Who Killed Jenny Schecter? Ch. 19

Lauren looked at both of them. "Look, you both seem like nice people. Don't make me fucking shoot you. Marybeth wouldn't mind, but then I'd have to clean my gun."

Carmen laughed. "Okay, sorry, sorry, let's get back on track."

Lauren agreed. "But now you've forced me to have to ask, Shane, is there any possibility you can think of why anyone would be stalking you? Somebody from your past? Other than Carmen, here, was there anyone who wanted to slit your throat?"

Carmen grinned and turned her head away.

Shane looked at Carmen, frowning.

"Don't look at her, she has an alibi," Lauren said. "She was a thousand miles out to sea."

Shane sighed.

"Seriously," Lauren said, "was there anybody you pissed off? Any enemies? Even going back months or years? Somebody who would have stalked you for some reason? Molly? You say Mollie's mom wasn't happy with you. What was the name of the woman you think burned down Wax? Paige something? Anybody from the movie studio? Not necessarily someone who would do it himself or herself, but someone who could hire somebody to do it?"

Shane closed her eyes and gave it serious thought. Mollie? No. Hell, no. Mollie's mom, Phyllis Kroll? No point; Molly was doing her internship in Washington, and Shane had no contact with either of them. Veronica Bloom? True, she was a full-blown psycho. But hire a stalker? Why now? What for? No. Paige? No, no money, and no motive. Cheri Peroni? Cherie Peroni's husband? Shane hadn't had contact with them for years.

"I guess I've had my share of disturbed people," Shane said, "but no, nobody who would stalk me or hire somebody to watch me."

"What about Dawn Denbo?" Carmen asked quietly.

"Oh, fuck," Shane said. "That's right." She forgot to ask how Carmen knew anything about Dawn Denbo.

Lauren turned to Shane with a questioning look.

"Okay," Shane said after a big sigh. "Here goes. Dawn Denbo was this crazy-ass psycho bitch who opened this lesbian bar called SheBar, which she thought was in competition with The Planet."

"I'm not sure I follow," Lauren said.

"Well, SheBar was a pure nightclub," Shane said, "but The Planet, was, you know, a restaurant during the day and I guess at night, but wasn't exactly a nightclub until later at night on weekends and when it had special events and stuff. And you know, we'd hang out there on Sundays and have brunch, and SheBar wasn't even open until, like, six or seven at night. The Planet had a breakfast crowd, a lunch crowd, you know, all different kinds of people, and it wasn't exclusively lesbian. I mean, I know people from out of town came in and ate lunch or dinner there and never knew it was a lesbian hangout. And, besides, both places were in West Hollywood, you know? So what the fuck do you expect? Half the town is gay, and just because there's a bar or restaurant in West Hollywood doesn't mean much. I mean, it doesn't make it a lesbian bar or lesbian restaurant, you know what I'm saying?"

"Yes, I understand," Lauren said. "So what happened?"

Shane looked away, and Lauren waited her out. "I think I kinda fucked up," Shane finally said.

Lauren and Carmen said nothing.

"Dawn had this girlfriend," Shane said quietly, not making eye contact. 'Everywhere they went, Denbo would introduce her, she'd say, 'this is my lover, Cindi.' That was like her full title, 'my lover, Cindi.' Not just Cindi, or not, you know, my girlfriend, or whatever. 'My lover, Cindi.'

There was another uncomfortable silence.

"So anyway, one day, uh, Dawn and Cindi and me ... ."

"Hooked up," Lauren said.

"Yeah."

"Shane," Carmen said quietly, "would you be more comfortable if I summarized it all for Lauren?"

"I guess everybody told you all about it."

"Of course. I kept in touch with everybody over the years, you already know that. And I'm not trying to be mean or bitchy or catty. I just know this is painful for you, and I can give Lauren the information she needs to know."

"Okay," Shane said.

