by Sarah Fox
“What if he’s crazier about Alyssa?”
Lisa raised an eyebrow. “Not likely. From your description, it doesn’t sound like she has much going for her beyond her looks.”
“And the fact that she’s a rising movie star.”
“Do you really think Brett cares about that sort of thing?”
I set my glass on the coffee table. “No, I don’t.” That was the truth, and yet something still left me unsettled. “But he wants to help her. He’s defending her—blindly, I think. What if he still has feelings for her?”
“Just because he wants to help her, that doesn’t mean he’s still in love with her. Brett’s not the type of guy to turn his back on someone in need.”
“I know that. And I also know that’s a good thing. It’s just…” I wasn’t sure what it was I was trying to say.
“In a way it feels like he’s dividing his loyalties in Alyssa’s favor?” Lisa guessed.
My shoulders sagged with the weight of realizing she was right. “That’s stupid, isn’t it?”
“It’s human.” She took a sip of her soda, eyeing me over the glass. “Have you told him this?”
“No,” I admitted. “I didn’t know that was what I was feeling until you put it into words.” I let out a growl of frustration and buried my face in my hands. “I wish Alyssa had never shown up in Wildwood Cove.”
“She won’t be here long,” Lisa said.
I dropped my hands from my face. “What if the damage is already done?”
“I doubt that it is. Honestly, Marley, I think you need to talk this through with Brett.”
“You’re probably right.”
“I am right.” Lisa drained the remaining soda from her glass. “And maybe you should give Brett a hand with helping Alyssa.”
I couldn’t help but make a face. “I’d rather not have anything to do with her.”
“Sure, but the sooner her name is cleared, the sooner she’ll no longer have a reason to want Brett’s help.”
I considered that. “If she’s innocent.”
“You think she could be the killer?”
I explained about the torn-up sketches of Haze Moody found in Alyssa’s trailer, the text messages she’d sent to her sister, and the argument I’d overheard between her and Christine. “But Brett’s convinced she didn’t do it,” I said to wrap up.
“That’s not enough reason to scratch her off the suspect list,” Lisa said.
“My thought exactly.”
“After all, Brett’s been back in Wildwood Cove for what—five or six years?”
“About six, I think.”
“A person can change in that time. That doesn’t mean she did, but she could have. Plus, who wants to believe they lived with a future killer, right?”
I nodded, though I felt a twinge of guilt as I did so. I didn’t want to doubt Brett’s character judgment, but I did, and Lisa was right. Alyssa could have changed. Maybe her rise to celebrity status had gone to her head and altered her personality. If that was the case, who knew what else had changed?
“Okay,” I said. “You’re right. The sooner the case is solved, the better.”
Lisa tucked her dark hair behind her ear and rustled through her purse. “We need to make notes.”
I jumped up and grabbed a notebook and pen from across the room before returning to the couch. Lisa had produced her phone from her bag, but when she saw that I was already prepared to jot things down, she tucked it away.
“So who had a reason for wanting the victim dead, aside from Alyssa?” she asked.
I wrote Alyssa’s name of the top of the page and then tapped the pen against the paper. “There’s Nicola, Christine’s assistant. She’s taken over Christine’s role, and apparently she said something to the head of the wardrobe department about her professional fortunes changing soon.”
“Okay. Maybe not the strongest evidence, but she definitely belongs on the list.”
I wrote down Nicola’s name and then paused to think again. “I don’t know who would benefit financially from Christine’s death. I don’t know if she has any family, and there’s not much information about her online. She does have an ex-husband, though. He’s working on the movie.”
“If there’s an ex-husband, he should be on the suspect list.”
“But we have no hint of a motive.”
“Don’t they say most murders are committed by someone closely connected to the victim? We should at least try to find out if he does have a motive.”
“True.” I added Del’s name to the list. “I don’t remember his last name.”
Lisa dug her phone out of her purse again. “Tell me what you do know.”
“His first name is Del and he’s a gaffer, whatever that is.”
“Something to do with lighting, I think,” Lisa said as she navigated to IMDb on her phone’s browser. “Here we go. Del Harris.”
I added the surname to my list.
“Who else?” Lisa asked.
“Chase Lowman.”
Lisa’s dark eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“He argued with Christine,” I said as I added the actor’s name to the list. “Threatened her, too.”
“I hope it wasn’t Chase. I have a bit of a crush on him.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Although I wouldn’t mind a chance to interrogate him. Privately, of course.”
I tossed my pen at her. “This is serious,” I protested, but I couldn’t help but smile.
“Okay, okay. Who else goes on the list?”
“I’m not sure. I can’t think of anyone else at the moment.” I read over the short list of names. “We’ve got jealousy for Alyssa’s motive,” I said, jotting that down next to her name once I’d retrieved my pen. “And competition or professional jealousy for Nicola. But for Chase and Del…I’m not sure.”
“Motives and alibis. That’s what we need to work on.”
I tapped the pen against my chin. “I’ll have to talk to some of the other people involved with the movie. Maybe I can get more information from the crew.”
