by Lee Hollis
Poppy could tell Matt felt uncomfortable talking about this. Poppy, after all, was Heather’s mother and he obviously did not want to appear like a player, hopping from one girl to the next.
“You’re a good man, Matt. Believe me, I had my doubts when we first met. But as I got to know you, I got to know your heart, and I see how much you care deeply for us, me, Violet, Iris, and yes, Heather . . . But Heather has made her decision. So you should feel free to pursue whatever relationship you like.”
Matt glanced furtively back over in Danika’s direction. Although people were squawking at her from every side, her attention was directed at Poppy and Matt, curious to know what they were talking about.
“I appreciate you wanting to put my mind at ease, Poppy, but I truly did love your daughter, it’s going to take some time for me to get over it. Danika is our client, and I plan to keep it that way,” he said firmly.
“Got it,” Poppy said, although she was not entirely convinced this edict of Matt’s would last the rest of the week, let alone the remainder of the film shoot.
Chapter 12
When Poppy approached Roy Heller he was listening to a heated discussion between the director Trent Dodsworth-Jones and the film’s stunt coordinator, Frank, a short, squat, red-faced Irishman with a loud voice to make up for his diminutive stature. Frank was gritting his teeth at the moment as Trent quietly explained his reasoning for a decision he had made.
Roy shook his head disapprovingly.
“What are they arguing about?” Poppy asked, curious.
“Trent wants Matt to drive the car so he can get some clear shots of him behind the wheel and Frank thinks they should use his stuntman Eddie.”
Poppy’s mouth dropped open. “But doesn’t the car crash into the tree at the end of the scene?”
Roy nodded. “Yes. Trent says Matt can stop the car before he reaches the tree and then he can film the actual crash with Eddie driving, but Frank’s worried Matt won’t know when to stop in time to avoid the tree and thinks it’s too dangerous.”
“Well, then it’s a risk not worth taking,” Poppy concluded.
“Trent’s insisting, and he’s got Matt on his side,” Roy said. “The kid wants to do it.”
“What?” Poppy gasped. “Where’s Matt?”
Roy pointed over to where Matt was getting touched up by hair and makeup, Danika closely at his side.
“Huge mistake, if you ask me. But nobody’s asking me,” Roy said, shaking his head, disgusted.
Poppy marched straight over to Matt.
He looked up at her and immediately could tell she was fuming and he also had a hunch why. “I know what you’re going to say, Poppy, but really, it’s no big deal. I got this. Trent says it will be perfectly safe—”
“I don’t care what Trent says. The stunt coordinator is the only person anyone should be listening to on this subject and he strongly disagrees.”
“The stunt team always wants to use their own guy in the shot, but we have to make it look believable. The audience needs to see me driving the car,” Matt said.
“I simply will not stand by and allow you to do this,” Poppy cried.
“You’re not his mother,” Danika said dismissively.
Matt cringed slightly but Danika did not seem to notice and continued. “Matt’s a big boy. He can make his own decisions and if he thinks he can do it, then I for one trust him.”
Matt saw Poppy’s nostrils flaring and jumped in to do a little damage control. He bounded over and gave Poppy a hug. “Trust me, everything will be fine. I’ll hit the brake in plenty of time, and then I’ll hop out and the stunt guy can hop in and do it for real.”
Poppy was still unconvinced but she was clearly outnumbered. Especially when she turned to see the stunt coordinator throwing his hands in the air, giving up and walking away. Trent waved at Matt and gave him the thumbs-up that they were good to go as the crew finished attaching a camera to the hood of the car and locking in the shot.
Short of tackling Matt and physically restraining him from climbing into the red sports car, Poppy knew she was powerless to stop him. She walked back to Roy.
“Can you talk to Trent? You have the most experience on this set. He might listen to you.”
Roy shrugged. “I tried. He doesn’t care. He’s got a single mission in mind and that’s getting the best shot for his movie.”
Poppy sighed, frustrated.
“By the way, you look ravishing today,” Roy said with a roused grin.
