The Last Time

by Elodie Parkes

  * * * *

  Dianne checked her boyfriend’s shirts for a perfume other than her own. She was sure she detected something when he finally came home around three in the morning. True he was on set, but she was sure he was seeing someone else. It had become an obsession over the last six months.

  They had been together for four years. She accepted this job to be with him as the separations they endured were unpleasant. It had been at his request and so for him to be unfaithful at this stage was doubly hurtful. She hadn’t found any real evidence of him straying, but their recent sex life was nothing like they used to have. She threw the shirts in the laundry hamper.

  She found herself in a bit of a scrape with her latest bid for him to be more caring and more into her. Tears formed at the back of her eyes and she squeezed them shut. The tears broke through and trickled down her cheeks. Dianne wiped them away with the back of her hand.

  Two days ago, she asked him outright if he wasn’t afraid for her safety after the last threatening letter. He looked at her over his glasses as he read something on his laptop. “Dianne, they aren’t real. The threats can’t be real. It has to be some kind of prank. Believe me, I’ve seen the real stuff over the years in this industry and those letters aren’t. I get a feel for it. Let me see it darling.” He asked for the letter but she didn’t have it—security did.

  Dianne made a cup of coffee. She wasn’t needed for an hour and considered her next move.

  It was tedious visiting the local town library to make the letters. One of the librarians there was a little testy the last time and asked her not to mark the table in the study area with glue this time. Dianne had hurriedly concealed her work.

  She was supposed to be a student. She told them a couple of months previously that she was taking a course to become an educational assistant. It meant she had to make up teacher aids such as posters and games for the children that would make learning to read simple and enjoyable. They swallowed her story hook, line, and sinker—even bringing magazines from home they thought she could use to cut pictures from that would be fun for the children.

  The last time she was there, they were tired of her, had no special magazines, and made that comment too.

  Dianne was tearful. She dug a hole for herself and Tony hadn’t done any of the things she thought he would do when she was threatened. The thing that was most annoying was he guessed the truth of the threats—that they were not real. She only sent Seth the last one so she was not the only person getting the letters. She didn’t believe anyone would be interested in her enough to send her threatening letters, so why would security?

  Dianne sipped her coffee, feeling miserable. She would send one more to Seth so the spotlight was off her and then she wouldn’t send any more. The whole thing could just fade away. She thought about Tony again. Maybe she would ask him. Maybe she would just say, “Tony why don’t you make love to me anymore?”

  She sighed and put down her coffee. She would just make the one letter for Seth here at home in the trailer she shared with Tony and mail it in The Village down the lane.

  Get it over with, she thought, finish it.

  The trip to the town she used was not attractive and she didn’t have the time in reality.

  Dianne got out the little plastic box with her scissors and glue stick inside. She looked through the handful of fashion magazines she had on her bedside unit and took the one she already read to the kitchenette table. She considered what to say for a moment and then cut out words from various places in the magazine and glued them down. When finished, she read it aloud.

  This is your last week on Earth.

  It seemed threatening enough without being specific. Dianne reread it and suddenly felt ashamed. She folded it and put it into the envelope she had ready on the table. She peeled off her disposable rubber gloves and then stared at the envelope. She couldn’t mail it. She would have to stuff it under Seth’s trailer door again.

  She poured her coffee down the drain because it had gone cold. She packed away her little plastic box of scissors and glue right at the back of the cupboard under the sink.

  It was risky, but she determined to put the letter under Seth’s door before she went down to her shift on set. She just wanted the whole thing over. Dianne was closing her trailer door when her cell phone rang and she took off one of the little cotton gloves she had put on to carry the threatening letter, in order to swipe the screen, and answer the call.

  She walked to Seth’s trailer, talking to the friend who called her about their plans to color each other’s hair later that week. Dianne ended her call and put her cell phone away in her bag before she realized she had touched the envelope with her hand without gloves on.

  She looked around, noticing the new trailer close to Seth’s. There was a car parked at the end of it but it didn’t look as if anyone was around. She quickly put her glove on, tore the envelope open, and took the note out. She decided she would stuff it under the door without the envelope and thrust the envelope into her jacket pocket. Looking around once more, she slid the folded paper under Seth’s trailer door. It caught a couple of times and she looked around, worried someone would see her.

  Dianne hurried to work, discarding the envelope in the trash outside the canteen marquee. She rolled her little cotton gloves into a ball and stuffed them in her jacket pocket. She felt lighthearted for the first time in weeks.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jake didn’t have the alarm on and he was half-asleep when he thought he saw someone go to Seth’s trailer. He sat up in bed and pulled the laptop toward him. If there had been someone, they were gone now. He pulled up the stored file and ran it in a new window. He grinned when he saw Dianne. Sara Smythe had pointed her out to him. Now his suspicions that she had something to do with the threats were confirmed.

  The surprise was that she was the perpetrator. Jake got out of bed, pulled on his jeans and T-shirt, and walked the short distance to Seth’s trailer. He had one of the spare keys from Sara and opened the door. He knew Seth was on set and didn’t bother to knock or call out. He picked up the fold of paper. It had a ‘dog ear’ from catching on the bottom of the door.