"Good. So here we go," Carmen said. "First off, Denbo's a psycho, but you'll see that later on. So Denbo, Cindi and Shane have a threesome, so far, no problem, in theory, consenting adults, blah blah. Then a few days later, MyLoverCindi invites Shane over to their house, and says Dawn will be there, too. Turns out that was a lie. Cindi wants to go one-on-one. At first Shane says no, she knows this is going to be a problem, but eventually she and MyLoverCindi do the deed. Somehow Denbo finds out about it, my guess is that Cindi actually told her, just to cause trouble, which is exactly what happened. But instead of Denbo going off on MyLoverCindi, who initiated the thing and actually had to talk Shane into it when Shane knew better, she goes off on Shane instead like it's all Shane's fault for seducing MyLoverCindi. She does it at the cast party at Shane and Jenny's house, walks in uninvited, gets in Shane's face, tells the whole crowd and half of West Hollywood that Shane fucked MyLoverCindi that afternoon, gets in Jenny's face, gets in Kit's face, and tells everyone World War III is about to begin, and she's going to totally ruin The Planet. She hires somebody to set loose some rats inside The Planet and calls the health department, which does an instant inspection and finds the rats. So now Kit is totally at war with Denbo, and she actually goes out and buys a gun, and is on the way to kill Denbo when Bette stops her, and Kit throws the gun away."

"Jesus, I didn't know that," Shane said. "Kit had a gun?"

"I don't think anybody knows about it but me."

"How do you know about it?" Lauren asked.

"Kit called me and told me. She and I once had a pretty casual discussion about guns. She overheard me saying that I fired a gun a few times, and I had been to a pistol range. So after The Planet got burgled, she wanted to buy a gun, and she called me up to ask what she should buy. The joke here is, even though I shot a gun a few times I'm no expert. But I was the only person Kit knew who had even the tiniest knowledge about guns, so she called me. It was the partially blind leading the blind."

"What did you tell her?"

"That I hardly knew anything, but what little I did know was that if she was serious about owning a gun, she needed to take some lessons. I said it was stupid having a gun but being ignorant about how to use it. So she took some lessons and went out and bought a gun. Big, fucking, .357 magnum. She took shooting lesson at a gun range with it."

"So what happened?"

"When Kit found out Ivan sold 51 percent of The Planet to Dawn and Cindi, she ... well... she got a little crazy. Uh, I have a question here. If I tell you any more, could Kit get in legal trouble?"

"Did she break any laws? She fire the gun?"

"No."

"Then she's probably okay. But tell you what, whatever you want to tell me, I won't get Kit in trouble even if she did something really minor. How's that? Deal?"

"Deal," Carmen said. "So anyway, Kit's really pissed and upset, and she goes to SheBar—"

"No!" Shane said.

"—she goes to SheBar before it opens for the evening, and she's standing there with the gun in her coat pocket, and she's watching through the window. Dawn and some waitresses are doing stuff, setting up, and MyLoverCindi comes over to a table to set up and she looks out the window and sees Kit, and Kit sees her, and they look at each other, and Kit's thinking about pulling out the gun and shooting Cindi ... and her cellphone rings."

"What? No shit?"

"It's Bette, and she's stuck in a meeting, and she asks Kit if she can run and pick up Angelica at her pre-school day care center. And that was it. Kit comes to her senses, realizes where she is and what she's thinking, and turns around and walks away."

"She never drew the gun?" Lauren asked. "Cindi never knew she came within a hair's breath of getting shot?"

"No. But here's maybe the weirdest thing of all. Kit says they made eye contact, you know? They just looked at each other. And Kit thinks Cindi suddenly got conscience, and felt bad about what she and Dawn had done to her. Because then a few days or weeks later, Cindi does a turn-around. She gets mad at being Dawn's MyLoverCindi punching bag, and sells her share of The Planet to Helena. So bang, just like that the crisis is over, and Kit is back in charge of The Planet and Helena's a hero once again."

"What happened to Dawn and MyLoverCindi?"

"I don't know," Carmen said. "Somebody said they split up. I have no idea whatever happened to them. Shane, do you know?"

"No, this is all new information to me," Shane said. "I mean, I know about Helena buying Cindi's share, and Kit getting The Planet back and all that. But I don't know whatever happened to Dawn and Cindi themselves."

