Private Scandals

shoulder. Most of the fear had ebbed, she realized. That jittering panic she’d nearly grown accustomed to feeling in her stomach had quieted. “I’m glad we came.”
    “Excuse me.” Kate Lowell’s sultry voice had Deanna turning her head. She stood in the doorway, sleek and somber in black silk, her hair waves of flame over her shoulders. “I’m sorry to interrupt.”
    “You haven’t,” Deanna responded. “We were just leaving.”
    “So am I.” She glanced over her shoulder toward the sounds of voices and music. “It’s not my kind of party.” She smiled slightly. “She was a bitch,” Kate said. “And I hated her guts. But I’m not sure even Angela deserved to be used quite so blatantly.” She sighed once, moving her shoulders as if to shrug it all away. “I’d like a drink. And I need to talk to you.” She looked at Finn and frowned. “I suppose it’ll have to be both of you, and it hardly matters at this point.” She watched Finn’s brow rise, and smiled again, with more feeling. “Really gracious, aren’t I? Listen, why don’t you find us a bar? I’ll buy us all a drink and tell you a little story you might find interesting.”

Chapter Twenty-five
    “ T o Hollywood,” Kate said as she raised her glass of scotch. “Land of illusions.”
    Puzzled, Deanna nursed her wine while Finn stuck with coffee.
    It wasn’t the sort of bar where one would expect to find one of Hollywood’s major stars. The piano player was glumly noodling out the blues so that the notes rose sluggishly on air thick with smoke. Their corner was dim, as Kate had requested. On the table scarred with nicks their drinks rested near a chipped amber glass ashtray.
    “You came a long way for the funeral of someone you didn’t like.” Deanna watched Kate’s elegant nails tap the table in time with the piano.
    “I was in town. But if I hadn’t been, I’d have made the trip. For the pleasure of making sure she was dead.” Kate sipped her scotch again, then set the glass aside. “I don’t imagine you cared for her any more than I did, but this might be rougher on you, since you found her.” Kate’s eyes softened as she stared into Deanna’s. “As the story goes, it wasn’t a pretty sight.”
    “No, it wasn’t.”
    “I wish it had been me,” Kate said under her breath.“You’re a softer touch, always were. Even after everything she did, and tried to do, to you. I know a lot more about that than you might imagine,” she added when Deanna studied her. “Things that didn’t make it into the press. Angela liked to brag. She hated you.” She inclined the glass toward Finn. “Because you didn’t come to heel when she snapped her fingers. And she wanted you for exactly the same reason. She figured Deanna was in her way, from all manner of angles. She’d have done anything to remove you.”
    “This isn’t news.” Noting that Kate’s glass was dry, Finn signaled for another. The lady, he concluded, was stalling.
    “No, it’s just my little prelude.” She stretched back, but the sinuous gesture was all nerves. “I don’t suppose you’d be surprised to know that Angela went to some trouble and expense to dig up that business from your past, Deanna. The date rape. It backfired, of course.” Her lips curved into a lovely smile. “Some of her projects did. That’s what she called them. Not blackmail.” She sulked a moment, fingers tapping, tapping, tapping. “Rob Winters was one of her projects. So was Marshall Pike.” She didn’t glance at the waitress, but nudged the glass aside even as it was set in front of her. “There are plenty more. Names that would astonish you. She used a P.I. named Beeker. He’s in Chicago. Angela kept him very busy documenting data for her projects. It cost me five thousand dollars to shoehorn his name out of Angela’s secretary. But then, everybody has a price. I had mine,” she added quietly.
    “You’re saying Angela blackmailed people?” Deanna leaned forward. “She traded secrets for money?”
    “Occasionally. She preferred trading secrets for favors. Her terms again.” Absently, she reached into the plastic bowl of mixed nuts. “ ‘Do me a little favor, darling, and I’ll keep this tidbit of information all to myself’ ‘Your wife has a drug problem, Senator. Don’t worry, I won’t breathe a word if you just do me a favor.’ What multi-Grammy winner was a victim of incest? What popular television star has ties to the KKK? Ask Angela.