The Prima - Chapter Three
Dan and Trixie walked through the theatre as the rehearsal proceeded. Dan stuck next to Katarina until she was on stage, with Trixie moving around backstage. They watched for booby traps or overeager fans, but the performance went smoothly. Dan had a list of times when Katarina would be onstage, and he met her at the wing to escort her off.
Upon Trixie’s arrival, they had quickly done a sweep for lurking fans, and Dan had checked the first few rows of the seats for bombs. The ushers had begun to arrive, then the ticket takers, and the private investigators quickly realized there were way too many access points for the two of them to cover.
Instead, Trixie roved the entire backstage area, while Dan stayed within several feet of Katarina. She wasn’t allowed to go to her dressing room or the bathroom until he swept the room. Neither was happy with the arrangement but Dan wasn’t going to slack off on his duty. Trixie had brought their tech to keep in touch discreetly, and Dan resisted the urge to rub his ear. The tiny mic in it always irritated him. The clear spiral cord rested against his neck. He looked forward to the day when they could afford the wireless version.
The prima PITA didn’t eat much, but every bottle handed to her, he inspected. He insisted she only drink from brand new bottles of water. While he hated single-use plastic and its impact on the environment, it was the only way to guarantee her water hadn’t been poisoned.
The tall, willowy blonde shooting daggers at Katarina didn’t go unnoticed. Dan made sure she didn’t get close to Katarina unless they were onstage. It wouldn’t take much to “fall” into someone and injure her enough that she wouldn’t be able to dance, potentially bumping her off the ramp or stage stairs. A quick question confirmed the blonde, Angela, was the understudy.
“She’s been jealous of me since day one,” Katarina sniffed. “She is but a child and she cannot understudy me. She lacks the discipline I have, not to mention the talent!”
Dan didn’t think the blonde was much younger than Katarina, but kept quiet. The temperamental prima seemed to have one mood—bitchy. He had very briefly dated a woman like that. Bitchy and arrogant. By the end of the second week, he ended it. Life was too short to be so miserable, and infect others with it.
And the prima’s superior attitude appeared to be her general attitude, Dan discovered, as the warmup went on. There was no love loss between Katarina and all of her fellow dancers. The few that did speak to her were cold in their approach. Most ignored her.
Trixie had gone up into the rafters over the stage, checking the sandbag ropes to ensure they were in place and intact. There was no way to block the area from anyone going up, so Dan tried to keep an eye on the ladder as well as Katarina.
“Danno, it’s getting full in here,” Trixie’s voice came into his ear. “There’s a dozen ushers in addition to another 6 ticket takers. Keep your eyes peeled.”
Frances rushed up to Dan, wiping at his face with his ever-present handkerchief.
“Any news? How’s it going?”
“No news is good news,” Dan told him, his eyes following Katarina as she stepped away from the barre and began another series of stretches. Watching her whirl around on her toes had made him dizzy and his toes hurt in sympathy.
Francis waved a handful of papers. “Here’s some of the information you wanted.”
“Thanks,” Dan took it. He turned to Francis. “Is the timeline in here?”
“Yes, of all the incidents.”
“Good. Let’s start with you. Where were you when each incident happened and where were you in the hours leading up to each?”
Francis gaped at Dan.
“Are you serious?” he demanded. “I’m a suspect?”
“Everyone is,” Dan shrugged.
"That’s ridiculous!”
“Mr. Smith,” Dan said patiently. “I have a very limited amount of time to solve this case and keep Miss Rosolova safe. I need your full cooperation or else I’m wasting my time here. As it is, my partner is here to help out, because we have to interview the entire troupe, starting with you, on top of securing this place with numerous entrances and potential suspects. So yeah, you and every other person connected to her is a suspect, and every person who works in this theatre is a suspect, because they come in contact with you and Miss Rosolova.”
Frances swallowed. Closing his eyes as if to help remember, he began to rattle off where he was at each incident. Dan made some notes, turning on the “Record” function on his phone.
