“Yes, I noticed. I’m surprised that Ross didn’t interview any of Tori’s theater friends.”
Mike shrugged. “Maybe she didn’t have any theater friends. The only real friend she had here in Lake Eden was your mother. And that was probably because they were neighbors.”
“Right,” Hannah said, deciding to think about that later.
“This disk is labeled EARLY YEARS,” Mike told her.
“Good. That should be interesting. I was curious about how Tori got her start on Broadway.”
“In a Broadway musical. That was her first role, Tori was the understudy and the actress playing the lead got the flu. Tori took over the role on opening night and got rave reviews.”
“Interesting,” Hannah said, mentally kicking herself for not researching that bit of information. “On opening night,” she repeated what Mike had told her with a sigh. “That was a lucky break for Tori, but it makes me feel sorry for the actress who was scheduled to play the part.”
“Laine Warner.”
Hannah frowned slightly. “I don’t know the names of that many Broadway actresses, but I’ve never heard of her.”
“Neither has anyone else. This musical was supposed to be her big break.”
“And she got the flu,” Hannah repeated what Mike had told her. “What happened to Laine Warner?”
“She had some small parts on Broadway for a while, and then she became a character actress in the movies. I looked her up. She worked a lot and was very successful, but she never got to play the lead actress.”
“Do you think that could be a motive for murder?” Hannah asked him.
“It’s a possibility, but it’s unlikely. Laine was successful in her own right. She made a lot of money before she retired. She hasn’t done anything for the past ten years or so, but she made a very good living for a long time and probably has a nice big retirement income.”
“Do you know where Laine Warner is now?”
Mike shook his head. “She dropped out of sight. No driver’s license, no new social security information, nothing in the records about her.”
“Do you think she’s dead?”
“She could be. A lot of people fall through the cracks as far as the records go. But, it’s also possible that she moved out of the country, or married someone and didn’t bother to change her name on the records.”
“So she’s not one of your suspects?”
“No, but she could be if I knew more about her. For instance, does Laine Warner think that Tori somehow caused her to get sick just in time for opening night?”
“Would Tori have done something like that?”
“It doesn’t matter if she did, or if she didn’t. The important factor is if Laine Warner believes that Tori did it. Then that’s a motive for murdering Tori.”
“How do you find out what Laine believes without locating her and questioning her?”
“That’s just it. I don’t. Let’s watch the disk and see if Ross managed to find her. Or if he interviewed someone who can give me a lead.”
Give us a lead! Hannah changed the personal pronoun in her mind, but she didn’t voice it. All the same, she was going to watch the second disk very carefully to see if she could spot anything.
“Ready?” Mike asked her, picking up the control.
“I’m ready. Let’s see what Ross found out about Laine Warner.”
*
Less than thirty minutes later, Hannah and Mike had their answer. Ross hadn’t been able to locate Laine Warner, either. And no one he’d interviewed had known where she was. He had, however, managed to locate some clips of her performances as a character actress and both Mike and Hannah had watched those carefully.
“So what did you think?” Mike asked her when the entire disk had played.
“Laine Warner was a very good actress and I wish Ross had found her. And . . . this may sound a little crazy, but she looked slightly familiar to me.”
“Did you see her on Broadway? She was in a couple of other productions before she landed her first lead.”
“I’ve never seen a Broadway play, so that can’t be it.”
“Then maybe you saw her in one of those old movies you like to watch.”
“Maybe.” Hannah thought about that for a moment and then she gave a slight nod. “That’s probably it.”
“Thanks for showing me those interviews, Hannah. Your guy is really good at getting people to talk. If he ever gets tired of lugging around all that equipment, I could sure use someone like him at the station.”
“I’ll tell him you said that,” Hannah said, but she thought, I doubt it! Ross loves what he does and he wouldn’t do anything else for the world!
“There’s a few of those scones left,” Mike said, standing up to retrieve the disk from the DVD player. “Do you think I could have a couple more to take with me to the station?”
Hannah gave a fleeting thought to the possibility of refusing. She wouldn’t mind eating another pumpkin scone herself, but then decided it was best to be charitable. Mike had been very forthcoming about his investigation and he hadn’t asked her that many questions about hers. He deserved some kind of positive reinforcement for that and more scones would give it to him.
“Sure, you can have them,” Hannah said. “Wait for just a second and I’ll pack up the rest for you.”
Mike followed her to the kitchen and watched as she wrapped the scones in foil and put them in a plastic bag. She knew he was counting how many were there and wondering if he could eat one on his way to the station, so she left one out of the package she was making.
“Is that last one for you?” Mike asked her.
“No,” Hannah told him. “That last one’s for you to eat on your drive to the station.”
“Great!” Mike gave her the grin that always made her heart beat faster. Perhaps that was disloyal of her, now that she was married, but she excused it as an involuntary reaction. “Here you are,” she said, handing him the scones.