“That sounds like a plan.” Lisa pushed herself up from the couch. “But first we’re getting you out of the house for a while.”
“We are?”
“Mostly because I’m starving,” she admitted. “But no arguing.”
I smiled at that, and my stomach gave a rumble. I’d never finished the remains of my lunch and I was now feeling the effects. “No arguments here. Just let me feed Flapjack first.”
Flapjack heard his name and followed me into the kitchen, watching me with hopeful eyes. I set out some cat food for him, then picked some of the fish from my leftovers out of the batter and added it to his bowl. He practically pounced on the meal, purring away as he ate.
Minutes later Lisa and I were in her car, heading into town. My troubles hadn’t disappeared, and I still had a wild mix of emotions swirling around inside me, but with good company and a puzzle to ponder, my day had at least taken a step in the right direction.
Chapter 10
When we reached the Windward Pub and settled into a booth, I tried my best to put my troubles aside for a while. My heart still felt heavy in my chest, but I knew it would continue to feel that way until I’d worked things out with Brett. I was making myself think in terms of until rather than if, because to do otherwise was simply too painful.
After we’d ordered, I encouraged Lisa to fill me in on what was going on in her life, and she started out by telling me that she’d given up on the early-morning yoga class she’d started back in the summer.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m simply not a morning person,” she said. “I really don’t know how you manage to get up at five almost every morning.”
“And I don’t know how you stay up until midnight every night,” I said with a smile. “I’m definitely not a night owl.”
“Does that mean you won’t want to join an evening activity with me?”
“What kind of activity?”
“
There’s a local choir I’m thinking of joining.”
I chomped down on an ice chip from my water glass. “You’re on your own there. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.”
“I bet you’re not as bad as you think.”
I held back a laugh. “Trust me on this one. If I had to sing in tune to save my life, I’d be a goner.”
The arrival of our meals put an end to that line of conversation. As I started in on my veggie burger and Lisa tasted her clubhouse sandwich, our focus shifted to the movie production. While that wasn’t my first choice of subject—being connected to Alyssa—I didn’t mind talking about it as long as we didn’t focus on the actress.
“Ivan’s not impressed about the remake,” I said after swallowing a bite of my veggie burger. “He thinks the original version of The Perishing is a classic and shouldn’t be messed with.”
Lisa sipped at her ice water. “I can’t say I disagree with him, but I also can’t say I’m upset about Chase Lowman being in town.”
“You’ve seen the original?” I knew Lisa liked a wide range of film genres, but she’d never mentioned a particular love of horror movies.
“Of course. You mean you haven’t?”
“I’ve never been able to get into the horror genre.”
Lisa shook her head. “You poor soul. Watching horror movies is fun. Especially in the dark with friends. Are you planning to watch the remake?”
“I think so.”
“Then you have to see the original version first. Watching the remake without seeing the original would be wrong.”
I munched on an onion ring. “I guess I could give it a try.”
Lisa swallowed a bite of her sandwich. “Tell you what—we’ll make a movie night out of it. You should invite Ivan. Heck, invite everyone who works at The Flip Side.”
“I’m not sure if Ivan would come.” I didn’t know much about the reticent chef’s life outside of work and had no idea if he’d want to hang out in a group, even if the plan was to watch a movie he loved.
“If he’s a hardcore fan, he’ll probably come,” Lisa said.
“Okay, it could be fun,” I agreed. “I’ll invite everyone from work, and Brett and Chloe, too.”
“Awesome. Your place or mine?”
“There’s more space at my place, so why don’t we do it there?”
“Done. Maybe near the end of next week?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Hopefully by then, my life would be back to normal and I’d have Brett to curl up with on the couch during the movie.
We focused on our food for the next while, chatting here and there about our jobs and families. I was finishing off the last of my onion rings when a group of half a dozen people entered the pub and claimed a large table, talking among themselves as they did so.
“They’re from the movie crew,” I said with a nod in the group’s direction.
Lisa scanned the new faces. “No actors, though,” she said, disappointed.
I grinned across the table at her. “We’ll have to find a way for you to get your picture taken with Chase Lowman before the production wraps up.”
“That would make my day. Scratch that. It would make my entire month.”
I was still smiling, but my attention had returned to the members of the film crew. Nicola was there, her turquoise hair drawn back in a long ponytail, and I recognized a couple of other faces, though I didn’t know any more names.
“Any dessert for you ladies tonight?” our waitress, Jenny, asked as she stacked up our dirty dishes.
“A slice of strawberry cheesecake for me, please,” Lisa said. “Marley?”
I considered the question for a second or two before deciding to indulge. After the day I’d had, I could use some comfort food. “A slice of chocolate cheesecake, please.”
“Coming right up.” Jenny hurried off with our dishes.
She returned a couple of minutes later with our desserts.
“I see some of the crew from the movie are here,” Lisa said to the waitress. “Have any of the stars been in?”
“Not yet.” Jenny slid the plates of cake in front of us. “Just those guys so far tonight. And last night it was pretty much the same bunch.”
“Including the one with the turquoise hair?” I checked.