“Have you had any conflicts with her?” he asked.
Frances mopped his shiny forehead. “Who hasn’t? You may have noticed, she’s not exactly popular around here. That tantrum yesterday? That’s typical. She’s always like that.”
“Enemies?”
“Again, take your pick. There’s Angela, her understudy. Angela is aging out as well, and at this rate, there’s little chance she’ll get to be prima unless she joins another troupe – but frankly, she’s too old. The only chance she really has to make it to prima is if Katarina isn’t around.”
“Who else? Her partner on stage sure didn’t seem fond of her.”
“She and Rick are like oil and water. They had a brief fling a couple years ago that they think I don’t know about, but it fizzled quickly and since then, she’s been a real bitch to him. Which of course makes him angry and he fights back. It’s like having toddlers, the way they squabble!”
Dan nodded his acknowledgement. Based on what Dan had witnessed, Frances was exactly right in his description of their behavior.
“Keep going. What about the girl who died?”
“Krissi? Super sweet. New to the troupe. I don’t know that she and Katarina interacted at all.”
“The sandwich recipient?”
Frances sighed. “Katarina beat her out for prima a few years ago. Carla. They both ordered similar sandwiches, Carla ate Katarina’s. I don’t know what was wrong with it, but Carla was sick for three days. Had it been Katarina that ate it, Angela would’ve had her chance at a shot for the Chicago run.”
Dan shook his head. “Others?”
“Mr. Mangan, I’m telling you, pretty much every troupe member has a reason to dislike her. Katarina made no bones about stepping on everyone to get to the top, and she didn’t do it gracefully. She’s cold and makes nasty remarks to everyone. She can’t let anyone have a moment in the sun or spotlight, and makes sure she cuts down their confidence.”
“How do you feel about her, personally?” Dan asked.
“I can’t stand her,” he admitted. “She treats me like I’m dirt, and always has. But she’s the star, and she does sell tickets. The Board is admittedly debating on renewing her contract, but as long as she brings in the money and sponsors, they’ll probably sign her again. It always comes down to the bottom line.”
“How old is she?”
“Twenty-eight. She’s got two years maximum before the Board really looks at someone else. Prima ballerinas over the age of thirty are unheard of. There’s always going to be someone younger, someone better, someone cheaper.”
“So, she pushes herself pretty hard?”
Frances nodded. “They all do but she’s the most dedicated. Primas have to be. It’s not just determination, it’s talent. A Prima has to have the drive, talent and dedication. Not every troupe has one, they’re somewhat of a rare commodity. Primas drive themselves from an early age, it’s not unheard of to start at five or six, and skip all the childhood stuff because it’s all about the dance.”
“Anyone else in the troupe have the potential?” Dan asked. “Other than Angela, who you said is too old? And Carla?”
Frances sighed. “Krissi did. The young lady who passed away. She was new to the troupe but you could see it. Carla kept wanting to reaudition and be considered, but the Board was happy with the ticket sales Katarina brought in. Carla seemed to lose motivation after that, and stopped trying for the top spot. She leads the corps now. Marie dreams about it but she just doesn’t have it in her.”
“Is Marie aware of this? That she doesn’t have ‘it’?”
“I don’t know. All of these girls come with ego and appetite. They’re told their whole lives they can do it. Then once they get into a real competition for roles, they realize they’re not so good after all.”
“Before the incidents started, was there talk of letting Katarina go?”
Frances nodded, mopping his head some more. “I may have had too much to drink in the bar one night, and let something along those lines slip to one of the others.”
“One? Who?” Dan asked.
“Julie. She has no love for Katarina and as soon as I realized what I had said, I begged her to keep it between us. She agreed.”
“That’s a new name. But no chance of her taking the Prima spot?”
Frances shook his head. “She’s a solid corps dancer, but will never rise above the second line. Even if she told Katarina, she has nothing to gain.”
