My gaze moved to Sam as he took a forkful of meat and put it in his mouth.
The saliva in my mouth dried up as I watched his lips move around the fork, holding it between his teeth. As he slid the fork back out, I groaned, wishing I was that fork. As I licked my lips, attempting to put some moisture back onto them, I moved to look at his eyes. A wicked glint shone back at me as Sam ran his tongue over his own lips suggestively, catching me watching him.
Shit. I really needed to get a grip. I mean, it's not like I hadn't had sex in a while. In fact, it was only…hmm. When was it? Oh, for goodness sake, it wasn't that long ago, was it?
Actually, it was. I remembered the one-night stand Georgie had set me up with. He was a guy from her work, and I'd been pretty keen for a date with him. You'd think at the age of twenty-seven—yes, it was a year ago—I would have been a bit wiser and made him wait at least until the third date, wouldn't you? But no, I think I was desperate even then.
Screams filled the silence between us and broke me out of my dream state. Now, don't get alarmed, these weren't blood-curdling screams that chilled you to the bone. They were more annoyed, get the hell away from me kind of screams.
Sam dropped his fork to his plate and stood, trying to see through the crowd as a dog ran between people's legs with what looked like a pork bone between his teeth. I guessed the dog Katie had seen earlier was real. Brent ran after the dog, stopping it and grabbing at the meaty bone in its jaw. A tussle followed, which Brent won. However, as the dog lost its grip on the bone, the force propelled Brent backward into the table, holding tonight's smorgasbord. The table broke, and Brent and the remaining food crashed to the floor. The contents of the gravy bowl, however, went skyward.
The occupants in the room stopped what they were doing to watch the gravy reach a pinnacle before gravity took hold and brought it back down to Earth in a hurry.
Unfortunately for Brent, it seemed he was between the gravy and Earth, so he was now the wearer of all the leftover meat and vegetables, as well as a liter of gravy. He did still have the bone clenched in his hand, though. Until the dog turned to see what was happening and took the opportunity fate had given him. He ran back toward the table, up Brent's prone body, and grabbed the bone out of his hand. Then he leaped from his position on Brent's chest and hightailed it out of the room.
I saw Deanne's face as it passed her, and I think if she could have, she would have given the dog an award. I guess she'd found out about Brent's relationship with the rest of his group.
As the dog ran past us toward the door and back into the hall, Sam turned to me and said, "I guess dogs are a bit like women, then. They'll knock you over to take your food every chance they get."
"Geez, what kind of women have you been with? I've never knocked a guy over to take his food."
"Maybe you haven't been with the right guy?"
"Maybe you should date a different kind of woman."
"Hmm, I'm thinking about it," he said, giving me a very suggestive smile.
I shifted uncomfortably under his stare. "Oh well, at least he won't be hungry," I mumbled, attempting to bring the conversation back to the dog.
Sam laughed and turned his attention back to his plate.
CHAPTER NINE
I sat back in my chair, satisfied I had eaten all I possibly could, which I'd admit, wasn't much. I looked at Sam's plate still half-full and his enthusiasm not waning.
The studio had started to empty out as people finished their meals and excitedly wanted to get on with their sleuthing. I had listened in on conversations around me, and it seemed they were all wrong about Arthur fake-killing Rachel. He apparently had an alibi.
Word on the street now had it that Tiffany, the new station receptionist, was the favorite suspect. She fake-hated Rachel and wanted her dead after Rachel announced to the world that Tiffany was a thief. I wasn't sure what she'd stolen, but that was the rumor.
I was just contemplating this as Georgie and Matt walked over to us, pulled over two spare seats, and sat down.
"You didn't take long," said Sam, in between mouthfuls.
"No. We had a good look around but couldn't find him."
"What about Bernie's office? Did you find out what he was doing in there?"
Matt shook his head. "Not really, but I checked Bernie's computer again, and all the history has been wiped. You didn't do that, did you, Sam?"
"Nope, I was going to delete the history of what we were looking at tonight, but I didn't have time."
