Chapter Eleven
Hannah had barely had time to run home to feed Moishe and Cuddles before she had to drive back to Jordan High. She’d taken her designated seat at two minutes before the final call for contestants, and Herb, who’d looked a bit panicked at her late arrival, had given her a relieved smile.
Now, forty-five minutes after the curtain had risen, the talent show was running smoothly and everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time. Hannah was clapping right along with the rest of the audience to the beat of Kenny Kowalski’s All-Girl Accordion Band when Herb tapped her on the shoulder.
“We’d better go,” he said. “There’s only one act after this, and then we’re up. We’re going to end the first half.”
“But how about Perry and Sherri? I thought they were ending the first act with their dance number.”
“Not anymore. I ran into Perry in the lobby and he said Sherri can’t dance tonight. He’s going to give his little talk for donations to the Children’s Home right after intermission is over, and then he’s going home to make sure Sherri’s okay.”
“Did he take her to see Doc Knight?”
“Doc gave her something to settle her stomach and said she should rest.”
“Was it the flu?”
“Perry didn’t say. I can tell he’s worried about her, though. He looked really upset.”
Hannah slid out of the row. She’d taken the seat on the aisle so that she wouldn’t have to climb over people’s knees and feet. She thought Herb was jumping the gun a bit. The Langer sisters were up next and they always sang two encores. He was probably nervous and wanted to take a little time to calm down after he’d donned the clothing and persona of his magician, The Amazing Herb.
Once they’d traversed the hallway and gone through the door that led backstage, Hannah let Herb lead the way. There were lots of obstacles and it was easier to follow than to lead. When they reached the rear of the backstage area, Herb turned right to enter the men’s dressing room, and Hannah turned left.
She was only a few steps from the dressing room door when it opened and the Langer sisters emerged. They were talking about something among themselves, and although they smiled and acknowledged her with a wave, they didn’t stop to chat.
Hannah entered the dressing room to find it deserted. That was fine with her. She didn’t want to answer any questions about the ugly purple dress that she was about to don. She slipped out of her jeans and blouse, untied the plastic that covered the monstrosity, and unzipped it. Then she gritted her teeth as she pulled it on over her head, and zipped it back up.
The whole process of dressing in her magician’s assistant costume took less than five minutes, especially since she didn’t stop to put on makeup or primp in the wide horizontal mirror on the wall. It was illuminated by a line of lightbulbs running above the glass, but Hannah took pains to avoid her reflection for fear it would demoralize her. It had been bad enough when The Amazing Herb and his assistant had won first prize in the Tri-County Fair Talent Show. If they won again tonight, and she hoped they would for Herb’s sake, Norman wouldn’t be here to take their picture and use Photoshop to change the color of her bilious dress!
Thinking about Norman brought about a nervous little ping in the bottom of her stomach. She still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. He hadn’t sounded like himself on the phone, and she hadn’t heard a peep from him since he’d left that short message on her answer machine. It simply wasn’t like Norman to stay away an extra day, especially when he’d told her how much he missed Cuddles.
Hannah turned a chair away from the mirror and sat down to wait until it was time to go. She paged through a magazine that someone had left, but that only occupied her for the first two songs that the Langer sisters sang. The third song was one she knew and she mouthed the lyrics as they sang. Then she took time to brush her hair without benefit of mirror, and listened to the applause as they finished their act.
The applause went on for several minutes. It wasn’t that the Langer sisters were that good, but they did have a lot of relatives in attendance to cheer them on. There was a silence and then, just as she’d predicted, they went into their first encore. It would be a while before they were through and there was no sense going out to wait in the wings early. She might run into Bradford Ramsey and he was the last person she wanted to see!
The sisters were singing the ever-popular Danke Schoen in German, a sure hit in a county that still had a large share of German speakers. Hannah listened for a moment and tried to interpret the words. She’d picked up a little German over the years, but most of the lyrics were beyond her. When the sisters switched to English to sing it all through again, Hannah’s thoughts turned back to Norman.
In the message he’d left for her, he’d said that he wasn’t coming home as planned because he had some things to take care of. Whatever they were, they must be important. Norman was a man who didn’t do many spur-of-the-moment things. He simply wasn’t a spontaneous person. It wasn’t normal for him to leave a message saying he’d changed his plans at the last minute and was staying away an extra day. And why hadn’t he called The Cookie Jar to talk to her personally? Was he avoiding the questions he knew she was bound to ask?
