“Fine,” Carly said. “We’ll see you in the morning.
The instant she closed the door, Nick said, “Attila obeyed you.”
“Thank heavens, huh?”
“So now you can go back to working with him.”
“What?”
“I said—”
“I heard what you said. But why are you saying it?”
“Because I’m not crazy. Although I must have been temporarily insane when I agreed to work with Attila.”
“You’ve been doing just fine with him.”
“Fine? I gave him a wrong hand signal and almost drowned.”
“Nick, you hardly almost drowned. You just got wet. And you’re dripping on the floor, so why don’t you go and change.”
“I’ll go and change after we finish this discussion. I don’t know enough to be working with that bear. What if I mistakenly gave him the hand signal that tells him to kill his trainer?”
“Now you’re being ridiculous. You know there’s no such signal.”
“How do I know? You didn’t tell me about the “shove” signal. And you didn’t mention the “swim" command until it was almost too late. How do I know what else you didn’t bother telling me?”
Carly put her hands on her hips, looking annoyed. But he was the one who’d ended up in the damn pond, so where did she get off?
“I told you I didn’t bother with those commands because there was nothing about swimming in the script,” she said, enunciating precisely.
“Fine. You had your reasons. And I’ve got a reason to stop working with Attila. I don’t like doing it So now that he’s listening to you again—”
“Nick, he listened to me once. When I was telling him to swim, which he loves doing. So the fact that he did one thing doesn’t mean he’s suddenly going to start obeying me all the time.”
“Maybe he will.”
“And maybe he won’t.”
“Well, let’s just see.” Nick stomped over to the cupboard and took out a couple of big bags of marshmallows—which Carly had said Attila loved—then he headed for the door.
“Coming?” he asked, opening it.
The Marx brothers eyed him eagerly. They were clearly getting tired of being kept in protective custody.
“Nick, you’re soaking wet,” Carly said.
“Yes, you already mentioned that. But I’m hardly going to catch pneumonia when it’s hot as hell out there, so let’s go back down to the field and see how Attila feels about doing a few other things you tell him.”
“Do you have any idea how annoying you can be?”
“Yes. As annoying as Gus. Come on, guys,” he added to the dogs. “You can come, too.”
Without another word, Carly followed him out of the house and back down to Attila’s field.
“You didn’t change,” Jonathan said.
“No,” Nick replied. “I figured my clothes would fit better if I let them dry on my body.”
“Oh, yeah, cool. My sister always does that with new jeans.”
Carly unlocked the gate, asked Jonathan to keep an eye on the dogs, then went into the field with Nick. Attila spotted the marshmallows and came lumbering over.
“Here.” Nick handed her one of the bags. “We don’t want him to think I’m the only one who’s got treats.”
Carly muttered something under her breath. Nick ignored her.
“All right,” she said. “I’m going to see if he’ll run for me.”
“But you told me that’s the hardest thing to make him do.”
“It is. It’s also something he has to do in the scene they’ll be shooting tomorrow.”
“But—”
“What do you think, Nick?” she snapped. “That I’m going to cheat and give him the wrong command or something?”
“Of course not. I know what the signal to run looks like. We were practicing it with him yesterday, remember?”
“Yes. And I also remember that he was running for you.”
“Only now and then.”
“Well, I’ll bet now and then is better than he’s going to do for me.” She looked at the bear and firmly said, “Attila, run.”
Nick watched her hand carefully, and she did give the broad run signal she’d taught him.
Attila sat down and stared at the marshmallows she was holding.
“Bad bear. Stand up.”
Attila stood, but reluctantly.
“Good boy. Now I want you to run,” she said, giving him the signal again.
This time he yawned.
“All right, Nick,” she said, stepping back. “You have a try.”
“Attila,” he said, waving his hand through the air, “run.”
“Woof,” Attila said.
“See? He didn’t listen to me a damn bit better than he did to you.”
“Maybe that’s because you sounded so half-hearted. Besides, I had two shots at it.”
Nick looked back at the bear. “You’re a bad boy, Attila. Now let’s try again. Run.”
Attila eyed the marshmallows for half a second, then broke into a loping run.
Carly smiled.
Nick swore to himself.
Attila kept loping along for a minute, then circled around and ran back for his treats.
THE GROCERIES HAD BEEN delivered while they were out scouting locations, and with Nick upstairs changing into dry clothes, Carly rapidly began making lunch.
Before calling in the order yesterday, she’d asked him what his favorite foods were and added some of them to her list. At the moment, she was glad she had.
When he’d started talking about not working with Attila anymore, she’d almost had a stroke on the spot. If he decided he’d had enough and packed his bag, she’d really be up the creek, so she was going to do anything she could to make him a happy camper.
Well, not quite anything, she mentally corrected herself. She’d been giving things a lot of thought, and her resolve was back to full strength. Even though walking away from him after that hug last night was one of the hardest things she’d ever done, she had done it. Which proved he wasn’t completely irresistible. She just had to keep reminding herself of that and she’d be fine around him.
Lunch ready, she fed the cats and the Marx brothers. Just as she was filling the last dog-food bowl, she heard Nick’s footsteps on the stairs. A moment later Crackers greeted him.
