Theodosia "Teddy" Ballard knows nothing about community theater, but when the stage manager for “Little Shop of Horrors” takes a tragic header down the costume-loft stairs, she agrees to fill in for the sake of her actor friend, Will. Teddy takes the superstitions and swelled heads of The Stage in stride—till she meets George Clancy Everhart, the theater ghost, who informs her that the previous stage manager was murdered and demands that she find the killer. Both investigation and rehearsals are complicated when she makes a surprising discovery about her relationship with Will—and learns that George has his own dramatic agenda.
There was no
way I had left a door open, but I got up and checked again. Must be a draft
from somewhere in this old building. I retrieved the scattered pages and made
sure they were in the right order.
I heard a thud
as if something had fallen over backstage. Looking in the wings, I found a
hammer on the floor. I put it back where it belonged and returned to my papers.
An overhead
light flickered, red, then green, then white.
“All right,
that’s enough.” I got to my feet for the third time. “Good joke, Will. Ha, ha.
Now show yourself.”
“I beg your
pardon, dear lady,” said a deep voice.
I stared in
disbelief as a man appeared before me. He was tall and elegantly dressed in a
three piece suit and cravat. His features were blurry, but he had an
aristocratic air, a distinctive nose, and a satisfied smile.
He removed his
bowler hat and bowed. “George Clancy Everhart, at your service.”
I didn’t know
how Will had managed to create this image. This must have been some bizarre
rite of passage for people new to the theater. Well, it wasn’t going to rattle
me.
“Theodosia
Ballard,” I said. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Theodosia!
What a splendid name!”
“I prefer
Teddy.”
“Teddy? That’s
a boy’s name! You are a woman, and a very fine woman, at that. Such a
magnificent presence! You should be on stage.”
“I am on stage
right now, and I have a lot of work to do, so you can turn yourself off,
disappear, whatever, just go away.”
He looked
startled. “You don’t believe in me.”
“I believe
you’re a really good special effect. Go on now, get lost.”
The image drew
himself up. “My good woman, you are speaking to one of the premiere actors of
the Twentieth Century. Why, I appeared in hundreds of plays during my lifetime.
Thousands of performances! All to great acclaim!”
“I’m sure you
did.”
“Excellent
reviews! Encores by the score!”
“Then why are
you haunting a little theater in Rossboro, North Carolina? Shouldn’t you be in
New York? London?”
He paused and
put a hand to his heart. “You wound me to the core, Theodosia. In my later
years, my career took a sad tumble. Like your lover William, I was unable to
continue my passion for Broadway. I ended up here, disillusioned but
undefeated.”
“Whoa, hold on,
buster. Will is not my lover. And how do you know about his New York
experience?” I’d had enough. “Will, stop this right now. It isn’t funny.”
“I agree,
Theodosia. It is tragic. The boy has such talent, such a love for theater.”
“Stop it.” I
moved to push the man away, but my hands went right through him, and I almost
fell into the orchestra pit. A strong force shoved me away from the edge.
“Dear me,” he
said. “You must be more careful.”
I caught my
breath. “I don’t believe in ghosts. Why are you here?”
“Because you
need my help,” he said.
“What do I need
your help for?”
“Why, to solve
the murder, of course! I liked Paula. She was efficient. I admired her work
ethic. I do hope you have a strong work ethic, Theodosia.”
“Wait, wait. Go
back to the first thing. Solve the murder? No one’s calling Paula’s death a
murder!”
“But it was,”
George Clancy Everhart said. “I saw it.”
Jane Tesh, a retired media specialist, lives in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, Andy Griffith’s home town, the real Mayberry. She is the author of the Madeline Maclin Mysteries, featuring former beauty queen, Madeline “Mac” Maclin and her reformed con man husband, Jerry Fairweather, and the Grace Street Mystery Series, featuring struggling PI David Randall, his psychic friend, Camden, and an array of tenants who move in and out of Cam’s boarding house at 302 Grace Street. Ghost Light is her first standalone mystery and the first to feature an asexual heroine.
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Sounds good.
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ReplyDeleteThanks, Stormy!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great story!
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