“That's okay.” Her smile broadened into a grin as she remembered what Gordon had told her. Someday, when there was time, she'd have to ask Valentine about her previous brush with crime.
After a quick glance over her shoulder to assure that her friend's outcry hadn't attracted anyone else's attention, Liss stooped to open the carriers. Dandy and Dondi were used to the routine. They stuck close to her as she walked toward the stage.
“Showtime,” she whispered.
Roy Eastmont's patented plastic smile stayed in place, but his eyes widened ever so slightly when he caught sight of them. Jane was the next to notice. There was no doubt about her reactionâoverwhelming relief.
“Right here,” Jane called to her, taking hold of Willetta's arm with one hand and giving the ventriloquist a shove with the other. “This is where Deidre stood for the first show.”
Liss was glad she didn't have to stand next to the Great Umberto. Oscar Yates was staring at her with a malevolence that sent chills down her spine, but that was nothing compared to the venomous look on Iris's face. Like a mother bear defending her cub, she took a step in front of the magician, almost as if he needed protection from Liss.
Liss had hoped for a more vocal reaction. A confession would have been nice, but she'd have settled for any kind of outburst.
“How did you get back here?”
or
“I thought you'd be dead by now!”
No such luck. Liss took what consolation she could from the fact that her reappearance would keep the Great Umberto from winning by default.
No one else in the cast or crew appeared to be surprised or disturbed by the reappearance of “Deidre and her Dancing Doggies.” Liss supposed they thought she'd been playing the prima donna by skipping rehearsal. Her act
was
supposed to be a shoo-in to win.
Just before the music came up and the lights narrowed to a series of spotlights, all trained on the master of ceremonies for his introductory patter, Liss cast her gaze toward the place where Dan and Sherri were supposed to be.
She had no trouble finding her husband and her best friend, but she did a double take when she realized they weren't the only familiar faces in the small audience. Sitting right next to them were Audrey Greenwood, the vet, and Margaret MacCrimmon Boyd. Liss's aunt sported a jaunty eye patch and a broad smile. Liss had no doubt she'd used her clout as events coordinator at The Spruces to talk the owners of Five Mountains into letting her in.
One by one, the acts reprised the performances they'd done on the season premiere. Liss was tenth on the program. She recreated Deidre's choreography without a hitch and was smiling as she returned to her place on the sidelines.
The Great Umberto didn't fare as well. Iris was clumsy, her attention divided between what she was supposed to be doing to sustain the illusion and keeping a watchful eye on Liss. What should have been a simple but clever routine spiraled rapidly into disaster. No one was surprised, when it came time to eliminate one of the three top-scoring acts, to hear Roy Eastmont announce that the magician had the lowest number of votes.
“No, he doesn't,” Iris said in a carrying voice. “It's all a sham. The viewer votes aren't even counted.”
“Shut up, Iris,” Yates hissed.
“But it's so unfair.” The last word ended on a wail of despair that had Liss feeling sorry for her . . . until she added, “I did everything I could to help you win!”
Everything she could? On Yates's orders? Or did Iris meanâ?
Before Liss had time to rearrange the possibilities, Roy Eastmont grabbed Liss's arm and hauled her up onto a small podium where Mo already stood. Dandy and Dondi trotted after them, lapping up the attention. Well, why not? They'd been here before. The last time, they'd won.
“Here it is,” Eastmont intoned. “The moment we've all been waiting for. The viewer votes have been totaled alongside the scores given by our three judges. One act stands out above all the rest, the champion of champions on
Variety Live
. May I have the envelope, please?”
A young woman in a sexy, glittery costume appeared, bearing a large white envelope with a big golden seal affixed to the flap. She looked so confident in this role that it took Liss a moment to recognize her as the otherwise inconspicuous, although stupendously well-organized assistant to the producer, Jane Smith.
