All excerpts © Laura Resnick
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(Excerpts)
I’m not a heroine, I just play heroines. Also psychotics, vamps, orphans, hookers, housewives, and—on one memorable occasion—a singing rutabaga. It was never my ambition to utilize my extensive dramatic training by playing a musical vegetable. However, as my agent is so fond of pointing out, there are more actors in New York than there are people in most other cities. Translation: Beggars can’t be choosers.
This same sentiment explains how I wound up painting my body green and prancing around stage half-naked the night Golly Gee disappeared.
For those of you fortunate enough to be unfamiliar with the world of rock idols, Golly Gee was the wet-lipped, surgically improved, B-list pop star who had been chosen to play Virtue, the female lead in Sorcerer!
I, who had studied my craft at Northwestern University and the Actors Studio, was cast as her understudy. Such is the life of an actor.
*****
Detective Lopez looked like he’d had a rough night on the tiles. I had a feeling I looked worse. In any event, there was no doubt that I looked ridiculous. Virtue’s flowing yellow and gold robes, elaborate headdress and sparkling makeup looked distinctly out of place in the squad room. If we had been anyplace other than New York City, I would be attracting attention. As it was, Lopez stared at me as if he dearly hoped I was a figment of his imagination.
"Someone left this clipping at the theater last night," I said, handing him the envelope. "I think it must have been the same person."
"The mysterious stranger wearing a duster who thinks that Evil is among us?"
Surprised that he remembered our previous conversation so well, I blinked. Glitter fell from my lashes to my cheeks. I brushed it away. "Yes."
"I don’t think your hair goes with that outfit," he said, studying me with bloodshot eyes.
"Just read it," I snapped.
"No, I mean, I like your hair," he said. "I just don’t think... Um, never mind. Sorry. Late-night bust. I’m a little..." Lopez shook himself, then opened the envelope, took out the enclosed clipping and read aloud, "‘Woman Vanishes into Thin Air.’" He gave me an enigmatic glance and continued. "‘The Great Hidalgo’s Marvelous Carnival of Magic and Illusion brought Catherine Harrington Lowell’s eighth birthday party to a crashing halt in her parents’ Upper East Side home two days ago. Having caused his beautiful assistant to disappear, the Great Hidalgo was unsuccessful in any of his attempts to make the woman materialize again.’" He stared at me. "Oh, Christ. You can’t be serious."
"Come on, Detective. Don’t you find this too improbable for coincidence? Two women disappear during vanishing acts, and now I’m being warned not to do the vanishing trick? Don’t you think something strange is going on?"
He was rubbing his forehead again. "I think it’s a hell of a tabloid story."
"They don’t mention Golly Gee. No one knows about that yet."
He closed his eyes. "Are you actually suggesting—?"
"Don’t you think we should talk to this Hidalgo guy?"
His eyes snapped open. "We?"
"Yes. After all, I’m the one at risk here, and y—"
"So don’t do the trick, Esther."
"It’s my job!"
He shook his head. "This is crazy! This is really..." He paused, took a long breath and seemed to count silently to ten or perhaps recite The Serenity Prayer. Then he said more calmly, "Look, if you’re really worried about vanishing into thin air, shouldn’t you be talking to Joe Herlihy? He’s the one who made Golly Gee disappear, after all."
"That’s exactly what he thinks."
"Is it really?"
"He’s irrational on the subject. I don’t dare tell him about this."
"But you felt obliged to tell me," he said wearily.
"You’re the investigating officer."
"Miss Diamond—"
"You called me Esther a minute ago," I said inanely.
"And I’m already regretting the impulse," he replied. "Look, aside from the fact that I am an extremely busy, overworked, underpaid—"
"But this is what you’re underpaid to do!"
"There still isn’t anything for an investigating officer to investigate."
"But—"
"Show me a corpse!" He made a sharp gesture of exasperation. "Show me evidence of blackmail, extortion, kidnapping. Show me a woman who was acting strangely—"
"Golly always acted strangely."
"I mean, a woman who had changed her habits lately," he said, "who seemed to be afraid of something. Give me one witness who saw a stranger backstage. Show me signs of a struggle. I’m a dedicated cop, Esther. Make me believe a crime has been committed and I’ll be johnny-on-the-spot."
I indicated the newspaper clipping. "But what about—?"
