Festival of Deaths Read Online Free PDF

a couple of glasses of wine into her, she told stories about what it was like to work with the woman who smoked a cigar with her private parts and the man who had had his balls tattooed. That second one really got to the men, turning them green, making their eyes bulge. It was wonderful.
    What was not wonderful was this set left over from the Siamese twins, and Shelley knew it. She dropped her tote back at the door of the studio and walked to the center of the stage, looking at the love seat, looking at the wide-armed club chair Lotte was supposed to sit in for the interview. For one thing, there weren’t enough places to sit. DeAnna had said something on the phone about four couples. For another, the ambiance was wrong. Ambiance was the important thing. People on the outside had no idea. The set of The Lotte Goldman Show might look simple to produce, but it wasn’t, because tone was everything. Get the tone wrong, and you were likely to have the FCC down on your neck, screaming about obscenity.
    Shelley walked around the love seat and the club chair. She walked to the middle of the platform and looked straight up into the lights. She frowned. Then she went back to the studio door and picked up the interoffice phone.
    “DeAnna?” she said. “Can you come down here a minute? And can you bring Itzaak?”
    “I can’t find Itzaak,” DeAnna said. “I’ve tried.”
    “He’ll come in with Carmencita,” Shelley said dismissively. “He’ll give her five minutes and come in after. Never mind. Come down here and talk this out with me.”
    “But—”
    Shelley hung up. None of them wanted to talk about sets. None of them thought consultation about sets was important. Shelley just had to make them do what they ought to want to do.
    By the time DeAnna came in, Shelley had the love seat pulled off to one side and listing at the edge of the platform. She wasn’t strong enough to drag it any farther. She had the club chair all the way off and onto the studio floor. All that took was a sharp shove with her hip. She needed Itzaak for the lights and Maximillian for the heavy lifting, but she was feeling much better.
    “It’s going to be fine,” Shelley said, as DeAnna came across to the set. “I was a little worried on the way over here, because of the time frame, but it’s going to be fine. Where’s Max?”
    “On his way,” DeAnna said.
    “Good. We need him to paint a new set of backdrops. Pearl gray, I think, or even navy blue with a white trim. Something conservative.” Shelley looked at the bright yellow backdrops now on the set and wrinkled her nose. “These are all we’d need. I can hear the phone calls now. What color dress is Lotte going to wear?”
    DeAnna made a face. “I don’t know. Do you need to know right away?”
    “I need to know before Max paints. We don’t want to paint gray and have in her gray. Or navy blue and have her in navy blue. She’d fade into the background. What about the guests?”
    “I haven’t seen the guests. I don’t even know if we have any guests.”
    “What does Maria say?”
    DeAnna looked away. “Maria doesn’t say anything. I can’t find her.”
    “You’ve tried her beeper?”
    “Of course I’ve tried her beeper. I’ve tried her apartment. I’ve tried everything.”
    “That makes the second time this month,” Shelley said.
    DeAnna shrugged. “The last time we didn’t have an emergency like this one. It doesn’t matter. Lotte isn’t fed up yet. And when Lotte isn’t fed up—”
    “—nobody is fed up,” Shelley said. “I know. But we have to do something about this, DeAnna.”
    “Right now, I only have to do something about this show. Carmencita’s coming in. She ought to know what you need. We’ve never had any trouble with Carmencita.”
    “Right. Well. Tell her I need to know what everybody’s going to be wearing and also if there are any problems I ought to plan for—if one of the guests is too fat or too thin or too tall or too short, you