Hoodwink Read online

  DEDICATION

  To Peg and Owen, who faced the wind that

  blew in 1939 with unyielding valour.

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Dedication

  Main Characters

  Maps

  Part One: Present Time

  Chapter 1: Wizard’s Cemetery

  Chapter 2: Sound Stage 3

  Chapter 3: Rumours

  Chapter 4: Ceiba House

  Chapter 5: The Collection Room

  Chapter 6: Troy

  Chapter 7: Half Moon Bay, South of San Francisco

  Chapter 8: Brigham’s Office, Union Square

  Chapter 9: The Clue

  Part Two: Los Angeles, 1939

  Chapter 10: Venice, California

  Chapter 11: Selznick International Pictures

  Chapter 12: Earl’s Bungalow

  Chapter 13: The Dream Sequence

  Chapter 14: The MGM Makeover

  Chapter 15: Crimson Dawn

  Chapter 16: Party at the Selznick House

  Chapter 17: Speak of the Devil

  Chapter 18: Hunting in Pairs

  Chapter 19: Cabana Surprise

  Chapter 20: Lewis Renfrow

  Chapter 21: Open Day

  Chapter 22: The Back Forty

  Chapter 23: The Spy Master

  Chapter 24: Sound Stage 2

  Chapter 25: Venice

  Chapter 26: Stakeout at Ceiba House

  Chapter 27: The Gang’s House

  Chapter 28: The Beverly Hills Hotel

  Chapter 29: Searching the Gang’s House

  Chapter 30: The Antique Shop

  Chapter 31: Back at the Beverly Hills Hotel

  Chapter 32: The Purple Light District

  Chapter 33: The Festival of the Shades

  Chapter 34: The Blight Doll

  Chapter 35: The Guild Ball

  Chapter 36: Mortimer MacVille

  Chapter 37: The Three Ways

  Chapter 38: The Temple of Lost Souls

  Chapter 39: Dr M

  Chapter 40: The Séance

  Chapter 41: Dead Ends

  Chapter 42: Trench Coat

  Chapter 43: The Hope Foundation

  Chapter 44: The Columbia Library

  Chapter 45: The Gibson Estate

  Chapter 46: The Eyrie

  Chapter 47: The Pact of Continents

  Chapter 48: Not Matz’s Boy

  Part Three: Present Time

  Chapter 49: Union Square, San Francisco

  Chapter 50: Gibson’s Story

  Chapter 51: Ceiba House

  Chapter 52: The Code Book

  Chapter 53: Beginnings

  Chapter 54: Letterman Army Hospital, The Presidio, San Francisco

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Other Books by Rhonda Roberts

  Copyright

  MAIN CHARACTERS

  IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE

  The Present

  Kannon Dupree — a candidate in the first NTA Time Investigator training program. When she graduates she can use the time portal to solve her own cases.

  Shelby Bloom — the Curtis family’s lawyer.

  Earl Curtis — a famous Hollywood director who went missing in 1939.

  Heron Studios — the present name of the film studio where Earl’s body was found.

  Leonard Brewster — the producer of the TV series Teen Scream.

  The NTA — the National Time Administration; in charge of the world’s only time portal, located at Union Square, San Francisco.

  Susan Curtis — Earl’s wife.

  Troy Curtis — Earl’s great-grandson.

  Senator Milhouse Curtis — Earl’s nephew.

  Constan Valdestiou — the office manager at NTA-San Francisco.

  Victoria Dupree — Kannon’s mother; a Time Marshal presently in Washington helping the NTA lobby for funding.

  Alex — a gladiator Kannon illegally brought back from ancient Rome last year.

  Des Carmichael — the Australian police detective who originally investigated Kannon’s kidnapping case, now a Dupree family friend.

  Yuki Jarratt — Kannon’s adoptive mother who took care of her in Australia. She died the year before Kannon found her real mother, Victoria Dupree.

  Foster Brigham — the new head of NTA-San Francisco at Union Square.

