Zombie Cash Run in Las Vegas

by A. R. Winters

  Everyone at the table laughed, and I said, "Is Chuck really going to look for a new job?"

  Marcos shook his head. "No, but he's been complaining a lot about how it sucks to have production shut down like this. If it had been shut down permanently, he'd just have jumped ship–but since it's an indefinite thing, none of us know what to do."

  "But you still get paid," Ian pointed out.

  "Yeah, but it doesn't look good on our resumes," said one of the stagehands, whose name I'd forgotten. "And besides, it gets boring–well, I assume it will in a few days."

  Once Ian and I had headed back to his room and settled down with our food and coffees, Ian said, "There must be lots of people who don't mind the show being shut down like this. Seems like everyone’s getting paid to not do work. What's not to like about that?"

  "I'm sure not everyone's getting paid not to do work. Don't consultants get paid per episode or something like that? I think Kyle only gets paid if he shows up to the places he's consulting for."

  "I think you're right," Ian said. "Maybe we could ask Dave who's getting paid even if they don't work, and who only gets paid if they do."

  "But that doesn't make a difference," I mused, mostly to myself. "It's not like someone killed Brenna just because they thought they might get paid to do nothing."

  "I'm surprised Dave ended up hiring us after all. He didn't seem all that excited about the prospect when Kyle suggested it."

  "I've been thinking the same thing. Maybe he felt forced to go through with it to save face."

  "You can't think he actually had something to do with Brenna's death?"

  I shook my head. "I don't know what to think. I do know that Dave wouldn't have hired us unless Kyle had suggested it. And I'm sure he was hiding something from us when we talked to him. I asked him if Brenna got along with everyone on the set, and he said yes–but I don't think that's true."

  "Perhaps it's Dave who Brenna didn't get along with."

  "Perhaps. Or maybe it’s someone else, and Dave's trying to protect that person."

  "If it's someone else, we should start off by looking into who Dave would try to protect, who he likes a lot."

  "Well, he seems confident that no one on the set would hurt Brenna."

  "That might just be him being the Hollywood type who says nice things about everyone. Maybe there's one or two people he likes a lot more than the rest, and who he'd go out of his way to try to protect."

  I nodded. "You're right. We could ask around to see if Dave had seemed particularly friendly with anyone."

  "Brenna must have an ex-boyfriend," Ian said. "Or maybe she's got a boyfriend that we don't know about."

  I chewed on my lemon bar thoughtfully. It was absolutely delicious, and full of sweet, lemony goodness. "You're right. A murder usually happens because of love or money. If Brenna was killed because of someone's feelings for her, we need to look into who might have had those feelings. Dave mentioned that Brenna's got a brother–he might know if Brenna was seeing someone or not. And we should go talk to her ex as well. Maybe he's still got feelings for her, or maybe they secretly got back together again."

  "If she was killed because of money, then it would make sense to think that one of the other contestants went after her. But I thought they really didn't seem that intent on winning. I mean, everyone says they want to win. But why would you kill another person just to be able to get to the next round?”

  “You might just get eliminated in the next round.”

  “And if you got eliminated in the first round, which is meant to be the easiest, then you’d definitely get eliminated in the second. It could make sense for one contestant to kill another if this were the final round, but it's not–it’s just one of the preliminary entry rounds."

  "I think you're right. But we’ve still got to go talk to Clayton and Taylor. They weren’t in the cafeteria with us, were they?"

  Ian shook his head. "Not that I can remember."

  I thought about Dave again. "I really, really hate that our client’s hiding things from us. If Dave’s hiding something about Brenna, maybe there's something going on in the show that we don't know about."

  "Or maybe Dave's the killer, and he’s trying to protect himself.”

  “In that case, wouldn't he just make up some excuse to not hire us?"

  Ian shrugged. "We won't know for sure ‘til we look into the whole thing a bit more. Any chance your boyfriend could give us a hint or two?"