“Yep. She was here.”
“How long did they all stay?”
“Maybe until around nine. Except for the one with the turquoise hair. She left a lot earlier.”
“Do you happen to remember what time she left?”
Jenny eyed me with curiosity. “What’s this about?”
“The murder,” Lisa said.
Jenny’s eyes widened. “Is she a suspect?” she asked, giving her head a subtle jerk in Nicola’s direction.
“I don’t know,” I said quickly, not wanting to start any rumors. “We’re just wondering who might have had a chance to see something that night.”
Jenny seemed to buy that explanation. “I don’t know exactly what time she left, but I’m pretty sure she was gone before seven o’clock. She had a few appetizers, but she didn’t stick around for an entrée and drinks like the others did.”
A patron at another table raised his hand, trying to get Jenny’s attention.
“I’d better get a move on,” she said, noticing the man. “Enjoy your cheesecake.”
“Thank you,” we both called after her as she hurried off to attend to the other diners.
“So,” Lisa said as she sank her fork into her cake. “Does that tell us anything?”
I tasted my first bite of cheesecake, savoring the rich, chocolatey flavor. “It does,” I said once I’d swallowed. “It was right around seven o’clock that Sienna and I noticed the fire at Christine’s trailer.”
“Then Nicola doesn’t have an alibi,” Lisa concluded.
“Unless somebody can vouch for her after she left the pub, no.”
“So she stays on the list.”
I watched Nicola as she talked with her colleagues, smiling and laughing at something one of them said to her. She didn’t seem to be dwelling on Christine’s death.
“Yes,” I agreed, still watching the turquoise-haired woman. “She definitely stays on the list.”
—
By the time Lisa and I finished our cheesecake, my stomach didn’t have room for another bite, and I was so sleepy that I could hardly keep my eyes open.
“I think I’m on the verge of a food coma,” I said as we headed out of the pub after paying for our meals.
“But it was worth it,” Lisa said. “That cheesecake is pretty amazing.”
“It is,” I agreed.
We stepped outside and a gust of chilly, damp wind smacked into us.
“That woke me up,” I said with a shiver, pushing the hair out of my face.
Lisa did the same with her own hair. “I’ll say. The storm’s still brewing.”
The sign above the Windward Pub’s door creaked and swayed in the wind, and I had to make sure that the door latched securely behind us so it wouldn’t blow open. We hurried across the street to Lisa’s car and climbed inside, once again having to sweep the hair out of our eyes when we were sheltered from the wind.
“So should I drop you off at home?” Lisa asked before starting the car.
“Did you have something else in mind?” I asked, sensing that she did.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you want me to drop you at Brett’s place so you can talk to him.”
Even in the darkness, I could tell she was giving me a pointed look.
I slumped back against my seat. “Not tonight. I’m not ready yet.”
She started the engine. “But you won’t leave it too long, right?”
“Not too long,” I assured her, although I didn’t know what I meant by that.
Would I be able to face him the next day? I wasn’t sure yet, because I didn’t know what I was going to say when I did see him.
“All right, I’ll take you home.” S
he pulled the car out into the street. “But how about we drive past the Abbott house? Maybe we’ll see some nighttime filming going on.”
“Sure, we can take a look, but if some of the crew is at the pub, maybe they aren’t filming right now.”
“True,” Lisa said. “But we’ll go by and see.”
She drove us through the center of Wildwood Cove and into a residential neighborhood lit with streetlamps. She followed a side street and slowed once Shady Lane came into view.
“Do you think that has something to do with the movie?” Lisa asked as we spotted flashing lights up ahead.
“No idea,” I said. “But if it’s part of a scene, they might not let us go this way.”
We continued driving toward the lights at a slow speed, and we didn’t encounter any barricades or anyone directing traffic away from Shady Lane. However, when we reached the corner, we saw that the source of the lights was a Clallam County sheriff’s department vehicle parked at the curb at the end of the block. I could see a man in uniform standing near the vehicle, speaking with a shorter man who was gesturing wildly as he spoke.
“I think that’s Ray,” I said, referring to the man in uniform, partially illuminated by the lights of his vehicle and a nearby streetlamp. “And it looks like he’s talking to the film’s director, Vince Aconi.”
“I wonder what’s going on.” Lisa pulled the car over and parked by the curb. “Want to check it out?”
“Definitely,” I said, my curiosity piqued.
Whatever was happening, I wondered if it had anything to do with the murder. I hoped no one else had been hurt, but I quickly realized that there likely would have been more emergency vehicles present if anyone had come to serious harm. Even from across the street, Aconi didn’t look happy, but based on the one other time I’d seen him, I figured that might not be unusual.
As we climbed out of Lisa’s car, Aconi threw his hands into the air one last time and stomped away from Ray. He yelled something at a group of people clustered on the front lawn of the Abbott house, and they quickly scattered. While there were several people around the house, it didn’t appear that any filming was currently underway.
Ray was speaking into his radio, but he finished up as Lisa and I approached.
“What’s happening?” I asked when he noticed us. “Has someone else been hurt?”
