Lisa came to a stop sign and realized what she had to do. Annette’s mother had said something about Annette that Lisa just couldn’t let go. What was this thing about suicide? If anything happened to Annette, Lisa couldn’t live with herself.
She put on her turn signal to go back to Annette’s house. Lisa was going to talk to Mrs. MacLean and get the answers she needed.
She pulled up in front of the cozy little house. The front curtains were still open. She could see that the TV was still on and the dinner table was set. Lisa cringed, thinking of what her mother would say if she knew Lisa was about to knock on someone’s door right before mealtime. But this couldn’t wait. If she waited, she might lose her chance, or lose her nerve. She marched up the front door and gave a sturdy knock.
Mrs. MacLean opened the door and frowned when she saw Lisa. “Didn’t I tell you to go?”
“You did, and I apologize for being so forward, but you also said something about Annette and suicide. I couldn’t just let that go. Annette’s a really special kid, and if anything happened to her…”
Mrs. MacLean’s mouth compressed in a line for a moment as she considered Lisa. “Fine,” she said. She moved out of the doorway to let Lisa into the house.
Instead of going to the kitchen, she led Lisa to a small room behind the stairs. It had a futon covered in a colorful hand-crocheted afghan against one wall, a bookshelf filled with an assortment of board games and small plastic storage bins on another, and a sewing table against the third. Mrs. MacLean sat in the swivel chair at the sewing table and turned it around toward the center of the room. She gestured at the futon and Lisa sat down.
“I’ll show you what I found, and you can see for yourself.” Annette’s mother opened a drawer in the sewing table and took out a phone. Lisa recognized it from the case as Annette’s phone.
Mrs. MacLean typed in a passcode and then pulled up the Krumbsi app. She swiped and tapped, her face screwed up with annoyance at the app’s interface.
“Here.” She tapped to start a video and thrust the phone at Lisa.
Kaden Nicolini appeared on the screen, his face beautiful and wistful.
“It’s called the 27 Club,” he said. “Talented people dying at age 27. Live fast, die young, that sort of thing. It’s like Jim Morrison said, ‘Death makes angels of us all.’ I’m going to be an angel. Do you want to be an angel?”
A muffled voice off-screen said something and Kaden looked thoughtful.
“I don’t waste time. Time is what life is made of. I think Bruce Lee said that. Now, Bruce Lee, he died young, too, but not at 27. He made it to thirty, uh, thirty-three, I think. And Brandon Lee, his son, was almost in the 27 Club. He died at 28.” Kaden smiled. “He should have been 27. He was a perfect person for the club. Talented, smart, good-looking. He was a star. One of my heroes. His performance in The Crow is what made me go into acting.”
It went on in that vein for a while, with rambling paeans to Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse.
The interviewer asked another muffled question from off-screen.
“I’m not afraid of death. I’m afraid of being forgotten.” He looked right into the camera. “You won’t forget me, will you?”
The video ended. Annette’s mother snatched the phone back and put it in the drawer again.
“You see what I mean?” she said. “Glorifying suicide, and then he dies right in front of my daughter!”
Lisa picked at a bit of blue yarn in the afghan. It was the same video as the clip on the news, but longer. But why did Annette have it instead of the network or the police?
“If this is the kind of people you’re going to expose the youth of our town to, expose my daughter to, then she doesn’t need to be at your so-called Last Chance Café.”
“I mean, Kaden Nicolini is not exactly our typical customer,” Lisa sputtered.
“I’m worried about my daughter, and you come at me with this typical customer stuff? You’re just like your mother.”
Irritated, Lisa stood up. “I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said. “Good night.”
Mrs. MacLean said nothing as Lisa left the house.
Lisa drove back to the Folly and parked. A light dusting of snow started to fall, the little flakes melting on her windshield as she sat and considered the video. Kaden Nicolini’d had everything going for him when he died. He was making it as an actor, which Lisa knew firsthand was incredibly difficult. The gossip magazines had linked him with various starlets, and Rosemary Thyme had even said he had a fiancée. He had a TV series behind him and was starring in a movie that looked ready to vault him to serious stardom. What would make someone with that much good in his life even consider suicide?