  I laughed and shook my head. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm taking my mom's advice. I'm going to avoid butting heads with him."

  Ian raised one eyebrow. "And that means lying about when we're talking to suspects?"

  I shrugged. "It's not entirely lying. We were just talking to Dave."

  "And you don't think Ryan realizes you were talking to Dave about the case? He could be even more suspicious of us because now he's sure you're hiding things from him."

  I let out a short, exasperated noise. "Since when have you become a relationship guru?"

  Ian shrugged. "I'm not. I'm just saying, you're the one who keeps telling me that it's best to be honest about things."

  I furrowed my brow. "It is. But… It's like, if you meet someone and you fall in love with them on the first date, you don't just blurt out that you're in love with them. You wait ‘til they tell you that they love you first. You don't want to scare them off."

  "I don't think this is the same situation."

  I shook my head. "No. But it's just as annoying."

  Ian was about to say something. He opened his mouth, probably to spout off more wisdom about relationships—which was rich coming from a guy who'd never been in a serious relationship of his own—when there was a loud knock on the door.

  Before either of us could say anything, the door opened and Gavin's head poked in. "I thought I’d find you guys in here."

  I rolled my eyes. "What do you want, Gavin?"

  Gavin shrugged, looking kind of apologetic and almost sheepish. He stepped in and closed the door behind himself. "I thought I'd help you guys out. You know, since things didn't work out between us at first, I thought I'd give it another try."

  I looked at him with a lazy sort of annoyance. "You do know that I have a boyfriend."

  Gavin waved his hands in front of himself. "No, no, not like that. I know you're never going to get with me because of that loser boyfriend of yours. I don't understand it, but I've come to accept it.” He sounded gracious and magnanimous, and I rolled my eyes. “Plus, I don't want you to get all mad at me and get me in trouble with my parents."

  I remembered vaguely that his parents were friends of my mother's. "Okay," I said. "Then what do you want?"

  "I work here," Gavin said. "Remember?"

  "So?"

  "So, I can help you guys out. Give you the inside info, and all that."

  Ian and I exchanged a glance. Gavin worked in some kind of liaison role; I assumed he was a glorified messenger between the production company and this show.

  "I don't think you've got any insider info that we don't already know about.”

  "But aren’t you meant to be talking with everyone who was on the show?"

  He had a point.

  I said, "Have the cops already talked to you?"

  "I think they've talked to Dave, Bruce, and Chuck. They’ll probably talk to Kyle next, and then maybe me. I guess they're going in order of who’s most important on the show."

  "Okay," I said. "Let’s start talking. Where were you when Brenna was killed?"

  Gavin grinned. "Straight for the jugular. I like a woman who’s direct."

  I narrowed my eyes at him. "Don't get cocky. If you want to help out, and if you don't want to get in trouble with your parents, you need to behave."

  The threat of his parents wiped the stupid smirk off Gavin's face. "Sorry."

  "Where were you?"

  "In the parking lot. I needed to make a couple of phone calls, and the reception here can be spotty.
"

  My eyebrows shot up. "So you had a view of the back entrance?"

  "Sort of."

  "What you mean, sort of?"

  "It was hot outside, so I sat in my car with the air conditioning on and made the calls. I got really busy on some of the calls–I wasn’t just sitting there and watching the entrance."

  I let out an exasperated sigh. "So you have no idea whether someone could've come in or out from the entrance."

  Gavin nodded silently.

  I tried not to be too disappointed. "Just my luck. You're never any use."

  "Hey!"

  "Sorry. I just got really hopeful when you said you had a view of the back entrance. Do you think anyone else could've been out there with you at the time?"

  "I don't think so. As far as I know, most of the stagehands and the assistants were actually on stage preparing something."

  "And everyone else was probably in their rooms," Ian muttered. "It would’ve been a lot easier if they just had a camera over that entrance."

