We'll Always Have Parrots(40)

“Last words? I thought she was already dead when you got there.”

“Yeah, but one of the damned parrots was fluttering around in the room, shrieking out things in her voice.”

“I know,” Michael said. “Get out! I need my rest! Leave me alone!” he added, in a half-decent imitation of the QB’s voice.

“Not just that,” I said. “The parrot said something else even more important. At least I think it is, and I’m wondering if the police realize it.”

“What did it say?”

I closed my eyes and concentrated.

“I’m pretty sure it was, ‘I can do anything. I own them; I can—ggggggggggg.’”

“Ggggggggg?” Michael repeated.

“Sorry, I don’t do that very well,” I said. “It was a death rattle, as they call it in the crime books. There may be a scientific term for it; you could ask Dad.”

“Death rattle will do,” Michael said, with a slight shudder. “Call me squeamish, but I hope I never meet that particular parrot.”





Chapter 20




I was still wondering what had happened to the poor witness parrot when Michael spoke up again.

“I see what you mean, that what she said before the death rattle could be significant. She was probably arguing with the killer about something she wanted to do with the show. Something the killer disagreed with, and the QB said there was nothing he or she could do, she owned it. Meaning the show.”

“Can’t be the show,” I said.

“Why not?”

“She said ‘them,’ not ‘it,’” I said. “The show would be an ‘it.’”

“You’re sure? ‘Them’ not ‘it?’”

“Positive.”

“Damn,” Michael said. “So it’s not the show; she only owns the one show that I know of. What else does she own, but in multiples?”

“People,” I said. “When I was talking to Harry, the other guy in the sword skits, about Chris’s problems with the QB, he said ‘She owns him.’ Meaning his contract, of course. But that’s how he said it. That she owned him.”

“And that’s how she’d say it, too,” Michael said.

“Especially if she was talking about people she was messing with, like Chris and Andrea.”

“Not just Chris and Andrea,” Michael said, shaking his head. “Even me and Walker. Oh, she wouldn’t come right out and say she owned me, at least not to my face, but you could tell that’s what she thought. So maybe she was talking to someone else she was jerking around. But no, that doesn’t work either. If she was talking to me or Chris or Walker, she’d say, ‘I own you’ not ‘I own them.’”

“True,” I said. “Even if she was talking to Chris about both him and Andrea, it would still be you, not them. And while I can imagine someone getting so fed up that they’d confront her about their own complaints, it’s hard to imagine anyone tackling her on someone else’s behalf.”

“Unless it’s someone who’s paid to do it,” Michael said, slowly. “What if Francis went to argue with her about both my contract and Walker’s?”

“Was he supposed to do that?”

“Yes,” Michael said. “Remember when I was talking to him yesterday? I finally laid it on the line. Told him if he couldn’t work out a compromise on my contract, a schedule that wouldn’t interfere with my responsibilities at the college, I’d fire him and find an agent who could.”

“So he was going to confront her.”

“Yes, on my behalf,” Michael said. “And I expect Walker wanted him to talk to her, too.”

“Maybe Walker wasn’t such a weasel, pointing the finger at Francis,” I said. “Maybe just a realist. He’s known Francis a lot longer than you have. When was Francis supposed to meet her?”

“Last I heard, he didn’t have an appointment,” Michael said. “I suppose he might have just gone to her room to confront her.”

“Would he?” I asked. “Confront her that way? He always seems so…um…”

“Wimpy?” Michael said, with a sardonic laugh. “Yeah, it’s hard to imagine him getting up enough nerve to tell the QB she can’t do something, but if he did, that’s just how she’d react. That she owns us. Which, from a contract standpoint, thanks to Francis, she does.”

“Did,” I said. “Not anymore. Who owns you now? Or rather, who owns the show and gets to decide what happens with it? If Francis knew he’d have more luck negotiating with whomever took over after her death, he’d have a motive.”