“She doesn’t seem so bad,” Alyson whispered to me as she got out of her chair. Hmm.
“Action!” Alyson was nailing it on set and Danielle was throwing out words of encouragement. It continued to be all flowers and sunshine until the scene where Alyson had to be lifted up by the lead actor and Danielle picked up her walky talky. “We have a problem here. We’re going to need someone stronger!” Then she just walked right off set.
Alyson turned to me, her face distraught. “Is she insinuating that I am heavier than the lead actress?”
This was the kind of mess that Danielle regularly dumped on me. Well, it was less like messes and more like little fires that Danielle set and then left for me to put out. It was always up to me to calm down the talent while she just walked away and started the next fire.
Well, to be fair, most people on the planet were heavier than our lead actress. But now Alyson was putting her shades back on and stomping off set, saying she was going back to her trailer. Who knew she could play the diva as well as the best of them? There must have been something about sitting in that makeup chair that turned people into monsters.
I hurried over to her. I wasn’t going to let another one lock herself in a trailer. “I just want to make sure that you don’t get dropped, your safety is of the utmost importance to me and to everyone here on the set,” I said, to make sure she knew how important she was to the rest of us. That’s how you get the lead actress to co-operate—you make them feel like the queen. We can’t survive without our queen.
Alyson finally relented. “What are we going to do then?”
She didn’t like my solution. It was another switcharoo. We could get one of the actual lifeguards, and only shoot him from the back as well.
“Oh, no way, not him,” Alyson said.
But Simon was the strongest guy on the beach. I wasn’t even sure where he had come from that day, but like an angel from the heavens, he had appeared right when we needed him the most.
“Who better than an actual lifeguard?” I asked Alyson, who was still pouting. Weird. I’d always thought she and Simon were friends. Well, friends-ish. There was always a bit of friendly tension between the surfers and the lifeguards. It was the lifeguards’ job to enforce the rules and boundaries of the beach and it was the surfers’—unofficial—job to test them. The surfers always thought they didn’t have to abide by the same strict safety rules that the rest of the mere mortals on the beach had to stick to.
But at the end of the day, if a surfer ever got caught in a rip, or they were drowning, or there was a shark out in the waters, then it would be one of the guards who would rescue them. So it was a symbiotic relationship
“He thinks I am an idiot. Ever since the incident with the shark.”
“You mean the incident with the piece of wood?”
She shot me a little glare. “Exactly,” she said sullenly.
“Well, come on, princess,” I said, reversing the nickname that she usually used on me. “You are being invited to set.”
Danielle was back on set and leaning back in her producer’s chair while commentating on the scene before us. “Now this is where our dashing hero picks up the girl. Though, of course, the people we are looking at are neither our actual hero or our actual girl.”
I had to laugh a little. The big scene with our two heroes and neither of them were actually the lead actor or the lead actress.
I heard a squeal and then jumped up as Alyson fell onto the sand.
“What is it?” I asked, running toward Alyson.
“He dropped me!”
“I can’t believe that Simon would actually drop you,” I said.
Alyson dusted off her sundress and pouted. “Well, believe it, because it just happened!”
Simon was already stomping off over the sand. “Well, what actually happened?”
“All I did was mention that you had been really enjoying your time working as a producer here again, and then he dropped me!”
“What?” That made zero sense to me.
I was still thinking about what Alyson had said to me when Danielle came up to me on the pier later that afternoon when shooting had wrapped. She cracked open the bottle of beer and handed it over to me, clinking it against hers. Not what I usually drank, but it was a local brew and Danielle was clearly keen to impress the locals with her patronage.
“You did well today, Claire. Really well.”
I shrugged a little and took a sip. It was far sweeter than I had been expecting and I was a little surprised. “Just doing my job.”
Danielle sighed and shook her head as she looked out over the ocean. “That’s the thing though, Claire. You thought of a solution that others wouldn’t have. You saved us tens of thousands of dollars.”
I nodded but felt a little uneasy with the whole thing. It always came down to money with these things. And with Danielle. Once upon a time, I had been like that as well, and when I’d arrived back in Eden Bay a few months ago, I couldn’t believe how relaxed people were regarding profits and business practices, selling products and services for far less than they were worth. But I was starting to think differently now.
“You have a gift, Claire. You should use it.”
Danielle set her beer down on the railing and stood. She always liked to drop a bomb and walk away. It was her specialty. This time was no different.
“Come back to work for me in Sydney when this is done. I will double your salary.”
13
Alyson
“Hey, girl, so good to see you!” I wrapped my arms around Kayla in a warm hug. Or at least the warmest that I could manage. I’d asked her to meet me for girly drinks at Captain Eightball’s, and she had somewhat reluctantly agreed.
She looked me up and down and told me that I looked very glamorous.
“Oh, it’s just hairspray and a bit of powder,” I said, throwing my hair over my shoulder in an exaggerated fashion. I did feel a little bit special that afternoon, though. How many people could say that they had just starred in a blockbuster movie?
