Wilmington, NC 10 - Much Ado About Murder

think we should buy it.”
    “I do.” And he grabbed me up in his arms and whirled me around. “Our house,” he said joyfully. “We’ll make it beautiful.”
    “I love you, Jon Campbell.”

5

    We now have a babysitter. Someone very good. She is Tanya, the granddaughter of our general contractor Willie Hudson. Willie and his wife Esther have a very large family with many grandchildren. Tanya is studying Interior Design at Cape Fear Community College and plans to join the family business. She attends classes during the day but is the perfect sitter for our boys for the evening hours. And they have really taken to her because she plays with them. They are in bed by eight, leaving Tanya free to do her homework. And Jon and I free to join our gang for the dress rehearsal of the Thalian Association’s production of Oklahoma !.
    Heads turned and voices hushed as my half-sister Scarlett Barrett entered the lobby of Thalian Hall. The audience at dress rehearsals is made up of actors and actresses, volunteers, and theater people who have in some way assisted with the production or past productions. There is no admission charged and this policy is a way of thanking them for their contributions. These people know exactly who Scarlett Barrett is and are thrilled that she is now living in Wilmington.
    As we made our way through the lobby to the door to backstage, a few people rushed to introduce themselves to Scarlett and to tell her they’d seen her on stage during a trip to New York. Scarlett responded graciously, as she always does.
    She’d been invited backstage to wish the actors well. As it turned out, Melanie, Jon and I had already met the lead actors. Met them on Dalton Montjoy’s front porch last Saturday when we’d witnessed the three of them involved in a fracas, the theatrics of which could earn each of them a Tony. The actress playing the lead role of Laurey Williams was none other than Taylor Page. While Thomas Holbrook, the peace maker, played the hired man, Jud Fry. Thomas was a large, burly kind of guy, and if not cleaned up and with a few days growth of beard, just the image of how you’d expect Jud Fry to look. The star of the show, the actor playing Curly McLain, was none other than Simon LeBeck . And Simon made a perfect Curly, with his fair curly hair and amber eyes.
    The scene backstage was one of controlled chaos. The actors were hyped up on adrenalin and anticipation. Bob Rogers, the stage manager, seemed to be everywhere at once, shouting instructions to everyone at once. Tables containing props lined one wall of the hallway opposite racks of costumes.
    Scarlett and I moved into a small room where Taylor and two other actresses were applying stage makeup to their faces. Scarlett was expected and the women dropped their makeup brushes and jumped up to surround her.
    “I don’t mean to interrupt. I just stopped by for a second to wish you all good luck. I know the play is going to be a big success. Break a leg,” she laughed and stepped back into the hallway to greet the others.
    We found Thomas Holbrook beyond an open door in a dressing room being used by the males in the cast. A woman was smoothing gel into his dark hair, then rubbing her fingers through his hair to make it messy and spikey - a real bed head look. Her own hair was thick and dark, similar to Thomas’s. In fact, she looked a lot like Thomas. She spotted us in the mirror and frowned. “You girls are not allowed back here,” she called. To one of the male actors, she complained, “The girls just can’t leave him alone.”
    Scarlett and I stared at each other. “Okay,” Scarlett said amiably. “Excuse us.”
    She turned to leave with me right behind.
    Thomas pushed the woman’s hands away from his hair and jumped out of his chair. “Don’t go, don’t go. She doesn’t know who you are.”
    Hands on hips, the woman scowled. “And who are they, son? Your little groupies?”
    Whoa, this woman had some attitude. And some nerve.
    “No, Mother, you’ve got it all wrong. This is Scarlett Barrett. You know who she is. She’s a star.”
    He moved toward Scarlett with outstretched hands. “Ms. Barrett, I can’t thank you enough for coming. Don’t mind my mother, she forgot her glasses. I’m so thrilled to meet you. Some of us went to New York last year and we saw you in Guys and Dolls . You were wonderful!”
    Thomas’s mother moved to his side, and kind of shoved him aside with her hip. She grabbed Scarlett’s