She copied down most of the data. She studied it. She flew to Chicago and looked through Karyn’s belongings. Kup and Essee kept twelve boxes.
Karyn Two dug through them. She read Karyn’s datebooks. She read fan-mag stories on Andy Prine. She started writing journal entries to her aunt.
She caught the psychic-twin bit full-on. She caught the ugly belief in appearances that took Karyn down and tossed it straight back at herself. She saw herself as Kaiyn reborn. She got stone flicking obsessed.
She reread Karyn’s datebooks. She ran “what-if” and “mighthave-been” riffs. She dreamt about Andy Prine.
She loves him. She trusts him. He loves her. He does not act like a shitheel or a killer.
The dreams drove her crazy. Maybe Karyn sent them. Maybe she wanted to absolve Andy. Maybe she was glad that he killed her. Her life was horrible. Maybe death was a treat.
She finished high school. She went to UCLA. She auditioned. She got commercial gigs and guest shots on soaps. Rejections killed her. She felt like the ’62 Karyn. Her OBSESSION ate her alive.
She wrote to a dead woman. She reread her last words and hoarded the details of her life. She kept Karyn’s purse. She fondled her wallet and dried-out cigarettes.
She was born in ’71. She never knew her aunt. She knew she had her mad blood in her veins.
She turned 20. She got a steady gig on The Young and the Restless. She played a pregnant crackhead. She had ratted hair and wore ripped jeans. She cried on cue every day. They shot the show at Beverly and Fairfax. The Monterey Village Apartments stood a mile or so northwest. Andy Prine’s ex-wife worked on the show.
Karen Two loved the work. She loved the whirl that went with it.
Parties and clubs. Access to exciting people. Accommodators and sycophants. Insider status in an insider town. Limos and drugs. Weak, sexy men. Kup’s World–updated and revised for a youth market.
She fell into it. It subsumed her dialogue with a dead woman and thinned out her mad blood.
The pace kept her weight down. Cocaine helped. Hallucinogens undermined her monomania.
She ran through soft and self-obsessed men. “Actors.” “Musicians.” Studs who ran long on looks and “Potential.” Her affairs burned out in similar patterns. The studs revealed themselves fast. Karyn Two possessed good antennae. She majored in Karyn One and minored in Andy Prine and David Lange. She started to put it all together. She built a generational thesis. She connected the dots back to 1963.
It came to her siow. The L.A. scene tempted and diverted her. She put it together over good time.
Mad blood shared. Gifts locked within. Pj.’s and the Crescendo. The Rainbow and the Roxy. Desoxyn and hallucinogens. Weak men and skinny bodies to make them love you. Would-be actors and actors. The actors’ psyche as defined by some actorsavant: “My only regret in life is that I’m not somebody else.”
She put it together siow. Andy Prine types distracted her. She put it together over good time. She made the connections and sealed and severed the bond all in one go.
She walked.
4
Reopening
Karyn Two went by “Kari” now. She was four years out of L.A.
She married a stable guy named Brad. She owned a candle store in Chicago. She put down her bad L.A. habits. She surmounted her eating disorder and maintained a stable and slender weight.
Karyn saved her. The obsession still owned her. She flew out to L.A. to see the murder file.
She spent a week at the Homicide Bureau. She went through the file. Sergeant Bill Stoner studied it with her. Stoner retired in ’94. He spent fourteen years at Sheriff’s Homicide. He remained on the active Reserve.
Kari wanted to rework the case herself. The file provided her with insights and data on the key players. She wanted to find them and interview them.
I met Bill and Kari for dinner. We hogged a booth at the Pacific Dining Car. We discussed the case for three hours.
The consensus at Sheriff’s Homicide: Andy Prine and David Lange remained viable suspects–if it was a homicide to begin with.