Death Dance by Linda Fairstein Page B

convince an
audience they're a fourteen-year-old Juliet or an adolescent sleeping
beauty. And the injuries—the injuries really take their toll
on their feet and knees and hips."
    "Broadway?"
    "That's what she's been exploring," Dobbis said. "Talya is as
stunning an actress as she is a ballerina. The Russian accent's a bit
thick for a lot of roles, but that hasn't stopped her from trying to
develop ideas. She's ready for a star turn that would introduce her to
millions more people who don't have the first clue about ballet.
Popular culture for the masses, rather than an elite crowd."
    "And Berk?" Mike asked.
    "The way I see it," Dobbis said, "she thought seduction was
the best way to audition."
    Vicci was unhappy. "You've got no business saying that, Chet.
I know everything that goes on in Talya's life and there's nothing at
all to that gossip."
    "How old is Berk?" Mike asked.
    "Seventy-four."
    "Vigorous?"
    "Overweight, but as strong as he is tough. He's got a
stranglehold on Broadway real estate," said Dobbis. "No reason he
couldn't have one on a human being."
    "And you say he was here last night?"
    "Not in the house. Not in the audience, I mean."
    "Wasn't he coming to see Talya?"
    "He was late for the second act," Rinaldo Vicci said. "The
Met's policy—maybe you know it—is you can't be
seated once the performance has started. They've got—how you
call it?—a little auditorium offstage right where you can
watch it on a big screen. Berk had a fit."
    "Why?" I asked.
    "He doesn't like crowds. It's not in his nature to sit there
with the tardy bridge-and-tunnel folk, looking at the action on a
monitor," Dobbis said. "That's how I found out he was in the dressing
room. Bullied his way in past the ushers—made a scene doing
it—and waited for Talya to get offstage."
    "The fight?"
    "She was peeved that he hadn't bothered to get there in time
to watch her dance."
    "He likes ballet?" Mike asked.
    "Berk doesn't like anything until it makes the cash jingle in
his pocket. I think he's used to something with catchy lyrics to keep
him awake during the show."
    "His antics with the ushers," I said to Dobbis, "and then the
argument with a diva, didn't they get everyone's attention?"
    "The staff expects a few nasty latecomers most evenings, Ms.
Cooper. Once they realized he wasn't an autograph hound, Berk's tiff
with them blew over. And any arguments between Talya and
Berk—or anyone else who crossed her—well, the
acoustics in this building are extraordinary, maybe the best in the
world. There's not a corner, not a ninety-degree angle inside the Opera
House. The ceiling and wall panels are rounded so that sound bounces
off and back into the theater."
    "But I'm talking about outside the auditorium."
    "The rest of the building is made up of scores of soundproofed
compartments. It has to be, if you think about it. Stagehands are
moving around enormous pieces of scenery and equipment—even
in the middle of a performance—while singers and musicians
are rehearsing in studios throughout the building, and other artists
are practicing," he said, tapping the top of the piano, "often until
the moment they walk to the stage. You aren't supposed to be able to
hear anything else from anywhere else behind the scenes."
    "So Talya could have been—"
    "Having a tantrum? No way for me to know."
    "Then how come you told me that?" Mike asked. "That was part
of the first information from the scratch that came in last night."
    "The masseur called it to my attention. I was already aware of
the brouhaha about Berk storming back to the dressing area to wait for
the end of the act. Talya got there and threw the poor man out of the
room, then began her tirade at Berk."
    "A masseur in her dressing room in the middle of a ballet?"
Mike asked. "Coop, you're in the wrong line of work. What's his name
and when can we talk to him?"
    "You'll have it. You'll have whatever you need."
    "Did anyone see Berk leave the theater?"
    Vicci and Dobbis looked at each other.