Chapter Seven:
At the opening performance of 'Wicked,' Danny was having a blast. That is, until the finale of the first act. As she stood on a platform twenty yards above the stage, her black skirts billowing out beneath her, reaching the stage floor, making her look like a black mountain of a woman, she belted out "Defying Gravity:"
"So if you care to find me, Look to the Western sky, As someone told me lately, Everyone deserves a chance to fly! And if I'm flying solo, At lest I'm flying free, To those who ground me, Take a message back from me: Tell them how I am defying gravity I'm flying high, defying gravity And soon nothing's gonna bring me down! And nobody in all of Oz, No Wizard that there is or was Is ever gonna bring me down!"
Just as she sang out the next line ("Bring me down!"), she heard the unpleasant sound of gunfire. There was a tremor in the platform and Danny nearly lost her balance. 'Oh, lord, no...' she thought frantically trying to keep her balance on the teetering platform. To fall would mean almost death—at least paralysis. Her flying harness rubbed roughly against her stomach and waist as it stayed put, but she moved with the platform. Soon, as the curtain closed, the platform collapsed, leaving Danny suspended in the air above the stage. She could hear the producer talking to the audience. "We've suffered some technical delays, but we will continue to have the intermission now as planned. I would like to express my apologies if Act Two doesn't start right on time. Thank you." The producer walked through the curtain break as Danny was pulling the huge skirt off of her waist and dropping it to the floor. She was still decent; she wore a regular full skirt over her harness, but under the huge one.
The producer looked up at Danny and asked, "Are you all right?"
"Yeah," she answered, nodding. "A little shaken, but other than that... I think it was the harness that saved me. Thank you, Fly Guys!" she called to the crew that operated the flying apparatus with expert skill. She was really grateful to have such excellent men working her harness. They began lowering her to the stage floor now that the prop manager had taken the skirt away. As her toes touched the hard surface, Morton ran across the stage to her.
"Are you all right? What happened? Are you hurt?" he asked in a hurry.
Beta unhooked the wires from Danny's harness as she answered, "I'm not sure what happened with the platform, but I'm fine. I may have a few bruises, but other than that, I'm perfect. Beta, could you fix my harness, please? I think something's twisting."
"Sure thing," the techie said as he began fiddling with the black straps that were entirely invisible to the audience's eye. "Would I appear to be shamelessly flirting with a married woman if I asked you to take off your skirt?"
"Yes," Morton and Danny said at the same time. Danny was the one who was smiling though. "But I'll do it anyway," she said, unbuckling her belt and letting the yards of black fabric fall to the ground, exposing her black dance pants and the rest of her harness. Beta fiddled with something around her waist and asked, "Feel better?"
Danny did a quick dance move and said, "Much. Thank you so much." She glanced at Morton as she pulled her skirt back on. As she buckled her belt, she asked, "What? Is my green smudged?"
Morton looked either disapproving or deep in thought. His brow was knit in such a way that he looked almost mad about something that no one else knew about. His mouth was pulled slightly into a frown. He jammed his hands into his pockets and said, "I was thinking..."
"Don't hurt yourself," Danny said, adjusting her skirt. "No, seriously, is my green smeared or smudged? Do you see any white?" She had to wear green spray on stage make up for the part of Elphaba and it was a pain in the neck to keep it looking like she really was green sometimes. Especially when she starts to perspire profusely, like now, when she almost fell off the platform.
"No, your green's fine," he said, holding her broom so she could tweak her costume so it worked. "I was just thinking that maybe it was Henderson who sabotaged the platform. I mean, it's plausible, isn't it?"
"I suppose so," she said, preoccupied with attaching her pointed witch's hat to her pinned up locks in such a way that if the hat was pulled off, her hair would tumble down in a cascade of brown curls (which was needed for the affair scene in the second act). "But why would he try to kill me in the middle of a public building? Why not just out by our house? Wouldn't that be easier?"
"Sometimes, they don't care about what's easiest," Morton said as they walked off stage so the techs could prep for the second act. "He may be wanting to make a statement to you that he's not afraid of hurting you in public as well as in private."
"I see..." Danny muttered, taking her broom from him. "' Borrow the moonlight, until it is through... And I will be here, holding you... As long as you're mine...' Fiyero says something... Blah, blah. 'It's just, for the first time, I feel... again...' End of scene," she muttered under her breath, practicing her lines. The stage manager, Chase, handed her a water bottle fresh from the fridge. "Thanks, Chase... So, Mort. How're they taking to the show? Do they like it so far?" She was referring to her sisters, whom Morton was supposed to be sitting with in the seventh row.
"They don't understand some things. Like the reason why you're green or why Dr. Dillamond's a Goat. Other than that, they like it... I think," he answered as Chase whispered the five-minute call. "I better get back before they confuse themselves outta their minds. See ya. Break a leg, Danny," he said, lightly kissing her on the cheek so as not to smudge the green make up off her and onto himself. Smiling, he took his leave.
Danny noticed, then, that he never used any terms of endearment or any pet name (other than 'Morning Glory') for her. Ever. She thought it was a little odd, since he used to call her Dear Heart, and Darling, and Baby- Girl before they went their separate ways before he showed up on set. Shrugging it off, she walked over to her fly-guys and got herself hooked up for some flying around the Wizard.
After the bows and Chase had kicked the majority of the audience out of the theatre, Danny's three sisters—Jessica, Anne, and Lily—sought her out backstage with the help of Morton. They found her in her dressing room, trying to get the green tint out of her skin. "Don't get rid of the green, it's a good look for you," Anne said from the door.
Danny turned and saw them. There was a big group-sister hug in which Morton did not take part. He busied himself with hanging up Danny's discarded costumes. The only reason she got her own dressing room was because she was Elphaba and she had a ton of costumes and props and the huge skirt. The woman who played Glinda, Nicole, had the dressing room next door all to herself because she had almost twice as many costumes as Danny did. (Glinda was a very shallow character as well as a society girl.)