Lauren didn't say anything, but she made a mental note. She had learned Carmen kept in touch with her friends and knew what was happening in their lives. But Carmen really really knew what was going on in their lives, to the point she knew who Shane was having threesomes with. Carmen knew things about the Friends that even some of the Friends didn't know. She realized some of the Friends would tell things to Carmen they wouldn't say to each other, and the reason was Carmen lived almost 400 miles away. She was their confessor, the one they admitted their innermost thoughts, secrets, desires, fears and sins to. It made Carmen and her insights more valuable than ever. Ironically, it was Shane who had the reputation of being one who could keep a secret, of being discreet. Carmen was the one with the quick tongue who would occasionally blurt out something she shouldn't. But by and large, she could go toe-to-toe with Shane in the secret-keeping class. And she would know much better than Shane what to do with information, when to parcel it out, and when to say nothing, unless she was pissed. Good to know.

"Does this mean we add Dawn to our list of suspects?" Carmen asked. "She was mainly pissed at Kit and Shane, not Jenny. She didn't know who Jenny was the night she crashed the party."

"That's true," Lauren said, "but it's possible she went to the farewell party to see someone else, and Jenny was the first person she ran into, on the stairwell or out on the deck. Jenny says, 'What are you doing here? Go away, bitch,' and Denbo pushes her off the deck. It's not premeditated, and Jenny isn't even Denbo's intended target, if she had one. But Jenny was the one who got in her way."

"I can see that happening," Carmen said.

Lauren sighed. "Okay, we put another one on our list."

"What about MyLoverCindi?" Carmen asked. "Think she was there, too?"

They all thought about it.

"No, no way," Shane said. "If she was, she'd have reacted to Dawn killing Jenny. Anyway, there's one major thing wrong with this scenario."

"What's that?" Lauren asked.

"Yelling. Screaming. There's just no way Dawn Denbo runs into Jenny on the deck or the stairs, and all of West Hollywood doesn't hear about it, instantly."

"That's a good point," Lauren said. "It does seem apparent to me that whoever killed Jenny, Jenny was being complicit in keeping things quiet until it was too late."

"So where are we with Denbo?"

Lauren thought. "I think Shane's right about the yelling, and we're all right about a misdirected motive. But I'll keep her on the list at least until I can make a phone call or two, and find out where she was."

"Due diligence," Carmen said.

'Exactly. But I'm just not getting any vibe on Dawn Denbo. Now, let's talk about everybody else. First, Bette. What was going on in her life in the months before the murder. Outside of stuff inside the group, I mean."

Carmen and Shane looked each other to see who would answer. It fell to Carmen. "Well, they were negotiating with somebody about an adoption, but it fell through. I don't see anything there. In an adoption you want to do a background check, and all, but you don't hire somebody to watch a house for a few months. Beyond that, Tina was negotiating with people about her getting that job in New York. But once again, nothing there that justifies a stalker. Bette had been having, uh, relationship problems with Jodi and then the thing about Kelly Wentworth, but those were resolved before the stalking thing started, and in any case there was nothing to stalk about. So I say no, nothing with Bette or Tina."

"That leaves Jenny, and we're right back where we started anyway. Niki and Jenny being blackmailed. Jenny being watched. And again, back where we started, being blackmailed, being watched, and being murdered. No fucking way those are three separate things. Being blackmailed and being killed was too much. Now we just add the stalker."

"We're spinning our wheels," Shane said.

"No, I don't think so," Lauren said. "We're doing productive work. We're just clearing away all the irrelevant stuff. We're clearing other suspects, you among them."

Shane shrugged. "Okay, I see that."

Carmen was staring at the back lot lines and fences, and The Creep House. "Lauren," she said.

"Yes, Detective Grasshopper? I can see the wheels turning in your brain."

"Niki was found hiding back there."

"Yes. And?"

"Where exactly was she hiding? And how did she get there?"

Lauren thought about it for a minute. "Shit," she finally said. "Shit, shit, shit."

"What?" Shane asked. "I thought we suspected Niki came here with Adele."

"We did, but that's not what Detective Grasshopper means. She means, how did Niki get into Bette and Tina's backyard. So she alone or she with Adele parked a block or two away. That's not the problem. The problem is, how did Niki get into the backyard from the far street. I don't see any way Niki or Niki and Adele came from your side, from your street. I don't think with you guys all coming and going from both houses back and forth that Niki just walked up your driveway or Bette and Tina's driveway, walked to the back, and hid out there. So how did Niki get back there, unseen by you guys?"