  Gavin looked slightly defensive. "I don't think the production company’s made of money. I wish they were, then they'd hire more security and they'd pay me more. And maybe I could get more girls if I earned a bit more money."

  I didn’t think that earning too little money was why Gavin had trouble with women.

  Ian said, “Everyone keeps telling me that money shouldn't affect your relationships. At least not when you're starting out."

  "Everyone is wrong," Gavin said. "More money makes everything easier."

  I sent Ian a warning glance to silence him. "Okay, back to this murder." I didn't want Ian and Gavin getting into a long chat about the difficulties of having a good relationship, and I didn't want to spend any more time with Gavin then I absolutely had to. "Did you talk to Brenna before she died?"

  Gavin nodded emphatically. "Yeah, sure, I talked to her. I tried to talk to Taylor too, but Taylor was kind of stuck up and didn't say much to me. Brenna was a bit friendlier. I told her she was pretty, and I asked her for her phone number. But she said she wasn't looking for a relationship right now." He snorted. "That was a load of baloney. She must've been in some secret relationship, or maybe she was a lesbian. Why else would she refuse to give me her phone number?"

  "Maybe she just didn't like you?"

  Gavin leered at me. "But I'm so likable."

  I rolled my eyes. "What else did you talk about with her?"

  "Not much. After she said she wasn't looking for a relationship, I realized I should get back to work" —translation: he was embarrassed about being rejected– "and I headed off."

  "Did you see her talking to anyone else on set?"

  "I think she may have said hi to a couple of the stagehands and the cameramen, and she had a really long conversation with Dave. And I think she went to say hello to Kyle, but he got a phone call and they didn't talk for more than a few seconds. I saw Chuck coming by to talk to her, but they didn't talk for very long, and she didn't look happy when she walked off."

  That got my interest. "So you think Brenna and Chuck might’ve had an argument?"

  Gavin shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe she’d just gotten worried about the show."

  "Did you see her talking to anyone else?"

  Gavin shook his head. "No, I don't think so."

  "Tell us about the other people who work here," Ian said. "What you know about Dave?"

  Gavin twisted his lips and tilted his head to one side. "Not much. I've never worked with him before, and he seems kind of smarmy. He’s always smiling and acting nice. Anyone who acts nice all the time can't really be a nice person."

  "You don't think he could have killed Brenna?"

  Gavin shook his head. "If he killed her, why would he hire you two? But I know he's odd. He seems to have hand-picked all the contestants for this round, and there are going to be a couple more first rounds in different cities. I reckon he'll hand-pick the contestants there–this is some kind of vanity project, and he seems desperate to get off the ground. Maybe he hand-picked Brenna, and he knew her beforehand from somewhere."

  "If he was desperate to have this show succeed, he wouldn't hire Brenna because she was his friend," I reminded him. "After all, he invited Ian to be on the show, and he’d found out about Ian from other reality TV shows that Ian had been on. Just because Dave talked to the contestants before the show doesn't mean he actually knew them. He said he only talked to them for a few minutes."

  Gavin shrugged. "I'm just relaying the gossip. People think he's a bit too desperate for this to take off. Apparently, his whole career could go down if the show’s a flop."

  I nodded, wondering if his desperation could somehow tie in with Brenna's murder, but I couldn't see any connection.

  Ian said, "Who do you think might have done it?"

  "I don't know. I don't know most of the people on the show too well, but mostly they seem pretty nice. Maybe someone did use the back entrance to come in and kill her, maybe it was someone who wasn't related to the show."

  "But if it was someone from the show?"

  "My money’s on one of the other contestants. Clayton or Taylor could've killed her to get through to the next round."

  "Or what about Chuck, the director. You said you saw him arguing with Brenna."

  "I don't really see them arguing," Gavin said quickly. "It's just–their conversation seemed to look awkward, and when it was over, Brenna didn’t look happy."

  I couldn't think of what else to ask Gavin, and was trying to think of a polite way to get rid of him, when his phone buzzed with a text.