“Please don’t do that, not right now,” Poppy snapped as she began to panic. She scanned the set for Matt again, hoping to try one more time to convince him not to do the stunt himself, but the makeup and hair people had already dispersed and neither he nor Danika were anywhere to be seen.
“Poppy!”
It was Violet’s voice.
Poppy turned around to see Violet and Wyatt hustling up to her. “What are you two doing here?”
“Well,” Violet panted, out of breath. “Wyatt has been working very hard on locating Danika’s stalker, this Byron person, and we finally had a breakthrough! I am so proud of him! How on earth did our family manage to produce such a genius?”
“We can speculate later,” Poppy said impatiently before focusing on Wyatt. “What did you find out?”
Wyatt appeared bored as he detailed his information. “I used a cross-referencing program, one that I personally designed, by the way, to sort through DMV records. . . .”
Poppy did not want to know how a twelve-year-old boy got access to DMV records so she didn’t ask.
“I input the first name Byron and the last half of the license number from that Instagram photo of the car the stalker drove away in after he ambushed Danika in the gym and—”
“He’s so smart!” Violet gushed. “Isn’t he smart? His teachers think he could be the next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg or—”
“Violet, let the poor boy speak!” Poppy said sharply.
Violet buttoned her lips.
“Anyway, it took a while but I found the car! A 2008 Toyota Corolla. It’s registered to a Byron Savage who lives in Desert Hot Springs.” He handed Poppy a piece of paper. “Here is the address.”
Poppy turned to Violet. “You’re right. He is a genius.”
“Wait, I’m not done,” Wyatt huffed. “I have more.”
Now it was Poppy’s turn to button her lips.
“Once I got his full name and home address, I was able to check out his social media presence. He didn’t post much on Twitter or Instagram about what was going on in his life, and for good reason, but his friends and contacts sure did. Everybody was wishing him luck at Desert Oasis.”
“What’s that?” Poppy asked.
“A psychiatric hospital. And it wasn’t his first time there. Apparently Byron has a long history of mental illness. I got ahold of an evaluation report after his first visit. . . .”
“How on earth did you—?” Poppy stopped herself. “Never mind. Just tell me what it said.”
“He’s a danger to himself . . . and others.”
Poppy exhaled and swung around to Violet. “Okay, now at least we know what we’re dealing with.” She paused, then glanced back at Wyatt. “Why didn’t you just call me with all this? Why did you and your grandmother drive all the way out here to Joshua Tree?”
Wyatt broke into a wide grin, markedly more excited than he was on his first visit to the set. “Because Matt texted me and told me he was getting ready to do a really big action scene and that he was going to be racing a sports car himself like a NASCAR driver, and it was going to be really cool, and that I should come out and watch!”
“This is insane! What is he thinking putting himself in danger like that? We have to stop him!” Poppy fretted.
“It’s too late,” Violet said. “I think they’re ready to start.”
Poppy whipped around to see Matt already behind the wheel of the sports car, the stunt team finishing up their last safety checks and Tre
nt glued to the monitor ready to go.
“And . . . action!” Trent called out.
“No!” Poppy screamed, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of the revving engine.
She was helpless to do anything to stop him now.
With Matt in the driver’s seat, the mounted camera on top of the hood capturing his fierce intensity, his fingers tightly gripping the steering wheel, a bead of sweat dripping down his left cheek, Matt slammed his foot down on the accelerator and the sports car shot forward at lightning speed.
Poppy watched, horrified, as the red car sped across the dusty desert terrain in a red blur, clocking what must have been nearly a hundred miles an hour. The lone Joshua tree stood ominously in the distance.
As the car got closer and closer to the tree, Poppy expected Matt to finally slow down as he was supposed to do.
But he didn’t.
He kept going.
The car was on a direct collision course with the tree.
“Matt, hit the brakes!” Poppy yelled, knowing there was no way for him to hear her.
The car was now moments from impact with the tree.