Eastmont took the envelope and held it up, drawing out the moment. The wait was excruciating for Liss, not because she felt any sense of suspense, but because she was so annoyed by the MC's pretense. Although she had now begun to have the most dire suspicions about Iris Jansen, she was secretly glad that young woman had condemned the phoniness of the entire production.
The music designed to increase the crowd's anticipation ceased. In the hush that followed, Eastmont broke the seal and, with a flourish, removed a card from the envelope. He glanced at the name and did a double take so false Liss wondered that anyone could be deceived by it.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he announced, “the one, the only champion of champions of
Variety Live
is . . . Mo Heedles!”
To say the competitors, especially Mo, were stunned, was an understatement. For Liss, surprise was rapidly replaced by relief. She hugged the other woman, whispering heartfelt congratulations, and then stepped back to let Roy Eastmont present Mo with her trophy. It was as ugly a thing as Liss had ever seen, bulbous and twisted at the same time, all over gilt with tawdry-looking “jewels” embedded at random. She had no idea what it was supposed to represent.
It's over,
she thought.
She was free. No promotional obligations to get out of. No envy from the other competitors to deal with. She even had legal possession of the Scotties. Desdemona had signed over their ownership during the long hours they'd had to wait for the recording session to begin.
“Come on, guys,” Liss called. “Back into your carriers.”
She'd just secured the latches when Gordon Tandy and a uniformed state police officer entered the ballroom. Liss glanced around, searching for two sets of people. Dan and Sherri stood by the bleachers talking with Audrey and Margaret. The Great Umberto and his assistant were over by the exit to the stairs. Liss watched as Gordon approached them. They were so wrapped up in a low-voiced argumentâarms waiving, bodies tenseâthat they didn't notice him until he was standing right next to them.
Judging it safe to leave the carriers where they were, Liss walked rapidly toward the scene of the action. She reached Oscar Yates in time to hear Gordon start to read the magician his rights.
Yates's naturally dark complexion went deathly pale. “No. No, you've got this all wrong.”
Gordon finished the Miranda warning before he replied. “I don't think so, Mr. Yates. We've searched both your room and your van. Mr. Barrigan's prints were found in the former and Ms. Ruskin's in the latter.”
“Barrigan?” The confusion on his face looked real. Then he shifted his gaze to Iris. “You stupid little girl! What did you do?”
Liss stared at the magician's assistant.
Iris? Iris
had done all this? The same Iris who'd risked her own life to keep Dandy from being run over in the parking lot?
Iris burst into tears. Always her fallback move, Liss thought, repositioning herself just as the uniformed officer who'd accompanied Gordon moved in on the young woman with his handcuffs at the ready. Seeing him coming, Iris bolted for the exit door, only to find Liss blocking her escape route.
“Give it up, Iris.”
The hatred in the other woman's hazel eyes went a long way toward curing Liss of any inclination to believe in Iris Jansen's innocence. She no longer doubted that this rosy-cheeked, slightly baby-faced countenance belonged to a cold-blooded killer.
Iris flung herself at Liss, trying to shove her out of the way. Failing in that, Iris went at her with both fists. Liss got her arms up in time to fend off the blows, but one of Iris's dangly earrings caught her just below the left eye. That sharp little pain was the last straw.
Liss didn't like hurting people, but she liked being hurt herself even less. She hauled off and smacked Iris as hard as she could. Her open hand made contact with the side of her attacker's face, making her palm sting.
The other woman staggered backward, one hand pressed to what would soon be a magnificent bruise on the jaw, and stepped straight into the long arms of the law. The snick of handcuffs locking into place assured Liss that she had been secured. That sound was immediately followed by a chandelier-rattling shriek of indignation.
A trifle breathless, dabbing at the blood on her cheek with the tissue Sherri handed her, Liss nodded her thanks to the trooper. Jane Smith, efficient as ever, had her cell phone out and was calling for hotel security to come and take over crowd control. Until then, Dan appeared to be the one she'd recruited to hold back the gawkers. He even shooed away Liss's Aunt Margaret.
“She's fine,” Liss heard him say in a low, reassuring voice.