“Except pissing off the prima,” Dan pointed out.
Frances acknowledged the statement with tilt of his head.
“Anything else you can think of?” Dan asked.
Frances shook his head. “Not right now.”
“All right, thanks. Don’t be surprised if I have more questions.”
“Of course,” Frances sighed.
***
“She’s a bitch,” Angela snarled. The willowy blonde didn’t stop in her warm-up movements and stretches, though she eyed Dan appreciatively at first when he approached. With one hand on the bar, she was rising on her toes and then back down, stretching her arms and legs in gentle, fluid movements.
Trixie was guarding Katarina while Dan made the rounds for interviews. He needed a break from the prima and he didn’t mind talking to the women at all. And they didn’t seem to mind talking to him.
“Aren’t most primas?” Dan asked.
“Yeah, but I’ve worked with some of the best. She’s washed up! If she’s lucky, she might have a year left!”
“I presume you’d take her place?”
She gave him a dark look as she stretched out her leg, narrowly missing the kick to his groin. Dan took a step backwards.
“Unless that fat toad Frances tries to bring in another one!”
“Are you considered prima level?”
She grunted. “Of course I am.”
“Then why stay here? Why not find another troupe? My understanding is that primas are on the rare side. Why not go where you’re appreciated?”
“I’m too old,” she said bitterly. “Everyone is obsessed with younger primas, no more than twenty-one. I’m not old as Katarina, but starting over now is difficult. Frances all but promised me the prima position when I joined, and now it’s too late to try elsewhere!”
“You realize I have to ask your whereabouts on some specific occasions.”
“I hate that bitch but I’m not trying to murder her!”
Dan raised one eyebrow. He hadn’t said anything about murder. How much information about the incidents was common knowledge?
“You have the strongest motive,” he pointed out. As her left leg stretched out, toes flexing, Dan idly wondered if she was as limber as the ballerina he had dated previously. Focus, Mangan, he thought.
Angela laughed. “Stronger than a jilted lover? Because she and Rick fizzled out fast, especially after she told everyone he was a two-pump chump, and now none of the girls will hook up with him.”
Dan wondered if he had stepped into a soap opera. “Who else hates her as much as you and Rick?”
“Who doesn’t?” was the snide answer. “Rick would much rather have me as partner, just ask him!”
Dan made a mental note to find out if Angela was sleeping with Rick, despite Katarina’s claim about his manhood.
After Angela, Dan moved on to Rick. The premier danseur was in a foul mood. Dan found the two stars in a shouting match, Trixie standing nearby, watching, looking both fascinated and repulsed.
“What’s got them wound up this time?” he asked quietly.
“Sounds like an argument they’ve had a thousand times,” Trixie answered. “They call each other names, she accuses him of trying to drop her, he calls her a washed-up hag. You get the picture.”
“Well, maybe if you weren’t distracted by blondie over there, you wouldn’t have missed your step, you clumsy oaf!” Katarina shouted.
“You should try keeping your legs closed while that PI is around, you overdone cow!”
“Oh boy,” Trixie muttered under her breath.
Dan sighed.
“Well, maybe I’ll just tell her about your tiny little dick! Because I’m certain he is hung like a horse and could more than satisfy me!”
Dan and Trixie both winced.
“You’ve poisoned my image to everyone within the troupe, spreading your filthy lies about me!”
“They’re all true!”
“Jesus, can we leave yet?” Trixie whispered.
“I wish.” Dan was seriously regretting taking the case.
“Too bad there isn’t a hose we can turn on them and break this up,” Trixie commented.
“How does anyone stand listening to this all day?” Dan asked quietly.
“We don’t. That’s why a lot of rehearsals are separate until it starts to come together, and we warm up in different rooms. Dress rehearsal starts in about 15 minutes, when everyone is together,” a voice behind them said. “Those two do a lot of practice on their own, so we don’t have to listen to it all day or we’d all quit.”
