There was nothing left behind on the seat beside Barry. But as soon as I got close, I smelled something-the cloying scent of orange blossoms.

I'd only smelled that fragrance once before… in my bookshop, during an author signing. "It's Vouloir!" I realized. "Hedda Geist-Middleton's signature scent!"

Nice nose, baby.

"Thanks. But Jack… " I shook my head. "It seems so obvious. Did Hedda really come here and poison Barry to shut him up? Or… do you think maybe Harmony could have borrowed her grandmother's perfume?"

Good question, doll, because that's a good setup, too. Borrowing Granny's perfume to frame the old dame. That way, if Harmony is involved, the clue will throw the cops off her scent… literally.

I pulled out my cell phone and tried to call Seymour. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a signal right away, so I had to pace around the theater. Finally I found a spot where I got a decent signal, but when I called I got Seymour 's voice mail.

"Call me as soon as you get this message," I told him. "I need to know if you located Hedda, and I need to know her exact movements over the past hour. It's urgent!"

I closed my phone and it beeped. I had received a message myself, probably while I was out of range.

"It's Brainert." His tone sounded urgent. "I'm here with Sadie at the store and guess what? She found something in that out-of-print book about Gotham Features. Something that's going to blow this thing wide open. Don't bother to call. Get back here as soon as possible. It's a matter of life and death."

I closed the phone and looked around. The auditorium was empty now, except for me and Barry Yello's corpse. But from the lobby, I could hear Eddie shooting orders to the crowd. Far away, I heard sirens.

I raced all the way to the front of the theater and climbed the stairs to the stage. I hurried down the backstage staircase to the basement, and ran to the steel fire door, which led to the alley.

Before I pushed it open, I switched off the alarm system, just like Bud had showed me the previous night.

A minute later, I exited the alley. On Cranberry Street, lights flashed and sirens wailed. I took off in the opposite direction, toward Buy the Book, my wet shoes squishing with every step.

I started to gripe about how gross the squishing felt when Jack cut me off.

If I were you, doll, I'd count my lucky stars.

"Why's that?"

'Cause I worked plenty of crime scenes in my day, and when it comes to walking around fresh corpses, there's a lot worse things to step in than soda pop.

CHAPTER 21. Dying for Dinner

"I'M BACK," I called, pushing through Buy the Book's front door.

The shop was still busy. Aunt Sadie was back behind the counter, ringing up sales. Brainert had been waiting for me in one of our overstuffed chairs. He leaped to his feet the second he spotted me.

"Where have you been?" he demanded.

"I went looking for Barry Yello at the Comfy Time Motel. You won't believe what I found."

Aunt Sadie turned the cash register over to Mina. Then she tucked the Gotham Features hardback under her arm, along with a few other books, and led Brainert and me back to the shop's storeroom, where we could speak in private.

As soon as the door closed, I told them what I learned about Barry Yello, ending with the grisly scene at the Movie Town Theater, and the scent of Hedda's rare orange blossom perfume Vouloir.

My aunt couldn't believe that the FylmGeek.com guru had been murdered. "We heard the sirens," she said, "but we didn't know what was going on. He was poisoned, you say?"

"I think the killer laced Barry's soda, which ended up spilling all over me."

Sadie glanced at my saturated slacks. "Bag them when you change your clothes. The forensics people will want them."

"So you saw everything?" Brainert asked.

"Well, I didn't see the poisoning, if that's what you mean. But I found Yello's body. Unfortunately, I disobeyed Eddie Franzetti's command to stay put. I took off before the police could grill me. Any minute, I expect Chief Ciders to come stomping into our store looking for my statement, so talk fast."

Sadie opened her book on the history of Gotham Features Studio. Just like Fiona, she'd attached Post-its to several pages. She flipped the pages to one of them.

"In the last chapter, we found this passage about Irving Vreen," Sadie said. She took the glasses that dangled around her neck-today's chain was faux-pearl-and balanced them on the tip of her nose.

" 'Within three years after Vreen's death, his wife passed away,' " she read aloud. "The studio, already close to bankruptcy, went into receivership and its assets were sold off. With the family fortune gone, Vreen's daughter, Margaret, twelve at the time, was adopted by a family friend, Sydney Kline, a production chief at Paramount Studios."

"Irving Vreen's daughter was named Margaret… as in Maggie?" I said. "And she was adopted by a man named

Kline?"

"That's right," Brainert replied. "And look here…"

He snatched a paperback from Sadie's pile. It was one of Maggie Kline's mystery novels.

"I thought we'd sold out of those," I said.

"This is my personal copy," Aunt Sadie replied.

Brainert opened the book to the About the Author page. "Look here," he said, tapping it. "Maggie's biography says she's the adopted daughter of Sydney Kline, an executive at Paramount Studios." His eyes met mine. "Maggie Kline must be Margaret Vreen."

"Oh my god," I said. "Any chance it's just a wild coincidence? Is she even the right age?"

Brainert nodded. "I've already done the math-Maggie comes off as a youthful spirit, but she just turned sixty-nine. Wendell confirmed it for me. Her age is exactly right. She would have been twelve in 1951, when her mother died and she had to be adopted out to a family friend."

"If Maggie Kline is Vreen's daughter, then she has every reason to want to pick up where Dr. Lilly left off," I said. "Once she reads Dr. Lilly's book, she may even want to see Hedda prosecuted for her father's murder."

Sadie nodded. "If Hedda knows who Maggie really is, then she must know the woman is a terrible threat, and Maggie's life may very well be in danger."

Brainert nodded grimly. "We have to warn Maggie before the festival dinner tonight." He glanced at his watch. "Speaking of which, I have to go home and change. I'm expected to co-host this event so I have to arrive early."

I remembered my own damp slacks and soggy shoes. "I'll meet you at Chez Finch. Hopefully Seymour 's there already, and he can keep things under control until we arrive."

Brainert left and Aunt Sadie went to the front of the store to close up for the day. My cell phone rang and I answered.

"You called?" Seymour said.

"Where are you!" I cried.

"In the lobby of the Finch Inn, waiting for Hedda to come down to the big dinner. She went upstairs thirty-five minutes ago and hasn't budged since."

"Where was Hedda before that?"

"Our diva told Fiona she was going on a long walk, but Fiona didn't know where. I followed the trails around the pond but saw no sign of her. Finally I gave up and came back to the inn. That's when Hedda returned."

I pondered the time line and realized Hedda's "walk" provided more than enough time for her to poison Barry Yello and stroll back to the inn, with no one the wiser.

"Where's Harmony?" I asked.

"Missing in action, so far. No eye candy for me today."

"Well, don't take your eyes off Hedda until I get there!" I commanded. "I'm convinced she's a murderer, and I don't think she's done killing yet."