Taking the Fifth(43)
The grin was gone as suddenly as it had appeared. “No.” Dale’s answer emphatic. “Absolutely not. If somebody told you that, I’d say they were trying to cause trouble. Jasmine may be screwed up in some ways, but I’d lay odds she’s clean. She’s worked too hard to get that way, personally and professionally.”
I tried coming from a different direction. “So you think she deserves what’s happening now—on the tour, I mean.”
“The success?” He snorted. “Believe me, it’s been bought and paid for.”
There was a hard edge in his voice, and I wasn’t sure what lay behind it. “What do you mean by that?”
“Do you have to ask?”
I felt the blood rushing to my ears. Alan Dale had landed the blow fair and square. No, I shouldn’t have had to ask. I knew the answer, from Jasmine Day’s own lips.
I went looking for more innocuous territory. “What exactly does a head carpenter do?”
“I’m a jack-of-all-trades, the one who keeps everything running. If it breaks, I fix it. If it wears out or just disappears, I get a new one.”
“In other words, you’re in charge of everything,” I said.
“Everything,” he agreed. “Particularly on this show. I’m double-carded, both IATSE and Actors Equity. I’m head carpenter and stage manager, both.”
“You handle costumes?”
He nodded. “Including costumes, if it’s something Bertha can’t handle. It helps keep expenses in line.”
“Who’s Bertha?”
“Bertha Harris. The head costumer. We call her Big Bertha for obvious reasons. She’s been in the business forever, and she’s one of the best.”
“Didn’t you tell me the other day that Morris was messing around with one of the costume crates? Isn’t that why you fired him?”
“Trunks,” Dale corrected. “One of the costume trunks.”
“Did you ever figure out what he was looking for?” I asked.
“Sure; that was easy, once Bertha told me what was missing.”
“What?”
“One of Jasmine’s costumes, complete with dress, wig, and a pair of shoes. The last pair of shoes, by the way. One of the heels on the next-to-last pair broke off in Portland. We just got in the replacement this morning.”
“Where from?”
“A shop in Beverly Hills. Rodeo Drive Shoe Salon. They’ve been good about keeping Jasmine’s shoes in stock in case we do run into problems.”
“So let me see if I’ve got this straight. Later, after you caught Morris going through the costume trunk, you found one whole costume had disappeared?”
“That’s right.”
“Any idea what he’d want with a woman’s evening dress?”
Dale shrugged. “Someone told me they spotted him down at the Edgewater. He wasn’t wearing it then, but he could have changed into it later.”
“The Edgewater. The hotel down on the waterfront?”
“Right,” Dale answered. “The one where you can fish out your room window.”
I remembered the matchbook with “The Edgewater Inn” on it, the one we’d found under Richard Dathan Morris’s body. I was genuinely puzzled. “What for?” I asked. “Why would he go there?”
“You mean to tell me you live right here in the city and you don’t know about what’s going on under your very nose?” Dale asked.
“I guess not.”
“They’ve got a follies there. The whole cast is made up of female impersonators. When I heard that, I figured Morris must have lifted the costume before I caught him. My guess is he hid it somewhere and came back to get it later. He probably wanted to play dress up.”
“But was he wearing the costume when whoever it was saw him at the Edgewater?”
“No.”
“And you didn’t go?”
Dale shook his head. “There are a few of us on this show who aren’t AC/DC. I happen to be one of them.”
“Who saw him there, then? At the Edgewater. Do you remember?”
“It was one of the local guys, but I don’t know which one. I see so many, they all look alike. I’d know him if I saw him, but I don’t remember his name. I can get it for you tonight, if that’s soon enough.”
“That would be a big help.”
The waitress brought the bill. I took it and paid off both our coffees. “Is that all?” he asked as the waitress walked away. “I should probably go back to my room and grab a quick nap if I want to be on my toes tonight.”
“Did I understand you to say that a replacement pair of shoes came today?”