Sleight of Hand

CHAPTER Thirty-One

Dana meant to get in touch with the detectives in charge of the Blair case but she had been on the go, constantly building a defense for the football player who had been accused of beating his girlfriend. The evening after Carrie Blair’s body was unearthed, Dana staggered home at ten thirty and collapsed on the couch to watch TV while she ate chicken lo mein out of a take-out carton. The lead story on the news killed her appetite.

On the screen, Horace Blair was being perp-walked to a police car by a stocky woman in a brown suit. A voiceover informed Dana that Carrie Blair’s body had been found in the Blue Ridge Mountains and that her husband, Horace Blair, had been accused of her murder. Before she could think too much about Blair’s arrest, her cell phone rang.

“Cutler,” she answered.

“I hope I’m not calling too late,” a vaguely familiar voice said.

“Who is this?”

“Marty Draper.” There was a pause. “Rene Marchand.”

“Oh, hi, Marty. What’s up?”

“I was watching CNN and they had a story about the Blairs.”

“He’s been arrested for his wife’s murder.”

“I know. They showed her picture and it made me remember something. Did you know that Carrie was an actress?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“There was one time when she came to the gallery without Horace. I was getting ready to close and go to a restaurant down the street from the gallery. I asked her if she wanted to join me. She seemed grateful for the company.

“Anyway, we both had a little more wine than we should have and we got to talking about our childhoods. Mine was a little rocky, but hers was bad.”

“Oh?”

“She told me that she never dreamed of being a lawyer when she was young. Her exact words were, ‘I was too busy trying to survive.’ ”

“What did she mean?”

“Her mother was an alcoholic. She abandoned Carrie when she was eleven. That was after her father died of a heart attack while he was serving a prison sentence for auto theft. Carrie said that Children’s Services shuffled her around through a series of foster homes. She didn’t go into detail, but I got the impression that she was sexually and physically abused. That’s where the acting came in.

“Carrie said she ran away when she turned sixteen. She ended up in Hollywood, planning to become a movie star. She said she made money any way she could, but she didn’t go into detail.

“You only saw Carrie in her disguise, but she was really beautiful. She told me that she was cast in minor roles in a few low-budget films. I think one was a vampire flick, and there was another one about a giant alligator at a summer camp for teens. But she caught on pretty quickly that the directors who offered her the roles didn’t do it because she was a talented actress. When she finally came to grips with the fact that she was not going to be the next big thing, she married another bit player for security, but her husband was abusive and the marriage didn’t last very long.”

“How did she get to be a lawyer?”

“It’s a great story. After getting divorced, Carrie worked low-paying jobs and barely got by. One day it dawned on her that education could be a way out of her situation. She got a GED, graduated from a community college, and ended up at Berkeley, where she graduated summa cum laude with a degree in history. That got her into Georgetown Law School, which is how she ended up on the East Coast.

“Anyway, the reason I called you was to tell you about the acting.”

“Did you tell her about the Queen Anne Players?” Dana asked.

“I definitely mentioned it.”

“Then that’s the link.”

“Carrie would know how to fake a French accent,” Draper said, “and how to disguise herself as this Margo Laurent woman.”