“Hit the brakes!” Poppy cried, a sense of dread consuming her.
Violet and Wyatt both stood frozen in place, unable to move as they stared, stunned at what was about to happen.
Poppy wanted to cover her face but she couldn’t tear her eyes away.
Suddenly, in a flash, the car swerved violently to the left as if Matt jerked the wheel at the last possible second, and the vehicle flipped, rolling over and over and over four, five, six times, metal crunching violently, before landing upside down in a heap.
The stunt team, seven men in all, ran to the scene of the crash and worked feverishly to pull Matt from the burning wreckage. They dragged him away from the vehicle as far as they could before it exploded in a burst of flames.
But Poppy didn’t care about the state of the car.
She was too busy staring at what looked like Matt’s lifeless body as several crew members ran frantically toward him, one lugging a first aid kit.
Chapter 13
It was a miracle, but due in no small part to the car’s safety features including air bags and seat belts as well as his young age and healthy, in-shape body, Matt survived the crash. Despite his loud protestations and insistence that he was fine, just a little bruised and banged up, an ambulance was called to the scene so they could transport him to the emergency room at the nearest hospital, the Hi-Desert Medical Center, in Joshua Tree. Since Matt had been unconscious for a few minutes following the impact, the on-set doctor was insistent he be checked out in case there was a concussion, or worse, some kind of serious brain injury.
Matt complained incessantly as the paramedics strapped him down on the gurney and wheeled him off.
Before he was lifted into the back of the ambulance, Roy Heller and the stunt coordinator, Frank, rushed in.
“Matt, what happened? Why didn’t you stop?” Roy asked.
“I tried, something went wrong with the brakes. I was pumping them like mad, but the car wouldn’t slow down. I swerved to avoid the tree and flipped the car.”
Poppy caught Roy and Frank exchanging concerned looks.
She had planned on accompanying Matt to the hospital, but she was practically body-checked by their hysterical and sobbing client Danika Delgado, who was devastated and emotionally distraught over the accident, blaming the director, the stunt team, the mechanics, everyone except herself, who had so brazenly and irresponsibly encouraged Matt to get behind the wheel and do the stunt himself in the first place.
Danika climbed into the back of the ambulance with Matt, clutching his hand and dramatically promising him she would stay by his side and make sure he got the best care possible for his recovery. Matt, for his part, seemed to be his usual jovial self and looked like he was enjoying the shower of attention he was receiving from his beautiful co-star.
Poppy decided Matt had enough people fussing over him and so she stayed behind on the set to try to figure out exactly what went wrong. Violet determined that her grandson Wyatt had been exposed to enough violence and trauma for one day and drove him home although Wyatt didn’t want to go and thought the crash was awesome and Matt was so cool and was just like the hero in his favorite movie, Baby Driver.
The director, Trent, who no doubt was now suddenly fearing a lawsuit, vanished into thin air after calling a wrap for the day. The stunt guys and mechanics got to work inspecting the smoking wreckage of the car in order to zero in on the reason why the brakes didn’t work. Poppy hung around, hoping to get some answers for herself.
It didn’t take long.
She watched as Roy conferred with Frank, who was visibly upset and shaken as he explained what one of his mechanics had discovered. Roy had a disturbed look on his face, occasionally glancing over at Poppy, who was now dying of curiosity.
When Roy and Frank finished their conversation and Frank went back to the totaled car, Poppy made a beeline for Roy. She opened her mouth to ask what they had found, but didn’t even get the chance to speak.
“It was no accident,” Roy said soberly.
“What?” Poppy gasped.
“Somebody cut the brake line. It was intentional.”
“But who would—?”
“Frank is still trying to find out who was the last mechanic to work on the car, but one of his guys, Jesse, they call him Speedy, he’s suddenly gone AWOL. Nobody can find him.”
“Do you think he was the one who tampered with the car?”
Roy shrugged. “Frank isn’t sure. But Speedy just joined the crew recently so none of the guys know a whole lot about him.” Roy paused. “Other than the fact that he was recommended for the job by Chase Ehrens.”