The four sisters talked animatedly while they rubbed the green paint off Danny's skin. Morton still busied himself with straightening up the room without really listening to what they were gossiping about. It took them twenty to thirty minutes, but they got all traces of green paint off Danny and were finally ready to go. The dressing room was spotless due to Morton's efforts to not eavesdrop.
After dinner, the five went back to Danny and Morton's cabin to talk some more. "We're sorry we couldn't make it to the wedding, Danielle. Mom got pneumonia and I couldn't bring her or leave her alone," Jessica, the eldest of the four sisters, said, pulling her blonde hair into a tight ponytail.
Anne adjusted her jean skirt and said, "Justin and I couldn't take the time off. We had a really important deadline that weekend and if we didn't make it—"
"I understand," Danny said, cutting her off.
Jessica and Anne looked to Lily in expectation for her excuse. Lily looked innocently back and said, "What? I came to the wedding!"
Laughing, Danny turned to Jessica and Anne and asked, "How're Kevin, John, and Stephen? I haven't heard from them. I know Kevin's in California. But the other two..."
Anne snorted and said, "Yes, big brother Kevin's making some big money over in Sunny Cal, ain't he? He never comes to visit and he never calls and he never writes. He didn't come mom's birthday or Christmas! I don't know what to do with him!"
"John's all right. He's still struggling through BYU Idaho. It's his own fault if he decided he wanted to wait until he was thirty-eight to go to college, if you ask me. We saw him last at Christmas. He didn't have a break for mom's birthday, though," Jessica said pleasantly.
"And Stephen?"
"He thinks he's King of the World," Lily laughed. She and her twin always made fun of each other. "He's done well. Got a wife—Amie, I think her name was—and two kids with one on the way."
Morton leaned over to Danny and said, "They really keep you out of the loop, don't they?"
"It's only because I'm the youngest and the most rebellious, I guess," she answered, grinning at Lily. The two were the closest out of all seven. Being the youngest, Danny wasn't ever spoiled, but she was constantly picked on by the older ones. Lily was the only one who defended her. "It's because I decided to be a writer instead of a Hollywood actor, isn't it, Jessica? Mom makes you guys keep unupdated?"
Jessica was scandalized, "Of course not, Danielle! How could you say something like that?"
"Because, Jessie, dearest," Lily said. "It's true. Don't you dare say it ain't!"
"Loving family, this," Morton muttered. Danny hit him.
~*~
The next morning, Danny was found scrubbing the inside of the bathtub when Morton approached her. "Did you have breakfast?" he asked, remembering her horrid habit of skipping the meal so she could get her chores done sooner.
"Yes, darling," she said, getting slightly light-headed from the fumes. "Hand me the hair clog remover stuff, would you?" He did and she poured some down the drain and climbed out of the tub to wait.
"Jessica and Anne went sight-seeing. They act like they didn't grow up in small towns like this," Morton said.
"Because we grew up in Nashville, Mort. Not every town in Tennessee is a tiny hick town," Danny answered, adjusting her ponytail. "Where's Lily?"
"Still sleeping."
"No, I'm not!" Lily appeared in the doorway. She looked like she had just woken up. Her light brown hair was sticking up everywhere despite her use of a scrunchie (it almost looked like she had a fight with her pillow), she wore wrinkled purple pajamas and her yawned widely. "How do I get some breakfast, Dan?"
"Morton, show her around the kitchen, please," Danny called from the tub. She turned the water on and rinsed the clog remover down the drain. When Morton came back, she was spraying Windex( on the large mirror and wiping it down. Then she did it twice more.
"Danny, I wanna take you into town today," he said, helping her off the counter.
Danny sprayed 409( on the counter and scrubbed it down. "Oh, Mort, I don't think I'll be able to go today. I still have to clean the kitchen and the downstairs windows. I don't know if I'll have time to go. I'd like to, though," she said, scrubbing dried on toothpaste off the inside of the sink.
"I can help," Lily said, munching on toast in the doorway again. "C'mon, Danny. How often do you get a day off? Go have fun; I'll clean the cabin. Don't worry; I know how you like everything. Cleaning stuffs in the cupboard above the washer and dryer, right?"
"Yeah, but Lil, you're a guest! I couldn't ask you to—"
"Danielle Elyzabith Tomlin!" Lily said, hand—without the toast—on her hip. "Go out and have some fun with your husband! Finish the floor then get out of this house!"
Danny smiled and did as her sister bade. She and Morton had a lovely time driving through town and stopping at various little shops to browse through the items for anything they might like. At one point, after lunch, Morton blindfolded Danny. "What's this for?" she asked.
"It's the reason why I wanted to take you out today," he answered. "Don't take it off yet. I'll tell you when you can."
Shortly, he parked and led her into another shop. She could hear birds twittering and asked, "Morton, where are we?"
He stopped her and took off the blindfold. In front of her were the rows of kittens and cats at the Pet Shop. "Pick one," he said.
"You're kidding me, right?" she asked, knowing he preferred dogs to cats.
"Nope," Morton said, kissing her on the cheek. "Pick one. Go on."
Danny examined each and every cat and kitten with great care and expertise. Back in high school, she worked a part time job at a veterinarian's clinic so she knew what to look for in a house cat. Presently, she made her choice: a full-grown black and white tomcat. He was a year old and was mostly black, but had a white chest and white paws and ear tips. They made their purchases and Danny carried her new baby out to the car, rubbing her face against his head as he purred contently.
"I'm surprised you chose him. I was sure you were gonna get a kitten," Morton said, unlocking the door for her.
"I think I'll name him Bump," she said, scratching the cat's head. "What do you think?"
Morton got in and started the car. "It's not my decision. He's your cat, Danny. Name him what you want."
"Are you my little Bump?" she asked the cat as it sprawled across her lap and purred. "I think he likes it, Morton."
"Good."
~*~
"You gat a cat!" Lily said excitedly. She loved cats. "What's his name?"
