Festival of Deaths(10)

Shelley walked around the love seat and the club chair. She walked to the middle of the platform and looked straight up into the lights. She frowned. Then she went back to the studio door and picked up the interoffice phone.

“DeAnna?” she said. “Can you come down here a minute? And can you bring Itzaak?”

“I can’t find Itzaak,” DeAnna said. “I’ve tried.”

“He’ll come in with Carmencita,” Shelley said dismissively. “He’ll give her five minutes and come in after. Never mind. Come down here and talk this out with me.”

“But—”

Shelley hung up. None of them wanted to talk about sets. None of them thought consultation about sets was important. Shelley just had to make them do what they ought to want to do.

By the time DeAnna came in, Shelley had the love seat pulled off to one side and listing at the edge of the platform. She wasn’t strong enough to drag it any farther. She had the club chair all the way off and onto the studio floor. All that took was a sharp shove with her hip. She needed Itzaak for the lights and Maximillian for the heavy lifting, but she was feeling much better.

“It’s going to be fine,” Shelley said, as DeAnna came across to the set. “I was a little worried on the way over here, because of the time frame, but it’s going to be fine. Where’s Max?”

“On his way,” DeAnna said.

“Good. We need him to paint a new set of backdrops. Pearl gray, I think, or even navy blue with a white trim. Something conservative.” Shelley looked at the bright yellow backdrops now on the set and wrinkled her nose. “These are all we’d need. I can hear the phone calls now. What color dress is Lotte going to wear?”

DeAnna made a face. “I don’t know. Do you need to know right away?”

“I need to know before Max paints. We don’t want to paint gray and have in her gray. Or navy blue and have her in navy blue. She’d fade into the background. What about the guests?”

“I haven’t seen the guests. I don’t even know if we have any guests.”

“What does Maria say?”

DeAnna looked away. “Maria doesn’t say anything. I can’t find her.”

“You’ve tried her beeper?”

“Of course I’ve tried her beeper. I’ve tried her apartment. I’ve tried everything.”

“That makes the second time this month,” Shelley said.

DeAnna shrugged. “The last time we didn’t have an emergency like this one. It doesn’t matter. Lotte isn’t fed up yet. And when Lotte isn’t fed up—”

“—nobody is fed up,” Shelley said. “I know. But we have to do something about this, DeAnna.”

“Right now, I only have to do something about this show. Carmencita’s coming in. She ought to know what you need. We’ve never had any trouble with Carmencita.”

“Right. Well. Tell her I need to know what everybody’s going to be wearing and also if there are any problems I ought to plan for—if one of the guests is too fat or too thin or too tall or too short, you know what I mean, something really out of the ordinary. I usually do this myself in advance but—”

“Don’t apologize.”

“I’m not apologizing,” Shelley said. “Get me Max. Get me Itzaak. Oh, and as soon as we set up, get me Lotte, if she’s in, because Itzaak’s got to light her and I’ve got to be sure—”

“I know,” DeAnna said. “I know.”

“Everybody knows everything around here,” Shelley said. “We sound like a couple of mynah birds. Go back to your office. If you could remember to give the messages I told you—”

“I’ll remember. You going to need anything in the way of props?”

Shelley looked the set over, seeing it in her mind the way it would be once it had been transformed, and shook her head.

“No props. Some water because they have to have it or they choke. That’s all.”

“I’ll make sure Sarah knows about the water.”

Sarah. At the sound of Sarah’s name, Shelley shot a look of sympathy at DeAnna and caught DeAnna shooting one back. The two women smiled and looked away from each other. Sarah was the ultimate example of Lotte’s “not being fed up yet.” Everybody else on the show had been fed up with Sarah for years. At least, Shelley thought, she was better off than DeAnna. DeAnna had to put up with Sarah as an assistant.

Shelley sat down on the edge of the stage and said, “Go. I’ve got everything under control. Send me the guys when they come in.”

“You really think Itzaak was with Carmencita?” DeAnna asked.