  Jake read the threat and grinned. Does she mean this stuff?

  * * * *

  Back in his own trailer, Jake compared the new threatening letter with the old ones in the file of hard copies. It was her all along, he deduced from the look, feel, and glue used. The only thing missing was the other polish smell. Jake couldn’t discount that omission and yet, he felt sure Dianne was it. There had been no one else. He called Bethany.

  * * * *

  Bethany was walking up and down the grassy strip next to the row of deck chairs, when her cell phone rang. She saw it was Jake as she answered.

  “Hi Jake. How are you feeling?”

  Jake was smiling as he answered. “Not too bad, not well, but I’ve got news for you. Dianne just delivered a threatening letter to Seth. I think she must have been doing it all along. The weird polish smell is missing from this letter, but I have her on tape stuffing it under the trailer door. I can go and pick her up to question her. Do you want to come too?”

  Bethany’s voice betrayed her surprise. “I thought there had to be some connection to her but not that she was doing it. How bizarre. Yes, I’d like to be in on the interview. I’ll walk up. I’m so far away from Seth now that it’s pointless for me to be here.”

  She hung up the phone, put the laptop in its case, and walked up to The Village. It was quite a walk but she hurried.

  She reached the wardrobe marquees when Jake drove up alongside her in one of the small Jeeps the runners used. Bethany opened the door to get in.

  He was still pale as he told her, “She’s on set two; that’s the half-castle. I have a pass and we can drive up to the first line of tape where the makeup tent is.

  “These are cool little cars. I didn’t even have to ask twice to use it. This is so easy—I can hardly believe it. Day two and we’ve got the c
ulprit.”

  Bethany clipped her seat belt on as Jake turned the Jeep and bumped along to the half-castle set. They stopped by the tent and Jake parked.

  “Let’s go real quiet and easy on her. Do you want to bring her out here to the car?” Jake asked Bethany.

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  She walked into the tent where three chairs were set up in front of freestanding mirrors and small tables containing makeup and other items.

  Dianne was brushing a pale powder onto an actor’s face. There was another makeup artist further in the tent, mixing gray goo in a small dish. Bethany held her security pass up to this young woman and remained standing by the rolled up door flap. The actor Dianne worked on stood up after a moment, and left the tent.

  Bethany watched Dianne put a brush on the tray next to her and look up expectantly.

  “Hi, I haven’t met you,” Dianne began.

  Bethany walked toward her. “Hi. Dianne Roberts, isn’t it?”

  Dianne nodded. A frown of worry appeared on her face as she confirmed her identity. “Yes. I am Dianne Roberts. Why? What’s going on?”

  “Please come with me outside for a few minutes. I need to speak to you regarding the threatening letters.” Bethany’s voice was low and gentle.

  Dianne swallowed visibly, but followed Bethany out to the Jeep where Jake leaned against the warmth of the engine.

  Bethany cornered Dianne between herself and Jake.

  Jake smiled at Dianne. “Please tell me why I saw you put this letter,” he waved the folded paper, “under the door of Mister Carbery’s trailer?”

  Dianne turned from him to find Bethany blocking her. She turned back to Jake, put her hand out, and leaned on the Jeep before she answered.

  “I was asked to deliver it,” she answered.

  Bethany sighed loudly and said from behind Dianne, “No, I don’t think so. Just tell the truth now. Who asked you to deliver it? You need to tell us.”

  “It was a friend, she…she…”

  Dianne’s face crumpled and she burst into tears. She leaned heavily against the vehicle, with her head in her hands, and sobbed.

  Jake let her cry as he gave Bethany a look that held compassion in it for the young woman weeping before them.

  Bethany sighed again. “Do you want to get in the car and sit down to talk?”

  Dianne looked at Bethany with tears streaming down her face and nodded.

  They got into the Jeep, Jake in front and Bethany with Dianne in the back.

  “Just tell us the story,” Bethany urged.

  Dianne had stopped crying but her voice trembled. “I wasn’t ever going to hurt anyone or take their things. I really like Seth and the others. I would never harm anyone. It was just to get Tony to look at me again, to make him worry about me, about losing me. He might have someone else. I wanted to make sure he wouldn’t leave me. I thought, if I was threatened, he would want to stay and protect me. That letter was to be the last. I decided to stop.”

  Jake looked at Bethany with an expression bordering on disbelief. Bethany agreed, Dianne’s explanation was pitiful.

  “You must know this was a very foolish thing to do. It’s a crime and we have to report you to the movie’s security team and producers, who will probably involve the police. Does anyone else know about this?”

  Dianne looked drained and a little pale. She swallowed again.

  “No one. Does Tony have to know? Please don’t tell him.”

  Bethany could see Dianne was no threat and that her actions were just a stupid cry for attention, but she had no power to let the woman off.

  “I’m sorry, but that’s not up to me,” she told Dianne, who began to cry again.

  Jake raised his eyebrows at Bethany.

  “Is there anyone who can take over your work this evening? We have to take you up to the offices and report in.”

