Part 21 (1/2)
”You must understand something else first,” Emili said. ”So you can be certain that I am telling the truth. When The Nutcracker was first cast, the students in the cla.s.ses knew right away who had been originally picked for the leading roles. One of the boys broke into Martinez's office and found the judges' scores from the tryouts. It was soon common knowledge among the students that Fatima Jones would be dancing the role of Clara and my Rudy would be Drosselmeyer and the Prince. He came home and told me, very proud that he had gained such a part.” She paused for breath. ”You can imagine our disappointment when we learned that the parts would be going to that child actor and Julie Perkins instead.” She shrugged. ”Rudy was very disappointed, but I was not surprised. In Russia, it was always this way. What surprised me was that later, the board returned the parts to their rightful owners. When I thanked the board, I was truly grateful for that decision.”
”What does this have to do with Morgan's murder?” Auntie Lil asked.
”I am coming to that,” Emili promised. ”I want you to know that I was the one who told Ruth Beretsky about the tryout scores. And she was the one who called that columnist woman and told her the truth.”
”Ruth Beretsky was Margo McGregor's source for her article starting the whole Fatima Jones protest?”
Emili nodded. ”Ruth did not think that what had happened to Fatima was fair. And, of course, it was not. But if Lane Rogers finds out, Ruth will be off the board. Perhaps this is why she wishes to work with my company now. But I tell you all this so that you understand that I knew and had accepted all along what had happened. I held no grudge against this Bobby Morgan man. In fact, I want to help you find the killer so that we may all return to our normal lives.”
”How can you help me?” Auntie Lil asked.
”Rudy knows more than he told you the other night,” Emili said quickly, as if wanting to get the words out of her mouth before she changed her mind. ”I knew it the moment he met you. Do you remember what he said?”
Auntie Lil shook her head.
”'I know you,'” Emili repeated. ”'All of Mikey's friends do.'” She shook her head as if thinking it over. ”I thought it was a funny thing to say, as if he had been talking about you with his friends. Yet he had never mentioned you to me and he usually tells me every detail of his day. I knew then that he was hiding something from me. It made me unhappy, you must understand.” She smiled sadly. ”He is growing up and becoming his own person, moving away from me, and I must learn to accept that. But this is different. This is murder, and if Rudy knows something about it, then he must tell you.”
”And not the police?” Auntie Lil asked.
Emili's eyes flashed. ”Never the police,” she said in a flat voice. ”I am sure you understand why. I will have Rudy tell you what he knows firsthand. Now. It may not be important. But you must be the one to decide that.” Impulsively, she moved closer to Auntie Lil and grabbed her hands, holding them as if she was an old friends. ”You are an honest woman. I can feel it clearly. You are not always discreet, but you are always yourself. That is a rare thing to find in anyone.”
Auntie Lil nodded, unsure of how to treat the compliment. ”Thank you,” she finally said. ”But I am more interested in hearing what Rudy has to tell me about the murder.”
Emili stood. ”Yes. I will go get him now.”
”But he's in cla.s.s,” Auntie Lil protested.
”That will not stop me,” Emili promised. She strode from the room with a resolve that would have no trouble overruling any instructor the Metro might employ. She returned a few minutes later with a pale-looking Rudy in tow. ”Sit,” she commanded her son. He moved obediently to a chair across from Auntie Lil and perched on the edge of it. He was wearing leotards and breathing heavily. His mother had probably plucked him from cla.s.s in mid-jete. ”Tell her what you told me,” Emili ordered in a voice that would have made a KGB agent proud.
Rudy looked mutely at Auntie Lil and then back at his mother, his eyes pleading.
”Tell her,” Emili said firmly. Now.”
”But Mikey will be mad,” Rudy protested. ”And the other boys will call me a snitch.”
”We do not have time for such nonsense,” Emili said crisply. ”This is not a matter of protecting friends. It is not honorable to protect a person who would kill another like that. You must tell her the truth right now.”
