The OC
Page 25
“Pancake looked into the murder of Sally Whitmire, Stacy Morgan’s classmate. He talked to the detectives back there and brought them up to speed. They were shocked, but grateful. They’ll go see the girl’s parents.”
“Maybe that’ll give them some closure,” Mills said. “If there’s such a thing.”
“We called all the interested parties in the Salt Lake City and Henderson, Nevada, cases,” Nicole said. “Including Tiffany Cole. Maybe now she can reclaim her life and sleep a little better.”
“Pancake also found three other cases that fit the pattern,” I said. “All back East. Hopefully, they’ll pan out and he can find the other three and wrap this up.”
“How’s Megan doing?”
“She’s okay,” Nicole said. “She’s a tough lady.”
“Seems so.”
“I might have something that’ll put a little sunshine in her life.”
“What?”
Nicole smiled. “Can’t say. It has to do with my movie though.”
“Now I am intrigued.” Mills raised an eyebrow. “You mentioned you were doing a movie. What’s that about?”
Nicole explained that she had written the screenplay and a little about the story behind Murderwood and who all the players were.
“Kirk Ford? Charles Balfour? I’d say you have a built-in blockbuster.”
“You never know. Remember Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty made Ishtar.”
Mills laughed. “I forgot about that.”
“Most other people did, too.”
“When do you start shooting?”
Nicole thought for a second. “Wow. Only ten days.” She looked at me. “We’ve been so tied up with this that I forgot to get nervous about it.”
“There’s still time,” I said.
She slugged my arm.
CHAPTER 57
NICOLE AND I sat in a pair of those tall director’s chairs, just to the left and behind Lee Goldberg, the real director. We didn’t get our names on ours like he did.
Uncle Charles and Nicole’s parents, Bob and Connie, had been in and out of the sound stage all morning. They were excited about the happenings but had other irons in the fire so had to step out to make calls and whatever else they did.
Nicole did get some good news. Uncle Charles had made her an executive producer on the project. Apparently, he had done so since its inception but held it back as a surprise. What it meant was prestige and money. Lots of money. Want to know why movies cost so much? Watch the credits. Each of those executive producers that seem to roll on forever get well paid. Now Nicole would, too. Deservedly so.
I leaned over toward her. “How does it feel to be an executive producer?”
“Great actually. Unexpected for sure.”
“Now you can buy me a Lamborghini.”
“I could.”
“But, you’re not.”
“No. It’s not your style.”
“I could change.”
“Too late for that.”
The excitement on the set began to ramp up. We had already been there for three, mostly boring hours, while the tech types fiddled with the lights and cameras and sound equipment and set decorations. Making movies can be tedious. But now, Goldberg had finished herding all the cats and everything was set. The scene was labeled number eight and wouldn’t come until eighteen minutes into the movie, yet it would be the first scene filmed. I never understood why scenes weren’t done in sequence, but then again what did I know? I figured Uncle Charles and Director Goldberg knew what they were doing.
Nicole was now visibly nervous. I reached over and grabbed her hand. The actors were in place. The star detective, Kirk Ford, was interviewing a witness, played by Megan Weatherly. A bit part for her, but it was her debut. She didn’t look nervous at all. With what she had survived, this was a walk in the park.
“And action,” Lee Goldberg said.
Murderwood was off and running.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
We hope that you enjoyed The OC, which is the fifth in D. P. Lyle’s Jake Longly Thriller Series. If you haven’t read the first four in the series, here’s a recap that we hope will pull you in.
Jake Longly and Nicole Jamison first appear in Deep Six. Jake has owned a restaurant on the Gulf shore of Alabama ever since an injury sidelined his career as a major league pitcher. But when his P.I. father cajoles him to help out, he reluctantly agrees only to have his surveillance target murdered right under Jake’s nose. That’s about when he meets Nicole and the fireworks start.
A-List takes Jake and Nicole to New Orleans, where a young girl is found murdered in the bed of a movie star. DNA plays a tricky role in this one and Jake and Nicole are at the top of their game. Nothing is easy in the Big Easy.
Sunshine State throws Jake and Nicole into the bizarre case of a convicted serial killer who now claims he only murdered five of the seven victims he’d originally claimed. They are in Florida now, trying to figure out whether this convict is lying for attention or if there is still a killer out there. Dark clouds loom in the Sunshine State.
Rigged finds Jake and Nicole trying to sort out the murder of Jake’s best friend Tommy “Pancake” Jeffers’ first love from back in the sixth grade. There’s a soon-to-be-ex-husband involved and two guys she’s been dating. Complex relationships, a plethora of motives, a huge modicum of danger—and with all that, the easygoing humor that infuses all Jake Longly thrillers.
We hope you will dive into this series, get to know Jake and Nicole and Jake’s dad, Ray, and iconic friend, Pancake.
D. P. Lyle is a humorist, yes; but he is also an expert in forensics and never fails to generously sprinkle both in his novels. We hope that you will read the entire Jake Longly Thriller Series and will look forward to more to come.
For more information, please visit the author’s website:
http://www.dplylemd.com.
Happy Reading.
Oceanview Publishing