To be honest, the whole thing had been perfect timing. I’d needed a distraction with Kieran being held at the police station overnight. Sure, maybe I’d acted a little bit like a diva on set, but that was understandable, right? I was trying not to think about what was happening with Kieran. He was only being held temporarily, apparently. But it didn’t look good for his innocence.
“So how are you?” I asked Kayla.
She sighed and set her purse down on the bar.
“It’s really tough to be so far from home.”
I nodded and tried to be sympathetic. “I suppose you can’t wait to get back to New Zealand?”
She bit her lip. “Except now that the cops have Kieran, we are all being questioned again. We’ve been told we can’t leave until someone is actually arrested. But I’m in limbo. No friends here except Jarryd, and we’ve never been that close.” She changed the topic. “I was thinking about going to the book club meeting tonight, just to meet a few people.”
Ugh. The book club meeting. I was only halfway through Robinson Crusoe, even though I knew that Maria, Claire, and everyone else in the club had well and truly gotten to the end of it days before.
Kayla giggled and revealed that she hadn’t read the book either. “But they have food at these things, right? Could still be fun?”
“Maybe there’s a movie we can watch,” I said, grabbing my purse.
It was a little uncomfortable, watching Robinson Crusoe with Kayla, given the situation we were in. When it got to the part about Robinson Crusoe killing his friend, I looked at Kayla out of the corner of my eye. The main reason I had asked her to meet with me that evening was so I could get some evidence that she was the one who had killed Warren Reed. And thus, get Kieran set free.
But Kayla didn’t seem troubled by the scene at all.
I paused the movie and pretended I needed to get some more popcorn and juice. “At least I have recovered from the other day!�
�
“Huh?” Kayla asked.
“The boat trip. I never even knew I got seasick before that. But I suppose I had never been on such a small boat before. They tend to be worse.”
Kayla nodded.
Come on, I thought. Just admit that you pushed Claire overboard, and that you also pushed Warren overboard.
I came back to the sofa with a fresh glass of juice. “I guess when people are getting annoying at sea, it’s tempting to want to push them overboard, hey?”
“What are you talking about?” Kayla asked. She was starting to get annoyed. “Are we watching the rest of the movie or what?”
But it was time for the book club to start. So not only had I only read half the book, I had only watched half the movie.
14
Claire
I was just setting up for book club when I got a surprise. “Oh!” I was shocked to see Alyson, and even more shocked that she had Kayla in tow.
“I was trying to get info from her,” Alyson whispered while Kayla hung her jacket in the allocated area. “Mission has failed thus far.”
Now why did that not surprise me? Alyson thought she had a keen detective sense, but I had yet to see that actually present itself at all. Instead, it was usually a case of her bumbling along until she stumbled on the right answer. Unlike me. I used logic, deduction, to get to the bottom of things.
“Are you actually here for the book club?” I asked Alyson, wondering if maybe she had just stumbled into the book shop by accident that night, not even realizing that the book club was running.
She nodded vigorously.
“And not just for the food?” I asked, trying to clarify. “You’re here for the actual part where we discuss the book?”
“Yes,” she said, sighing in frustration. “Chill out.”
“Right. So you’ve read the book, have you?”
“Of course I have!”
“Right to the end?”
Alyson sighed like she was a teenager being grilled by a disappointed teacher when she hadn’t done her homework. But I knew Alyson. I knew she never did her homework.
“Yes, miss, I swear that I have read right till the end of the book.”
Well. That made me happy. I beamed a little. “Well, welcome then,” I said, pointing to the circle of chairs for Kayla and Alyson to sit. I had set up candles in the middle so that we could dim the lights and still have enough light to see. I was really impressed that Alyson had read the book and was being so supportive of the book club. More of a cozy vibe that way. I hated that I had started to use the word ‘vibe’ ever since I’d been hanging out with Alyson again.
“Everyone is commenting on your mural by the way,” I said as we all settled in. “They all love it.”
“I’m not surprised.”
Alyson and Kayla sat beside each other, on the opposite side of the circle from me. I noticed them whispering and giggling a little like schoolgirls. Huh. I hadn’t realized they were such besties.
“Alyson?” I called out, when she hadn’t said anything about the book. “What was your opinion on Robinson Crusoe’s journey?”
She cleared her throat and straightened up. Looked a teeny bit embarrassed. “Well,” she said. “Robinson Crusoe was a very violent man. But he got what was coming to him when he was captured by the tribe. So I suppose it’s a book about karma and justice and people getting what they deserve.”
I just stared at her. “But Robinson Crusoe makes friends with his captives at the end. In the end, it is about forgiveness and redemption.”
I watched Alyson’s face carefully as she shuffled in her seat.
“Well, of course I knew that…”
Kayla’s face crumbled into a fit of giggles as well. Great. Clearly some inside joke I was not a part of. And clearly, they had not read to the end of the book.
When it was over, I was packing up the chairs and blowing out the candles when Alyson came up to me, all contrary. “I don’t know why you insist on coming to these things if you aren’t going to actually read the books,” I said, not even looking at her. I just continued to stack chairs loudly.
