Who Killed Jenny Schecter? Ch. 10

"It's not a toomah," Lauren said.

"What? A toomah? What's a toomah?"

"It's not a toomah," Carmen said.

"Tumor," Lauren said. "Never mind. It's a punchline from an old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Yes, we can knock off for the day. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"And ... scene!" Carmen said.

When they were gone, Lauren locked the door to the conference and went off to brief Marybeth and make some phone calls.

* * *

When they returned to the conference room the next morning, Lauren began with, "Okay, I've got some news. We were all wrong about how the canisters got stolen. Last night I talked to Aaron Kornbluth at the studio and this morning at six a.m. I called Tina in New York, since they are three hours ahead of us. Basically they both tell me the same story. The name of the film lab doing the developing was Deluxe Motion Picture Labs--" and looked at Carmen.

She nodded, "Yeah, I know them. Lots of studios use them. Big outfit."

"That's what Aaron said. Anyway, Deluxe was backed up all that week and weekend. They called somebody or other at the studio and told them the negs came out okay, but that they couldn't ship them out until late Monday afternoon. Somebody said that was fine. And then here's where it gets interesting sometime in mid-afternoon, Deluxe got faxed a letter on the studio letterhead telling them a messenger service would come by at 8 p.m. to pick up the negs. It was somebody called Eastside Messengers." Again she looked at Carmen.

"Sure," Carmen said. "They aren't all that big, but I've heard of them."

"Right. And here's the thing. Aaron says that fax was signed by Tina."

"No fucking way," Shane muttered. She had been half asleep and slouched on the table nursing a coffee, but was fully alert now.

"I know," Lauren said, "and Aaron says when he first told Tina about it Tuesday mid-morning, she denied it vehemently. And he says the more he thought about it the more he agreed Tina hadn't done it, but that somebody had forged her name. And Tina tells me basically the same version, Aaron confronted her, waving around a copy of the letter fax, he was furious, she was furious, she denied it, he told her to find out who, blah blah, everybody yelling. So anyway, about 8 p.m. Monday night a messenger goes to Deluxe Labs, picks up the canisters, and delivers them to ..." Lauren paused dramatically, looking from one to the other.

Shane shrugged.

"Jennifer Schecter," Carmen said.

"Almost. Delivered to Wilson/Cramer Productions--"

"Who?" Carmen asked.

"They're a small porno production outfit out in the valley. But wait for it ... Wilson/Cramer Productions, attention ...?"

"Jennifer Schecter."

"Bingo."

"Fuck," Shane said.

"But Jenny didn't get them, any more than Tina signed the letter authorizing the pickup."

"Because whoever did it, and we now know it's Niki, figured the canister delivery would be traced, and when they saw Jenny's name as being the person who was supposed to receive them, they'd get a warrant and go search Shane and Jenny's house--"

"—and find the canisters in the attic," Carmen finished.

"Give the little lady a kewpie doll."

"Wouldn't they also blame Tina as being part of the scam?" Shane asked.

"No," Carmen said, "because they conclude that Jenny was the one who had forged Tina's name and sent the fax to Deluxe. Somebody might do a handwriting analysis on the original of the letter and determine it wasn't Tina's signature."

"Would they discover it was Niki's handwriting?" Shane asked.

"It was an unreadable scribble. For one thing I'd guess it was Niki who faxed it, but that doesn't mean she signed it. She has all these minions, all her posse hanging around with here. She could have gotten anybody to sign it, just as she could have sent somebody out to the valley to pick up the canisters from that editing outfit. Anyway, most signatures are just unreadable scrawls, and this one was."

"I had no idea Niki was that clever," Carmen said.

"No, me either," Lauren said. "We're going to have to re-think her."

"I have a question about the lab. Why did they have all the negatives? What I mean is, shouldn't they have had only the last few days of shooting? Maybe only the last day? Usually over the course of a shoot you get your negs back in increments."

"Aaron actually told me about that. Seems that goes back to Jenny. When she was still director -- and I'm guessing she was something of a control freak, from everything I've learned about her -- she insisted on having oversight of the editing as well, she wanted to be in the room. Because of that, there was no need to get the negs back in increments, so they kept them all until the shooting was done, on the last day, because no editing had started yet. And then when Jenny got replaced by Adele, nobody changed that procedure. Aaron thinks Adele would have wanted the same plan anyway. So no, they didn't need the negs back until filming wrapped."

"What about Wilson/Cramer Productions?" Carmen asked.

"Care to guess?"

"Uh, let's see. No longer in business. Gone. Folded up shop. It was some porn outfit, now probably working out of a different location under a different name. But nobody to ask who picked up the canisters or when. Not that the time matters, that night or the next day. And whether it was Niki or a minion."

"Jeez, you're a psychic. Who could have guessed?"

"It's actually pretty simple," Carmen mussed, thinking out loud. "If the murder had nothing to do with the negatives, none of these tiny details matter. But if the murder is all about the negatives, ever single tiny detail is crucial."

"Right," Lauren said.

"I can't believe nobody knew all this back then," Shane said.

"Ah, there we come full circle. The canisters weren't discovered until the evening of Jenny's murder. That entire trail of evidence, falsely pointing to Jenny, would have eventually been discovered, if ...?" She looked at Shane and Carmen.

"If Alice hadn't confessed," Carmen said.

"If Alice hadn't confessed, which rendered everything having to do with the film negatives moot and irrelevant. Alice had no connection to the negs, no access, probably even not a shred of knowledge about their existence or where they were, or anything. She had her own motive to kill Jenny and it had nothing to do with the negatives, it had to do with Jenny stealing Alice's screenplay treatment, and then covering for Shane--"

"—who also didn't do it," Carmen agreed.

"--and when we talk to Niki, we're going to go all over this with a fine-tooth comb, even if there's no prosecution for the theft part."

"What's that mean?" Shane asked.

"I told you the studio had no interest in pressing charges and they wanted to bury the whole sorry mess," Lauren said. "However, if we determine it was Niki who killed Jenny, then it all comes back into play. So because of that possibility, we've got to keep and preserve as much of this evidence as we can. Last night I talked to Marybeth, and she gave me permission to tell Aaron we're formally looking at Jenny's murder again and that he's not allowed to destroy anything related to the movie in any way, shape or form."

"Did you tell him anything about Niki becoming a suspect?" Carmen asked.

"No, not specifically, but I did say we're looking at the theft of the movie as just one possibility. And I gave him a little misdirection. I hinted we're looking at both you and Tina, more than Niki. Mostly you."

"Why'd you tell him that?" Shane asked, anger in her voice.

"Because I knew he'd like it," Lauren said. "He doesn't want Niki or Tina connected to the murder if he can help it, because they're his people, and intimately connected to the movie. But you, you're just a freelance hairdresser, not a studio employee, as well as Jenny's lover. A 'domestic,' a lesbian lover's quarrel, nothing to do with studio politics. He can live with that just fine."

"Shane," Carmen said quietly, "it's the smart move. And remember, we haven't eliminated Aaron as a suspect, either, although he's not high on our list."

"And everybody thinks I did it, anyway," Shane sulked.

"Shane," Lauren said, "we're using that to our advantage. I know it's hard on you, but we have to use the tools we've got. That's one of them."

"Okay," Shane muttered. "I get it." She let a beat go by. "I'm a tool." But she was smiling, and Lauren and Carmen laughed.

"Now you've got it," Lauren said.