"No. Don’t." He shook his head and put his hand over mine. "Don’t show me cryptic notes from a prankster or tell me that women are vanishing into thin air as part of some mysterious scheme perpetrated by the forces of Evil."
I looked down at his hand covering mine. He did, too, for a moment; then he took a quick breath and drew away.
I gave myself a mental shake and said, "But how do you explain—?"
"How do you explain it? Tell me what you believe."
It was a little hard to admit fears to him that I wasn’t even really admitting to myself. "Um..."
"Esther, come on. The night I questioned you at the theater, you seemed like the most sensible person there."
"You remember me?"
His expression changed again. "I remember who had the tightest costume."
"That’s not nice."
He grinned. "On the contrary, I thought it was very nice."
"You’re not supposed to talk to me this way," I said. "You’re the investigating officer."
"Good point." He banished his smile, and I was sorry. "Please just tell me you don’t really believe you’ll blink out of existence if you do the vanishing trick."
"No. Of course not," I said. "Don’t be silly. No."
He folded his arms. "Well, then?"
I felt kind of deflated. In the cold fluorescent light of the squad room, full of telephones, cops, coffee cups and criminals, I also felt pretty foolish. "So, I, uh, I guess I shouldn’t bother you if I receive any more of these—"
"Oh, no. Please stop by." He grinned at me again. "These encounters are becoming the highlight of my dreary days."
Note: This is the original version of the promo piece
I wrote for the Luna Books website.
If actress Esther Diamond, the heroine of Disappearing Nightly, kept a diary, it might read something like this...
*****
Friday
So there we are, performing the new off-Broadway musical Sorcerer! earlier tonight. I am, as usual, dressed like an over-sexed wood-nymph who never feels the cold. Then, just as we're approaching the big climax of Sorcerer! in Act Two... Golly Gee, the B-list pop-star playing the show's heroine (and whose underpaid understudy I happen to be) disappears.
I don't mean she wanders off. I mean, one moment she's there, and the next minute, she's just gone. Magician Joe Herlihy, who plays the Sorcerer, is hysterical. He thinks he really made her disappear somehow, and there's no reasoning with him.
I have no idea what happened to Golly. It's pretty strange. But the good news is, now that Golly is AWOL... I'm the show's new lead actress!
Tuesday
I haven't had a run-through, never mind a performance, in the lead role. Joe Herlihy is still freaked out about having made Golly "disappear." I'm going to have to shake some sense into him. Meanwhile, though, something else strange has happened. I've received a mysterious note warning me I could die if I do the show's disappearing act, because: "There is Evil among us."
Hey, I'm no gothic heroine who's so stupid she deserves to die of Evil. I did the smart thing, I brought that note to Detective Lopez, the good-looking cop who took our statements at the theater when we reported Golly Gee's disappearance.
He wasn't very helpful about the note, though. One of his theories is that it's just a harmless warning from some nutcase who thinks Golly really did vanish. Another of his theories is that Golly's disappearance is a hell of a publicity stunt for an under-financed off-Broadway show with tepid reviews and an ambitious understudy.
Jerk.
Wednesday
I went to see Lopez again. There's been another note.
There's also been another disappearance. Someone else performing a vanishing act has disappeared. Just like Golly.
I don't know if these notes are warnings or threats. I just know that the show must go on—it's going on tonight, in fact. But I've got to find out what's going on before I do the disappearing act.
Lopez was actually pretty nice to me this time. He thinks I'm crazy, but he was nice. In fact, he looked like he was maybe thinking about asking me out—until he decided I'm crazy, that is.
Thursday
Okay, we're working way off-script now.
Last night, I ran out on a performance for the first time in my life. (My God, I've run out on a performance, I'm going straight to Thespian Hell.)
Including Golly, there've been four disappearances so far, all of which have occurred onstage during vanishing acts. I've met Dr. Maximillian Zadok, a 350-year old sorcerer who claims he's here to protect Manhattan from Evil. I've also met a bunch of drag queens who want to help him, a rhinestone-studded cowboy who accidentally made Dolly the Dancing Cowgirl disappear, and a society boy who's terrified his father will find out what's going on.
But we still don't know what's causing these disappearances. It's not safe for me to go back onstage. And since I very much want to go back onstage, I've got to help Max get to the bottom of these strange events.
*****
To find out who vanishes next, read Disappearing Nightly!
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