"Hmm, I wonder if Wes did it?"
"Why would Wes do it?" I asked.
"Maybe he suspected we'd been looking at it and wanted to delete it before anybody else could," suggested Georgie.
"How many people know his password?"
"I wouldn't think too many. I mean, that's the point of passwords, isn't it?"
"Then why would Wes bother?"
"Maybe he was looking at something himself," said Sam.
"Like checking up on Bernie? Or just surfing the web?" I chipped in.
"Checking up on Bernie."
Matt pulled out the paper I'd found next to Bernie's shredder from his pocket and unfolded it. His brows knit together as he concentrated on what was in front of him. "Well, what should we do now?"
Matt shook his head, as if clearing his thoughts. "I think we should check every room and cupboard for Faith systematically. If she's hiding, we'll find her. We'll look out for Wes along the way to see what's happening with the police. If we follow a plan, surely we'll find one of them."
I felt slightly unsettled. I was hoping the police would have been here by now and would have found Faith hiding.
"Where's Jake?" asked Georgie.
"Don't know. He was sitting over there. Marty had hold of him, and they seemed to be in a deep conversation about something."
"What happened to the food table?"
Georgie laughed as I recounted the story.
"Shame I didn't have the camera on him," said Sam, laughing with her.
A thought hit me. "Sam, you've had that thing on most of the evening, haven't you?" I asked.
He nodded.
"I wonder if you got any footage that might help us."
"Hmmm…not a bad thought." He picked up the camera and pressed a few buttons. "Come on," he said, standing up. "Let's take this to the production booth and put it on the big screen. We might see something insightful."
* * *
The production booth was upstairs above the studio. It was reasonably small, held an awful lot of equipment I had no idea how to use, and was dark even when in full use.
Sam moved ahead of us and plugged the camera into a lead. Within seconds, the monitor in front of him flashed to life, and we were faced with an image of the studio from earlier this evening.
Georgie and Matt pulled chairs up to the desk. I stood behind them, and Sam came to join me. Matt seemed to know his way around a camera, so Sam stood back and let him drive the show.
It was comforting to have Sam close as my intuition buzzed. I had no idea what it was trying to tell me, though. In fact, the only thing I knew for certain at that moment was that I really wouldn't become president of the Blondes Aren't Dumb club.
I twisted my hair around my fingers, thinking how little I knew, when my face filled the screen. I was standing with Georgie, and we were talking to Wes as we had only just arrived in the studio. The crowd milled around us as the chatter poured from the speakers hidden in the production booth walls. The sound moved in to us as Marty walked over and gave Georgie a hug capable of breaking bones.
"Georgie!" he boomed. "How are you?"
"Good, thanks, Marty," she said, grimacing from his hug.
He let go of her and turned to me, his smile freezing in place. It was surreal watching myself on screen. I wanted to look away but was compelled to watch in case I saw myself doing something embarrassing.
"Hi, Marty," my screen-self said, smiling and giving him a little wave. I noticed how crooked my
two front teeth looked and thought about booking an appointment with my dentist to enquire about braces. Oh, hang on, that's right. She was half-eaten by sharks. My stomach churned as I watched myself smile at Marty.
"Oh…umm. Hi." He held out his hand for me to shake. You could see the confusion cross his face. He had no idea who I was.
"Alex… I worked with Georgie in Traffic," I explained.
"Oh, yes, of course. Now I remember."
Liar. He still didn't have a clue. I watched as Wes leaned forward and whispered in his ear. Wherever Sam had been standing with the camera, the microphone picked up every word he said.
"Christmas party, 2009. Remember, we had to call the ambulance?" Marty's face lit up with recognition.
"Oh, Alex! Now I remember. Sorry, you look quite different now." He rocked back on his heels and smiled.
My screen-self blushed. Sitting in the production booth, I scowled. Okay, I had one night where I'd had a few too many drinks and may have fallen off the stage dancing "The Time Warp." Who hadn't done that?