They turned to find one of the ballerinas behind them, her hair pulled back in a severe bun, her makeup already in place. “But don’t break it up, they always perform best when they’re both pissed. The need to perform better than each other kind of takes over and drives them. They’re always trying to show up the other. It makes for great tension and drama onstage as well as off.”
“And you are?” Trixie asked.
“Candy Schute, corps dancer.”
“Have you been with the troupe long?” Dan asked.
“Four years. I’ll never be a prima, but I get to travel and dance, and it keeps me away from my parents pestering me to be an accountant,” she laughed.
“I can understand that,” Trixie said easily, playing along. “So, you’ve seen a lot around here, huh?”
Candy nodded. “Yeah. The prima before Katarina was really nice. Like, freakishly so, but she clearly realized people respond better to manners than temper tantrums. That one…” Candy shook her head. “She came in like a wrecking ball from day one. Josie was still the prima, but Katarina set her sights on being prima and Josie was gone not long after. Especially after she found Rick and Katarina going at it in his dressing room. Josie thought Rick was hers.”
“Going at it, as in sex?” Dan asked.
Candy nodded and took a long drink of her water bottle. “Yeah, Rick was already the premier danseur and he felt it was his privilege to slime on all the women and get all the free sex he wanted. He and Josie had been a thing for a few months, and then Katarina came in. First, she stole Rick, then she stole the prima position. After that Josie split fast.”
Dan and Trixie exchanged a glance. Miss Schute was clearly the troupe gossip.
“Making friends from the start, eh?” Dan asked.
Candy snorted in laughter. “Yeah, I mean, Francis is such a wuss, we all figured she bullied him into giving her the position. She certainly doesn’t have any charm. Either that or it was the old casting couch.”
Dan suppressed a shudder at the image but Trixie didn’t have his poker face.
“Right? That’s what we all said,” Candy shook her head. “So much grossness there.”
“If something were to happen to Katarina, Angela takes her place, correct?” Dan knew the answer but he needed her to focus.
“Yep. Angela was set to take the prima spot behind Josie after Katarina finagled her way into the job. It’s been war between them ever since. Katarina was only supposed to be here a year, but she’s stuck around.”
“Does it pay that well?” Trixie asked.
“Nah. Well, maybe for the prima. Mostly I think it’s because she’s the Queen around here, and while primas are always Queens, not all troupe managers tolerate it. She can bully Francis into whatever she wants. Another manager might not be so accommodating. Plus, at this point, she’s only got a couple good years left and then she’ll end up teaching, like most primas. Though given her ego, she’ll have to be forced off stage. I have a feeling a woman like that won’t be satisfied with teaching.”
“What’s the process for finding a new prima?” Dan asked.
“It’s really difficult. Basically, the company puts out the notice that they’re auditioning for a new lead ballerina, and then people audition. True primas are pretty rare, but if you want the best talent you find a way to afford it. If you’re lucky, you’ll get an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old who can make true prima status by twenty. Once you do, companies will try to poach you. If you’re a true prima, they throw loads of cash at you, because they’ll make it back in ticket sales.”
Dan made a mental note to research what constituted ‘loads of cash’.
“And Angela has that status?” Trixie asked.
“Well…she would be our prima and she was that good at one time. But honestly, I think she’s lost the drive. She was hoping to take over after that first year Katarina was here. We all expected Katarina to move on. But then she didn’t, so we’re stuck with her at this point, probably until she hits thirty or Francis grows a pair of balls and gets rid of her. These days Angela just likes to throw snark at Katarina and try to get her off balance, no pun intended.”
Before Dan could ask another question, Pierre, the director walked in, followed by the troupe. Rick and Katarina had stopped shouting and were pointedly ignoring each other, warming up at opposite sides of the room.
“Final dress rehearsal time,” Candy said cheerfully.
