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take too long. Charlotte asked me to make sure you know what happened today. With Lauren.”
    “Who?”
    “Lauren Richmond. This season’s ingenue.”
    “Oh, right. What about her?”
    “She didn’t show up for rehearsal on time, so Simon had Charlotte check on her, and she found her in her room, sick, so an ambulance was called and now she’s in the hospital.”
    “Good Lord! Why am I just hearing about this now? Is she all right? What’s the matter with her?”
    Aaron shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    “Did someone from the theater company go with her to the hospital?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Right, well, I’ll call the hospital and see if they’ll tell me how she’s doing.”
    As he reached across his desk, a towering pile of documents toppled over, spewing file folders, booklets, newspaper cuttings, and invoices over the floor.
    “Don’t worry about that. I know this looks like an awful mess, but I can put my finger on everything I need, when I need it. Just give me a moment and I’ll find her contract details.”
    “Honestly, Harvey, I don’t see how you could have hired her.”
    “Me? I didn’t hire her. What do I know about acting? Simon casts the actors he wants.” He gave his nephew a hard look. “Why? What’s the matter with her? Is she no good? A bimbo?”
    “This isn’t about her acting ability. It’s about who she is.”
    Jacobs frowned. “She’s Lauren Somebody-or-other. Can’t remember her last name.”
    Aaron stood up. “You don’t get it, do you?”
    “Look, Aaron. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, and frankly, I don’t have time for this right now. I’ve got to make some phone calls.” He picked up the telephone receiver and, realizing he didn’t have a number, set it back in its cradle with a defeated sigh. “I wish Nancy were still with me. It was a sad day when we had to let her go. She was always so resourceful—she’d have known how to handle a situation like this. Probably would have gone to the hospital with the girl, phoned the parents, done all the right things.”
    He appealed to his nephew. “Can you find me the number of the hospital?”
    Aaron sat down again, tapped his phone, and then looked around for a something to write on. Seeing nothing, he held up the screen to his uncle.
    “I don’t have my glasses on. Read it to me.”
    Jacobs picked up a pencil with fingers that looked like sausages that had been thawed too quickly and scribbled the number on the back of a document that had fallen out of a file folder when the pile toppled over. And then, leaving his nephew to see himself out past the empty area where the highly efficient Nancy used to sit, and breathing a little heavily, Jacobs repeated the numbers under his breath as he punched them into his telephone.
    *
    Aaron entered the wardrobe room just as Charlotte picked up her ringing desk telephone. She listened for a few moments, made a few noises indicating agreement, and then said good-bye and put the phone down. Aaron raised an eyebrow.
    “That was your uncle. He just spoke to the hospital. They did release some information on Lauren’s condition to him, as she has no next of kin available, and as her employer, he’s agreed to take on that role until her family can be located and notified. He offered to go to the hospital tonight.”
    “Did he say what’s wrong with her?”
    “They’re still running tests, but they said she is showing symptoms of having overdosed on something. They don’t know exactly what’s wrong with her yet.”
    “Overdosed! What, like on drugs or something?”
    “Could be, I suppose.”
    She checked her watch. “Aaron, the afternoon is just about over. I don’t need you for anything more today, so why don’t you find Simon and see if he needs you. And if he doesn’t, you can start reading Romeo and Juliet .”
    “Are you trying to get rid of me?”
    She laughed lightly. “No, of course not. But I am rather tired, and I’d like to