  Gavin made a face. "It's work. They want me to send them an email about–never mind, it's boring stuff. Anyway, I've got your number, and you can call me anytime to discuss the case."

  He gave me a wink before leaving, just to make sure that I understood he'd been trying to flirt with me. I breathed a sigh of relief once the door was closed behind him.

  "We should go talk to Chuck next," Ian said. "Dave said that Brenna got along with everyone, but according to Gavin, she didn't get along with Chuck. Maybe Dave was trying to protect Chuck–we need to find out what that conversation was about."

  Chapter 12

  Ian and I weren't sure where Chuck’s room was, so we headed over to the cafeteria, where we found Frank alone at one of the tables.

  There was no-one else around, and Frank was sipping a large mug of coffee and playing Solitaire on his phone. Ian and I grabbed a mug of coffee each and joined him.

  "If you turn right from here," said Frank, when we asked him about Chuck’s room, "it’s the second door on your left. But I don't think he'll be able to talk to you now."

  "Why not?"

  "I saw Detective Ryan go in there just a few seconds ago. They're probably questioning him."

  "Ugh, that's bad timing."

  "It's not a big deal," said Ian cheerfully. "We can just go in after a few more minutes. It's not like Chuck's going to run off back to LA."

  Ian smiled at his own joke, and I smiled back. At times like this, it was nice to have someone cheerful around.

  "Where is everyone else?" Ian said.

  Frank shrugged. “I think a couple of people have been told they don't need to hang out on set all day, and they're free to go home or wherever they’re staying for now. I think the cops want to talk to me later this afternoon, so I've gotta hang around. And I think some other people might be hanging out with Dave in his room–he’s probably giving them all a pep talk."

  I laughed, because that's probably all that Dave would do when he was surrounded by his staff.

  "What do you think of Dave?" I said.

  Frank shrugged. "All producers are sorta the same. They have to sell their show, and they need to motivate people to work hard. If the show’s not a success it reflects badly on all of us–but if it is a success, Dave’s the one who gets the biggest payoff. Well, of course the contestants do well too, and some of the more important crew members like Bruce and Chuck come out well."
r />   That reminded me. "I heard that Brenna had a chat with Chuck before the show got rolling."

  Frank shot me a sidelong glance, and took a long sip of his coffee. "Who told you that?"

  I smile noncommittally. "People tell us stuff. It's true, isn't it?"

  Frank took another sip of his coffee. "I didn't say anything earlier because I didn't want to get him into trouble."

  I tried to look understanding. "And you didn't tell the cops any of this either?"

  Frank shook his head.

  "It's okay, you can tell us what happened. Chuck's not going to get into trouble."

  Frank shrugged. "Sounds to me like you've already heard what happened. Not that I know much, of course. It isn’t like we could hear them talking or anything. They were speaking in low voices."

  "Yes, but you could see what happened–what did you think was happening?"

  Frank shook his head. "Chuck’s known in these parts as sort of a playboy. He was probably trying to flirt with her, and I'm guessing it didn't go too well."

  I frowned. "Flirt? Or was he trying to coerce her into something, maybe threatening to have her do badly on the show if she didn't cooperate?"

  Frank looked at me, horrified. "Chuck’s a ladies’ man, but he's never been one to force himself on other people. He wouldn't need to blackmail anyone–there are women lining around the block to do his bidding. He's a popular director, and any starlet would be happy to spend time with him."

  "But he didn't always get what he wanted–at least not with Brenna."

  Frank shrugged, and looked off thoughtfully. "Brenna might not have liked what Chuck was saying, but that doesn't mean he did anything."

  "No, of course not," I agreed quickly. "I was just wondering what exactly happened between the two of them."

  "Like I said, I was too far away to hear anything."

  "But it didn't look like it was a pleasant conversation."

  Frank nodded. "Yeah, she didn't seem all that happy. But Chuck didn’t look annoyed or anything, so I'd say they walked off on reasonably good terms."