True, an ambulance had to be called as I thought I'd broken my ankle, and of course, it had all been caught on camera. That was the absolutely worst thing about working at a television station. Everywhere you turned, there was a bloody camera. Actually, scratch that. Tonight that might be a good thing. I hoped.
The four of us sat in front of the monitor, searching every bit of footage Sam had captured in the studio, when Georgie turned in her chair.
"God, for someone who doesn't like the camera, you sure get in front of it a lot," she said to me.
I blushed. "I do not!"
But I had to admit, she was right. There seemed to be an awful lot of footage of me in this show.
I turned to look at Sam, questioningly, but his attention was on the screen.
"Has anyone else noticed Katie is in every shot I have of Alex?"
She was?
"Yeah," mumbled Matt, his pen in between his lips. He flipped back a page in his notebook. "I had noticed that."
"Why?" I asked.
Sam and Matt shrugged.
"There are a lot of people in that room," said Georgie. "It's probably just a coincidence."
"I don't believe in coincidence," said Matt.
"There's Faith," said Sam, his words snapping everyone's attention back to the screen.
Matt paused the footage on Rachel talking to Faith. He pressed play and zoomed the image in closer on the two of them.
Rachel had her back to the camera, so we couldn't make out what was being said, but Faith appeared annoyed with her. No surprises there. Most people seemed annoyed at Rachel tonight.
There was something about the picture that seemed wrong to me, but I couldn't put my finger on what. My intuition screamed. Sometimes I wished intuition would just write it on a wall or something. You would think if the Universe were to give a gift like intuition to someone, it would give it to someone who understood exactly what the hell it was on about, wouldn't you? I sighed, thinking I must be a great disappointment to the Universe.
On screen, Rachel flicked her hair over her shoulder and spun on her heel. She faced the camera, and the four of us saw the smirk that sat happily on her face.
"What was that about?" I asked, hoping someone else had picked up on what I'd missed.
"Probably some drama she was cooking up."
"They seemed pretty chummy," commented Georgie. "I didn't know they knew each other that well."
"What does it matter anyway?" asked Sam. "Unless you think Rachel has something to do with her disappearance?"
Georgie gave no comment.
We watched the footage for another half hour, Matt pausing at several places so we could get a closer look, but at the end of it, we were really none the wiser.
Matt was just turning off the camera when Brent walked into the room, dragging Sheryl behind him.
"Oh, what are you all doing in here?" he asked, looking around our group. "Alex!" he said, turning to me, surprised.
"Yes?"
"How did you get here so fast?"
"Umm, I came in here about a half hour ago with these guys."
"Really?" asked Sheryl. If she was embarrassed at being caught holding Brent's hand, she wasn't showing it. "I could have sworn it was you going into the traffic department before."
"Why would I go in there?"
Sheryl shrugged. "How would I know?"
"So, it wasn't you?" asked Brent. "But it looked like you. Are you sure it wasn't you?"
Brent was actually quite intelligent. Right now, you wouldn't have known it.
"Nope. Been here the whole time."
"Huh," Brent and Sheryl said in unison.
"But seriously, what are you guys doing in here?" finished Brent. My question was what were they doing in here? I shook myself. I knew exactly what they were doing.
"We've been checking video footage of this evening to see if we can find any clues as to what happened to Faith."
"Oh, haven't you heard? Faith's in the studio. Apparently someone locked her in the old dub room. It's Jake they can't find."
* * *
Shock and relief swept the room.
"Why didn't someone tell us?" asked Georgie.
I didn't care why no one had told us, I just wanted to see for myself that Faith was okay. I pushed past Sam and hurriedly moved to the door that opened to the spiral staircase leading directly to the studio.
Rushing through it, I shivered as a dark shadow moved from the bottom stair tread and disappeared into the darkness behind the set.
"Who was that?" asked Georgie.
"I don't know."
I ran down the stairs as quickly as I could, Georgie hot on my heels, hoping to see whoever it was, but by the time I got to the bottom, whoever it was had disappeared. I looked around, wondering where they could have disappeared to. The boys bounded down behind me.
