

“I've scanned them all into our computers,” Sam told her. “We've got some great new software that can analyze the threats to determine if they were all made by the same person. If so, the program can also give us a tentative make-up on that person.”

“That's neat,” Nancy said.

“The computer is running through the threats now,” said Sam. “It should take until tomorrow morning before we have anything solid. Meanwhile, when and where should I pick you up?”

Nancy gave Sam her address and reminded him it was a costume ball. “I have just the thing,” Sam told her. “See you at eight?”

“Sounds great,” Nancy said.

As soon as she hung up, Nancy thought about Ned for an instant. Then she had a strange sensation, and she realized with a start what it was: guilt! She felt guilty about going to Esme's ball with Sam!

Nancy shook herself, throwing off the thought. It was nothing, just a party. Besides, Bess would be there.

So why was she already imagining her first
dance with Sam? Why did the thought send a warm glow through her from head to toe?

• • •

Esme's ball was in full swing by the time Nancy, Bess, and Sam arrived at nine. Bess had rented a beaded dress for herself, and a blue ballgown, glittering with rhinestones for Nancy. Bess was going to the ball as Billie Kasper, a heroine from Esme's 1920s historical novel set in New Orleans,
Jazz Nights.
Nancy's costume was meant to represent Jewel Trelawny, a feisty character from one of Esme's eighteenth-century historical romances. Sam was dressed in a dashing maroon velvet suit complete with a flowing white poet's shirt.