"Bump. Isn't he precious?" Danny said, letting her sister hold the animal.
Lily scratched his tummy. "I would have named him Tux, but that's just me. Look, he's all black except on his stomach and paws like he's wearing a tux with a white shirt, gloves and spats. Oh, he is too darling!"
There was a knock on the door. Morton answered and Henderson pushed his way into the cabin, saying, "So, Danny's got a new friend, has she?"
Danny hastily scooped Bump into her arms and said, "Get out. What do you want?"
"Just what I came for."
"I can't give it to you if I bloody don't know what it is!" she screamed at him, clutching Bump closer to her, protecting him. She didn't know if Henderson would kill her cat or not; she didn't want to chance it.
Henderson didn't answer her question. "You have until tomorrow night. Nice kitty," he said, petting Bump before he left the cabin. Morton locked the door behind him as Danny sank onto the couch.
"Danny, what was that about?" Lily asked, sitting next to her. "Who was that?"
"He's just one of the Crazy Folk, Lily," Morton said quickly. "They come around every once and a while. He doesn't mean any harm."
Danny let go off Bump who jumped onto the cool glass coffee table and curled up. "Don't tell the others about it. We've got the situation under control," she said, watching her cat fall asleep on the one piece of furniture in the cabin that was content to break everyone's shins if they didn't see it when walking by.
Lily hugged her sister and whispered, "I promise."
The phone rang immediately following her statement. Danny answered. "Hello?"
"Hi, Danielle, it's Jess. Anne and I found a nice hotel where we'll stay so you don't have to worry about us. Lily can come too if she wants, there's an extra bed."
Danny turned to Lily and said, "Jess and Anne want to know if you'd like to stay in the hotel with them tonight." Lily shook her head. Danny returned the phone to her ear, "She says she fine here. Don't worry about it; I can handle feeding one more. See you later. Love you."
"Love you."
Danny hung up the phone.
~*~
That night, Danny woke up to find Morton wasn't in bed. She sat up and muttered, "Where'd he go?" Climbing out of bed, she slipped into her fuzzy black slippers and walked down the stairs. Lily was awake as well. She was sitting stock still on the couch, but she was awake. "Lil? Have you seen Morton?" Danny called softly. Lily turned and shook her head. Danny reached the couch and said, "He wasn't in bed when I woke up. I—" There was a crash outside. "What in hell was that?" Danny muttered.
"I've been hearing stuff like that since about midnight," Lily said.
"What time is it now?" Danny tried to read the microwave without her glasses.
"2:40 almost. Do you know what it is?"
Danny shook her head and grabbed a flashlight from the desk the phone rested on. "I'm gonna check it out," she said heading for the door. Lily followed her. Flicking the porch light switch, they discovered the light bulb had been smashed useless. "Great," Danny swore and turned on her flashlight then stepped outside. The two sisters walked cautiously across the porch and around the corner of the house. They stopped when they saw movement in the small cornfield Morton was insistent on having. "I wish he'd let me plant some flowers in the garden instead of all that corn," Danny whispered.
Lily grabbed her arm. "What was that?" she hissed, pointing into the corn.
"Morton? Are you there?" Danny called, hoping for some answer from him. There was none. The corn continued to rustle despite the lack of wind. A dark figure staggered out of the corn towards them. The two women screamed. The figure staggered into the flash light beam. It was Anne.
"Why... Danny?" she chocked out then tripped and fell. Danny and Lily ran to her side and saw there was a screwdriver stabbed into her neck. She was dead before they could do anything.
"Danny? Lily? Where are you?" they heard Morton call from the porch.
"At the garden!"
Lily grabbed Danny's arm. "What if he's the one who killed her?"
"I don't think it was him, Lil. Morton wouldn't kill anyone."
He ran around the corner in his boxers and t-shirt. "Why are you out here? Danny, I get up in the middle of the night to take a piss and when I come back, you two are out in the corn kneeling over—Shit... What happened?" he said, joining them.
Danny stood suddenly and ran around the far corner of the cabin. Mort and Lily could hear her retch quietly before she came back. She didn't stop when she reached them, but continued into the house.
"Danny?" Lily followed after her as Morton ran to get a sheet to cover Anne until the police could come and take a look. Lily found Danny on the phone, muttering, "C'mon. C'mon! Answer the phone! Dammit, Jessica, answer the phone!" She slammed the receiver down and stood frustrated and ran out the door. Lily ran to the doorway to watch Danny drive out the driveway and out of sight in a hurry. The older sister snatched Morton's car keys and ran to his Buick, calling, "Morton, c'mon! She's going to the hotel!" The two climbed into the Buick—Lily driving—and sped off. "I don't even want to think about what might happen if the psycho who killed Anne is at the hotel waiting for Danny!" she said, bitterly.
Morton held tightly to the door handle and arm rest as Lily speeded haphazardly into town. "How can you two drive like this?!" he asked, referring to the style of driving that the two sisters preferred when they were upset.
"Very carefully!" Lily answered as they entered the parking lot of the hotel and parked. They saw Danny hastily enter a hotel room. The door closed as they got out of the Buick and heard Danny scream, "No! Oh, God! No!"
Lily and Mort glanced at each other and ran after Danny. They burst into the room and saw Jessica. She was lying on her bed and appeared to be sleeping—were it not for the fact that she was lying a deep pool of her own blood that was dripping to the floor. Morton and Lily felt no urge to discover what had been done to her.
Morton looked around the room and found Danny sitting in the darkest corner of the room, her arms wrapped around her knees. She was pale as death and staring at Jessica's body. He walked over to her and gently picked her up. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his chest. Morton motioned to Lily to leave the room. Looking as though she was about to be sick, Lily followed them to Morton's Buick, where he gently placed Danny inside and closed the door. "Go to the receptionist's desk and tell them to call the police about what happened. I'm gonna take her home. You come later in the Camry after everything with the police is over. Give us a call if you need us."
Lily swallowed and nodded. "Okay."