  Los Angeles 1939

  Phyllis Pettigrew — Earl’s personal secretary.

  Earl Curtis — the director of Gone with the Wind and the subject of Kannon’s investigation.

  Gone with the Wind — one of the most watched movies in film history. It follows Scarlett O’Hara’s struggle to survive the American Civil War and its aftermath.

  David O. Selznick — the head of the Selznick studios, the old name for Heron Studios.

  Ada Bronstein — Earl’s talented production assistant.

  Vance Wheeler — Earl’s director of photography.

  Benny — one of Vance Wheeler’s lighting assistants.

  Vivien Leigh — the British actress who plays Scarlett O’Hara, the main character in Gone with the Wind.

  Veronica Hall — the actress who plays Melanie Wilkes, Scarlett’s sister-in-law. Previously she played the evil priestess in Crimson Dawn.

  Clark Gable — the actor who plays Rhett Butler, the male lead in Gone with the Wind.

  Leslie Howard — the British actor who plays Ashley Wilkes, the husband of Melanie, and the object of Scarlett’s illicit desire.

  Eve Manning — the costume supervisor at the Selznick studios.

  Charmaine Marle — Eve’s opposite number at MGM. She gives Kannon the Tree of Life cross.

  Bernie Jennings — Selznick’s new publicity director, also known as Wiley Jennings.

  Louis B. Mayer — the head of MGM and Selznick’s father-in-law.

  Paulette Goddard — an actress who lives with Charlie Chaplin across the road from David O. Selznick.

  Carole Lombard — a clever actress married to Clark Gable.

  Lewis Renfrow — a powerful member of the Los Angeles Mob.

  Ruby Renfrow — Lewis Renfrow’s wife.

  Simon Renfrow — Lewis’ estranged adopted brother.

  Captain Cyrus Montgomery, Sergeant Emmet Routledge and Private Ruben Gouge — all Confederate survivors of the Battle of Atlanta.

  Frank Bourke — a photojournalist for Life magazine.

  Lamont Hull — a civil rights lawyer monitoring Gone with the Wind for inflammatory racist content.

  Clarence Dunstable — the editor of the Southern Bugle.

  The Gang — Otis, Deke, Emmett and Lester.

  Bonifacio Neves — Earl’s shifty Portuguese antique dealer.

  Franklin Delano Roosevelt — the president of the United States of America in 1939.

  Merlin Jones — the founder of the Psychics’ Guild.

  Osgood Quincy Bumstead — the president of the Psychics’ Guild.

  Hubert Humbolt — the vice president of the Psychics’ Guild and the medium at the séance.

  Charles Gibson — a powerful millionaire.

  Elden Brewster — Gibson’s radio play scriptwriter.

  Dr Constance Murchison — Earl’s psychotherapist.

  Alphonse Dada — a famous French surrealist painter.

  Jubal Pierce — the second president of the Psychics’ Guild and the founder of the Temple of Lost Souls.

  Matz — the Mayan goddess of soldiers.

  Floyd Nugent — the head of the Hope Foundation and a friend of Susan Curtis.

  Dashiell Hammett — a famous author of detective fiction and a scriptwriter for MGM.

  The American Civil War 1861–1865

  On the Union Side (the North)

  President Abraham Lincoln — the p
resident of the United States of America.

  General Ulysses S. Grant — the chief general of the Union forces.

  General William Tecumseh Sherman — captured the city of Atlanta and then marched through the Southern states.

  Allan Pinkerton — the head of the Union intelligence services.

  On the Confederate Side (the South)

  President Jefferson Davis — the president of the Confederate States of America.

  General Robert E. Lee — the chief general of the Confederate forces.

  General George LeRoy Montfort — the power behind President Davis and the secret head of the Confederate intelligence services.