Rudy stared miserably at his feet. They were splayed to the side in an automatic and perfect first position.
”Rudolph Erik Vladimir, you tell this woman what you told me last night,” Emili ordered for the last time in a voice that held every ounce of the discipline and strength that had brought her to where she was today. ”You tell her this very instant or you shall have me to deal with from this day forward. Do you want that?”
Rudy sighed. ”Mikey had a big fight with his dad that afternoon.”
”The afternoon before his father was killed?” Auntie Lil asked.
Rudy nodded. ”They were yelling and screaming at each other on the third floor. They thought that no one could hear them, but the door to the catwalk was open and their voices carried down onstage. I was onstage with the wooden soldiers and mice waiting to rehea.r.s.e my part. Just the guys who were standing on stage left could hear them.”
”What were they saying?” Auntie Lil asked.
”Mikey screamed that he hated his father, that he wished he was dead, that he always took everything away from him, and it wasn't fair.”
”What did Mikey's father say back?”
”He yelled back that Mikey was nothing without him, that he had been the one behind his success and talent had nothing to do with it. Then he yelled that Mikey couldn't even dance very well because he was too lazy. Mikey really got mad then. He said that he never wanted to be in The Nutcracker to begin with and he was only doing it because his dad made him. Then it sounded like he was going to cry.”
”Mikey was going to cry?” Auntie Lil asked.
Rudy nodded guiltily. ”We kind of sneaked off the stage and went up the stairs to listen,” he admitted. ”Me and a couple of other boys.”
”What did you hear when you got closer?”
”Mikey's dad was trying to whisper, but Mikey was too mad to keep his voice down. He kept saying, 'It's not fair. You don't care about her. You'll just get rid of her like all the rest.' Then Mikey's dad started making fun of him, reminding him of how young he was and asking him how could he know what was fair and what wasn't. He told Mikey that when he was a man he'd understand everything.”
”Everything about what?” Auntie Lil asked.
Rudy looked miserable.
”Tell her,” Emili ordered.
”I think Mikey's dad stole his girlfriend.”
Auntie Lil's stomach twinged. She was a long, long way from the age of fourteen, but she knew how emotional teenagers were. They felt everything a hundred times more than adults. If what Rudy was saying proved to be true, then Mikey Morgan probably had really hated his father at that instant-and been capable of murder.
”Who was Mikey's girlfriend?” Auntie Lil asked.
Rudy shrugged. ”He wouldn't tell us. I guess he thought we would tease him,” he explained. ”We're his friends, but Mikey's been around a lot more, you know? He thinks we're babies about some things. We didn't even know he had a girlfriend until we overheard the argument.”
Auntie Lil was quiet, mulling over the information. She thought she knew who the girl had to be. ”I have some very important questions for you, Rudy,” she said. ”And you must tell me the truth.”
Rudy nodded solemnly.
”Why were you and your friends talking about me?” she asked. ”Why did you say Mikey's friends knew who I was?”
”He said you were trying to find the killer but...” His voice trailed off.
”But what?” Auntie Lil prompted.
”I don't think Mikey really wants you to find out who it is,” he whispered. ”He said you were way off base and he sounded glad about it.”
”When did he say that?” Auntie Lil asked.
”Last week,” the young boy replied.
”My next question is this: Did anyone else overhear what Mikey and his father were arguing about? Think carefully.”
Rudy's face scrunched up as he concentrated. ”We were on the steps,” he finally said. ”So I don't really know. They had dropped their voices and I don't think anyone else onstage could hear them anymore. But maybe someone on the third floor might have been able to hear. I didn't see anyone.”
”Was anyone on the catwalk?”
Rudy thought hard. ”I don't think so. Sometimes parents go up there to watch their kids because Mr. Martinez never notices them when they're on the catwalk. When he sees them watching backstage, he yells, so they sneak up there.”