Morton got into the Buick and drove away slowly as Lily did as she was asked. "Danny, are you all right?" She didn't answer. He glanced at her and saw her staring straight ahead. "Danny—"
"I can't believe she's—dead. How could this happen? Why did this happen? Who did it, so I can kill them?" she muttered, still staring through the windshield. "What did they ever do to deserve it?"
"I don't know, Danny," Morton sighed. "I don't know. But I wish I did... I wish I did..."
The police didn't call them that night. The sheriff came by the next morning to talk to Danny about it.
"So you said Anne said something before she died," he said. Danny nodded. "What was it?"
"Well—" Danny swallowed and took a deep breath "—she stumbled out of the corn and said something like, 'Why, Danny?' I think that's what it was. I couldn't really hear her properly."
The sheriff wrote something down. "Why would she say that? Why would she ask you why? Did you do something against her in the past?"
Fighting the tears that threatened to overflow at any moment, Danny said, "I can't remember. But if I did, by God, I want to know what it was!"
"Tell me about Jessica."
"I found her dead in her hotel room. What more is there to say?"
"Why wasn't she at your house?" the sheriff asked. "Wasn't she your guest?"
Danny rubbed her eyes; she hadn't gotten much sleep lately. "Yes, she was. But we only have one bed in the entire house and it's kinda hard to fit three people on the couch comfortably. So she and Anne decided to stay in the hotel while they were here."
"I see. Is there anyone who would hold something against you? Do you have any enemies that you know of?"
Morton sat down next to Danny and took her hand. "There's one possibility..." she began, not entirely willing to give him what she knew about Henderson.
"Can you describe him?"
"His name's Brett Henderson. He's about our age and height, somewhat on the skinny side and wore baggy jeans and a sweatshirt whenever we saw him. I want to say black eyes and hair," Danny said, leaning against Morton.
"All right, thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Reiney," the sheriff said, standing. "I'll give you a call if we find anything out. For now, get some sleep; you don't look well, Danny." He stuck his notebook in his pocket and left the cabin as three men entered.
"Where is she? Where is that Danny Boy?" the eldest looking one asked everyone in the vicinity.
Danny looked over at him, recognizing the age-old nickname she knew only all too well. "Kevin? John? Stephen? Oh, my god!" She stood and ran over to them. The four siblings hugged. By now, Danny was crying, but she didn't try to fight it. "I'm so glad you're here!"
"Where's Lily?" Stephen asked.
"Upstairs, taking a nap, I think," Danny said, pointing. She turned to her other older brothers.
Kevin was tall—really tall, about 6'8" or something like that—with light brown, wavy hair that stuck out everywhere. His blue eyes matched Danny's. He was of a strong build—results of working in Hollywood. John wasn't as tall, about 6'2", with red hair—he got it from their grandfather—and green eyes, also of their grandfather. Stephen was the shortest at 5'11 ½" with dark brown hair and intensely blue eyes. He had the look of someone who would know your past, present and future after talking to you for only three minutes as well as being able to manipulate your thought into thinking something else than what was real. He couldn't really do that, of course, but he looked like he could.
Kevin, squeezed Danny's shoulder and said, "We should've been here when they came to visit. I'm sorry, Dan. I should've been the one to find them; not you. You shouldn't be seeing stuff like that."
"Kevin, it's fine," she said, walking back over to Morton. "You're here now; that's all that matters: that they have more than just me, Lily and Morton at their funeral. Kevin, John, this is my husband, Morton. Mort, these are my older brothers, Kevin and John. Stephen went upstairs to wake Lily up, I guess."
Then, right on cue, they heard Lily shouting. "How dare you wake me up like that! You—you— Oh, my God! Stephen! You bastard! How could you be so cruel?"
John smiled. "And they go again. The joys of having them be twins..."
~*~
Later that day, the small funeral took place. Each of the surviving siblings said something about the dearly departed before the caskets were buried. There were many tears shed and LOTS of tissues used.
Danny's brothers and sister had to leave immediately following the funeral due to various reasons of their own. After bidding everyone a fond farewell, Danny and Morton returned to their cabin to find the sheriff waiting for them outside.
"Hello, sheriff," Morton said. "What's the verdict?"
The sheriff spat, much to the distaste of Danny, and said, "Mrs. Reiney, we have reason to believe you are the murderer in the following cases: a Mr. Glenn Wood, Mr. Robert Smith, Mrs. Jessica Hamilton, and Mrs. Anne Donne. I'm afraid I'll have to take you into custody now." He got out his handcuffs.
Danny was stunned. "Where is the basis in that statement? Where is your proof? Or the supporting evidence against me? I want to know why you are accusing me of murdering people who were extremely close to me!"
"Mrs. Reiney, don't make this harder than it has to be. The law clearly states—"
"I don't give a damn what the law says! I want to know why you think I did it! I can assure I didn't do it!" she screamed at him. Morton tried to calm her down.
"Sheriff, please. She's had a very trying day and—"
"Morton, shut up! Sheriff, unless you can show me the proof you have against me, I'll go nowhere," Danny said. "I will stay on our property. I'll not even go to the performances."
The sheriff looked uncomfortable. "Danny, I have to bring you in. It's out of my hands."
"Like hell it is!" she spat. "You come to my house and accuse me of murder and expect me to come quietly?"
"Danny, c'mon, be reasonable—"Morton started before she pushed him away. Startled by her reaction, he stumbled backward a few paces.
The sheriff had his hand on his holstered pistol and moved between Danny and Morton. Danny sneered at him and said, "You and your gun don't scare e none, sheriff. Because without it, you're just a tired old man." The sheriff tensed. "Go on, shoot me! I dare you. Maybe you'll feel as brave as you think you are!"
The sheriff took out his gun, uncertainly. He cocked the hammer and aimed for her. "Sheriff, you have terrible form and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn like that. I didn't kill any of them and I ain't going in quietly because I will not be accused of doing something I didn't do!"
The sheriff took aim and shot.
