by Susan Harper
“I wonder if Eleanor would have stayed on for a while if that was the case?” Felicity asked. “She only came on to spy on Alisha and Phillip, but the show’s writers obviously liked her. I wonder if Eleanor’s murder had nothing to do with her being a private investigator.”
“What do you mean?” her father asked.
“What if it was about Eleanor becoming a more prominent character?” Felicity asked.
“So instead of revenge as a motive, we’re looking at jealousy?” her mother asked with a big, satisfied smile on her face.
Felicity nodded. “Possibly. It’s a new angle to look at for sure because looking into her PI business hasn’t gotten me far.”
“Ooh, this is so exciting!” her mother giggled.
Felicity nodded, her mind attempting to piece together the puzzle that lay before her.
Chapter 11
It was Dawn’s final dress fitting the day after Felicity’s embarrassing spill in the storage room of Overton’s Events. Felicity, much to her surprise, was feeling refreshed. She had finally let herself get worked up enough to curl up in a ball and cry about everything, and now she felt almost empowered by it. She just wished that Jefferson hadn’t had to see it, but then again, she was somewhat grateful she had had his shoulder to cry on.
Because it was Tuesday, not everyone had been able to make it. Dawn’s fitting had been scheduled around the dead hour in Senoia, so Jefferson had offered to watch the shop while Felicity went across the street to underground Senoia, where the dress shop was located. Autumn had been able to slip out of work at the Newnan Morgue, but Veronica was trapped working a shift at the hospital and Brittany had an exam at her college that day.
Natalie and her mother were there as Natalie was also receiving a fitting for her adorable flower girl dress. Felicity smiled as Dawn stood on a small platform while the seamstress worked the hem of the gown. Felicity and Autumn and Natalie’s mother all sat on some lounge chairs enjoying some champagne that Dawn had brought for the occasion. “Ooh, when Monte sees you in that, he’s going to turn into a blubbering idiot,” Autumn said, and Felicity giggled slightly.
“I love it,” Dawn said, her cheeks turning red as she was told to turn around and face the mirror.
Natalie moaned. “I’m bored. Mom, can we please go to the Zombie Zone gift shop after this?”
“I told you if you behave, we’ll go. Stand upright so you don’t wrinkle your dress,” her mother said.
“Hey, have you two ever put rock candy in your champagne before?” Dawn said, waving her hand over to a chair where her purse was sitting far off in a corner. “Try it. It’s awesome. Like drinking cotton candy.”
“Interesting,” Autumn said and rose to go fetch the rock candy Dawn had evidently brought. Felicity followed. “You okay?” Autumn asked her once the two were away from the rest of the group. “Iris called me last night and said you two had talked.”
Felicity sighed. “Guess she told you about the folks and wanted you to keep an eye on me?”
“Pretty much,” Autumn said. “Like a good little sister.”
“I’m a little surprised,” Felicity said.
“Same,” Autumn said. “Your parents always seemed so happy. Hard to imagine they just drifted apart. How are you taking it?”
“Better than expected,” Felicity said. “I finally had a little meltdown last night at the shop, but I think I needed it.”
“Hard to imagine someone like you having a meltdown,” Autumn said.
“It was pretty bad,” Felicity admitted. “A bucket of paint fell on my head, and then I found out about my parents. A bunch of craziness all at once. But, like I said, I think I needed it.”
“Good,” Autumn said and put her hand on Felicity’s shoulder. “I’ve been waiting on it. It’s okay not to be completely put together, you know? None of us are.”
“Thanks,” Felicity said, snagging herself some rock candy before the two of them headed back to the lounge furniture.
“Can I have some?” Natalie asked.
“Not until you are out of that dress,” her mother said. “Let them finish hemming it, and then you can change and get yourself some rock candy.”
“Thanks, Mama,” she said happily. “Then can we go to the gift shop?”
Felicity laughed to see Natalie’s mother moan. “You know, Natalie,” Felicity said with a smile. “I finally got all caught up on the show. I saw last season’s finale last night.”
