Death Wears a Beauty Mask and Other Stories Read Free

taller . . . probably five or six pounds heavier but it looked good. He’d been warning Alexandra that you could overdo the stringbean look.
    Janice was protesting. “Oh, I’m nothing like Alexandra. Well, there’s just no comparison.” Next to Alexandra’s chiseled beauty she had always felt like a peasant. “Do you know where my sister is?” she demanded.
    As she finished the question, she realized that simultaneously Grant Wilson had been asking one of her. He’d said, “I hope you’re bringing news of Alexandra.”
    Grant studied the narrowing of Michael Broad’s eyes, the crushing disappointment in the girl’s face. He felt the muscles in his own throat constrict.
    â€œLet’s all sit down.” He waved his hand toward the sofa. They sank into it and he decided to jump right into the subject they’d come to discuss.
    â€œI’m not going to pull any punches,” he said. “I’m worried about Alexandra. I wasn’t at first . . . for reasons I’ll explain. Quite frankly I thought it was just possible that she’d made arrangements to join you, my dear.” He nodded to Janice.
    Mike leaned forward. “Mr. Wilson, when was the last time you saw Alexandra?”
    For an instant Grant had the feeling he was on a witness stand. There was something professional about the way the question came. He looked directly at Mike.
    â€œThree days ago, on Monday evening, a group of us returned from Venice on a chartered plane. We had gone to Europe to do television commercials and photography for a very important new campaign featuring Alexandra. As you may know, Fowler is one of the largest cosmetic companies in the world, on the level of Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubenstein. Beauty Mask is a new product of the company. Very simply, it’s probably the most exciting new product in the cosmetic industry . . . which I might add is a multibillion-dollar business.”
    He nodded to Janice. “As this young lady will probably verify, some days a girl just doesn’t look her best. She may have circles under her eyes from being out half the night or studying late, or she may have tension lines in her face. There are any number of creams on the market to hide those lines and shadows. Beauty Mask is different. It simply eliminates them. Facial masks are usually messy to put on and have to stay on for half an hour at least to be effective. Beauty Mask comes in a jar. You rub it on your face, as you would cold cream, and it hardens in seconds. Leave it on while showering, wash it off with warm water and a cloth, and your face will look as though you’ve spent a week at Maine Chance. I can’t be sufficiently enthusiastic.”
    â€œBut what has this to do with Alexandra?” Janice demanded.
    Grant’s tone suggested he was not used to being interrupted. “Very simply this. In an unusual arrangement, my modeling agency was chosen to provide the models and to oversee the implementation of the Beauty Mask introduction. We’ve prepared a saturation series of magazine ads and television commercials. The client deferred to my suggestion that Alexandra be the model for the entire campaign. In terms of television residuals alone, the booking is worth a fortune to her. However, because of the amount of money Fowler has allocated for this campaign, the Beauty Mask people are incredibly demanding. We’ve already had to redo several of the commercials at great expense. The one we just completed in Venice was quite difficult.We had weather problems . . . camera problems . . . and Alexandra just doesn’t look that great in it. As a result, Alexandra was very tired and rather uptight when we got off the plane. I was rushing to a dinner engagement. My baggage came out first. I grabbed it and ran. When I heard she was missing, I thought she was someplace like Gurney’s in Montauk