At the opening performance of 'Wicked,' Danny was having a blast. That is, until the finale of the first act. As she stood on a platform twenty yards above the stage, her black skirts billowing out beneath her, reaching the stage floor, making her look like a black mountain of a woman, she belted out "Defying Gravity:"
"So if you care to find me, Look to the Western sky, As someone told me lately, Everyone deserves a chance to fly! And if I'm flying solo, At lest I'm flying free, To those who ground me, Take a message back from me: Tell them how I am defying gravity I'm flying high, defying gravity And soon nothing's gonna bring me down! And nobody in all of Oz, No Wizard that there is or was Is ever gonna bring me down!"
Just as she sang out the next line ("Bring me down!"), she heard the unpleasant sound of gunfire. There was a tremor in the platform and Danny nearly lost her balance. 'Oh, lord, no...' she thought frantically trying to keep her balance on the teetering platform. To fall would mean almost death—at least paralysis. Her flying harness rubbed roughly against her stomach and waist as it stayed put, but she moved with the platform. Soon, as the curtain closed, the platform collapsed, leaving Danny suspended in the air above the stage. She could hear the producer talking to the audience. "We've suffered some technical delays, but we will continue to have the intermission now as planned. I would like to express my apologies if Act Two doesn't start right on time. Thank you." The producer walked through the curtain break as Danny was pulling the huge skirt off of her waist and dropping it to the floor. She was still decent; she wore a regular full skirt over her harness, but under the huge one.
The producer looked up at Danny and asked, "Are you all right?"
"Yeah," she answered, nodding. "A little shaken, but other than that... I think it was the harness that saved me. Thank you, Fly Guys!" she called to the crew that operated the flying apparatus with expert skill. She was really grateful to have such excellent men working her harness. They began lowering her to the stage floor now that the prop manager had taken the skirt away. As her toes touched the hard surface, Morton ran across the stage to her.
"Are you all right? What happened? Are you hurt?" he asked in a hurry.
Beta unhooked the wires from Danny's harness as she answered, "I'm not sure what happened with the platform, but I'm fine. I may have a few bruises, but other than that, I'm perfect. Beta, could you fix my harness, please? I think something's twisting."
"Sure thing," the techie said as he began fiddling with the black straps that were entirely invisible to the audience's eye. "Would I appear to be shamelessly flirting with a married woman if I asked you to take off your skirt?"
"Yes," Morton and Danny said at the same time. Danny was the one who was smiling though. "But I'll do it anyway," she said, unbuckling her belt and letting the yards of black fabric fall to the ground, exposing her black dance pants and the rest of her harness. Beta fiddled with something around her waist and asked, "Feel better?"
Danny did a quick dance move and said, "Much. Thank you so much." She glanced at Morton as she pulled her skirt back on. As she buckled her belt, she asked, "What? Is my green smudged?"
Morton looked either disapproving or deep in thought. His brow was knit in such a way that he looked almost mad about something that no one else knew about. His mouth was pulled slightly into a frown. He jammed his hands into his pockets and said, "I was thinking..."
"Don't hurt yourself," Danny said, adjusting her skirt. "No, seriously, is my green smeared or smudged? Do you see any white?" She had to wear green spray on stage make up for the part of Elphaba and it was a pain in the neck to keep it looking like she really was green sometimes. Especially when she starts to perspire profusely, like now, when she almost fell off the platform.
"No, your green's fine," he said, holding her broom so she could tweak her costume so it worked. "I was just thinking that maybe it was Henderson who sabotaged the platform. I mean, it's plausible, isn't it?"
"I suppose so," she said, preoccupied with attaching her pointed witch's hat to her pinned up locks in such a way that if the hat was pulled off, her hair would tumble down in a cascade of brown curls (which was needed for the affair scene in the second act). "But why would he try to kill me in the middle of a public building? Why not just out by our house? Wouldn't that be easier?"
"Sometimes, they don't care about what's easiest," Morton said as they walked off stage so the techs could prep for the second act. "He may be wanting to make a statement to you that he's not afraid of hurting you in public as well as in private."
"I see..." Danny muttered, taking her broom from him. "' Borrow the moonlight, until it is through... And I will be here, holding you... As long as you're mine...' Fiyero says something... Blah, blah. 'It's just, for the first time, I feel... again...' End of scene," she muttered under her breath, practicing her lines. The stage manager, Chase, handed her a water bottle fresh from the fridge. "Thanks, Chase... So, Mort. How're they taking to the show? Do they like it so far?" She was referring to her sisters, whom Morton was supposed to be sitting with in the seventh row.
"They don't understand some things. Like the reason why you're green or why Dr. Dillamond's a Goat. Other than that, they like it... I think," he answered as Chase whispered the five-minute call. "I better get back before they confuse themselves outta their minds. See ya. Break a leg, Danny," he said, lightly kissing her on the cheek so as not to smudge the green make up off her and onto himself. Smiling, he took his leave.
Danny noticed, then, that he never used any terms of endearment or any pet name (other than 'Morning Glory') for her. Ever. She thought it was a little odd, since he used to call her Dear Heart, and Darling, and Baby- Girl before they went their separate ways before he showed up on set. Shrugging it off, she walked over to her fly-guys and got herself hooked up for some flying around the Wizard.
After the bows and Chase had kicked the majority of the audience out of the theatre, Danny's three sisters—Jessica, Anne, and Lily—sought her out backstage with the help of Morton. They found her in her dressing room, trying to get the green tint out of her skin. "Don't get rid of the green, it's a good look for you," Anne said from the door.
Danny turned and saw them. There was a big group-sister hug in which Morton did not take part. He busied himself with hanging up Danny's discarded costumes. The only reason she got her own dressing room was because she was Elphaba and she had a ton of costumes and props and the huge skirt. The woman who played Glinda, Nicole, had the dressing room next door all to herself because she had almost twice as many costumes as Danny did. (Glinda was a very shallow character as well as a society girl.)
