Trapped In Life

Death Did NOT Come For Her (Part 5) - May 3, 2027 0800

Kaitlyn sat in the studio's historical records. She had the files and books on the film and Anara Rose Praxon. There wasn’t much on Anara’s personal life in the files. It was clear all the directors and producers wanted her on their project. She was box office gold. However, it appeared her agent Miki Rhodes funneled only certain projects to Anara. It was unclear if Ms. Rhodes was acting on Anara’s orders or her own ambition.

There was evidence Anara was aware of Ms. Rhodes’ actions. Letters from directors and producers directly to and from Anara about projects which Ms. Rhodes had not even made Anara aware of were included in the file. Anara’s letters showed disappointment and confusion on Ms. Rhodes’ actions. She had indicated to the recipients she would be looking into it.

However, most of those letters were within a month of her death. If Anara was investigating what was happening or planning to do something about it, there was no record of it. Perhaps it was tied to her death. No one had ever been charged with her murder.

Her murder had been headline news when it broke. However, it had been kept quiet till weeks after she was buried. Thousands of people attended the viewing, funeral, and graveside service. No one mentioned how she was found. No one but the reconstruction artist knew how much work had been done to allow her coffin to be open. Everything had been done under the direction of Jan Massitri and Mary Adames.

Kaitlyn wrote the names down. She knew Mr. Massitri’s name. He was the CEO of Golden Enterprises, a multi-conglomerate company diversified in many vanes of business. It was rare for him to be seen in social settings, but when he was he was usually alone. She had been hoping someday to catch his or one of the employees in the entertainment side of his company.  With his backing, she could easily reach the heights she wanted to.

Mary Adames was a different story. The documents said she was Anara’s personal assistant. There was rarely a moment you didn’t see them together. It wouldn’t be out of line for her to be directing the events around Anara’s funeral and burial. However, she seemed to have disappeared into the masses of the city upon the end of her duties for Anara. The last anyone reported seeing her was at the lawyer’s reading of the will.

Digging a bit further, Kaitlyn found a small newspaper clipping. She looked it over as she unfolded it. There was the title “Mr. Demitrey A. Delin and Miss Mary F. Adames will be wed on July 27, 2017.” The article went on about the place with all the necessary information in it. Kaitlyn wrote the names down on her notepad. She could look the names up to see what happen to them.

Then there was the police file. Interesting display of the power of the studio. They had no doubt the original and a copy was in the police files. She opened the file to be met with the image of the screen goddess herself. Her waist-length, blond curls seemed to be flowing in a breeze. Her blue eyes shine like sapphires with her smile. Her dress was a black and pink evening gown which was so tight she could have been sewn into it. Who could have hated this seemingly perfect woman so much they murdered her so violently?  Kaitlyn wondered in the same thought if she would follow Anara’s footsteps to death by doing this film.

After studying Anara's image she slid it aside to read the rest of the file. Anara’s studio facts were next in the file. Anara was a natural blond with blue eyes. She stood at five foot nine, one hundred and thirty pounds. While underweight, the studio had probably been pressuring her to lose weight.

Kaitlyn sighed. How was she supposed to take this beautiful woman’s place? She was five foot six and one hundred and five pounds. Her hair had been bright red her whole life and her eyes were emerald green. 

She frowned as the historian came by. “Oh, she was so lovely and sweet. Did you know she worked several community programs in her spare time?” the historian said picking up the picture. Somehow this woman had known Kaitlyn was looking for Anara’s information when she came in. She knew Kaitlyn needed to study her life for the role she was going to play.

“No, I didn’t. Did you know her personally?”

“Yes, she knew almost everyone on studio grounds. I think that is why it hit us all so hard when she was murdered. Of course, things were different then. It was more like a family around here.”

Kaitlyn wanted to ask what the historian knew about her personally, but when she looked down at the documents another question came to her. She looked at the woman saying “Is there any way I can get a copy of this record?”

The historian looked at the number of the box all the information Kaitlyn was looking at. The historian turned to look on the shelf where Kaitlyn had gotten the box from. She opened a box she pulled from behind where the box had been her hand moved in it as if categorizing it. She took out a book and a folder before closing the box.

She set the items in the box Kaitlyn was going through as she said “Actually, you can take it with you. Now you tell people it is the copy, but I’m telling you this is the original files. That box up there is the copy. I would like it back for our records when you are finished.”

Kaitlyn was confused but knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth. She smiled as she said “Thank you so much. I will bring it back as soon as I’m finished. I just really need to go through it thoroughly for this role…”

“Oh I know Miss Dupre,” the woman in the grey dress suit said. “I hope you will find what you need to capture Miss Praxon perfectly. She was such a wonderful person. It is horrible what happen to her. She didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve to die.”

Kaitlyn nodded as she put everything back in order into the box with the new items. She looked up and the woman was gone. Where could she…?

Kaitlyn looked around to see if she could find the woman, but she was gone. She finished gathering her things with the box. Soon she was on her way back to her house, Anara’s house. To look over Anara’s life and death with every detail she could get out of the studio’s files.

Several hours later, Kaitlyn had spread out every item in the box in the library of the house. It had flat tables designed for spreading out documents this way. Kaitlyn was lost in the coroner’s report of the autopsy they performed on her. Anara’s died of blunt force trauma to the back of the head.  Anara's other injuries, including the bashing in of the back of her skull, were post mortem. Whoever killed her had to have hated her given the damage they did to her body.

She had been in her bathing suit, strangely a one-piece suit, and a white terrycloth robe around her. She was found in the sunroom with her face on the floor while the back of her head had been bashed in exposing her brain under the pieces of skull and scalp with her hair. The list of injuries to her body made her glad Anara was dead when they were given to her.

Kaitlyn took the crime scene photos down to the sunroom to compare them. The carpet wasn’t that thick. Feeling the floor, she found the dent. The only thing that saved Anara’s face. The beating she took was all to her back and skull. She moved the throw rug to the side. She ran her hand over the flooring as she tested it with her hands. She shook her head sadly saying “Anara, why did they do this to you?”

Later, back in the library, Kaitlyn read over the will. Mary was given a stipend for the rest of her life. Jan was given rights to several manuscripts and other documents apparently in a box delivered to him that day. Her agent, Miki Rhodes, was given one dollar and told that was more than she deserved due to the thief of rights and proceeds she had already stolen. Her brother, Erick Praxon, was given all her property, including the house Kaitlyn was living in. She stipulated that none of the properties could be sold -  only family could own them.

Kaitlyn smiled softly and sat back in the chair tiredly. That was when she saw the time on the clock. “Oh no,” she said to herself and the documents she was in grossed in. She picked up the book the historian added to the box before she left. Kaitlyn discovered it was Anara’s diary. “I’ve got filming tomorrow. I need to sleep.” She got up leaving the documents and all where they were knowing they would be untouched in her absence. She went to her bed curling up with Anara’s diary to read herself to sleep.