A Knife to Remember

mean.“
    “There might be, but I’m damned if I can see what it is. I’ll admit, though, that I’m beginning to wonder if the blackmail had anything at all to do with either murder.“
    “Why is that?“ Jane asked.
    “Well, think about it,“ Mel said, leaning forward. “It was over something so trivial. Jake just wanted Angela to get a little part. I’ll grant you, I don’t know much about the movie business, but that’s still a stupid reason. It wasn’t a big part. I’ve studied the script. It was a few lines that were only designed to give the main character someone to talk to. The character part didn’t even have a name. It was just `farm girl,’ and she said things like, ‘What do you mean?’ so that Harwell’s character could go off into a monologue. I can see how Angela would have liked to have the part, but if she’d gotten it and done the greatest acting in history, it wouldn’t have done her much good. I’m finding it hard to believe that two people could have met their deaths because of something that insignificant.“
    “Maybe Jake was really blackmailing them about something else entirely,“ Shelley suggested.
    “Or maybe it had nothing to do with the blackmail,“ Mel repeated. “It doesn’t make sense.“
    “But it does, in a way,“ Jane said. “I can’t claim to have known Jake very well, but from what everybody’s said, it would have been like him to go overboard and use a sledgehammer to kill a gnat. Everybody says he was great with objects and lousy with people. He apparently had no sense of proportion in relationships. I can imagine him deciding there was something he wanted and just using the first tool at hand, which was blackmail, instead of something appropriate, like simply asking that Angela be given consideration for the part.”
    Mel shrugged. “I guess there are people like that. I’m glad I don’t know any of them personally.”
    The waitress drifted by again, giving Mel a melting smile which Jane was extremely glad to see that he didn’t return or even acknowledge.
    “There’s something else—“ he said. “There was a religious medallion on the sink in the bathroom.“ “Not Lynette’s?“
    “Nope.“
    “Whose?“ Jane asked.
    “Butch Kowalski’s, I’m afraid.”
    Jane shivered. “Certainly not?“
    “It had his name engraved on the back. It didn’t take a lot of ‘detecting’ to figure it out.“
    “You’ve talked to him about it?“ Shelley asked.
    Mel nodded. “He just says he doesn’t know how it got there. He wore it on a chain around his neck, but the chain broke a couple days ago and he stuffed it in his pocket. He claims that he took it out at some point to see if he could fix the chain, but can’t remember where he put it next.“
    “And you think that sounds fishy?“ Jane asked.
    Mel laughed. “I don’t think ‘fishy’ is the word I’d have used, but it is pretty thin.“
    “It could be the truth,“ Jane said.
    “Sure it could. But is it?“ Mel replied.
    “Did anybody see him around the dressing room trailer at the relevant time?“ Shelley asked. “What is the relevant time anyway?“
    “Sometime after five and before nine. The pathology people wouldn’t give me anything better than that until they’ve done all their magic. But Olive saw her at five. Harwell asked her to take a dress that needed mending to wardrobe, and not to come back because she was going to rest for an hour. Olive took the five-thirty van without seeing her again.“
    “And do you know where Angela and Butch were during that time?“
    “We know where they say they were. Angela was three different places; makeup, wardrobe, and at craft services making a phone call to a dry cleaners who’d lost something of hers. The dry cleaners confirm the call. Various people saw her at all three places, but it would have taken only a few minutes to slip into the trailer along the way and dump the contents of the capsules into Harwell’s tea.“
    “But wouldn’t Harwell have thought that was a little odd? Somebody ducking in her trailer and messing around with her stuff?“ Jane asked.
    “Not if she was taking a nap like she told Olive,“ Shelley said.
    “Or if she’d left the trailer for a minute,“ Mel added.
    “But this foul-tasting tea would have been cold by that time.“
    “Longabach said she usually drank it lukewarm,“ Mel said. “That it hurt her teeth if it was hot.“
    “What about Butch? Where was he after five?“ Jane