One Extra Corpse

Table of Contents
 Cover
 Also by Barbara Hambly From Severn House
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Epigraph
 Chapter One
 Chapter Two
 Chapter Three
 Chapter Four
 Chapter Five
 Chapter Six
 Chapter Seven
 Chapter Eight
 Chapter Nine
 Chapter Ten
 Chapter Eleven
 Chapter Twelve
 Chapter Thirteen
 Chapter Fourteen
 Chapter Fifteen
 Chapter Sixteen
 Chapter Seventeen
 Chapter Eighteen
 Chapter Nineteen
 Chapter Twenty
 Chapter Twenty-One
 Chapter Twenty-Two
 Chapter Twenty-Three 
 Also by Barbara Hambly from Severn House
 The James Asher vampire novels
 BLOOD MAIDENS
 THE MAGISTRATES OF HELL
 THE KINDRED OF DARKNESS
 DARKNESS ON HIS BONES
 PALE GUARDIAN
 PRISONER OF MIDNIGHT
 The Benjamin January series
 DEAD AND BURIED
 THE SHIRT ON HIS BACK
 RAN AWAY
 GOOD MAN FRIDAY
 CRIMSON ANGEL
 DRINKING GOURD
 MURDER IN JULY
 COLD BAYOU
 LADY OF PERDITION
 HOUSE OF THE PATRIARCH
 DEATH AND HARD CIDER
 Silver Screen historical mysteries
 SCANDAL IN BABYLON 
 ONE EXTRA CORPSE
 Barbara Hambly
 
 This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
 First world edition published in Great Britain and the USA in 2023
 by Severn House, an imprint of Canongate Books Ltd,
 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE.
 Trade paperback edition first published in Great Britain and the USA in 2023
 by Severn House, an imprint of Canongate Books Ltd.
 This eBook edition first published in 2023 by Severn House Digital
 an imprint of Severn House Publishers Limited 
 severnhouse.com
 Copyright © Barbara Hambly, 2023
 All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. The right of Barbara Hambly to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
 A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
 ISBN-13: 978-0-7278-5079-9 (cased)
 ISBN-13: 978-1-4483-1031-9 (trade paper)
 ISBN-13: 978-1-4483-1023-4 (e-book)
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is purely coincidental.
 This ebook produced by
 Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Falkirk,
 Stirlingshire, Scotland. 
 For Mom 
 Special thanks to the staff of the Margaret Herrick Library, And to John Bengtson (silentlocations.com) 
 ONE
 ‘Oh, Howie!’ Emma Blackstone gasped, raising astonished eyes from the band of diamonds on its velvet bed, to the tender gaze of the man who sat so close at her side.
 ‘It’s Harry,’ he whispered, and bowed his dark head over her hand in a passionate kiss. Two tables away, the dumpy, motherly-looking columnist for one of the Hearst newspapers looked aside quickly, feigning fascination with the dancers jigging to ‘Shimmy Like My Sister Kate’ on the Café Montmartre’s highly polished floor.
 ‘Oh, Harry!’ Emma gasped obligingly.
 ‘I want you to marry me, Emma.’ Harry Garfield lifted the bracelet from its case, clasped it around her wrist. A lifetime of yearning, of promise, smoldered in the long-lashed brown eyes. ‘You’re the only woman I’ve ever known who—’
 ‘I can’t!’ Face averted, Emma fumbled at the catch, startled as much by the declaration (it was, after all, only the second time she’d met the man) as by the probable cost of the jewels (which even to her inexperienced eye looked like real diamonds). ‘You know I can’t.’
 The powerful fingers stayed hers, drew her back towards him. ‘You don’t have to answer me tonight.’
 ‘I can answer you right this very—’
 He rose from his chair, and with peremptory grace drew her to her feet. His warm hand in the small of her back, he guided her on to the dance floor under its fantastic canopy of blue satin.
 The Hearst columnist (Mrs Barton? Preston? Emma had heard her name around the studio … ) and her sleek and chinless companion nearly knocked heads, pulling themselves back into an upright position from where they’d been leaning to overhear.
 The band switched to ‘Who’s Sorry Now?’. Pasadena debutantes and the flapper daughters of railroad magnates devoured Harry Garfield with covetous eyes as he took Emma’s slim, awkward height into his arms for a fox trot, the bracelet twinkling in the myriad brilliance of the chandeliers. A tall brunette girl in yellow satin – and half a galaxy of diamonds of her own – aimed a bosomy sigh in Garfield’s direction as she was led out by a paunchy gentleman with a nose like a mangel-wurzel and a stare that would have made a cash register appear sympathetic.
 Emma had to admit that her partner was a superb dancer. His lead was firm, his touch light, he knew what he was doing and it was no surprise that hundreds of thousands of women were passionately in love with him … despite having never met him in their lives. Such, she reflected, was the magic of Hollywood. Her mother, her childhood governess, and every single one of her aunts would have expired from outrage at the thought of her dancing with such a person … 
 Had they not all expired from the influenza, four years ago, that had followed in the wake of the war.
 Later, on the way downstairs to where a studio limousine waited for her on Hollywood Boulevard, Emma touched the bracelet and whispered, ‘I’ll send this back to you …’
 ‘Just slip it to me tomorrow at the studio.’ Harry kissed her hand again with an air of tenderest affection, then raised his eyes to