“No, it wasn’t just the money,” Irene said. “She wanted revenge. I think she believed that she had sacrificed her own dreams for the sake of Nick Tremayne’s career. You read her correctly, Oliver, but you didn’t have all the facts. None of us did. We didn’t know that Claudia had once been married to Nick Tremayne and that she had been paid to get a quickie divorce.”
“That fact changes everything,” Oliver said quietly. “It makes it all personal.”
“Yes,” Luther said. He looked thoughtful. “It does.”
Oliver’s eyes tightened a little. “There’s only one reason why the landlady, Phyllis Kemp, would have made that phone call to Picton today. She must have been involved in Picton’s blackmail scheme.”
“She was.” Detective Brandon spoke from the living room doorway. He walked out onto the patio. He looked at Oliver. “The housekeeper guarding your front door let me in. Hope that’s all right.”
“Mrs. Taylor is there to make sure no members of the press sneak into the front garden,” Oliver said.
Irene raised her brows. “Except me, of course.”
Brandon chuckled and lowered himself into a chair. He looked tired but satisfied.
“Phyllis Kemp is now talking to the Seattle police,” he said. “Turns out she’s Claudia Picton’s aunt—Picton’s only close relation. Kemp is maintaining her innocence but Picton says she was in on the scheme from the beginning. It was Kemp who made certain that Betty Scott was alone in the boardinghouse the night Picton confronted her about the blackmail threat. In fact, according to Picton, Phyllis Kemp helped her stage the bathtub scene.”
“When I called Mrs. Kemp again and asked more questions, she realized that yet another Hollywood reporter was closing in on the truth. She hung up and immediately called Claudia.”
“Who panicked,” Oliver said. “She grabbed a gun and a crowbar from the trunk of her car and went looking for Irene.”
“So Tremayne’s ex-wife was his personal assistant?” Chester said. He snorted. “That had to be a strange setup.”
“Stranger things happen in Hollywood,” Luther said.
“So they tell me,” Brandon said. “Speaking of Hollywood, the studio cut Claudia Picton loose immediately, as you said they would, Oliver.”
“I wonder how much Daisy Jennings knew about what was going on,” Luther mused.
“Very little,” Brandon said. “From what I can tell she had a onetime fling with Nick Tremayne in the garden of the Paradise Club. Later, Claudia Picton offered her cash to lure Miss Glasson to the warehouse.”
“Picton also gave Jennings a script to read that contained two film titles. Jennings must have known something dangerous was happening,” Oliver said.
“Maybe,” Brandon said. “Regardless, it looks like she took the money and didn’t ask too many questions.”
Chester scowled. “What about that studio executive, Ernie Ogden? How much did he know?”
“According to Claudia Picton, Ogden didn’t know that his star was being blackmailed, so he couldn’t have known why women with a connection to Nick Tremayne had a bad habit of turning up dead,” Irene said. “But he must have been getting concerned. What’s more, I think Claudia Picton knew that. It’s probably why she was so desperate today. If the studio dumped Tremayne, her blackmail scheme would go down the drain. She’d have committed several murders and have nothing to show for it. I’m sure that situation was an additional source of stress for her.”
“No wonder she always looked so nervous,” Chester said.
“She’s looking a lot more anxious now,” Brandon said. “She’s doing a good job of acting like she’s nuts. Got a hunch she’s going to go with an insanity plea.”
“What will happen to Henry Oakes?” Irene asked. “I think he’s a little crazy but he wasn’t a killer.”
Brandon grunted. “He’s going to recover from his head wound. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s still crazy. Thinks he’s Nick Tremayne’s special friend and that he has to protect the star. I’ll have a little chat with him before he leaves the hospital, but if that doesn’t work, I guess the studio will have to deal with him.”
“That’s what men like Ernie Ogden get paid to do,” Luther said.
“I know,” Brandon said. He shook his head. “I’ve seen that kind of crazy before and there’s no cure.”
Irene glanced at her watch and got to her feet. “It’s almost three o’clock. If you gentlemen will excuse me, I have an appointment with Nick Tremayne.”