Dan and Trixie stayed to watch, observing the dancers. Katarina was stone-faced throughout, but to their untrained eyes, performed flawlessly.
“That’s a lot of trust to let someone lift you up like that,” Trixie whispered.
Dan nodded. “Any hesitancy on her part would endanger her. Given how he seems to hate her, that speaks to their level of professionalism. He can’t risk dropping her and ruining his own reputation and a potential lawsuit. She has to know that.”
“Giving her leverage to be a class A bitch,” Trixie murmured.
“Exactly.” Dan nodded, watching the dancers whirl about the stage.
***
Trixie poked around the dressing rooms while Dan stuck to Katarina. The performance would begin shortly, and he would be standing in the wings through the performance, or otherwise at her side while Trixie circulated.
With everyone out of the dressing rooms, Trixie pulled on her latex gloves and began a quick search of lockers and bags. A lot of trust here, she thought, many lockers were not locked, bags left laying around. While Trixie wasn’t sure what she was looking for, she knew she’d know when she found it. It was one thing to trust your troupe, another to trust the staff of the theatre you were performing at.
She wondered if it was unusual to have a mostly female troupe. Rick was the only male, and he had a separate dressing room from Katarina. Dan or Honey would know. Trixie had about as much interest in ballet as watching paint dry. They were the same level of excitement for her.
Finding nothing in the corps dressing room, she hurried over to Rick’s. Rick was a prime suspect, but a search of his room turned up nothing as well.
Trixie let herself into Katarina’s dressing room with the key Dan had given her. She checked for booby traps or other dead animals. On a whim, she searched through Katarina’s bag.
Rifling through makeup and extra clothes, Trixie stopped when she felt the crispy texture through the latex gloves. Shoving the ballet shoes aside, she stared at the paper thin, narrow, crunchy material not longer than an inch and a half. Carefully, she lifted the snakeskin out and stared at it.
“Well, well. You’re certainly not on a shoe or purse,” Trixie muttered. Reaching into her pocket she retrieved one of the empty evidence bags she always carried and dropped the delicate skin into it.
Had Katarina placed the snake herself? It was already dead, as Dan had confirmed. But where would one be able to get their hands on a dead copperhead in the middle of winter?
“Dan, I may have something,” Trixie spoke into her wrist mic.
“Copy that. Meet stage left in ten.”
“Copy.”
Trixie continued to search the room for more clothes but turned up nothing else. Locking the door behind her, she hurried to meet to Dan.
***
He was both pleased and displeased at her find. “So now she’s a suspect, too,” he murmured.
Trixie nodded. “I’m going to look into where she was able to get a dead snake in winter later. Surely she couldn’t have arranged to the get the wrong sandwich, or the cab and whatnot.”
“Sounds good. Go circulate, we’ll figure this out. I went out with a woman a couple of times last year who works at the zoo, I can probably call her.”
“You had a date?” Trixie was surprised.
Dan gave her a dirty look. “I don’t tell you about every date, Trix.”
“Yeah, but usually I know where you are.”
Dan waved his hand at her to shoo her away, and Trixie snickered as she headed to the auditorium.
***
You really can get everything off the internet, Dan thought. There wasn’t time to track this angle on the dead snake.
He watched Katarina and Rick spinning around the stage. They were good, he thought. They might despise each other off-stage but Candy was right, they did bring the heat together on it.
He kept glancing up. Right before the show, Trixie had gone up into the rafters, verifying there were no potentially cut ropes or sandbag lines. That didn’t mean someone couldn’t get up there during the performance, but there was no setup.
The corps lined up to go onstage, and he stepped back out of the way. One of the dancers, a pretty brunette, gave him a smile that offered more. Trixie would kill him for sleeping with a client, he thought, if took the woman up on the offer. And he knew Trixie would find out one way or another, she always did. He just smiled back at the dancer.
He watched the corps swarm around Katarina, and a few minutes later, she was off the stage as they took over.