  MAPS

  PART ONE

  PRESENT TIME

  1

  WIZARD’S CEMETERY

  Earthbound angels weeping for their lost glory and weathered tombstones grinning like badly capped teeth dotted the hilltop cemetery. Eternity-deep shadows veiled the sleepers but offered no promise of peace. The yolk-yellow moon bent its baleful gaze on the two teenagers climbing through the rows of the dead and forgotten.

  ‘This place is too creepy for words, Quincy,’ whined the cute blonde. ‘And it’s old and it’s dusty … Aaghh!’

  She held the skirts of her shiny pink prom dress high off the ground but dropped them to swat like a maniac at a buzzing insect that seemed to be dive-bombing her head. No doubt it was a fly roused by the industrial-strength hairspray holding her Shirley Temple ringlets in place.

  ‘There are bugs here, Quincy! You know I hate crawly things … Aaaghh!’ She frantically slapped at her shoulder instead. The fly must’ve abandoned her chemically enhanced tresses to buzz the less offensive corsage.

  Quincy, pathetic in his too big, borrowed tuxedo and his painfully slicked down hair, was determined to stay. ‘Now, Connie —’

  ‘No! You promised we’d go dancing at the new speakeasy down by the harbour. That swing band is supposed to be red-hot.’

  ‘Easy there, doll face,’ joked the boy, doing his best gangster impersonation. ‘We can split straight after this. But you said you always wanted to see where he’s buried? Well, tonight’s the night!’

  His voice had cracked into a higher register for the final sentence. He was overacting.

  ‘Don’t call me doll face, Quincy!’ she snapped, unimpressed.

  ‘But, Connie,’ he pleaded, ‘it’s the one hundredth anniversary of the killings tonight …’ Quincy’s eyes gleamed earnestly at her, unattractively enlarged by his bottle-thick glasses. ‘Isn’t that swell? You know what they say: when the light of the full moon strikes Coffin Bait’s tomb —’

  The crack of a twig splintering cut his persuasion short.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ whispered Connie. ‘What if The Grave Digger catches us here …’ She jerked around to peer into the darkness.

  The sudden move made her high heels teeter and her prom dress wrapped around her ankles like a horny octopus. She crashed into the skinny boy next to her, catching at his satin lapels to save herself from falling.

  Quincy steadied her but refused to be sidetracked. ‘We’re almost there, Connie. See?’ They both studied a marble mausoleum glinting in the middle distance.

  It looked less like a final resting place than a squat fortress.

  The bars on the windows and doors were on the inside of the glass, as though their purpose was not to protect … but to keep something in. The low roof held four leering gargoyles, one perched at each corner ready to scare away unwelcome visitors.

  That … or catch and eat them.

  ‘See, Connie? Just another minute or so and we can —’

  The blonde stamped one prom-princess foot. ‘No, Quincy, I want to go now!’

  ‘But —’

  ‘Now, Quincy! If Daddy finds out what we’ve been doing he will be so mad. And look at my new shoes … there’s dirt all over them.’ By now her whining was irritating rather than entertaining. ‘I want to go!’

  The stamped foot was a bit too much. They were both such hams.

  Crack. Another twig broke. But this one was much closer …

  Connie, now scared, dropped the boy’s lapels to step back and away from the sound. She caught her heel on a tuft of grass and fell, arms flailing …

  Into an open grave.

  ‘Connie?’ The teenager crouched anxiously over the hole. ‘Connie?’ The moonlight revealed her shocked face. ‘Are you okay?’

  The girl sat up and shook a thick spray of soil from her ringlets. Shock turned into outrage. ‘Look at me!’ Her dress was ripped and she was covered in clods of earth. ‘This is all your fault, Quincy.’ The tone was belligerent. ‘I told you this was a bad idea!’

  ‘Maybe you’re right.’ The boy sighed and straightened up. ‘But then, you know, Connie, I’ve had my eye on you for a very long time …’

  His voice had become a stranger’s. Colder, deeper. Quincy drew off his glasses and flicked them into the darkness. A prop no longer needed …

  His face was transformed. Predatory.

