Eric for a few minutes and then said I was curious about the scene they were shooting. He had to stay at his post because the crew was wetting down the street.” Adele’s tone changed as she explained they did that to add more contrast to the shot. I waved my hand impatiently at her to get back to the story.
“I just thought you two would like a little inside info,” she said disgruntled at our disinterest. “I waited until they broke for a few minutes and then I went up to North. Of course, by now he knows me,” she said with an air of self-importance we had all come to know and be annoyed by. “I put what you said to ask him into my own words. Something along the lines of how old was Kelly when you started the affair with her?” Adele seemed proud of her word choice and explained she didn’t give him the option of denying it and it implied that maybe she was underage. “I thought that would shake him up.” She just looked at us for a moment.
The silence hung in the air and I couldn’t take it anymore. “Well, did it? What did he say? Just get on with the story without all the theatrical pauses,” I said, wishing I’d never gotten her involved.
“Pink, this is where you miss the boat. It’s not the story so much as how you tell it. I could just dump the facts on you and it would be pretty blah. But by throwing in a little suspense, it’s much better.” She actually nodded at us as if she was expecting us to agree. Dinah and I both jumped on her and said we didn’t care about the story quality, we just wanted the facts, and now.
“You two are no fun.” Adele took a mirror out of her pocket and checked her makeup. “Would you believe that he just looked at me and said he didn’t know what I was talking about. He claimed he didn’t know who Kelly was. I pointed toward her house and said she was the woman who’d been shot. You better believe I left a long silence after I said that. And I gave him my best knowing look.” Adele gave us a re-creation of the moment and like everything else, it was over the top and looked comical instead of intimidating. She started to do the pause again, but Dinah’s and my expression kept her going forward. North had continued to deny knowing what Adele was talking about.
“I told you I was more about action,” she said. “Your idea of talking to him was getting nowhere. I remembered that the gun that killed Kelly still hadn’t been found. I started thinking where I’d hide a gun if I was him and had just shot Kelly.” Adele started to do another of her dramatic pauses, but our glares got her to stop playing storyteller and get to the point.
“If it was me and I had one of those nice RV dressing rooms all to myself, that’s where I’d put it. Everybody was busy on set and I remembered that Eric had been complaining that the locks on the trailers could be opened with a plastic card.” Adele pulled out a plastic card from her pocket. It was the kind they used for hotel keys these days. She held it like a saw and demonstrated how she’d pushed it back and forth and it had freed the lock. She shook her head with disbelief. “It wasn’t even hidden that well, but then as long as they’re filming here, nobody would go in there, but North, so I guess he felt safe.” She looked at the gun on the table. “So, I took care of it for you, Pink. I got the murder weapon. I didn’t touch it, so the prints are all intact. It’s up to you to get it to the cops.”
“Why didn’t you just give it to Eric?” I said. “He was right there and he is a cop.”
Adele hung her head and all her bravado disappeared. She didn’t want to talk, but I repeated the question. “I told you cutchykins said he thought one crime fighter in a couple was enough. He said he didn’t want me sleuthing anymore. Besides which, I kind of broke in to the trailer.” She didn’t have to say more, we got it.
The three of us sat looking at the gun. “Adele, you got