Dan handed her a towel, which she took wordlessly, and a new water bottle.
“You look good out there,” he offered.
“Thanks. I thought Rick was going to drop me at one point.”
“Glad he didn’t.”
Her eyes softened on him as she really looked at him. “See any looming disasters?”
“No,” he answered. “But it’s the ones in the shadows that concern me.”
He followed her to a practice barre, where she began stretching and flexing. He knew she had to keep her muscles warm in between her times onstage.
“I don’t suppose you’re any closer to finding out who did this.”
“We have some leads.”
She snorted. “Typical cop answer.”
“We’re not cops.”
“No, I suppose you’re not,” was the snide reply.
Dan just shook his head. For a pretty woman, she definitely had an ugly side.
***
After the performance and cheering, Dan escorted Katarina back to her dressing room. Trixie had given him the key and he unlocked the door to let her in. She started to protest but he cut her off.
“No alone time. Let me quickly check the bathroom.” He rubbed his hand on his jeans, ignoring the sudden itchy feeling.
The bathroom was clear but Dan glanced at his hand which rapidly increasing in both heat and itchiness.
Katarina had stepped behind a folding screen to remove her clothes.
Dan flexed his hand but the burning was intensifying. He brought his wrist to his lips. “Trix, get to Katarina’s room now, and don’t touch the door handle with your hand! Bring ice if you can!”
“Copy.”
Less than two minutes later, Trixie was there, followed by Francis. Dan had had his hand under the cold water in the bathroom, and Trixie was careful to use a latex glove to open the door.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
Katarina looked up from her makeup table. “What are all of you doing here?”
“Someone put something on the door. It might just be itching powder.” He held out his hand for Trixie to look at it. Francis gasped; Katarina’s eyes widened.
“Good lord, it’s swelling up like crazy. We should get this looked at, Danno.”
“I feel fine. It just itches like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Itching powder wouldn’t make your hand swell. Remember Mart’s phase with that?”
Dan grimaced at the memory, then laughed. “Dumping it in his gym shorts sure cured him of that phase.”
Trixie snickered as she googled on her phone.
“That…that was meant for me, wasn’t it?” Katarina demanded. “Everyone knows I don’t give my key out!”
“Probably,” Dan said grimly.
Frances mopped his glistening face with his handkerchief.
“Who was in here?” she shrieked.
“Calm down. Trix?”
“I wasn’t here in long but I had gloves on. I wouldn’t have picked it up. Francis, who else has access to this room?”
“Just the building manager, and me. But I…couldn’t find my key earlier…” his voice trailed off as his eyes widened.
“Well, isn’t that convenient!” Katarina yelled. “You go and lose my key and someone breaks in here! Who knows what else there could be waiting to get me?”
“I’m going to get a sample of that powder,” Trixie said, taking a bag from her pocket.
“You two stand right here and don’t move. And stop yelling,” Dan admonished Katarina.
Katarina burst into tears. “Someone hates me...hates me so much they want me dead! Francis, how could you let happen? Am I so washed up that I’m being driven out?”
Dan rolled her eyes at Trixie at the woman’s melodramatics. He could tell Trixie also thought this was a common theme with these two. Francis tried to console Katarina and Dan began a quick search of the room. Trixie joined him once she had the sample. Trixie rifled through Katarina’s bag.
“I’d say it’s probably safer to not wear any of this,” she told the ballerina. “We have no way to test for this stuff and it’s not visible to the naked eye.”
“I can’t wear this all night!”
“You won’t. Trix?”
“Give me your hotel key, I’ll go get your stuff,” Trixie said.
“Why can’t I just go back there?” Katarina demanded.
“Because if they got to your stuff here, there’s no telling what they’ll do there,” Trixie said impatiently. “We’ll take you somewhere safe. Now where’s your key?”
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Author’s Notes
- HUGE thanks to Trish taking this on to edit!
- Word Count, 4,598
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