Poppy’s mouth dropped open. “Chase?”
“Yes. Chase worked with Speedy on his last movie and spoke very highly of him to Frank, said he was an excellent mechanic, and would be a good hire.”
Poppy shook her head, stunned. “I knew Chase was upset when he got fired, but attempted murder?”
“I’m not saying Speedy sabotaged the brakes, or that Chase put him up to it, all I’m saying is it looks a little suspicious.”
But it made perfect sense.
Chase blamed Matt for Hal Greenwood kicking him off the picture. If he wanted to exact some kind of revenge, enlisting the aid of a friend who had access to the car Matt would be driving was the perfect way to do it.
It was almost too much to grasp.
Poppy asked Roy to drive her to the hospital so she could check on Matt, and he happily obliged after she rejected his offer to fly her there in his helicopter. She was not about to create a spectacle. A lift in his Land Rover would be just fine.
By the time they reached the Hi-Desert Medical Center, Roy received a call from Frank, telling him that once Hal Greenwood had heard what had happened, he immediately called the cops, who put out an APB with Speedy’s car make and license plate. Speedy was pulled over on the 10 freeway, heading east toward Arizona, no doubt Texas-bound to his hometown of El Paso. He was brought back to Joshua Tree for questioning. After a mere twenty-five minutes of claiming ignorance of any wrongdoing, Speedy finally caved and admitted that it was indeed Chase who had pressured him to damage the brake line so Matt would crash the car, ruining the shot. But they had never intended to kill Matt, just shake him up a bit and get back at him for getting Chase fired.
Poppy and Roy raced through the emergency room doors of the Hi-Desert Medical Center and then marched down a corridor to the waiting room where they were greeted by Danika, who was no longer convulsing and shedding tears.
“Where’s Matt?” Poppy asked, worried.
“He’s still in with the doctor. Have you heard about Chase?” Danika asked, breathless.
Poppy nodded. “The police are out now trying to track him down so they can arrest him.”
“It’s outrageous! I don’t believe a word of what they’re saying. Chase would neve
r do something like that!”
Poppy was aghast over Danika’s sudden and fervent knee-jerk defense of Chase Ehrens, but she had little appetite for a confrontation, not with Matt’s condition still up in the air, and so she just kept her mouth shut.
Danika, however, did not. “I bet that mechanic, Speedy, installed a defective part, or was negligent with the maintenance, and just pointed the finger at Chase in order to cover up his own incompetence!”
Roy couldn’t take it anymore. He stepped forward, his face reddened with anger. “The brake line was deliberately cut.”
That did not seem to convince Danika at all. She just waved him off, rather disrespectfully. “Then someone’s trying to set him up.”
Roy was about to lay into her when Poppy tugged on his jacket, signaling him to back off for now. He complied but still kept glaring at the young actress.
“My only concern at the moment is Matt’s well-being. Did they say anything when they took him in?” Poppy asked.
Danika sighed. “I told you, he is still with the doctor. I’m sure we will hear something soon. He looked fine to me. He was joking with the nurse as they wheeled him away,” she said dismissively. “Look, I need to call my agent. I can’t be near even a hint of scandal and risk losing any branded endorsements.”
She hustled off down the corridor, her eyes glued to her phone.
Poppy was seeing a whole new side of their client, one she did not find likable at all. But she quickly brushed her concerns aside when the doctor finally emerged, looking for any relative waiting to hear about Matt Cameron aka Matt Flowers.
Poppy hurried over to the short, pudgy doctor of Indian descent. “Yes, I’m Poppy Harmon . . . Matt’s partner.”
The doctor cocked an eyebrow, assuming partner meant romantic partner, somewhat surprised by the vast age difference.
Poppy wisely chose to ignore the judgment. “How is he?”
“The MRI showed no signs of any bruising or bleeding in the brain. He’s just got some scrapes and cuts. He’s young. He’ll bounce back in no time. Just no more dangerous driving.”