She frowned. What made anyone consider suicide? Perhaps he was depressed or mentally ill in some way. She hadn’t seen anything like that in her interactions with him, but some people could hide the signs.
Lisa thought back to some of her own low moments. When Dylan had cheated on her and broken her heart, she’d thought of ending it all. Maybe Kaden had been disappointed in love.
Or maybe he’d taken the 27 Club to heart. Was he really just delusional enough to think that being remembered as a famous dead star was better than living life?
Chapter 18
The morning rush was in full swing, with customers in all the rooms. Lisa was elated to have sold several fruitcake muffins. She’d dropped off several more fruitcake muffins at the craft service table on set, and hoped they were finally catching on.
She bussed a table, making room for more customers. A rush of cold air from the front door told her the table would soon be filled. Lisa took out her order pad and came back to take the new customer’s order. The woman at the table immediately stood up, the fringe on her sleeves swinging. Before she knew what was happening, Lisa found herself enveloped in a hug.
“Aunt Olivia,” Lisa gasped. After a moment of uncertainty, Lisa wrapped her arms around her aunt and gave her a squeeze in return.
Olivia stepped back and inspected her niece. “You’re looking tired,” she declared.
Lisa laughed. “Thanks. When did you get back in town? I thought you were in South America.”
“Just last night. And I was. Things, um, didn’t exactly go to plan. Javier was married, and thought I wouldn’t mind living in a little shack behind his wife’s house. Next to the chicken coop. Do you know that if you don’t feed a rooster it will crow all day and all night, not just at dawn?”
Lisa laughed. “No, I didn’t know that.”
“It’s true. Oh, honey, be careful about men. That’s my best advice. Not that you really need it.”
“Well…”
Olivia’s smile widened as she sensed gossip. “Well?”
“Dylan’s in town, and he’s facing a possible murder charge.”
Olivia laughed her big, bright laugh. “Two murderers in a row? Even I’ve never been that bad.”
“Hey!” Lisa protested.
“But right now I desperately need a vanilla latte.”
“Coming right up.” Lisa escaped to the kitchen to make her aunt’s drink. As she watched the milk bubble and foam under the steamer wand, her shock dissipated. Olivia always came back to Moss Creek.
She brought out the drink with a smile. Olivia sipped it with satisfaction.
“Perfect,” she declared.
Lisa nodded and went to attend to some more customers who’d come in. It was shaping up to be one of the better mornings the café had had in a while, and she could use the money.
Two more customers came in the door and signaled Lisa with their eyes. She rushed over to take orders and clear the mess off their table.
“I’ve been reading up on your little movie,” Olivia said as Lisa was passing by on her way to the kitchen.
“Hmm?” Lisa said. She had three different orders to remember, including a soy cappuccino, which was hard to make but easy to remember because of how hard it was to make.
�
��On the IMDB. Says here your director’s birthday is the same as my Toby’s. Isn’t that nice? Different year, though.”
That stopped Lisa. She furrowed her brow. “No, it’s not.”
“Don’t you think I know my own son’s birthday?” Olivia said.
“Toby’s birthday is in the summer,” Lisa said.
“And that’s what I just said. They have the same birthday.”
“No, Gavin just had his birthday the other day.”
Olivia frowned. “That’s not what it says here.” She held up her phone to show Lisa Gavin Jump’s biography. June birthday, not January.
“Hmm, that’s strange.”
“What’s strange, dear?”
“Oh, nothing.” Lisa smiled at her aunt, but inside she was wondering why Gavin had told her his birthday was in January. If the man who had pounded on the doors at the Lucky Horseshoe wasn’t there as a birthday prank like Gavin had claimed, then who was he and why had he been there?
Another idea jolted Lisa. What if the big ugly guy was a hitman and had killed Kaden? She hadn’t shown his picture to Ruby at Moss Creek Guns and Ammo, but since she had it, maybe she should.
*
Ruby wasn’t behind the counter when Lisa walked into the gun shop. The orange rays from the setting sun painted the display cases gold making them look like giant jewelry boxes.