The four sisters talked animatedly while they rubbed the green paint off Danny's skin. Morton still busied himself with straightening up the room without really listening to what they were gossiping about. It took them twenty to thirty minutes, but they got all traces of green paint off Danny and were finally ready to go. The dressing room was spotless due to Morton's efforts to not eavesdrop.
After dinner, the five went back to Danny and Morton's cabin to talk some more. "We're sorry we couldn't make it to the wedding, Danielle. Mom got pneumonia and I couldn't bring her or leave her alone," Jessica, the eldest of the four sisters, said, pulling her blonde hair into a tight ponytail.
Anne adjusted her jean skirt and said, "Justin and I couldn't take the time off. We had a really important deadline that weekend and if we didn't make it—"
"I understand," Danny said, cutting her off.
Jessica and Anne looked to Lily in expectation for her excuse. Lily looked innocently back and said, "What? I came to the wedding!"
Laughing, Danny turned to Jessica and Anne and asked, "How're Kevin, John, and Stephen? I haven't heard from them. I know Kevin's in California. But the other two..."
Anne snorted and said, "Yes, big brother Kevin's making some big money over in Sunny Cal, ain't he? He never comes to visit and he never calls and he never writes. He didn't come mom's birthday or Christmas! I don't know what to do with him!"
"John's all right. He's still struggling through BYU Idaho. It's his own fault if he decided he wanted to wait until he was thirty-eight to go to college, if you ask me. We saw him last at Christmas. He didn't have a break for mom's birthday, though," Jessica said pleasantly.
"And Stephen?"
"He thinks he's King of the World," Lily laughed. She and her twin always made fun of each other. "He's done well. Got a wife—Amie, I think her name was—and two kids with one on the way."
Morton leaned over to Danny and said, "They really keep you out of the loop, don't they?"
"It's only because I'm the youngest and the most rebellious, I guess," she answered, grinning at Lily. The two were the closest out of all seven. Being the youngest, Danny wasn't ever spoiled, but she was constantly picked on by the older ones. Lily was the only one who defended her. "It's because I decided to be a writer instead of a Hollywood actor, isn't it, Jessica? Mom makes you guys keep unupdated?"
Jessica was scandalized, "Of course not, Danielle! How could you say something like that?"
"Because, Jessie, dearest," Lily said. "It's true. Don't you dare say it ain't!"
"Loving family, this," Morton muttered. Danny hit him.
~*~
The next morning, Danny was found scrubbing the inside of the bathtub when Morton approached her. "Did you have breakfast?" he asked, remembering her horrid habit of skipping the meal so she could get her chores done sooner.
"Yes, darling," she said, getting slightly light-headed from the fumes. "Hand me the hair clog remover stuff, would you?" He did and she poured some down the drain and climbed out of the tub to wait.
"Jessica and Anne went sight-seeing. They act like they didn't grow up in small towns like this," Morton said.
"Because we grew up in Nashville, Mort. Not every town in Tennessee is a tiny hick town," Danny answered, adjusting her ponytail. "Where's Lily?"
"Still sleeping."
"No, I'm not!" Lily appeared in the doorway. She looked like she had just woken up. Her light brown hair was sticking up everywhere despite her use of a scrunchie (it almost looked like she had a fight with her pillow), she wore wrinkled purple pajamas and her yawned widely. "How do I get some breakfast, Dan?"
"Morton, show her around the kitchen, please," Danny called from the tub. She turned the water on and rinsed the clog remover down the drain. When Morton came back, she was spraying Windex( on the large mirror and wiping it down. Then she did it twice more.
"Danny, I wanna take you into town today," he said, helping her off the counter.
Danny sprayed 409( on the counter and scrubbed it down. "Oh, Mort, I don't think I'll be able to go today. I still have to clean the kitchen and the downstairs windows. I don't know if I'll have time to go. I'd like to, though," she said, scrubbing dried on toothpaste off the inside of the sink.
"I can help," Lily said, munching on toast in the doorway again. "C'mon, Danny. How often do you get a day off? Go have fun; I'll clean the cabin. Don't worry; I know how you like everything. Cleaning stuffs in the cupboard above the washer and dryer, right?"
"Yeah, but Lil, you're a guest! I couldn't ask you to—"
"Danielle Elyzabith Tomlin!" Lily said, hand—without the toast—on her hip. "Go out and have some fun with your husband! Finish the floor then get out of this house!"
Danny smiled and did as her sister bade. She and Morton had a lovely time driving through town and stopping at various little shops to browse through the items for anything they might like. At one point, after lunch, Morton blindfolded Danny. "What's this for?" she asked.
"It's the reason why I wanted to take you out today," he answered. "Don't take it off yet. I'll tell you when you can."
Shortly, he parked and led her into another shop. She could hear birds twittering and asked, "Morton, where are we?"
He stopped her and took off the blindfold. In front of her were the rows of kittens and cats at the Pet Shop. "Pick one," he said.
"You're kidding me, right?" she asked, knowing he preferred dogs to cats.
"Nope," Morton said, kissing her on the cheek. "Pick one. Go on."
Danny examined each and every cat and kitten with great care and expertise. Back in high school, she worked a part time job at a veterinarian's clinic so she knew what to look for in a house cat. Presently, she made her choice: a full-grown black and white tomcat. He was a year old and was mostly black, but had a white chest and white paws and ear tips. They made their purchases and Danny carried her new baby out to the car, rubbing her face against his head as he purred contently.
"I'm surprised you chose him. I was sure you were gonna get a kitten," Morton said, unlocking the door for her.
"I think I'll name him Bump," she said, scratching the cat's head. "What do you think?"
Morton got in and started the car. "It's not my decision. He's your cat, Danny. Name him what you want."
"Are you my little Bump?" she asked the cat as it sprawled across her lap and purred. "I think he likes it, Morton."
"Good."
~*~
"You gat a cat!" Lily said excitedly. She loved cats. "What's his name?"