Hannah told herself to stop worrying, that she’d find out soon enough, but of course that didn’t work. She had two choices. She could sit here and worry about Norman, or she could stand in the wings to wait for Herb and take the chance of running into Bradford.
She came to a decision immediately. It was cowardly to sit here simply because she didn’t want to deal with Bradford Ramsey. Thank goodness he didn’t remember he’d dated her years ago! Even when Michelle had invited him to Hannah’s condo for dessert this past Christmas Eve, Bradford had looked puzzled, as if he were still trying to place her. He hadn’t remembered exactly who she was when he’d stopped in at The Cookie Jar to say hello to the Mayor and Stephanie and that was a good thing. With a little luck, he wouldn’t remember her tonight either, and there would be no awkward conversation about the past with him.
The moment she decided, Hannah was up and moving. Their act was scheduled to enter stage left, and their guide had reminded everyone that stage left meant the entrance to the left as you faced the stage from the audience.
Hannah stepped out of the dressing room and crossed the backstage floor, careful to avoid the thick cables that snaked across the floor, the sandbags that held backdrops aloft, and the shadowy shapes of staircases that went up four steps to a landing and then right back down four steps to the floor. If these staircases were positioned correctly on the stage, it would look as if the actor were climbing up a flight of stairs and disappearing from view.
Hannah found a spot in the wings and glanced out at the lighted stage. The Langer Sisters had taken one curtain call and now they were beginning another encore, the crowd-pleasing Beatles hit, I Want To Hold Your Hand. The audience began to clap along with the beat, and Hannah was tapping her foot to the music when she heard a familiar and very unwelcome voice.
“Hello, Hannah.”
She didn’t need to turn around to know who was standing there. It was Bradford Ramsey. She sent up a little prayer that he still hadn’t put two and two together and remembered what they’d been to each other, and then she turned with what she hoped was a polite but neutral expression on her face.
“I’ve missed you, Hannah,” he said, standing much too close to suit Hannah. “I miss those days with you in my class … or maybe I should say I miss those nights. We had some fun back then, didn’t we?”
He remembered her! The sword of Damocles had descended and the hair on the back of Hannah’s neck bristled. “I don’t miss anything about it,” she said, brushing past him to wait for Herb in another spot, a spot as far away from the man she’d once thought she loved as she could get.
Hannah took a deep breath as the curtain went up. It was show time. She smiled as she handed The Amazing Herb doves in cages, colorful scarves, and collapsible flowers in full bloom. She may have seemed attentive to the audience, but only half of her mind was on their act. Bradford had mentioned their nights together. She didn’t think he’d said anything about their former relationship to anyone else, but she expected that he would eventually. When he did, her name would be mud with her friends, her family, and the two men she was dating.
In what seemed like mere seconds to Hannah, they arrived at the finale of their act. Herb explained the feat he was about to perform and there were gasps of shock from the audience. Hannah felt a bit like gasping, too. She had to focus. The Cabinet of Death could be dangerous, possibly even lethal if she lost her concentration.
The audience was silent as Hannah stepped into the cabinet. Bradford had upset her so much, she was still shaking, but that actually worked in their favor, convincing everyone who watched that Hannah was truly afraid for her life. She stood there shaking, but smiling bravely as The Amazing Herb opened his case of wicked-looking knives with blades long enough to go all the way through the cabinet. Of course everyone knew it was an act, a trick of some sort. Their conscious minds knew that Hannah wouldn’t actually be impaled alive, but Herb was an expert at building suspense and Hannah was willing to bet that more than a few audience members would avert their eyes when he closed the cabinet door and started to insert the long, sharp blades.
The moment that Herb shut the coffin-like door, Hannah got into the position clearly marked on the inside of the cabinet, the posture that would keep her safe.
Thunk! The first razor-sharp blade entered the cabinet at an angle, burying itself to the hilt. It missed her by a mile. It was followed by a second blade, and a third. Hannah moved and changed position in a preplanned choreography that was guaranteed to keep her safe and whole … as long as she didn’t make a mistake.
It took some doing, but Hannah managed to focus on making the correct moves until Herb had thrust in the last long knife. She was perfectly silent as he removed the knives, one by one. Then he opened the door to the cabinet, and Hannah stepped out, unscathed, to thunderous applause. The audience had loved them. They were a hit despite the distraction of that snake Bradford Ramsey!
“That was great!” Herb said, patting her on the shoulder. “I’ll meet you out front as soon as you change clothes.”
