Norah Hadley was a movie buff. Judd had seen a collec tion of movie magazines at their house and had kidded Peter about them. Norah had spent the entire evening defending Hollywood. He picked up the receiver and dialed.
Norah answered the phone.
"Hello," said Judd.
"Judd!" Her voice was warm and friendly. "You called to tell me when you're coming to dinner."
"We'll do it soon."
"You'd better," she said. " I promised Ingrid. She's beauti ful."
Judd was sure she was. But not in the way Anne was beau tiful.
"You break another date with her and we'll be at war with Sweden."
"It won't happen again."
"Are you all over your accident?"
"Oh, yes."
"What a horrible thing that was."
There was a hesitant note in Norah's voice. "Judd...about Christmas Day. Peter and I would like you to share it with us. Please."
He felt the old familiar tightening in his chest. They went through this every year. Peter and Norah were his dearest friends, and they hated it that he spent every Christmas alone, walking among strangers, losing himself in alien crowds, driving his body to keep moving until he was too exhausted to think. It was as though he were celebrating some terrible black mass for the dead, letting his grief take posses sion of him and tear him apart, lacerating and shriving him in some ancient ritual over which he had no control. You're dramatizing it, he told himself wearily.
"Judd..."
He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, Norah." He knew how much she cared. "Perhaps next Christmas."
She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice. "Sure. I'll tell Pete."
"Thanks." He suddenly remembered why he had called. "Norah - do you know who Teri Washburn is?"
"The Teri Washburn? The star? Why do you ask?"
"I - I saw her on Madison Avenue this morning."
"In person? Honestly?" She was like an eager child. "How did she look? Old? Young? Thin? Fat?"
"She looked fine. She used to be a pretty big star, didn't she?"
"Pretty big? Teri Washburn was the biggest - and in every way, if you know what I mean."
"Whatever made a girl like that leave Hollywood?"
"She didn't exactly leave. She was booted out."
So Teri had told him the truth. Judd felt better.
"You doctors keep your heads buried in the sand, don't you? Teri Washburn was involved in one of the hottest scan dals Hollywood ever had."
"Really?" said Judd. "What happened?"
"She murdered her boyfriend."
Chapter Twelve
IT HAD STARTED to snow again. From the street fifteen floors below, the sounds of traffic floated up, muted by the white, cottony flakes dancing in the arctic wind. In a lighted office across the street he saw the blurred face of a secretary streaming down the window.
"Norah - are you certain?"
"When it comes to Hollywood, you're talking to a walking encyclopedia, love. Teri was living with the head of Con tinental Studios but she was keeping an assistant director on the side. She caught him cheating on her one night and she stabbed him to death. The head of the studio pulled a lot of strings and paid off a lot of people and it was hushed up and called an accident. Part of the arrangement was that she get out of Hollywood and never come back. And she never has."
Judd stared at the phone numbly.
"Judd, are you there?"
"I'm here."
"You sound funny."
"Where did you hear all this?"
"Hear it? It was in all the newspapers and fan magazines. Everybody knew about it."
Except him. "Thanks, Norah," he said. "Say hello to Pe ter." He hung up.
So that was the "casual incident." Teri Washburn had murdered a man and had never mentioned it to him. And if she had murdered once...
Thoughtfully he picked up a pad and wrote down "Teri Washburn."
The phone rang. Judd picked it up. "Dr. Stevens..."
"Just checking to see if you're all right." It was Detective Angeli. His voice was still hoarse with a cold.
A feeling of gratitude filled Judd. Someone was on his side.
"Anything new?"
Judd hesitated. He could see no point to keeping quiet about the bomb.
"They tried again." Judd told Angeli about Moody and the bomb that had been planted in his car. "That should convince McGreavy," he concluded.
"Where's the bomb?" Angeli's voice was excited.
Judd hesitated. "It's been dismantled."
"Its been what?" Angeli asked incredulously. "Who did that?"
"Moody. He didn't think it mattered."
"Didn't matter! What does he think the Police Depart ment is for? We might have been able to tell who planted that bomb just by looking at it. We keep a file of M.O.s."
"M.O.s?"
"Modus operandi. People fall into habit patterns. If they do something one way the first time, chances are they'll keep doing it the same - I don't have to tell you."
"No," said Judd thoughtfully. Surely Moody had known that. Had he some reason for not wanting to show the bomb to McGreavy?
"Dr. Stevens - how did you hire Moody?"
"I found him in the yellow pages." It sounded ridiculous even as he said it.
He could hear Angeli swallow. "Oh. Then you really don't know a damn thing about him."
"I know I trust him. Why?"
"Right now," Angeli said, "I don't think you should trust anybody."
"But Moody couldn't possibly be connected with any of this. My God! I picked him out of the phone book, at ran dom."