“Wasn’t it just awesome!” Natalie squealed.
“It actually was really good,” Felicity said. “I think you converted me.”
“Yay!” Natalie exclaimed. “Now you have to go watch those deleted scenes I told you about!”
Felicity laughed. “Okay, I will.”
“You don’t have to,” Natalie’s mother muttered. “She’s just excitable.”
“Well, I am doing an investigation for one of the show’s writers,” Felicity said. “It probably wouldn’t hurt to know all I can.”
At last, Dawn’s dress fitting was complete, as was Natalie’s. Dawn winked at her cousin, Natalie’s mother, and said, “You know, there is a coffee shop inside that gift shop. We could all grab ourselves a drink while Natalie does a little good-natured shopping.”
She smiled and agreed. Coffee was probably just what the woman of the young, rambunctious Natalie needed. The group headed up to Main Street and into the coffee shop. They could see the actual gift shop from where they sat, so they all helped to keep an eye on Natalie while she oohed and ahhed at everything while they drank their coffee.
“She’s just too cute,” Autumn said.
Dawn smiled. “Why else do you think I picked her to be my flower girl? She and Monte’s little nephew get along really well, and they are going to look so adorable walking down the aisle together.”
“And you’re going to look so gorgeous,” Felicity said.
“Thanks to you,” Dawn said. “If it weren’t for your event shop having a deal with the dress shop here, there is no way I could have afforded that dress…and I just love the dress, Felicity. You’ve done so much for my wedding. I really appreciate it.”
“Well, you are paying me, Dawn,” Felicity said.
“Yeah, at a forty percent discount of what you normally charge,” Dawn said under her breath. “I am really just so grateful. You have no idea. And you are really going above and beyond for Monte and me.”
“Felicity?” a familiar voice spoke, and Felicity glanced up from where she was seated to see Jasmine and Max.
“Oh!” Felicity exclaimed and stood. “Jasmine, Max, good to see you both. I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you two. Do you have a second?”
“Sure,” Jasmine said, rubbing her incredibly round belly.
“Excuse me for a second, you guys,” Felicity said to her friends and ushered the couple to another table to talk privately. They each had a cup of coffee in their hands.
“Caffeine-free,” Jasmine said, tapping the top of her lid. She rubbed her stomach. “Otherwise this one gets too jumpy, and it kills my back.”
“I can imagine so,” Felicity said. “Are you going to be able to work when they start filming?”
“I’m going to take some time off,” Jasmine said.
“What does that mean for your character on the show?” Felicity asked.
Jasmine laughed. “I appreciate that you call my extra work a character. Nothing much. I’m just one of the background faces of the show’s main group.”
“Although, they do want her back pretty quick. Even though she’s just an extra, people will notice if one of the show’s travelers doesn’t show up on screen for a while,” Max said.
“Yeah, but they want me to drop my baby weight really quick,” Jasmine moaned. “They don’t want any of the extras looking pregnant, you know? If they do, they’ll have to explain that in the story—and since I’m just an extra, they don’t want to draw any attention to me and away from the main cast.”
&
nbsp; “Makes sense,” Felicity said. “But that sure is a lot of pressure.”
“Not really,” Jasmine said. “I dropped my baby weight from the first baby really quick. This is number two, by the way.”
“What is it you wanted us to talk about?” Max asked.
“Bridget,” Felicity said.
“Don’t you mean Eleanor?” Jasmine said. “Phillip told Max. He was freaking out about that truth bomb you dropped on him. Ronnie is eating it up, though.”
“So you know,” Felicity said.
“Everyone knows now,” Max said. “Honestly, good for Ronnie. He’s put up with a lot of crap from the two of them over the years. Alisha is hiding out in embarrassment now, and she’s trying to smooth things over a bit with Ronnie. Worried about not being able to see her kids.”