"Bump. Isn't he precious?" Danny said, letting her sister hold the animal.
Lily scratched his tummy. "I would have named him Tux, but that's just me. Look, he's all black except on his stomach and paws like he's wearing a tux with a white shirt, gloves and spats. Oh, he is too darling!"
There was a knock on the door. Morton answered and Henderson pushed his way into the cabin, saying, "So, Danny's got a new friend, has she?"
Danny hastily scooped Bump into her arms and said, "Get out. What do you want?"
"Just what I came for."
"I can't give it to you if I bloody don't know what it is!" she screamed at him, clutching Bump closer to her, protecting him. She didn't know if Henderson would kill her cat or not; she didn't want to chance it.
Henderson didn't answer her question. "You have until tomorrow night. Nice kitty," he said, petting Bump before he left the cabin. Morton locked the door behind him as Danny sank onto the couch.
"Danny, what was that about?" Lily asked, sitting next to her. "Who was that?"
"He's just one of the Crazy Folk, Lily," Morton said quickly. "They come around every once and a while. He doesn't mean any harm."
Danny let go off Bump who jumped onto the cool glass coffee table and curled up. "Don't tell the others about it. We've got the situation under control," she said, watching her cat fall asleep on the one piece of furniture in the cabin that was content to break everyone's shins if they didn't see it when walking by.
Lily hugged her sister and whispered, "I promise."
The phone rang immediately following her statement. Danny answered. "Hello?"
"Hi, Danielle, it's Jess. Anne and I found a nice hotel where we'll stay so you don't have to worry about us. Lily can come too if she wants, there's an extra bed."
Danny turned to Lily and said, "Jess and Anne want to know if you'd like to stay in the hotel with them tonight." Lily shook her head. Danny returned the phone to her ear, "She says she fine here. Don't worry about it; I can handle feeding one more. See you later. Love you."
"Love you."
Danny hung up the phone.
~*~
That night, Danny woke up to find Morton wasn't in bed. She sat up and muttered, "Where'd he go?" Climbing out of bed, she slipped into her fuzzy black slippers and walked down the stairs. Lily was awake as well. She was sitting stock still on the couch, but she was awake. "Lil? Have you seen Morton?" Danny called softly. Lily turned and shook her head. Danny reached the couch and said, "He wasn't in bed when I woke up. I—" There was a crash outside. "What in hell was that?" Danny muttered.
"I've been hearing stuff like that since about midnight," Lily said.
"What time is it now?" Danny tried to read the microwave without her glasses.
"2:40 almost. Do you know what it is?"
Danny shook her head and grabbed a flashlight from the desk the phone rested on. "I'm gonna check it out," she said heading for the door. Lily followed her. Flicking the porch light switch, they discovered the light bulb had been smashed useless. "Great," Danny swore and turned on her flashlight then stepped outside. The two sisters walked cautiously across the porch and around the corner of the house. They stopped when they saw movement in the small cornfield Morton was insistent on having. "I wish he'd let me plant some flowers in the garden instead of all that corn," Danny whispered.
Lily grabbed her arm. "What was that?" she hissed, pointing into the corn.
"Morton? Are you there?" Danny called, hoping for some answer from him. There was none. The corn continued to rustle despite the lack of wind. A dark figure staggered out of the corn towards them. The two women screamed. The figure staggered into the flash light beam. It was Anne.
"Why... Danny?" she chocked out then tripped and fell. Danny and Lily ran to her side and saw there was a screwdriver stabbed into her neck. She was dead before they could do anything.
"Danny? Lily? Where are you?" they heard Morton call from the porch.
"At the garden!"
Lily grabbed Danny's arm. "What if he's the one who killed her?"
"I don't think it was him, Lil. Morton wouldn't kill anyone."
He ran around the corner in his boxers and t-shirt. "Why are you out here? Danny, I get up in the middle of the night to take a piss and when I come back, you two are out in the corn kneeling over—Shit... What happened?" he said, joining them.
Danny stood suddenly and ran around the far corner of the cabin. Mort and Lily could hear her retch quietly before she came back. She didn't stop when she reached them, but continued into the house.
"Danny?" Lily followed after her as Morton ran to get a sheet to cover Anne until the police could come and take a look. Lily found Danny on the phone, muttering, "C'mon. C'mon! Answer the phone! Dammit, Jessica, answer the phone!" She slammed the receiver down and stood frustrated and ran out the door. Lily ran to the doorway to watch Danny drive out the driveway and out of sight in a hurry. The older sister snatched Morton's car keys and ran to his Buick, calling, "Morton, c'mon! She's going to the hotel!" The two climbed into the Buick—Lily driving—and sped off. "I don't even want to think about what might happen if the psycho who killed Anne is at the hotel waiting for Danny!" she said, bitterly.
Morton held tightly to the door handle and arm rest as Lily speeded haphazardly into town. "How can you two drive like this?!" he asked, referring to the style of driving that the two sisters preferred when they were upset.
"Very carefully!" Lily answered as they entered the parking lot of the hotel and parked. They saw Danny hastily enter a hotel room. The door closed as they got out of the Buick and heard Danny scream, "No! Oh, God! No!"
Lily and Mort glanced at each other and ran after Danny. They burst into the room and saw Jessica. She was lying on her bed and appeared to be sleeping—were it not for the fact that she was lying a deep pool of her own blood that was dripping to the floor. Morton and Lily felt no urge to discover what had been done to her.
Morton looked around the room and found Danny sitting in the darkest corner of the room, her arms wrapped around her knees. She was pale as death and staring at Jessica's body. He walked over to her and gently picked her up. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his chest. Morton motioned to Lily to leave the room. Looking as though she was about to be sick, Lily followed them to Morton's Buick, where he gently placed Danny inside and closed the door. "Go to the receptionist's desk and tell them to call the police about what happened. I'm gonna take her home. You come later in the Camry after everything with the police is over. Give us a call if you need us."
Lily swallowed and nodded. "Okay."
