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Roy felt his leg bones with one hand

“Not yet,” he said

Roy droppedat his now-serious, now-amused face

“You co in?” I said

“Soon Got some errands to run”

“Roy, you’re not going to do soot that faraway crazed look”

Roy said, “I been thinking When did Arbuthnot die?”

“Twenty years ago this week Two-car accident, three people killed Arbuthnot and Sloane, his studio accountant, plus Sloane’s wife It was headlined for days The funeral was bigger than Valentino’s I stood outside the graveyard with h flowers for the New Year’s Rose Parade A thousand people calasses My God, the misery Arbuthnot was that loved”

“Car crash, huh?”

“No witnesses Maybe one was following too close, going home drunk from a studio party”

“Maybe” Roy pulled at his lower lip, squinting one eye at me “But what if there’s more to it? Maybe, this late in ti about that crash and is threatening to spill the beans Otherhy the body on the wall? Why the panic? Why hush it up if there’s nothing to hide? God, did you hear their voices back there just no come a dead man that’s not a dead man, a body that’s not a body, shakes up the executives?”

“There ot, and others But I’o see And when I didn’t spread the word, blurt it out today, whoever put the body on the wall had to write or call in today to start the panic and send in the funeral hearse And the guy whothe fun Why … why … why … ?”

“Hush,” said Roy, quietly, “hush” He started his engine “We’ll solve the half-ass mystery at lunch Put on your innocent face Make like naïve over the Louis B Mayer bean soup I gotta go check my lanced at his watch “In two hours raphy Then, all we need is our grand and glorious Beast”

I looked into Roy’s still burning-bright face

“You’re not going to go steal the body and put it back up on the wall, are you?”