“Hello?” Lisa called.
The door to the range banged open and Ruby came into the store brandishing a broom.
“Oh, it’s you,” she said. “I didn’t expect anyone so late. I was just sweeping up in there. Can’t have casings all over the floor.”
Lisa nodded. “It’s a tripping hazard.”
“Yep. What can I do for you? It’s a little late to rent a lane, but I could probably make an exception if you sweet-talked me.”
Lisa chuckled. “No, I just wanted to ask you a question.”
“Shoot.”
Lisa pulled out her phone and brought up the photo of the big ugly guy that Tyrone had sent her. She showed the phone to Ruby.
“This guy hasn’t been in here, buying ammo, in the last week or two, has he?”
Ruby studied the picture and then shook her head. “Nope. Face like that one, I’d remember. Yeesh, looks like a brawler. Either a cop or a criminal, if you ask me.”
Lisa nodded. “Ok. Thanks, Ruby. I’ll let you finish sweeping. Take it easy.”
Ruby waved as Lisa left the gun shop.
Sitting in her car, she thought about Ruby’s pronouncement that the guy looked like either a cop or a criminal. Maybe she should show the picture to Toby. If there was a mug shot of the guy, or an entry in the police database of plainclothes police working in the area, maybe he could identify him.
Lisa started the car and cranked up the heater. Dark was falling, and in the mountains, the onset of darkness meant fast drops in temperature.
Could Kaden have been mixed up in some kind of criminal enterprise, and had a hitman sent for him? She hadn’t seen the man on set, though. But perhaps Tyrone had seen him again. She should ask him about the man and whether he could have had access to the props.
*
When Lisa called Toby, he picked up on the first ring. “Hey, cuz.”
“Hey. I have a picture I want to show you. Do you have a minute?”
“Sure. I’m on patrol, but there’s nothing going on right now. Are you at home? I can be at the Folly in five.”
“I’ll have coffee waiting.”
“You know the way to my heart.”
When Toby pulled into the courtyard, Lisa was waiting on the front porch with a large mocha in one hand and her phone in the other. He grinned as she approached the car.
He got out, stretching to his full six feet plus. He was wearing his winter police jacket with the fleece collar. Lisa always thought that collar made him look like a cross between a rancher and Santa Claus with a badge.
“What have you got for me?” Toby said.
Lisa handed him the drink and the phone. She pointed at the picture on the screen.
“This guy. Have you seen him before?” She didn’t want to influence his answer by how she asked the question, so she asked it as simply as she could and then waited while he took a sip of coffee and considered the photo.
“Nope. Looks like a rough character, though. Why? Do they have you doing casting now, as well as location scouting and craft service?” He laughed and shook his head. “Your mother gets you into the funniest things.”
Lisa shook her head. It was true that Penny always had ideas for what her daughter could do.
“No, not doing casting. I wouldn’t even know how. Casting.” She shook her head again. “No, this guy was pounding on doors at the Lucky Horseshoe where the crew is staying. I wondered if he was a cop. Or, you know, a known member of the criminal underworld.”
Toby laughed. “Not sure if we’re big enough to have a criminal underworld here in Moss Creek,” he said.
“Well, we’re only a little way from the city, and not to mention I-40.”
“The city of Flagstaff?” He laughed again. “No real criminal underworld in Flagstaff either. But I hear you about I-40. Never know what’s coming down the highway.”
“Maybe I could send you the photo and you could check a database or something?”
“Like on TV? Cuz, you’ve been watching too much CSI: Boston.”
She scowled. “I don’t watch that show.”
“Go ahead and send it to me, but don’t expect too much.”
“Ok. Do you have Krumbsi? I got the photo as a krumb and I’m not actually sure how to send it outside of the app.”
“Krumbsi? Trying to hold onto your youth, cuz?”
“No. No! It’s just the app that everyone on this movie is using, so I had to download it so I could get their notifications.”
“Sure.”
“So? Do you have it or not?”
“Yeah, I have it.”
“Then why are you giving me a hard time about holding onto my youth? Are you trying to hold onto your youth, too?”