Morton got into the Buick and drove away slowly as Lily did as she was asked. "Danny, are you all right?" She didn't answer. He glanced at her and saw her staring straight ahead. "Danny—"
"I can't believe she's—dead. How could this happen? Why did this happen? Who did it, so I can kill them?" she muttered, still staring through the windshield. "What did they ever do to deserve it?"
"I don't know, Danny," Morton sighed. "I don't know. But I wish I did... I wish I did..."
The police didn't call them that night. The sheriff came by the next morning to talk to Danny about it.
"So you said Anne said something before she died," he said. Danny nodded. "What was it?"
"Well—" Danny swallowed and took a deep breath "—she stumbled out of the corn and said something like, 'Why, Danny?' I think that's what it was. I couldn't really hear her properly."
The sheriff wrote something down. "Why would she say that? Why would she ask you why? Did you do something against her in the past?"
Fighting the tears that threatened to overflow at any moment, Danny said, "I can't remember. But if I did, by God, I want to know what it was!"
"Tell me about Jessica."
"I found her dead in her hotel room. What more is there to say?"
"Why wasn't she at your house?" the sheriff asked. "Wasn't she your guest?"
Danny rubbed her eyes; she hadn't gotten much sleep lately. "Yes, she was. But we only have one bed in the entire house and it's kinda hard to fit three people on the couch comfortably. So she and Anne decided to stay in the hotel while they were here."
"I see. Is there anyone who would hold something against you? Do you have any enemies that you know of?"
Morton sat down next to Danny and took her hand. "There's one possibility..." she began, not entirely willing to give him what she knew about Henderson.
"Can you describe him?"
"His name's Brett Henderson. He's about our age and height, somewhat on the skinny side and wore baggy jeans and a sweatshirt whenever we saw him. I want to say black eyes and hair," Danny said, leaning against Morton.
"All right, thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Reiney," the sheriff said, standing. "I'll give you a call if we find anything out. For now, get some sleep; you don't look well, Danny." He stuck his notebook in his pocket and left the cabin as three men entered.
"Where is she? Where is that Danny Boy?" the eldest looking one asked everyone in the vicinity.
Danny looked over at him, recognizing the age-old nickname she knew only all too well. "Kevin? John? Stephen? Oh, my god!" She stood and ran over to them. The four siblings hugged. By now, Danny was crying, but she didn't try to fight it. "I'm so glad you're here!"
"Where's Lily?" Stephen asked.
"Upstairs, taking a nap, I think," Danny said, pointing. She turned to her other older brothers.
Kevin was tall—really tall, about 6'8" or something like that—with light brown, wavy hair that stuck out everywhere. His blue eyes matched Danny's. He was of a strong build—results of working in Hollywood. John wasn't as tall, about 6'2", with red hair—he got it from their grandfather—and green eyes, also of their grandfather. Stephen was the shortest at 5'11 ½" with dark brown hair and intensely blue eyes. He had the look of someone who would know your past, present and future after talking to you for only three minutes as well as being able to manipulate your thought into thinking something else than what was real. He couldn't really do that, of course, but he looked like he could.
Kevin, squeezed Danny's shoulder and said, "We should've been here when they came to visit. I'm sorry, Dan. I should've been the one to find them; not you. You shouldn't be seeing stuff like that."
"Kevin, it's fine," she said, walking back over to Morton. "You're here now; that's all that matters: that they have more than just me, Lily and Morton at their funeral. Kevin, John, this is my husband, Morton. Mort, these are my older brothers, Kevin and John. Stephen went upstairs to wake Lily up, I guess."
Then, right on cue, they heard Lily shouting. "How dare you wake me up like that! You—you— Oh, my God! Stephen! You bastard! How could you be so cruel?"
John smiled. "And they go again. The joys of having them be twins..."
~*~
Later that day, the small funeral took place. Each of the surviving siblings said something about the dearly departed before the caskets were buried. There were many tears shed and LOTS of tissues used.
Danny's brothers and sister had to leave immediately following the funeral due to various reasons of their own. After bidding everyone a fond farewell, Danny and Morton returned to their cabin to find the sheriff waiting for them outside.
"Hello, sheriff," Morton said. "What's the verdict?"
The sheriff spat, much to the distaste of Danny, and said, "Mrs. Reiney, we have reason to believe you are the murderer in the following cases: a Mr. Glenn Wood, Mr. Robert Smith, Mrs. Jessica Hamilton, and Mrs. Anne Donne. I'm afraid I'll have to take you into custody now." He got out his handcuffs.
Danny was stunned. "Where is the basis in that statement? Where is your proof? Or the supporting evidence against me? I want to know why you are accusing me of murdering people who were extremely close to me!"
"Mrs. Reiney, don't make this harder than it has to be. The law clearly states—"
"I don't give a damn what the law says! I want to know why you think I did it! I can assure I didn't do it!" she screamed at him. Morton tried to calm her down.
"Sheriff, please. She's had a very trying day and—"
"Morton, shut up! Sheriff, unless you can show me the proof you have against me, I'll go nowhere," Danny said. "I will stay on our property. I'll not even go to the performances."
The sheriff looked uncomfortable. "Danny, I have to bring you in. It's out of my hands."
"Like hell it is!" she spat. "You come to my house and accuse me of murder and expect me to come quietly?"
"Danny, c'mon, be reasonable—"Morton started before she pushed him away. Startled by her reaction, he stumbled backward a few paces.
The sheriff had his hand on his holstered pistol and moved between Danny and Morton. Danny sneered at him and said, "You and your gun don't scare e none, sheriff. Because without it, you're just a tired old man." The sheriff tensed. "Go on, shoot me! I dare you. Maybe you'll feel as brave as you think you are!"
The sheriff took out his gun, uncertainly. He cocked the hammer and aimed for her. "Sheriff, you have terrible form and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn like that. I didn't kill any of them and I ain't going in quietly because I will not be accused of doing something I didn't do!"
The sheriff took aim and shot.