“Oh, don’t be like that,” Alyson said. “Kayla is worried that she’s going to be stuck in this town for ages without any friends, I was just doing her a favor.”
“Yeah, well, why don’t you and your new best friend just get out of here then?” I straightened up and pointed to the door. “Just go home, Alyson.”
She shrugged. “Fine. Maybe we will then. Especially seeing as being friends with you clearly comes with conditions.”
There was another message from Danielle on my phone.
“You made your decision yet? Because I have the contract drawn up and ready to sign.”
15
Claire
It was the big day. D Day.
Disaster day. And all of Eden Bay had turned out to be part of it. We were going to make it look like an entire town was drowned. There were release forms and non-disclosure contracts flying around everywhere, and I was the one trying to wrangle everyone, getting them to sign and to make sure that if anyone was not supposed to be there that they were kept outside the barricades and escorted away. If anything about this movie leaked, then it was going to be on my head.
Of course, it wasn’t only the extras who had to sign a contract. For me, it was a different type of D Day. Decision day.
But I’d been finding excuses all day for why I couldn’t come into Danielle’s temporary office to sign the contract. I just needed a tiny bit more time. But it was fine. I was so busy that day that she didn’t question it.
My mind was racing with the logistics of it all. As far as the bookshop went, well, one option was to run it from afar. I could still own it and just have it managed and run by staff members while I was in Sydney. Or there was a second option. Maria had offered to buy the shop. At well above the market price as well. The money had not influenced me up to that point, but if I was going to move back to Sydney, I was going to have to find a new apartment, and real estate prices there were ten times what they were in Eden Bay.
“Excuse me?” I looked down and saw an extra with a large gash in her face (thanks to the makeup chair…I hoped) asking me where she needed to go. Umm, first aid? But I pointed toward the group of agitated extras on the beach, then moved onto the next one.
“Have you signed the contract?” I asked. My arms were tired from lugging them around all day and my voice was tired of asking the same question over and over. Maybe I could just trust that none of the residents of Eden Bay would spoil the movie.
“Oh, Troy. Hello,” I said. “Have you signed…”
“Yes, I have already signed it,” he said, rolling up his sleeves. “That kind of thing is only to be expected anyway. Par for the course.” Troy was a lot savvier than most people in town. Like me, he had moved to Eden Bay from Sydney, and he tended to screw his nose up at the rest of the residents and their small town naiveté.
“I am surprised that you want to take part,” I said with a bit of a laugh. Didn’t really seem much like his style.
“Well, didn’t want to miss out on all the fun,” he said jokingly as he glanced around. “Looks like all of the town is down here, joining in. I’m sure I’ll see some familiar faces.”
I pressed my lips together. “Do you mean Alyson?” I asked.
He shot me an exaggerated look of surprise, then shrugged quickly and frowned. “No, no. I wasn’t talking about anyone specifically.”
“She can’t be in the crowd scene,” I explained. “She looks too similar to the lead actress.” I didn’t tell him that we had actually used Alyson in place of the lead actress as that was all a bit hush hush and part of the non-disclosure for anyone who had been a part of filming that scene.
Troy looked very disappointed.
“Do you still want to take part?” I asked Troy. I was hoping he did. We needed all the extras we could get on that day, especially when people like Alyson and Simon couldn’t be there
.
He nodded quickly. “Yeah, of course,” he said. “I told you. Alyson has nothing to do with me being here.”
When lunch break rolled around, I found myself sitting with Troy again. He hadn’t exactly made any friends on set, the same way he hadn’t made many friends in town. He just stuck out too much with his expensive clothes and car. He was eating a ham and egg roll and patted the seat beside him. I suppose I also stuck out too much. Stuck between two worlds and two lives, actually. And I didn’t know which one to pick.
“You seem distracted today.”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, biting into my own turkey and cranberry roll. The bread was a little stale. Blame catering.
“I don’t mean that you aren’t doing a good job.” He stared off onto the set. “Actually, that’s kind of my point. Seems like you could do this job with your eyes closed.”
I hadn’t told anyone else about my dilemma, and Troy was at least there to listen. And he wouldn’t judge. “Well, actually, Danielle did offer me my old job back. With a slight raise.”
Troy raised an eyebrow. “What does ‘slight’ mean here?”
“Double,” I replied.
“Take it,” Troy said. Then he let out a little laugh.
“Come on, I thought you were a changed man since arriving in Eden Bay.”
He finished off his roll. “I thought maybe I could settle down here, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
I opened my mouth to say something, then reconsidered it. Was I really going to try and push Alyson into the arms of Troy Emerald? It was weird. They were such a bad match on paper, but I had seen the chemistry between them. And he clearly cared about her, a lot. Why else would he be down here, this far out of his comfort zone, and still pretending he was fine even when she wasn’t here, just to save face? And isn’t that what we all want for our best friends, in the end? For them to be with someone who cared about them enough to do all this?
Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 25