“Hi, Crackers,” he said as she glanced over.
He’d changed into his cowboy boots, dry jeans and another of his cling-to-every-muscle T-shirts. This one was the same warm shade of gray as his eyes. She had trouble forcing her gaze from him, which warned her that maybe she wouldn’t be exactly fine around him. But she would cope.
“Pastrami on rye,” she said, gesturing toward the sandwiches. “With a side of dill pickles and black olives.”
When he smiled, she felt decidedly relieved. He’d apparently left his anger upstairs with his wet clothes.
“Add a beer to that and I’ll love you forever.”
His words made her heart skip a beat. Quickly, she turned to get a beer from the fridge, telling herself that words were all they were.
“Want to eat on the porch?” she suggested. It was somehow easier to ignore all those lean muscles when the two of them weren’t in the confines of a room.
“Sure. The dogs would probably enjoy some more fresh air.”
“No, I’ll bet they’d rather stay here and finish their lunch. They know Crackers likes their kibble, and they hate finding feathers in it.”
Following Nick out of the house, she decided that as soon as they were done with lunch she’d remind him he’d promised to give her the rest of his crash course in detecting. But just as she was taking the last bite of her sandwich, he said, “Looks like we’ve got company.”
She glanced down the drive and law Royce headed in the direction of the house, the two boys tagging along after him.
“Maybe I’d better go and put Crackers in his cage,” she said anxiously.
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“No, we won’t let the kids out of our sight this time.”
When she looked along the drive at Royce again, an idea popped into her head. “Nick?” She glanced back at him. “We’re going to have to try talking to our prime suspects, right? I mean, that’s a logical move, isn’t it? To see if we can get any clues?”
He nodded. “It’s a logical move, all right, but after that run-in I had with Garth Richards last night I’m hardly going to be his favorite person. Which probably means I’m not Sarina’s, either.”
“Well, I didn’t put Garth in his place. So why don’t I get Royce to introduce me to them? See where that gets us?”
“Ahh…yeah. Good thinking.”
She wondered why, if it was good thinking, he didn’t look very happy about it. But there wasn’t much time to wonder before Royce and the boys reached the porch.
“The kids have been getting a little stir-crazy in the camp,” he told them. “So they were wondering if they could ride the ponies. They said it’s something they haven’t done before.”
“Except for, like, at birthday parties,” Kyle said.
“I once did a commercial where I rode a pony,” Brock told them. “But when I was just a kid. And I mostly just sat on it.”
“Well…” Carly said.
“I wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on them,” Royce offered.
“Or you could,” Kyle suggested, eyeing Nick’s well-worn cowboy boots. “You could help us with the ponies ‘cuz you’re a real cowboy, aren’t you?”
“No, he’s not,” Brock said. “He’s a bear trainer.”
“Well, actually, I am from out West,” Nick said.
“See, I told you.” Kyle rabbit-punched Brock’s arm. “When we were in the house, I saw a cowboy hat hangin’ in there.”
“Nick?” Carly murmured, leaning closer so only he would hear. “You remember how to saddle a horse?”
“Of course.”
“Then this is perfect,” she whispered. “You watch the kids, and I’ll get Royce to introduce me to Sarina and Garth.”
Nick didn’t look thrilled about baby-sitting, so before he could object, she turned to Royce and said, “Why don’t we leave the cowboy in charge of Kyle and Brock while you give me a tour of the camp? I really haven’t seen much of it.”
“That all right with you boys?” Royce asked.
“Sure,” they said in unison.
“Can you rope cows and stuff?” Kyle asked Nick.
“Well, we don’t have any cows here, but if we did…”
“You could rope the bear,” Brock was suggesting as Carly and Royce started down the drive.
“I’d better admit I want more than just a tour of the camp,” she said as they walked.
“Oh?”
“Uh-huh. My sister’s a huge Garth Richards fan. And she and my parents will be coming here for a few days while you’re filming. So I thought it would be nice if I met Garth before they arrived and could introduce Lisa to him.”
“Well, the way Garth is, I wouldn’t want to go knocking on their trailer door. We could wander by the kitchen, though. He and Sarina were still having lunch when I left.”
Carly nodded, wondering if Chef Raffaello had recovered from Rocky’s visit. When she and Nick had left with the coon last night, Raffaello had been starting to clean up his kitchen and muttering something about raccoon stew.
He didn’t look quite so surly today, she decided as they reached the kitchen. He was standing behind the buffet table outside the trailer and actually gave her a curt nod.
“They’ve left,” Royce told her, surveying the tables. “Raffaello?” he added. “Did you notice if Sarina and Garth went back to their trailer after lunch?”
“No, they went to feed the bear.”
“What?” Carly said, her heart suddenly hammering.
“Yeah. Garth asked me for some meat and they took off with it. I just hope Goodie doesn’t find out I gave away a roast or he’ll kill me.
“But Garth’s a method actor.” The chef paused, rolling his eyes to give them his opinion of that “And he said the only way he could get himself in tune with the bear’s emotional makeup was to spend some time with it.”