Gordon attempted to steer his two prisoners toward the stairs, but now it was the Great Umberto who made a bid for freedom. Using his skills as an escape artist, he'd picked the lock on the handcuffs.
Instead of making a run for it, he lunged at Iris, hands outstretched toward her throat. Gordon and the uniformed officer wrestled him away from her before he could close his fingers around her neck. Iris, frozen in the classic deer-in-the-headlights pose, just stared at them while Sherri took a firm grip on her arm. To make sure she didn't possess the same skills as her boss, Sherri took the precaution of double locking the handcuffs.
Oscar Yates continued to resist, making it next to impossible to maneuver him through the door to the stairwell. Although Liss had no idea why he thought
she
would be inclined to help him, he turned his pleading gaze toward her, his eyes deep pools filled with regret and despair, and cried out, “I had no idea she was involved in those dirty tricks until she stole my magic cabinet!”
“
That's
what tipped you off?” Liss knew she sounded incredulous, but why shouldn't she? She was still trying to adjust to the idea of Iris, of all people, as a criminal mastermind.
“Let's go, Yates,” Gordon said.
Slippery as an eel, the prisoner nearly broke loose a second time. He'd have succeeded if the two men holding him hadn't been so much bigger and stronger than he was. After a brief, desperate struggle, he was once more held securely between them.
“I won't go quietly,” he insisted. “Not until everyone understands that I didn't do anything wrong.”
All around them, curious spectators pressed closer. The entire cast and crew had a vested interest in what was going on.
Liss suspected Gordon would just as soon drag Oscar Yates through the exit door and down the stairs, leaving Sherri to follow with Iris. The ballroom was hardly an approved venue for hearing a confession. On the other hand, no one wanted to be accused of police brutality, especially when several of those watching already had their cell phones out to record everything that happened.
“Back off,” he shouted at the onlookers. “You are obstructing justice.”
No one moved except Elise. With Eudora entwined around her body, the stripper slipped through the barrier Dan had been trying to establish and positioned herself directly in front of the stairwell door. “I want to hear what he has to say. I've got a right. So do the rest of us.”
A murmur of agreement rose up from the crowd. Roy Eastmont pushed his way to the front to stand next to Jane Smith.
“Where's backup when you need it?” Gordon muttered under his breath.
The small tape recorder he extracted from his coat pocket with his free hand was a model that had been made nearly extinct by advances in technology, but it still worked. Any incriminating statement Yates insisted on making would be ruled admissible as evidence. To make certain of that, Gordon spoke first, identifying himself and the officer, the suspect, and the location, and repeating the Miranda warning for the benefit of the tape. He also named several of those who were close enough to overhear what the prisoner had to say: Liss, Sherri, Elise, Eastmont, Jane, and Dan.
“Okay, Yates,” he said. “You have until reinforcements get here to say your piece.”
“It was Iris. Iris was the only one who could have managed to get away with my equipment. When I confronted her, she admitted it, but then she talked me into believing that destroying the cabinet was necessary, all a part of Eastmont's plan to get publicity for the show.”
“
My
plan?” Eastmont's squawk of outrage, together with the look of horror on his face, convinced Liss that he'd had no prior knowledge of Iris's activities.
Sweat beaded on the Great Umberto's forehead. All the charm, all the charisma leached away. “I didn't know she was capable of more than a bit of sabotage. I only agreed to help her abduct Liss Ruskin because she persuaded me that Liss had agreed to the plan. Iris said someone would rescue her shortly after we dropped her off.”
“Then what was the point?” Liss asked.
“You were supposed to stay out of sight until after the results show. We were supposed to win.”
“Convince me!” Suddenly furious, remembering all she'd been through, Liss got right in his face. “Explain away your hand over my mouth and nose, cutting off my air. Explain why you flung me away from you in the woods! I could have broken my neck if I'd landed wrong!”
“I-I got carried away,” Yates stammered. “But there was snow. I knew you'd be okay.”