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Junior.”
    “Carl Laemmle’s son.”
    Markov nodded.
    “In my research that led me to you,” Quinn said, “I got access to all of Universal’s production notes on Dracula . I read Carl Junior’s memo to Browning, asking him to keep an eye on you, because you were—in his words—‘taking liberties.’”
    The first hint of color came onto Markov’s pale face, but he remained otherwise inscrutable. “Indeed,” he said coolly. “What else did he say?”
    “He said he walked in on you in Lugosi’s dressing room when Lugosi wasn’t there. You were wearing his cape and standing in front of the mirror saying, ‘ I … am Dracula.’ Which of course Lugosi often did between takes to stay in character. Laemmle also said you were ‘haunting’ the Spanish production that was shooting on the same sets at night. That you sometimes spent the night sleeping in Dracula’s coffin. Laemmle was concerned that you would disrupt the production, upset the artists.”
    Quinn didn’t mention another memo he’d discovered when researching Browning’s productions at MGM. During the shooting of London After Midnight , Irving Thalberg had cautioned Browning about Tilton, who had been seen rummaging around in “something even God cannot touch. Lon Chaney’s makeup kit.”
    “Yes,” Markov said defiantly. “I did those things. Being a part of Dracula was the ultimate dream come true for me. I had been obsessed by the Dracula/vampire mystique since reading Bram Stoker’s novel as a boy. I’d probably read the book at least a dozen times. And, yes. While the others were laughing and joking between takes, I took it very seriously. It was real to me. I felt evil on that set. It emanated from Lugosi, because he took his character so seriously. For me, that opening line of his is still the most powerful in the history of cinema:
    “I am … Dracula.”

CHAPTER 5
    Markov delivered the line perfectly. Possibly even more chillingly than Lugosi.
    “I was completely in Lugosi’s thrall. My God, I helped set up the lighting for those famous close-ups of his eyes. Those eyes .”
    Markov’s gaze shifted from Quinn to the empty space behind Quinn’s back, as though Lugosi were back there pulling him in with that mesmeric stare. A few seconds later he blinked, and whatever he’d seen or imagined lost its hold. “There were many such moments,” he went on. “Another was when I helped set up the famous shot looking down on Dwight Frye in the hold, and he gives that maniacal laugh.”
    “An iconic shot. Arguably the creepiest laugh in cinema history. Did it seem that way at the time?”
    “Of course, we didn’t think of it in those terms, but yes. It was chilling. Give Dwight Frye credit. That laugh was his invention. He was a highly dedicated stage actor whose star had been rising on Broadway. One critic had compared him to Barrymore. Tod had told him that, for that shot, they needed the insane look and laugh of a person becoming a vampire, a good man who had been turned into something evil, and that’s what Dwight came up with.
    “And Lugosi. His very presence in that role was chilling. And not just because he had the look and the voice. None of that would have mattered if he hadn’t been the dedicated actor he was, who took his role so seriously. Some of the other actors made fun of him standing in front of the mirror during breaks, practicing his entrance line: ‘I am … Dracula.’ But that’s why it’s remembered as one of the most famous moments in cinema history, while their careers are entirely forgotten. Lugosi wasn’t just hitting his mark and saying his lines. He knew he was playing a role he was born to play. My experience on Dracula was the most powerful of my life. It haunts me to this day.”
    With a move obviously perfected through long practice, he swirled and drank his brandy, as though anesthetizing eighty-year-old ghosts.
    “When Dracula turned out to be a smash, studios realized there was big money