“It’s really a shame,” Jasmine said. “I mean, Alisha loves her kids, you know? I know she’s not a user, but she was stupid and tried some serious drugs and got busted on camera. Ronnie’s a good parent, don’t get me wrong, but I hope he’s not too hard on her during custody hearings. She’s not a bad person…just selfish, I guess.”
“What’s this mean for the show?” Felicity asked.
“Not a thing,” Max said. “Phillip, Ronnie, and Alisha are all staying on. They’re going to keep working together. I imagine behind the scenes probably won’t be as fun at first, but they’ll figure out a way to get along for the rest of the cast, I’m sure.”
“So you two were unaware of who Bridget really was?” Felicity asked.
“Yeah, up until Phillip told me,” Max said. “I can hardly believe it. She was doing really well with the show too. She played her part well, you know? I asked Ronnie out of curiosity just this morning what Eleanor was planning on doing, and he said after that last episode aired, she was thinking about sticking around to see if the show kept her on for a while. She was having fun.”
“She was so sweet,” Jasmine said. “I didn’t know her as well as Phillip and Alisha, but we were really starting to get to know each other toward the end of filming for this last season. I was really excited to start working with her again. She’s one of the livelier extras. All the other extras feel like they have to keep their mouths shut and not have fun on set because we’re all pretty expendable, but Bridget—Eleanor—made it such a pleasant place to work.”
“Oh my gosh!” Natalie’s voice suddenly squeaked from beside Felicity, causing her to jump. The little girl pointed at Max. “You’re an assistant director on the show!” She then looked at Jasmine. “I know you too! You’re one of the show townspeople!”
“This is Natalie,” Felicity said to Max and Jasmine. “A super-fan.”
Max and Jasmine both smiled; Felicity was under the impression that they didn’t get recognized all that often. They were both very sweet to Natalie, and they took a moment to let her mom take a picture of them with her. Natalie was very excited, and she told Jasmine she liked her character, which made Jasmine smile. From what Felicity had seen, Jasmine had never had any lines, but Natalie was still ecstatic. Eventually, Natalie rejoined her mother at their table, and Max and Jasmine were ready to get going.
Felicity smiled and thanked them for taking the time to talk to her before she returned to the table with her group of friends. “Did you learn anything useful?” Autumn asked.
“I’m not sure,” Felicity said. “This case is proving to be trickier than I originally suspected it would be.”
“No such thing as easy money,” Dawn said.
“No, there really isn’t,” Felicity said with a sigh. She wondered how the police were doing on their investigation, so she shot Jack a text to ask. She was almost relieved to hear that they were coming up pretty empty, and they had a crime scene unit who had taken DNA from the scene. Evidently, they had not been able to get a good reading, so they were just as lost as Felicity. It made her feel a little better knowing that this case was not just giving her a hard time, but she still wanted to seek justice for Eleanor. “I have got to be missing something,” Felicity muttered, but she brushed it aside for the time being so that she could spend some time with her friends.
Chapter 12
Felicity took a day off to rejuvenate, and Jefferson was more than happy to watch the shop. She needed a day to herself after her breakdown a few days before, plus she needed to get some work done regarding the case. She had already interviewed pretty much everyone from the show at this point, so she was doing some lazy day research. She was dressed in her pajamas, hiding up in her old room, and watching videos off the website Natalie had insisted she look at.
“The little munchkin was right,” Felicity said to herself with amusement. The website really did have some pretty amazing deleted scenes; it was a shame some of these didn’t make it into the show. Felicity supposed that when it came down to it, editing was probably a huge deal. They only had an hour of airtime, including commercials, and trying to figure out what was going to fit into each week’s episode was probably difficult.
She could hardly imagine how she had not been a die-hard fan of the show before. Almost the entirety of the show was filmed right on or right around Main Street where she worked, so she recognized a lot of the scenes. If it wasn’t in Senoia, some of the scenes might have been a local highway or perhaps a privately-owned home in the area. Felicity felt like every other scene she watched, she would giggle and say, “I know who lives there” or “I remember this one time I went there.” It was fun. It was no wonder Natalie loved the show so much; she probably recognized all of the locations.
