A Vintage Murder

by Michele Scott

  “Good morning,” Amy said. She handed a box of something to Harv who slipped it into a leather pack.

  “Good morning.”

  “Nice to see an actress who takes her call times seriously,” Amy said.

  “I try.” She smiled, not wanting to get into a conversation with these two. “I actually am heading over to meet Andy and the kangaroo.”

  “Oh,” they both said.

  “Would you like us to set your wardrobe for the day in your RV?”

  Why were they being so nice? Nikki felt like she’d intruded when she’d come in. They’d looked surprised to see her. Were they being nice to her or was there more to it?

  “No. I can come by the trailer and pick it up after I meet with Andy.”

  “It’s really not a problem for us to do it for you,” Amy replied.

  “Really, it’s fine. I’ll be by.” Nikki finished stirring in her creamer and headed to the animal enclosures. Now that was strange. These two had been total jerks to her yesterday, and now they were being so nice. Why was that? One thing she knew for sure was that she didn’t know who had killed Lucy, and she knew those two hated Lucy. Furthermore, she didn’t know if either one of them knew anything about snakes, and she did not want them inside the place where she slept. It wasn’t worth the risk.

  When she entered the area that housed all of Andy’s animals, she stopped and listened. An almost eerie silence surrounded the place. Where was Andy? She hoped she hadn’t dragged herself out of bed forty-five minutes earlier than she needed to.

  What was that? Something broke the silence. It was faint, but . . . there. Nikki listened. It sounded like crying. Someone was crying. It was coming from behind the enclosure area. Nikki took a walk around to the other side. She stopped when she spotted who it was. “Hannah?”

  The young woman looked up and brushed away her tears. Then she stood. “G’day. Sorry. I’m waiting for Andy. I wanted to help him get the animals their morning feed.”

  Nikki walked toward her. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “People don’t usually cry over nothing.”

  Andy Burrow appeared behind her. “Good morning. Sorry I’m late. Hullo, Hannah. Why don’t you start on down the end with the snakes? Now be careful and don’t forget the gloves. Okay? You had a chance to get any of the feed ready?”

  “I was just starting. Yep. I’ll get on it right now.”

  “Good. Thank you, and Nikki, are you ready to meet Sophie?”

  “I suppose.” She followed Andy to the kangaroo’s enclosure, glancing back at Hannah. Something was bothering that girl, and Nikki really wanted to know what it was. “You know, Hannah seems a little upset this morning.”

  Andy paused. “Oh. I’m not too surprised. Probably had another row with her mum.”

  “They don’t get along?”

  “I’m not one to speak negatives, so I’m not going to say much here other than if Grace Hahndorf would allow her child to be who she is by nature, then Hannah would become exactly who she is supposed to become, and I guarantee both mother and daughter would be that much happier. Okay, get ready to meet Sophie.”

  They reached the marsupial’s enclosure, and Nikki figured that was all she was going to get out of Andy. “Hullo, love,” he said to the kangaroo, who Nikki swore had this look of suspicion on her face. “Come on in here with me, Nikki.” She entered the area with trepidation. “Say hullo to Sophie.”

  Nikki kind of felt stupid saying hi to a kangaroo, but she was going to do everything Andy told her to do when it came to his wild kingdom. “Hello, Sophie.”

  The kangaroo eyed her. Nikki did not like the look.

  “I think she likes you. Here, give her some of these nuggets.” Andy handed her some kind of grain-type treats. He gave Sophie a handful first. She eagerly gobbled them up. “Okay, love. Your turn. Once she knows you have goodies she’ll be a sweetheart for you.”

  Huh. Nikki wasn’t so sure she believed that. Buddha the dingo hadn’t had a look of “I’m going to kick your ass” in his eyes. Nikki approached slowly and reached out her hand. The kangaroo sniffed it with a soft, whiskery nose—reminding Nikki of a giant rabbit. After a second of sniffing, Sophie ate the goodies and then turned away.

  “This is good. She likes you. Yep. Everything will be fine.”

  “How do you know?”

  He chuckled. “See now, Sophie is sensitive, and I’ve learned that if she isn’t going to treat someone right, then she’ll misbehave from the get-go, even if you have a peace offering, like the goodies there.”

  “What would she have done if she didn’t like me?”

  “Tried to box you.”

  “Tried to box me?”

  “Yep, and she can give a mean wallop, too.”

  “And what if she had done that?”

  “I was here with you. I would have had it all under control. See, that’s why I wanted you to come on over early, to meet the girl and make sure we had a match made in heaven. Guarantee she would have boxed the hell out of Lucy. But you’re good. I’ll bring some goodies with me to the set and no worries. Okay then.”

  “Okay then,” Nikki replied.

  As they headed out of the enclosure, Nikki again looked at Sophie and she wasn’t convinced at all that the kangaroo wanted to be her friend—treats or not. She wanted to tell the animal that she’d refused to have a bite of what could have been its brother or sister the other night at the barbecue. She was on her side.

