“Why not?” she said sharply.
“If that’s so, then you, my dear, are pitiful. You’re not the Pandemonia James Wallis I know.”
“Maybe that Pandemonia James Wallis doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe she’s been too beaten down to continue. Just like her sister, Hellenor.”
Henry drew himself up to his full height. Pandy’s heart sank. She and Henry hadn’t had a fight like this for years. Perhaps ever.
Henry held up his hand. “I can see you’ve made up your mind. In that case, I suppose congratulations are in order. Your publisher has agreed to publish Lady Wallis, but only because you are dead.”
“You were the one who told me to stay dead for a couple of hours.”
“I told you to do nothing. Now, because of this spectacle, your publishers will cry fraud. So if you don’t clear this up immediately, as far as I’m concerned, you are dead.”
“Fine,” Pandy said coldly, crossing her arms. “They weren’t going to publish the book anyway. Which gives me more of a reason to get even with Jonny.”
“And how do I fit into this scheme?”
“Just go along with it for a couple of hours. Remember—you owe me.”
“Very well,” Henry said. He turned his back and opened the door. He shot one more warning glance over his shoulder. “Don’t say I didn’t caution you. And when things don’t work out as you’ve planned, don’t come running to me!”
He went out, slamming the door behind him.
“Henry!” Pandy said. She opened the door and looked up and down the hallway, but he was gone.
Judy, on the other hand, was right there. “Hellenor?” she said. “We’re going to need you onstage in ten minutes.”
Pandy shrank back into the dressing room. She leaned over the makeup counter and stared at herself in the mirror. Who was she? Henry was right, she thought despondently. By killing Monica, she was once again making her life all about Jonny.
She glanced at Monica’s shoes.
Henry was wrong, she decided. And grabbing Monica’s shoes, she took off her own shoes and put them on.
She stood up. The curved heel was tricky, but the booties themselves were light, embracing the foot like a glove. Pandy turned to stare at herself in the mirror. Thanks to the six-inch heels, she was now towering.
Leaving the dressing room, she crossed the corridor and strode confidently into the Hall of Fame. She swung open the door, and was again surrounded by her friends.
“There’s Hellenor,” Nancy called out, pointing and sloshing champagne over her hand.
“Hellenor! Hellenor Wallis.” Suzette’s enormous yellow diamond was suddenly glittering in her face.
“We were Pandy’s best friends.”
“And we need to be best friends with you, Hellenor.”
“We need to talk to you.”
“You need to listen.”
“It’s about Jonny.”
“He called every single one of us this morning. Wanting to know if we’d seen you.”
“He kept saying he was going to find you, and that when he did…”
“He was going to make sure you spent time in jail.”
“He said you’d committed fraud.”