  ‘Why did you agree to come with me in the first place?’ drawled Quincy, now far too nonchalant. ‘You’ve always dated the jocks.’ Then he smiled. Two needle-sharp fangs appeared between his full red lips.

  The girl stopped straining the clods of soil out of her ringlets and stared up at him, unsure. ‘Quincy?’

  With a roar he lunged down into the open grave, hands and fangs reaching for the girl …

  An equally bloodcurdling growl answered him and the vampire-boy was hurled up and backwards, completely out of the grave. He landed on his back with a sickening crunch, blood covering his ripped white shirt.

  An enraged being leapt out of the grave to tower above him.

  Now Connie’s ringlets were a lush cap of wolf-thick blonde fur. The moonlight lovingly played over her own, more impressive set of canines … now stained red.

  ‘Don’t get fresh with me, Quincy.’ She growled again for emphasis. ‘This is only our first date, and your parents don’t even belong to the Country Club.’

  Then she sprang down onto the boy, canines-first, ready to teach him a lesson.

  ‘Cut! Cut! Cut!’ yelled the director.

  Both actors froze mid-maul, then sagged into a weary embrace. The boy mumbled, ‘Not again? My back can’t take this.’

  The director, a jet-haired woman wearing Ray-Bans and a black baseball cap, was lounging in the chair to the right of the cameras. As she rose, the back of her designer flak jacket flashed the message ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you richer’, written in cheery yellow rhinestones.

  Very LA. Very Hollywood.

  ‘That was complete shit,’ the director snapped at the couple sprawled at her feet. ‘We’ll have to do it all again after lunch.’

  She aimed a glare at the film crew. ‘Everyone else break for thirty minutes.’

  Both actors groaned, then stood with arms extended so the stagehands could unhook them from the wires that gave them superhero leaps. They exchanged sullen glances, which said they were more than ready for the next bout of hostilities.

  Still, the actor playing Quincy the Vampire made sure he was positioned slightly to the rear of his lupine co-star.

  The blonde actress got in the first punch. ‘I don’t know why you expect us to do this all in one long take. Who do you think you are, Martin frigging Scorsese? This is TV, not —’

  The director waded in, fists now on Pilates-lean hips, and fired back her own list of objections to either of the actors actually claiming to have any talent.

  Which, of course, spurred more accusations … all at full volume.

  2

  SOUND STAGE 3

  ‘So this is where the body was discovered,’ I mused.

  We had a bird’s eye view of Sound Stage 3 from the unused control booth high on the back wall.

  ‘Just over there, Miss Dupree.’ The lawyer nodded at the far left corner where black-and-yellow-striped Los Angeles Police Department tape blocked access
.

  A month ago a dead body had been dug out of that hole in the cement floor.

  The man, Earl Curtis, had been missing since 1939.

  Shelby Bloom, the lawyer acting for the family of the deceased, had asked me to take the case.

  I’m Kannon Dupree, a private investigator licensed to operate in the state of California. And sure, I’m twenty-three, but I’ve already spent more years knee-deep in the sad and bad side of life than most people do in their entire existence.

  Tough times make a good detective … Nothing shocks me and I never give up.

  ‘All these years Earl’s been completely encased in cement, cocooned in an airtight seal that prevented decay,’ stated Bloom. ‘Earl was so well preserved that at first the workmen thought he was a misplaced prop from the TV show.’

  That sounded weird — a dead body is a dead body after all … But then he was dug up right next to Wizard’s Cemetery, the main set of Teen Scream, the hot new retro-horror TV series.

  It was set in the 1930s in a town called Bogeyman’s Hollow and, as far as I could tell, was a supernatural soap opera … a glistening crest on the wave of nostalgia that was sweeping the entertainment industry. But this was the first I’d ever seen of the show. I just don’t have the spare time or the inclination. I deal with enough real horror in my day-to-day life without letting the staged kind take up my few hours of freedom between work and collapsing into bed.