Page 64 of Script Swap
“Yeah,” Pippi said.“That was your mistake!The dressing room!”
A muscle in Nora’s jaw tensed.
(It was weirdly gratifying to see somebody else be on the victim of Pippi’s“help.”Even Fox looked like they were at the end of their rope.)
“What about the dressing room?”Pippi stage-whispered.(Literally!A literal stage whisper!)
“The dressing room?”Jonni said.“I wanted that room because it’s got a bathroom.And because I deserve it.”
“No,” Nora said.“You wanted that room because the leak in the sprinkler system last year damaged the ceiling significantly.You lucked out that Milton has always been slow at his job, but when you heard about it, you knew it was only a matter of time before someone opened it up and found what you’d left there.”
Jonni didn’t say anything.Her hands froze while she was still adjusting the headband.The flush in her cheeks died.
“I had my suspicions,” Nora said, taking a dramatic step.“All these years, I’ve wondered.And then, when we were here again, I could tell something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.Until poor Terrence came to me.He was so distraught.”
“What do you mean?”Fox said.“What did my father say?”
Distraught wasn’t a word you heard a lot.Distraught was a word from a book.Or a script.
“He told me he suspected something awful.He thought he knew what Kyson had been talking about—the crime Kyson had uncovered, before someone silenced him.He showed me the articles he’d kept from all those years ago, Jonni.”Nora paused.“Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
Jonni shook her head slowly, but realization crawled across her face.
“Ray,” Nora said with quiet satisfaction.“Ray is up there.Right where you left him.”
Her eyes glittered like glass.She wasn’t smiling, not quite, but it was a close thing.But it was the way she was standing: it finally clicked, what had been tickling the back of my brain for so long.She was holding herself exactly like the TV character based on Vivienne Carver—Genevieve Webster, from theMatron of MurderTV show.
She had done this.
The hair on my arms stood up.
Nora.Nora had done all of it.
“You’re nuts,” Jonni said, but her voice was thick.“You’re out of your mind.Why would I do this?Why would I do any of this?Switch Kyson’s script—” For a moment, she was at a loss for words.“—any of it, why?I’d come back and—and take care of things.”
“Yeah,” Pippi said.“Whywouldshe switch the script?That only drew attention to the whole thing.”
Because that was the whole point.Because Nora had wanted everyone to see.
Shock kept me silent, though.
Eye twitching, Nora said, “Because nobody swapped the script.Kyson altered the lines himself.That was his first step in blackmailing you.”
Jonni was crying now, a few slow tears coursing down her cheeks, leaving tracks in her makeup.“You’re a real piece of work,” she finally said.“We were friends, Nora.A long time ago, but we were friends.”
“I’m afraid the memory of our friendship won’t be enough to convince me to conceal the truth,” Nora said.“Sheriff, you’ll find Jonni’s first victim exactly where I said he’d be.And I won’t be surprised if you also find the murder weapon used to kill Kyson.”
“You did this.”Jonni said the words slowly, as though they were coming to her now.“You did this.You did it.”
“Ms.Day,” the sheriff said.“Why don’t you—”
“You killed him!”Jonni screamed and launched herself at Nora.
Fox tried to get between them, but Bobby was faster.He caught Jonni around the waist and wrestled her back a few steps.Nora still wasn’t smiling, but then, she’d been—shewas—a talented actor.Pippi, though, was staring sideways at her, eyes wide.
“He thought you walked on water!”Jonni screamed.“You took him from me twice!”
“Deputy Mai,” the sheriff said.