“Thanks.” Hannah stepped offstage with a smile on her face and ran straight into the arms of the man she’d been trying not to think of for the past fifteen minutes.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, tightening his arms around her. “Where’s that pretty little sister of yours? I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“Good!” Hannah said, and left it at that. She knew Herb was listening, but she was too angry to care.
“Don’t be like that, Hannah. I’ve got a feeling she’s a lot like you … and you were extra special. I really should get to know her better…. don’t you think?”
“Leave Michelle alone!”
“That depends on you, Hannah. If you won’t be nice to me, I’ll just have to go younger.”
Bradford smiled the smile that Hannah had once thought was sexy. Now it made her see red. She pulled back her arm to sock him, to hurt him, but then she remembered Herb and the questions that were bound to come from her partner’s husband. “Just stay away from my sister!” she said, steel in her voice.
“And if I don’t …?”
There was that maddening smile again, and this time Hannah blew up. “If you hurt Michelle, you’ll live to regret it!” she warned him. “Or better yet, you won’t live to regret it!”
Hannah paced the dressing room floor for several minutes before she was calm enough to change into her street clothes. Her friends and relatives were waiting for her to join them, but she was so angry at Bradford, she couldn’t seem to pull herself together. Thank goodness she had the luxury of time! The Amazing Herb had been the last act before a fifteen-minute intermission and everyone was milling around in the lobby of the Jordan High auditorium, drinking Silver Joe’s coffee from the freshly-ground beans that Hannah’s friend Pat had provided, and eating the apple turnovers that the assembly line at The Cookie Jar had made from Marge’s recipe.
If she hurried, she’d be able to join her sisters and De-lores in the lobby. There was only one more thing to do. Hannah made a knot in the bottom of the opaque plastic bag that covered the despised purple dress and carried it to the long pole that served as a temporary closet for costumes.
There were several items of clothing hanging on the pole. Hannah recognized the satin cape that the head majorette from the Little Falls Flyers had worn. Nestled next to it was a long pink scarf left there by a member of Kenny Kowalski’s All-Girl Accordion Band. The last item was a red and white shawl and she hadn’t seen any of tonight’s performers wearing that. Hannah hung the purple dress on the very end of the pole, draped the shawl over it, and hoped that no one would discover it until The Amazing Herb had retired.
She had just gathered up the rest of her things and was ready to leave when she had a dreadful thought. What if Bradford was waiting for her outside the dressing room door? It wasn’t that she was afraid of him. She knew how to defend herself. It was just that she wished to avoid any more confrontations with the man who’d made her last months at college a misery.
Hannah glanced up at the speakers mounted above the dressing room door. Right now the only sound they emitted was muted crowd noise from the lobby, but once intermission was over, she’d hear Bradford Ramsey welcome the audience back and introduce Perry, who would give a little talk about the Winnetka County Children’s Home. All Hannah had to do was wait until she heard Bradford’s voice and then hurry out of the dressing room while he was occupied onstage.
It seemed to take forever, but at last Hannah heard people begin to take their seats. Several more minutes passed, and she heard coughing, low murmuring, and rustling as those same people moved restlessly in their seats, impatient for the second half of the show to begin.
A few minutes more, and Hannah was just as impatient as the audience. Why wasn’t the show beginning? There must be some sort of delay. It was silly for her to hide out in the dressing room, hoping to avoid Bradford.
Hannah picked up her things, pulled open the door, and made her way past the obstacles backstage. She was about to turn toward the door that led to the hallway and the audience beyond, when she glanced onstage and saw Bradford Ramsey sitting in a tall director’s chair.
The stage lights were dimmed for intermission and there was very little illumination onstage. Hannah took a tentative step toward the chair. Yes, it was definitely Bradford. He must have fallen asleep, because he’d dropped a half-eaten apple turnover on the stage floor.
“Wake up! They’re waiting for you to start the show!” she ordered in her loudest whisper, but it had no effect on the sleeping professor. Hannah took a step closer and gave his shoulder a little shake. “Bradford? What’s wrong with you?”
There was no answer and she gave him another shake, much harder than the first. How could he sleep when the audience was waiting? But instead of jumping to his feet as she expected, Bradford tumbled sideways and his head hit the floor with a solid thump.
Uh-oh! Hannah didn’t need the little voice in her head to warn her that all was not well, and she fumbled in her purse for the little flashlight on her keychain. She flicked it on and aimed it directly at his face. Even accounting for the blue LED light that made everyone look ghastly, there was no doubt in Hannah’s mind. She’d wished him ill, but not quite this ill. Bradford Ramsey was stone cold dead.