Pillow Stalk (A Mad for Mod Mystery) Read Online Free PDF

box office. I popped the window lock and cranked the small metal wand in a circle to tilt the glass at an angle and allow either fresh air in or stale air out. Either would be an improvement.
    A yellow post-it was stuck to the monitor screen. Madison, Emergency meeting tonight. 7:00. See you then . The note was signed by Richard Goode, the film school graduate who ran the newly renovated classic theater. I dialed the number below his name.
    “Richard, it’s Madison. I can’t make the meeting tonight. What’s the emergency? I’m at the theater now. Is there anything I can do?”
    “Madison, we’ve got a big problem. Cancellation for the fourth of July. That’s two months away, and we got nothing.”
    Richard’s idea of an emergency paled drastically in comparison to what I’d seen that very morning.
    “Now’s not really the best time for me to brainstorm, Richard.”
    “C’mon, Madison. I need something. Anything. You’ve got the best contacts of everybody on the staff.”
    Richard had been pushing Russian space movies, his idea of ironic highbrow on the anniversary of the moon landing, for months. Richard was the only one of us making any money at the theater, his salary paid by the owners, and thus the only one with something to lose if we failed to bring in viewers. I scanned the piles of paper on his desk and felt a shock of pain through my chest when I found Pamela’s flyer. She must have delivered them everywhere. Where yesterday her smiling fake-fifties image had bothered me, today it touched a nerve. I wanted to remember her like the picture on the flyer, not the picture in my memory.
    “What about Doris Day?” I asked.
    “For the anniversary of the moon landing? Those movies are hardly cinematic history, and you’re probably the only person who would show up to see it. I don’t think the owners will go for that. Give me something else.”
    But as soon as I’d said it, I knew it would be the perfect project to take my mind off of the murder at the pool. “I can fill your theater for you, if you give me a chance. We can show The Glass Bottom Boat . Rod Taylor plays an astronaut and there’s a special featurette with Doris at NASA.”
    “That’s not the direction I want to go.”
    “Good luck telling the owners that you’d rather be closed on a major holiday weekend than pack the house with a retrospective of a well-known American actress.”
    “Madison—”
    “Richard, I can make this happen. Quickly. It’s a good idea, and I know you have the authority to give me the green light.” Tires on gravel sounded outside. “I gotta go.”
    I hung up and tiptoed to the open window, looking out at an angle. The Lieutenant’s Jeep sat idling by the side of the building. I leaned backward, not sure I wanted him to know I was there, and regretted opening that window. If he wanted to come investigate, he’d literally be able to reach right in and touch me.
    The Jeep drove away. Outside of Rocky, occupied in the corner with an old shoe from the lost and found, I was alone. I spun through the Rolodex, looking for other volunteers. If I were going to do this, I’d need help convincing Richard. Ruth Coburn, mother of three, would be a great place to start. She answered halfway through the fourth ring and hollered something at someone before saying hello. After identifying myself, I went straight into my sales pitch.
    “Ruth, would you support the idea of a Doris Day film festival over the Fourth of July weekend?”
    “I would support anything that would give me a chance to get out of this house and leave the kids with my husband. Doris Day would be perfect.”
    “Great. I can’t make the meeting tonight, but I’ve already told Richard my idea. I’m going to start working on it, so will you push the idea tonight?”
    “Absolutely. You know, my daughter is the spitting image of Doris in Pajama Game . She’s been acting in her school play.”
    “You have a daughter in high school?”
    “Put