I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the dim light. Things were much messier behind the scenes with sets, props, and mountains of cardboard boxes cluttering the area. Remembering that they still made commercials here, I noticed the billboard for a local mattress company. I'd noticed none of this earlier this evening when I was running for help after finding Faith. Matt rounded the set, Sam right behind him. I was torn between wanting to search the area for whomever I'd seen and wanting to question Faith. Wanting to question Faith won out.
I followed the boys and found Faith sitting on a chair in the middle of the room, a plate of food balanced on her lap, whilst she nibbled on a bread roll, a very big bandage stuck to her temple. Dawn must have had some leftovers in the kitchen as I clearly remembered Brent wearing tonight's dinner.
I marched over to her and stopped, my hands on my hips.
"What the hell are you playing at?" I asked.
Faith looked back at me, her eyes large and innocent. "I don't know what you mean."
"The whole toilet death scene!" I could feel my blood pressure rising as anger set in. Unfortunately for me, when I'm angry, I usually cry. Tears welled behind my lashes as all the emotions I'd been through tonight came to the surface. Sam put his hand on my lower back. Another emotion started in my belly, but that emotion would have to wait because, right now, it was not appropriate.
Dawn glared at me like only a mother can. "Alex! Leave the poor girl alone. She's been through a lot."
"She's been through a lot? What about us? What about Jake?"
"You have no right to yell at me, Alex," said Faith, dropping the bread roll onto her plate, anger flicking in her eyes. I took a quick look at the roll and noticed the tiny little nibbles she'd taken. "I should be yelling at you. Why did you hit me?"
I sucked in a lungful of air and tried to slow my breathing. "I'm sorry, what?" I asked, my lips trembling as my anger still simmered. "What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, the quietness in my tone forced.
"I have no idea why you did it, but you did. I know it was you. You were wearing that stupid headband. I was mind
ing my own business in the toilet when I stepped out of the cubicle, and there you were. You had your back to me, and when you turned, you hit me. That was the last thing I remembered until I woke up in the dub room." With those words, the tears spilled over her lashes. Within seconds, she was sobbing.
Dawn looked at me accusingly. "Alex! Why would you hit her?"
"What?" I asked, shaking my head, hoping the pieces would fit together that way. "I didn't hit you!"
I felt all eyes turn to me as Faith sat sobbing innocently.
"I found you in the toilet. And yes, someone had hit you, but it wasn't me. I wouldn't do that. Why would I do that?"
"Because you're jealous of me," whispered Faith, imitating a timid mouse.
"I'm not jealous of you. Why would I be jealous?"
"Because you still love Jake."
"I…I do not love Jake!" I stammered, shocked by her accusation. Thankfully, Sam still had his hand on my lower back, his warmth seeping in and comforting me. "Honestly. I don't." I looked around the faces that had gathered around us.
"Y…you…you're making it all up," Faith said, between sobs. "You wanted me out of the picture so you could win him back. But he doesn't love you anymore. He loves me!"
I was about to turn on her, the full wrath of my anger (yes, I know, I'm not really that scary) when the studio door burst open, and Rachel stormed into the room.
"Georgie!" she yelled.
Georgie jumped.
"Call everybody to the studio. Now! I have an important announcement to make."
She was obviously in a don't-mess-with-me mood, so Georgie jumped up and almost ran to the PA. Rachel's anger was obviously much scarier than mine.
I wanted to say more to Faith, but Sam grabbed my arm and pulled me backward. I stumbled on my feet and fell into him. Thankfully, his big strong arms saved me from the embarrassment of falling on my arse.
I did feel the hitch in my stomach as I was pressed into his hard abdomen, but I tried my very best to ignore it. I was angry at Faith, and nothing would stop me.
Okay, that was a total lie. The feeling of Sam's arm around my waist may have momentarily made me forget all about Faith, but you could understand the situation, right?
Invitation to Murder Page 9