Toby laughed. “I am a year younger than you.”
“Oh, I see, so that’s the age cutoff?”
“Looks like it. Ok, I sent it to myself.” He handed her the phone. “I’ll take a look for this guy, but don’t get your hopes up. He’s probably not the solution to your little Dylan problem.”
Lisa blushed. “I don’t have a Dylan problem.”
“No?” Toby scratched his head. “My mistake. Maybe it’s a Mo problem.”
Lisa pursed her lips.
“Be that as it may,” she said, “I definitely have a cousin problem.”
“Oh, you do?” Toby said with a mischievous smile. “Is it a ticklish cousin problem? I’m familiar with those.”
She shrieked with laughter as he grabbed her and tickled her sides.
*
Lisa’s phone rang. She groaned, wanting to roll over and enjoy her last few minutes of sleep before her cruelly early alarm. It rang again, and she popped out of bed to see who was calling. Toby.
She picked up and gave her best zombie moan as a greeting, “Braaaains.”
“Hey, cuz. Did I wake you?”
She yawned. “No. What’s up?”
“You’re some kind of a one-woman crime wave,” he said.
“What? What are you talking about?” She suddenly felt wide awake.
“That guy in the picture? He’s a bad dude. Works for a loan shark in Las Vegas. Did a few years on aggravated battery after he literally broke some guy’s leg for non-payment. You said he was pounding on someone’s door late at night?”
“Yeah,” she breathed.
“That’s not a good thing. Someone on your film owes money, and not to the kind of people you can declare bankruptcy to escape.”
“Whoa.” She thought for a second. “Wait, how does that make me a one-woman crime wave?”
“Oh, yeah. There was an armed robbery last night at the gas station o
ut on the highway on-ramp.”
“Ok. What’s that got to do with me?”
“We recovered the gun. You’ll never guess what we found.”
He paused as though waiting for her to guess.
“Well?” she finally said. “What did you find?”
“The perp ran away when the clerk pulled out a shotgun from behind the counter. Just dropped his gun and ran away with the spicy beef Slim Jim he was holding, which makes it a shoplifting incident as well as attempted armed robbery, by the way.”
“And?”
“And, the gun wasn’t a real gun. Want to know what it was? A prop. A movie prop.”
“The missing gun from set?”
“The very same.”
“How did an armed robber get his hands on the missing prop gun? It wasn’t somebody from the crew, was it?”
Toby laughed. “Nope. Clerk IDed a local dumb-dumb from the other side of Flagstaff, been picked up a bunch of times, mostly burglary and auto theft. We’re looking for him, called in the county to send a deputy out to his trailer.”
“Huh. So a prop gun goes missing from set and a week later it’s used in an attempted armed robbery by a local thief.”
“Yep. Gonna check with the pawn shops, see if he maybe got it from one of them. There’s a couple of shady ones over in Flagstaff, by the U.”
“Wow. Ok. Anything else in this crime wave I should know about?”
“Not satisfied with a stolen prop gun, a murder, an armed robbery, and a leg-breaker from Vegas? Picky, picky.”
Lisa chuckled. “Thanks for the info.” She yawned again.
“Go back to bed. Get a couple of Zs for me.”
Toby hung up. Lisa thought about trying to get some more sleep, but now her brain was buzzing with the new information. When Tyrone had confided that the prop gun had been stolen, she’d initially thought it was a way for the killer to cover his or her tracks. But what if the theft was just a theft, with the stolen property pawned for quick cash?
And how did the Las Vegas leg-breaker come into things? Gavin’s explanation of a birthday prank was credible enough, even if her lie detector had pinged a warning at the time. She’d chalked it down to her dislike of his bristly persona. But did he actually have debt enforcers looking for him? That didn’t make sense. She’d read in a tabloid that he’d gotten points on the profit for the screenplay he wrote. What was the name of the movie? She shook her head. She couldn’t think of the name of it, but it had been nominated for some awards. Surely his cut should have been enough to pay whatever debts he might have had.
Shooting on Location (Lisa Chance Cozy Mysteries Book 2) Page 12