Felicity was just about to stop watching the deleted scenes when the next one to pop up in her feed was of Jasmine. She smiled and played the video. She watched a quick scene of Jasmine killing a zombie and then making a good one-liner like a professional extra would be expected to do. Something about the scene seemed familiar, but Felicity couldn’t put her finger on it.
More scenes from the last aired season popped up, and she realized she had only one last season of deleted scenes to watch. So, she decided to stick through to the end. How long have I been watching these videos, she wondered after realizing she had gone through every season. Another deleted scene popped up that had Jasmine in it. This time, it was a scene that Felicity was certain was in the show, but she didn’t recall Jasmine being in that episode at all. “Hmm…” Felicity mumbled. “Something’s fishy here.”
Felicity turned on her television; her mother had recorded a few episodes from the last season of the show on her Tivo. Felicity started watching an episode, letting it play on mute in the background while she watched the deleted scenes online.
A third scene of Jasmine that didn’t make it into the show. A fourth. A fifth. All the scenes seemed familiar. Felicity turned on the last episode of the most recent season on her television, taking it off mute. She fast-forwarded it to the end where Eleanor’s character had a speech she delivered to the main cast. “Of course we’re scared!” Eleanor’s voice called out of the speakers of Felicity’s television. “We’re all scared! But we’ve followed you idiots this far.” Felicity paused the TV.
She went back to her computer and searched for more deleted scenes. “Lookie there,” Felicity said as she found the very scene that lay before her on the television—except Jasmine was standing where Eleanor was on the television. It seemed to be almost the exact same scene, except they had switched which extras they had used.
Felicity pressed play on the laptop to view the deleted scene. Jasmine delivered her lines with incredible gusto, and Felicity had to admit that Jasmine sounded more convincing and more heartwarming than the scene with Eleanor that had made it on television. “Of course we’re scared! We’re all scared! But we’ve followed you idiots this far,” Jasmine’s character spoke to the main cast, her eyes starting to water. “We have a living enemy chasing us from behind and a dead one out front.” Jasmine flung her arm in one direction, pointing to where a group of men were heading toward them and then pointing toward the onc
oming herd of zombies. “I’d take my chances with the dead. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since all this mess has started, it’s that our circle of trust is getting smaller.” The camera lingered on Jasmine for a moment as she looked at Alisha and Phillip’s characters with this true look of sincerity. “But I trust you two. I do. I’ll follow you…” Jasmine turned to the rest of the group. “And I hope the rest of you will too. We are powerful! We’ve proven that to ourselves now. I know we can do this! I know we can!”
Felicity was almost blown away by the raw emotion in Jasmine’s voice; even the other actors in the scene seemed so much more moved by Jasmine’s portrayal. Felicity looked back at the television. She pressed play on the TV to compare the scene. “We have a living enemy chasing us from behind and a dead one out front. I’d take my chances with the dead. If there’s one thing I’ve learned since all this mess has started, it’s that our circle of trust is getting smaller. I trust you two. I’ll follow you, and I hope the rest of you will too. We are powerful. We’ve proven that to ourselves. I know that together we can do this.”
Eleanor was not an actress. She had done decently in the scene, and frankly, the first time Felicity saw it, she thought it had been excellent…until she saw Jasmine’s version. She looked back at her computer. Jasmine was at least five months pregnant in that scene. Her face was puffy from the pregnancy. Her belly slightly round, enough for a viewer to say, “Hey, that woman’s pregnant! Why hasn’t anyone brought that up?” Her big scene had been given to Eleanor all because the show didn’t want to spend too much time and energy trying to cover up the fact that she was pregnant. Was that motive?
“Surely not,” Felicity said, but she wasn’t so sure. It looked like a few scenes from the last couple of episodes of the last season had been redone just to make it easier on the crew. Felicity had read stories of actresses shooting movies while pregnant, and no one could tell. Perhaps covering that up was a more complicated process and for a show with strict deadlines, that had just been one more thing they didn’t want to put on their plate?