"And it goes one step further," Carmen said.

"Yep," Lauren said.

"I'm dense. Explain it to me," Shane said.

"You're not dense, but this isn't your kind of problem-solving," Carmen said. "The problem isn't how did Niki get into the backyard that night. The problem is how did Niki do it twice."

"Huh?"

"The night of the murder wasn't the first time Niki was back there," Carmen said. "She was here at least once before. Remember, she snuck into your house and put the negative canisters up in the attic. So when she did that, did she drive here and walk up to the house from the front and go in the front door, or walk down the driveway and go in the back door? I'm betting she didn't. It would be beyond foolish for her to come and go out front, even if she knew you and Jenny weren't home. I'm betting Niki came into your back yard from someplace in the back, from the far street, from the vicinity of that house where the stalker was."

"The Creep House," Lauren said. "That's what I'm calling it."

"Okay, cool. The Creep House. Niki walked down beside The Creep House, found a way into the backyard, went into your house through the back door to the kitchen, went to Jenny's bedroom, and stashed the negatives in the attic. She came back the night of the party, used the same route, got into your backyard, Shane, and then into Bette and Tina's backyard, somehow, and without being seen. Maybe Adele was with her, maybe not. But that's twice Niki came here without being seen, through the backyard, somehow."

"You fucking guys are making my head hurt," Shane said. "What's all that got to do with the man in The Creep House watching us?"

"Exactly," Lauren said. "And there's something else, even worse."

"Oh, Jesus," Shane murmured. "What."

"If Jenny wasn't murdered by any of you guys at the farewell party, then she was murdered by somebody else. Right?"

"Right."

"So how did the killer get into the backyard, and how did the killer escape undetected."

"Isn't the killer Niki?" Shane asked.

"No, not necessarily. Remember, we still have a middle-aged male stalker in The Creep House, and we still have an unsub blackmailing both Jenny and Niki. I think we can eliminate the possibility of Niki blackmailing herself. So it seems clear to me we still have an unsub, a third party who is neither Niki nor Adele. We just asked a minute ago, how did Niki get into the backyard without being seen? Remember? But maybe Niki was seen, just not by you guys. Maybe she was seen by the Creep, who was back there watching your house. He watched Niki get into your backyard not once, but twice."

"You're saying he watched Niki take the film canisters into Shane's house?" Carmen asked.

"No, because maybe she carried them in a bag or something. But then she comes back out empty-handed. He says to himself, okay, what did she just take in? And what did she do with whatever it was?"

"So he goes into the house himself?"

"Maybe. Or he looks in the bedroom window, and sees Niki in the closet climbing the stairs to the attic. You guys know the house better than I do. Is that feasible? Can you look in that window and see into the closet?"

Carmen thought about it. "I don't think you can see into the closet, but you can see someone going into it and then coming out of it, right, Shane?"

Shane nodded. "Sounds right. That was your bedroom, too, when you lived there."

"So then what does the Creep do?" Carmen asked.

"He waits until Niki leaves, then he goes in, goes into the closet. He looks around."

"And then he looks up," Carmen said.

"He looks up, he pulls down the stairs, and he goes up and looks around. And he finds a bunch of film canisters labeled Lez Girls. Remember, he's been watching Jenny for months, and he's been blackmailing Jenny and Niki. So he already knows quite a lot about them, and about the movie. He knows who Niki is, and when he sees her taking what turns out to be the film canisters into the house, he understands the situation. He understands Niki is setting up Jenny."

"And we also have somebody who murdered Max," Carmen said.

"Right. And we're back to the worst part of all," Lauren said.

"Which is?" Carmen asked.

"The question I just posed. How did the killer get into the back yards, and how did he or she escape? Because you know what? The night of the murder? Nobody checked. Marybeth thought all the suspects were in the media room. She would have looked at how the killer got away pretty soon, except ... Carmen?"

"Except Alice confessed, and fucked up a proper investigation, yet again. Alice didn't go anywhere, so there was no get-away path escape route to investigate. "

"Give that girl a gold star," Lauren said.