  Dianne nodded. Her chin trembled as she answered, “Petra will come down here if I ring her.”

  Bethany nodded at Dianne and the tearful woman made the call.

  Jake took his smartphone from his pocket and asked Dianne to repeat what she had told them. The recording would go along with their written reports.

  Ten minutes later, Petra showed up in another buggy, driven by a staff member, who drove off quickly after she alighted from the Jeep.

  Bethany went to greet her.

  “Hi Petra, Dianne is unwell and we’re taking her back home, okay?”

  Petra looked worried for a moment and glanced at Dianne who was slumped in the car seat, looking pale. She suddenly gave Petra a little wave. Petra nodded and waved back before going into the tent.

  Bethany sat down next to Dianne and Jake drove them away.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The security team wasn’t very sympathetic to Dianne. They were physically quite rough with her as they led her into one of the administration trailers and sat her down. Bethany felt sorry for her when they locked her in one of the small rooms of the trailer after questioning. The local police were not going to be involved and Jake rang Brandt to talk over the protocols.

  It was midnight when Bethany and Jake went back to their trailer and made coffee. Jake took some aspirin and sat down heavily on one of the bench seats.

  “It’s not ideal—holding her in that trailer until they have spoken with everyone involved. It’s not ideal for us either. I think at least one of us needs to stay an extra day and make sure everything blows over,” he said.

  The producers and their lawyers agreed that, unless Seth Carbery wanted to press charges, they would just have to fire Dianne. Everyone over the last three hours came to the same opinion—she was harmless and silly. The security team informed Tony Wheeler and he was reportedly devastated. They would keep the whole thing under wraps as much as possible. Sara Smythe told Bethany as soon as they had spoken with Seth they all were free to leave.

  “The security head told me Dianne would never get another movie job. I feel sorry for her. She just doesn’t realize the gravity of what she did,” Jake said to Bethany as she handed him a cup of coffee. There was sympathy in his tone.

  They sat quietly for a few moments.

  “Seth will be very late getting back here and he might go back to where I was stationed, looking for me. I think I will go down there. Do you have that pass they gave you with access closer to the sets?” Bethany looked hopefully at him.

  Jake got it out of his pocket. It was a different color and shape from their ordinary passes, to denote the ability of the bearer to approach closer to the set. He handed it to her and Bethany tucked it into the pocket of her leather jacket.

  “You need to drive down there.”

  Jake still had the keys for the buggy parked outside next to his own vehicle. He tossed the keys to her as she stood and put on her jacket.

  “I’m going to lie down and I will put the night watch program back on Seth’s trailer later. It never hurts to be extra careful,” he said, as Bethany exited the trailer.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Bethany drove carefully to the castle set where she expected Seth to be filming. She parked a small distance away from the hustle and bustle of the first line of actors, extras, and assorted people. Walking down to the next row of seated people, she was aware of a sudden calm and quietness as they all concentrated on what was happening. She sat down on an empty chair, next to the last person on the nearest row, and watched as the scene played out some distance away.

  The crew stood around the people acting. A tall woman in sneakers with lights in the sides of the thick soles periodically talked through some kind of headset so the actors stopped and started again.

  Bethany realized the woman was the director and stared at her with interest. This was Catherine Lamont. She was tall and slender with a long braid of red hair swinging down her back. She wore jeans, a massive sheepskin coat to her knees, and those sneakers. Bethany smiled. They reminded her of Christmas because when she was six she had received a pair of Holly Hobby
sneakers with those lights in the wide, white soles.

  She looked for Seth amongst the fight scene which started up and was startled when he rose up from the group, brandishing his sword above his head. He had run up the ruined edge of the castle and now was at head height. He fought with another actor, who followed him up to what seemed to Bethany like a precarious perch.

  Suddenly everything stopped after a shout from somewhere. Bethany couldn’t make out what was shouted, but it appeared to come from the director.

  Bethany thought the filming was over as the actors looked around and began to talk to each other, Instead, they went back to their starting places, including Seth, who merged with the group so she couldn’t see him.

  She was amused when the lights on the set dimmed and then re-ignited in a white glow. Rock music blasted across the set.

  Bethany watched actors fight to the beat of the music. It looked like some ferocious dance and then Seth appeared—raised up, as the music built. He and the other actor swung their swords to the chorus of the song. Their swings slowed, giving them the appearance of flying.

  Bethany smiled and without thinking commented to the person sitting next to her, “I didn’t think they put the soundtrack on during filming.”

  The man whispered back, “This isn’t the soundtrack. This is just to make the actors move the way the director wants them to.”

  Bethany nodded.

  They ran through the scene again and an hour went by before Catherine Lamont was satisfied. By then, Bethany knew all the words to the rock song.

  They were finally packing up and Bethany stood to approach Seth.

  He was twenty yards away when he saw her and broke into a smile.

  Bethany waited until he reached her. They stood a pace apart, looking affectionately at one another.

  “I need to go back to wardrobe and leave this outfit,” he said softly.

  Bethany felt as if he had said something much more intimate.