“Then perhaps you’ve seen me on the big screen.”
“The movies?” Hannah pretended to be surprised and impressed. “I had no idea! I knew you were as good as a professional actress, but I don’t think I’ve seen any of your movies.”
“Really,” Vivian said, and the expression on her face turned even colder.
She doesn’t believe you, Hannah’s mind told her. You’d better think of some excuse to get away fast!
Hannah knew that she had to escape and there was no time to waste. It was possible, even probable, that the same gun that Vivian had used to kill Tori was, even now, in the bottom of Vivian’s tote bag, loaded and ready to kill Hannah!
The back door to the auditorium was directly behind her . . . Hannah knew that it was still unlocked, because when Michelle had given Hannah the keys, she’d reminded Hannah to make sure and lock up before she left! Hannah backed up another step closer to the unlocked door, trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. Even though her heart was pounding wildly and her knees were beginning to shake, she managed to keep the friendly smile on her face. It was time to get out while Vivian was still unsure what Hannah knew and what she didn’t know.
Hannah glanced down at her watch. “Look at the time! I called my husband to tell him I had to stay at the school to lock up, but if I don’t leave right now, he’s bound to come looking for me.”
“Of course he will. And he’ll be the one to find you.” Vivian’s tone was flat and full of menace. “You know about me, don’t you, Hannah?”
*
Mike turned to look up at Rod with surprise. “The plates came back as registered to a Vivian Dickerson.”
“That’s the woman who played Tricia Bathel’s mother,” Rod told him.
“So both of them are still in there.”
“Yeah,” Rod said. “And Hannah’s probably still in there talking to Vivian.”
“Why? Everybody else has left.”
Rod shrugged. “I don’t know. Why do women spend all that time talking to each other? Men will never understand that.”
Mike nodded to acknowledge the comment, but his face took on a worried look. “It’s odd.”
“What’s odd about it? Vivian’s probably nattering away and Hannah has to stay to lock up.”
Mike thought about that for a moment. “What do you know about Vivian, Rod?”
“Not much. She moved here a year or two ago and she lives way out in the country. She doesn’t belong to any clubs that I know of and . . . I really don’t know anything else about her.”
“Was she a friend of Tori’s?”
“Not that I know of.”
Mike took a moment to digest that kernel of information and then he turned to look at Rod. “Does Vivian remind you of anyone you know? Or anyone you’ve seen before?”
Rod looked surprised at the question, but he thought about it for at least a minute. “In a way, she does. There was a movie I saw. Oh, it’s got to be thirty years ago, but it had this woman playing a nanny. She was better than the actress that played the mother and that’s probably why I remember her. If you took thirty years off Vivian’s face, she’d look a lot like that actress.”
“What was the name of the movie?”
“I don’t know. It was something Gerda wanted to watch.”
“Try to think of it, Rod. It’s important.”
Rod was silent for a moment. “It was something that was set in a foreign country, Mike . . . I think it was set in Paris, but I can’t quite remember the name of the movie. . . .”
“Keep thinking. Maybe it’ll come to you.”
Rod thought for another minute. “Oh!”
“You thought of it?”
“Not exactly, but I think it was called Interlude or Intermission or . . . Intermezzo! That was it! Intermezzo in Paris!”
Mike grabbed his phone and typed in the name of the movie. It seemed to take forever to get an answer, but when he did, the search gave him a roster of the actors and actresses in the movie. Mike scanned it quickly and winced as he came to a familiar name. “Uh-oh!”
“What’s wrong?” Rod asked him.
“I’ll explain later. Stay here, Rod. And if I’m not back here in five minutes with Hannah, call Rick over at the station and tell him to get his . . . his squad car over here right away!”
“Is Hannah in danger?” Rod asked.
“I don’t know yet. But I’m going in to find out!”
*
Just as they’d said in the old black and white gangster movie she’d watched with Norman a year or so ago, the jig was up. And Hannah knew it. All she could do was try to keep Vivian talking, stalling her as long as she could, in the hope that that someone would see her car was still in the parking lot, and come in to find out what was taking her so long inside.
“So why did you kill Tori?” Hannah asked. “She didn’t criticize your acting, did she?”
“Heavens no! She wouldn’t dare! I’m better than she ever was, and I always have been.”
“I’ve never seen Tori in anything, but I don’t see how anyone could be a better actress than you are.”
“Thank you, Hannah, but compliments won’t save you now, you know. I’ll have to kill you. I don’t have any other choice.”
“You could always lock me in somewhere until you got away.”
Vivian shook her head. “Too sloppy. You’re the only one who figured it out and I don’t want you to tell anyone else. I’ll leave Minnesota. You can bet on that. But I won’t have to run as far or as fast.”
“Are you sorry you killed Tori Bascomb?” Hannah asked, hoping to change the subject from a discussion of her fate.
“No. Why would I be sorry? She almost killed me! And she did kill my Broadway career.”
“By taking over as the lead on opening night?”
“Yes. I would have gotten those rave reviews. I would have been touted in all the papers, and been given starring roles for years after that.”
Hannah nodded and backed up another step. “But you got sick, didn’t you? And that’s why Tori got the lead on opening night, instead of you.”
“I got sick, all right!” Vivian’s eyes began to gleam with intense emotion. “I got sick because she made me sick!”