Page 24 of 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Forty-Two

The pale reporter looked like he was about to cry. He wasprobably in his early thirties, but right then, he looked all of 12. “I’msorry. It was stupid. I’m sorry. But if you would only let me tell you—”

“Then talk,” Simon said. “We’re standing here, we’relistening. Talk. And it better be good.”

“Okay. Right. Okay.” He cleared his throat. “So I’ve alwaysbeen fascinated by Hollywood scandals. It’s kind of what I write about. Istarted out in high school writing about scandals that happened on movie sets.And then when I actually got a job in LA, it was likethe biggest deal ever for me.”

“We don’t need your life story, Burnet. Cut to the chase.”

“Yeah, okay. Right. Carolyn Pruitt,” he said, and in hisperipheral vision, Simon saw Frannie hug herself. “That was such a huge story,right? And no one ever really knew the whole story.”

He did a mental sweep of his research on Frannie, thenremembered that Carolyn Pruitt had been a minor recurring character on herfirst show, Bright Eyes. Carolyn’s father had been the show’sproducer, Anthony Pruitt, and they’d both died on one horrible night almosttwenty years ago.

“Go on,” Simon said, reaching out to take Frannie’s hand,relieved when she held it tight.

“Yeah, right. Um, so as I’m sure both of you know, Carolynand her father were killed in her bedroom one night when she was fifteen.”

“That bastard was abusing her,” Frannie said. Simon sawtears in her eyes. “You damn well better have something new to tell me, becausethis is not something I want to be revisiting.” She sniffed, then swiped a tearaway. “He used to hit on me, too, if that’s the kind of corroboration you’relooking for. I didn’t know until after the fact that he’d touched her likethat. I—I thought about some of our conversations and realized. But I neverknew at the time.”

Tears were falling freely now, and Simon squeezed her hand.“It wasn’t your fault,” he said.

She looked at him as if he’d just told the biggest lieimaginable. “I should have known.”

“What happened?” he asked gently.

“Apparently her mom—Leslie—walked in when Pruitt was tryingto—Leslie lost her shit and killed them both.” Herthroat was clogged, the words barely able to come out.

“That was the story,” Burnet said. “But there’s more to it.”

Her head snapped up, and her voice was hard and tight whenshe asked, “What are you talking about?”

“You know that her mom was convicted. That they found a gunon her, and everyone believed that she shot him, then herself. But shesurvived.”

Frannie’s hand tightened around Simon’s fingers. “Go on.”

“She pled guilty by reason of insanity and ended up in afacility. Recently, she was allowed to move to an assisted living community. Iinterviewed her there. She told me that there was someone else there thatnight. She said that she did walk in to Carolyn’sbedroom, and she saw Carolyn trying to fight off Pruitt. Pruitt shoved herback, and he slammed her head hard against the wall. She passed out.”

Frannie was squeezing Simon’s hand so hard he was surprisedthat the bones didn’t crunch. He wanted to ask her what was going on in herhead, but Burnet barreled on.

“According to Leslie, Pruitt freaked out. He started toshake Carolyn. Saying he hadn’t meant to hurt her. And then she came to. She’d only been knocked out.”

“What?” Frannie looked between Simon and the reporter, herface ghostly pale. “He revived her?”

“That’s what the mom said,” Burnet confirmed. “She was inthis weird little alcove that separated Carolyn’s room from the main hallway.The room had double doors that opened onto the pool, and I guess that’s howCarolyn wanted everyone to come and go. So she had furniture and stuff in theother entrance way. Mostly blocked. But it was still useable. And Leslie wasstanding there, mostly hidden in the shadows.”

“Carolyn was alive?” Frannie had spoken the words, but hervoice didn’t sound like hers. She sounded lost. Alone. And terribly, terriblysad.

“Yeah. And Leslie was about to run to her daughter, but thensomeone else came into the room.”

“What? Who?”

“I can’t say. That’s the part I need you to corroborate. Buthe started screaming that Carolyn was a slut. That shebelonged to him. That he’d always known that she was pulling strings, trying toclimb her way up the acting ladder by fucking herstepfather.”

“That’s stupid,” Frannie said. “Carolyn didn’t even want tobe an actress. She was only in the show because her stepfather wanted her tobe.”

“I’m just telling you what her mom told me.”

“So then what happened?”

“The guy came in, and he shot Pruitt in the back of thehead. Then he went over to Carolyn, and he told her he loved her, and he toldher that she’d betrayed him, and he smacked her head against the wall onceagain. That time, he killed her.” The guy swallowed, took a deep breath.“Leslie must have made a sound, because he found her.She tried to get away, but she tripped, and the guy caught her. He put the gunin her hand, then fired it toward Pruitt. He wanted gunpowder on her fingers.”