Wilmington, NC 10 - Much Ado About Murder

follow,” Susan said with a big smile. “We are most grateful to Scarlett Barrett for her performance tonight with all funds raised going to the Thalian Association. The association was established in 1788 for the purpose of bringing arts education and performing arts to Wilmington and southeastern North Carolina. Today, we continue to preserve that tradition, enriching the artistic environment of the Cape Fear region. Revenue from ticket sales funds only a portion of our operating costs and community projects and we depend upon the generosity of patrons to bridge that crucial gap. Our membership table is set up in the lobby and we invite you to join our Thalian family today and let the community know you support the performing arts in the Port City.
    “Now I have the great pleasure to introduce Mr. Cameron Jordan and Mr. Ray Barrett, who have an immensely important announcement to make. Everyone in Wilmington knows who Cam Jordan is, having produced two hit television series. He’s been a big supporter of the Thalian Association, devoting hours and hours of his free time as a volunteer in just about every capacity. Cam’s got a day job, as they say. He’s the founder and CEO of Gem Star Studios, one of our local television and motion picture production companies.
    “But Mr. Ray Barrett is new to us here in Wilmington. He’s an investment financier and we hope to see more of him in the future. I give you Cameron and Ray!”
    Susan stepped off as Cam ascended to the stage where Ray waited at the podium. Cam was laughing. “You can say all you want about my credentials, Susan, but truth be told I am best known as Melanie Wilkes’s husband. Everyone knows Melanie. She’s sold houses to half the town. But not everyone knows me.”
    There was laughter and a sprinkling of applause.
    “And I,” Ray said with a broad smile, “am best known as Scarlett Barrett’s husband. In fact, I’ve been called Mr. Barrett so often I gave up and changed my last name to Barrett. It’s not the name I was born with but hey! you girls change your last names to your husband’s all the time. Why can’t a man do the same thing for his wife?”
    The audience was totally charmed. Totally disarmed. They loved Ray and Cam.
    Cam is long and rangy with thick sandy hair and bushy eyebrows. He looks like just what he is: a nice guy. Unassuming and humble, despite his worldly position. Likeable. Everyone’s favorite big brother. And he’s been a good influence on my often-times head-strong and irrepressible sister Melanie.
    “In all seriousness, folks, we do have an important announcement to make,” Cam said.
    I whispered to Jon, “Don’t you just love how Cam has picked up our Southern style of speech.” Cam is originally a sunny California boy. But this summer, he’s been in a deep funk. Now, Cam is a really good guy, a prince of a fellow. And ordinarily in good spirits. Always patient. Always giving and forgiving. The only man who’s been able to lead Melanie to the altar although many have tried.
    Why has Cam been in such a bummer state of mind? It’s all because of his leadership in the film and TV industry here in Wilmington where he’s piled on one credit after another. That is until his production studio, Gem Star Studios, lost the bidding war to produce Iron Man 3 to EUE Screen Gems Studios. Iron Man 3 was filmed right here over the summer and will be back next month to wrap up the filming. Everywhere Cam goes, everyone he talks to, every time he opens the Star-News, he is reminded that he lost out on the chance to produce something big – really, really BIG.
    Ray too has had a bad case of the mean reds. Ray is a successful Wall Street investor with his own seat on the Stock Exchange. But these days he’s been chewing his nails down to the quick and rolling his big beautiful brown eyes heavenward as he moans and groans about the threat to the Euro zone with the collapse of Greece’s and Spain’s economies requiring gigantic bail-outs. Then there’s Italy’s debt, and riots in the streets over there. If the euro collapses, he worries, will Wall Street be far behind?
    So it was to my utter amazement when that very afternoon, my two brothers-in-law came strolling into my house with faces all aglow. Positively radiant, grinning from ear to ear, arms dangling around each other’s necks, they looked like two ten-year-olds who’d just gotten off a Ferris wheel. They couldn’t be happier. What had happened? What