“Carly?” Royce said as she turned and started to run.
“What’s wrong?” he called after her.
But she couldn’t stop to explain. Not when their prime suspects might be in the process of poisoning Attila.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Ride ‘em, Cowboys
HALFWAY DOWN THE HILL to Attila’s field, Carly slowed to a fast walk and told herself everything was all right Attila was puddling around at the edge of his pond, while Jonathan was talking to Sarina and Garth.
At least, Carly assumed the woman was Sarina— she was so covered up it was hard to be sure. Apparently she took the threat of UV rays very seriously, because she was wearing a huge floppy hat, big sunglasses and a flowing caftan.
“Carly, what on earth’s going on?”
She hadn’t realized Royce had come after her, but he was suddenly beside her. So what did she tell him?
Nick had said not to tell anyone there was a saboteur on the loose, but surely they could trust someone she’d known for years. And even though Royce was a bit of a gossip, she knew he could keep a secret if he wanted to.
“Are you just going to leave me in the dark?” he pressed.
Since she couldn’t think of an even half-plausible lie, she said, “If I tell you, it absolutely, positively can’t go any further.”
“All right,” he agreed slowly.
“This movie isn’t jinxed. Somebody’s deliberately trying to sabotage it.”
“Get out.”
“It’s true. Nick and I have proof. And I’ve been worried that the saboteur might try to hurt one of the animals, so when Raffaello said that Garth was going to feed Attila…”
“You didn’t really think Garth would…Oh, come on, there’s no way Sarina would go along with hurting an animal. But you figure they’re the ones trying to screw up the filming?”
They were getting too close to the field to continue the conversation, so she said, “I’ll fill you in later, okay?”
When Jonathan glanced over and spotted her, she saw that he was managing to look starstruck, worried and relieved all at the same time.
“Carly?” he said. “Mr. Richards and Ms. Westlake wanted to give Attila a treat, but I told them I wasn’t supposed to let anyone get within ten feet of the fence and that nobody who wasn’t working for you was to feed him anything. Did I do right?”
“You did exactly what you were supposed to,” she said, her words making the worry disappear from his face.
“We haven’t officially met,” she added, turning to Garth and Sarina and putting on her best smile.
Royce jumped in with, “This is Carly Dumont. She owns half of Wild Action.”
Sarina took off her sunglasses and produced a smile of her own—one that Carly figured would make it into Jonathan’s dreams tonight. “Yes, of course. We know who Carly is. And it’s nice to officially meet you.”
“Very nice,” Garth said. “And you’re obviously the lady who can help me. I want to study your bear for a bit—kind of get under his skin, figuratively speaking. And I just assumed giving him a treat would be all right.”
“Well, I’m afraid we feed Attila a very strict diet,” she said, even though it was an outrageous lie.
When Jonathan looked at her strangely, she gave a little shake of her head, warning him not to say anything.
“That means you should take the roast back to the chef, dear,” Sarina said.
“Oh, yes, I suppose.”
“Too bad you didn’t bring raw chicken,” Jonathan said. “Carly might have let you feed him that ‘cuz it’s his favorite treat.”
She barely heard Jonathan’s words. She was too busy mentally replaying the exchange between Garth and Sarina.
They were going to take the roast back to the chef. So if t
hey were the saboteurs, at least it didn’t look as if they’d be extending their efforts to include the animals.
Surely if they’d poisoned the meat, they’d never let it be served to people. But she still intended to keep a careful watch on the animals until she and Nick figured out for sure who was behind all the trouble.
Trying to force away the thought that they might not be able to, she glanced at Garth—and discovered he was looking expectantly at Royce. Then Royce said, “I’ll take it back for you,” and she realized Garth felt that returning the roast himself was beneath him.
“Why, thanks. That would be very nice of you." He handed Royce the plastic bag he’d been holding, then focused on Carly. “What’s that thing for?” he asked, pointing at the cave.
“For Attila to hibernate in.”
“Really? He hibernates even though he’s not living in the wild?”
“Well, when it’s winter in the wild, it’s winter in his field, too.”
“And does he use it for anything else?” Sarina asked.
“Oh, he sometimes naps in it on hot days. It’s relatively cool inside.”
“Fascinating,” Garth said. “This is so fascinating. Carly, could I possibly impose on you to stay here with Sarina and me for a while? So I can ask you more questions?”
“Sure. I’d be happy to help out” And, of course, it would give her a chance to ask a few questions of her own. She just wished she’d had time to talk to Nick about exactly what she should ask.
As Royce started back up the hill, she said, “I didn’t realize either of you were actually in any scenes with the bear.” They certainly hadn’t been in her copy of the script
“Oh, we’re not,” Garth said. “Only the children are. But I like to immerse myself in the whole gestalt of any movie I star in. It’s the way I develop the character I’m playing.”
“Yes, someone told me you were a method actor. It made me wonder why you’d want to work with a director like Jay. One who’s into improvisation, I mean.”
“This film was a chance for us to work together,” Sarina said before Garth could reply. “It’s never easy to find scripts with good roles for both of us.”
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