  After leaving the enclosure, Nikki grabbed herself another cup of coffee before settling down into Johnny’s chair for hair and makeup.

  “Morning. What’s up?” he said.

  “Not a whole lot, just met my costar today—Sophie the kangaroo.”

  “Lucky you. I’m a cat person myself. Don’t care much for dogs and definitely don’t like anything wild.”

  “I love dogs, cats. Pretty much all animals. I’m not so big on snakes, though.”

  “Know what you mean. Never been one of those guys who liked reptiles or spiders.”

  “Right. So you wouldn’t have put that snake in Lucy’s bed.” Holy moly, now why did she let that one slip out?

  Johnny gave her a look that basically asked the same question. But he said, “Anyone hand you the latest in the local rag?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Maybe you should take a look.” Johnny handed her the paper, already opened to a photo of herself trying to cover her face while leaving the hotel the night before.

  “Oh my God. How did they get this so soon?”

  “Not a lot of news to report?” He shrugged. “You seem to be it.”

  “That Marne Pickett,” she growled and read the article beneath her photo:

  It looks as though the latest diva to flash her assets on the Hollywood scene fancies herself as a regular Angela Lansbury sans the actual acting and finesse. Yes, Nikki Sands, whose television stint a few years ago as Detective Sydney Martini lasted as long as it takes for my nail polish to dry, has not only landed herself quite a deal with Ferriss Productions, filming an epic in the Australian outback with none other than the fabulous Shawn Keefer, but she’s also busy snooping around into the death of Lucy Swanson, whose place she’s taken. Sources say that Ms. Sands is asking all sorts of questions about Lucy’s enemies on the set and who could have handled the deadly brown snake. Sources also say she’s a bit mad. Let’s be real, Nikki: no one planted a brown snake in Lucy Swanson’s trailer. Count your blessings that you got a second chance in the acting world, and don’t blow it this time. If I were Ms. Sands, I would be thanking my lucky stars I’d landed the role that should have gone to an actress with real talent. And there is also talk on the set of romance between Nikki and the man himself, Shawn Keefer. Her current lover, Derek Malveaux, owner of the well-known Malveaux Winery in Napa Valley, has sent her packing. Is it because she’s a tad loony, or is there another man in her life? My advice to Nikki is don’t go the way of Anne Heche—t
here are no Martians and there are no murderers on your set, darling. The world doesn’t need another crazy starlet, so get real.

  Nikki blew out a long breath. “Unbelievable.”

  “I thought you should know.”

  “Thanks. I think.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Where is this coming from? Where did she get all this, that I’m asking questions about Lucy’s death and . . . oh my God, the stuff about me and Shawn.”

  “Here’s the thing: you do ask a lot of questions, and personally I like you. But there are people around here who will spread gossip and rumors like wildfire, and even create their own stories. You’ve been on the set for what, two days now? Think about who you’ve talked to. I know you asked me a lot of questions yesterday about Lucy, and I know what you were getting at. But I didn’t kill Lucy with a snake. I didn’t kill her at all, and I didn’t say anything to Marne Pickett. But you have to stop asking people questions. It makes them uneasy and it could create problems for you.”

  “It looks like it already has,” she replied.

  “I do have a confession to make, though, and . . . I’ve been afraid to say anything to anyone.”

  Nikki was all ears.

  “When you were asking me about the other night with Hannah and Lucy, I sort of left some stuff out.”

  “You did?”

  “Yeah. That night after we were run off the road and crashed Mrs. Hahndorf’s car, and Lucy took the cab back, well, when I got back with Hannah, I went to see Lucy. We drank some more, listened to some music, and things got a little heated as far as . . . well, you know, we were making out and stuff.” He chuckled. “But then Grace banged on the door and came in all huffy, yelling at us, telling Lucy to stay away from Hannah. Liam showed up, too, and got Grace to leave. But it pretty much ended the mood between me and Lucy and I knew I’d better get some sleep, so I split. The cops questioned me a lot about her.”

  So, Detective Von Doussa was doing his job after all. He may have been covering his arse, as he put it, but maybe he did have an inkling that there was more to Lucy’s death than an accidental snakebite. At least he was actually questioning people. “Why are you telling me all this?”

  “Because I’ve been afraid this whole time that I am responsible for Lucy’s death, even though I think the snake thing was a freak accident. I hate snakes.” His body shook when he said this.

  “What? Why?”

  “The door to Lucy’s trailer. I was drunk, you know, and I don’t think I closed the door. I’ve felt responsible ever since, like I caused her death, like if I had made sure that door was shut, the snake couldn’t have gotten in there.”

  Nikki had studied people enough through the years that she’d thought she’d become a decent judge of character. There was something in Johnny’s voice, and also the way he was looking at her, that had her convinced he didn’t kill Lucy, at least not intentionally.

  “I didn’t say anything to anyone because once I saw the cops were involved, and then you’ve been going around saying it was murder, I kind of got weirded out.”

  “I understand. But I don’t think you caused Lucy’s death. I really don’t,” Nikki said.

  “I hope not. You still don’t think it was an accident, though?”

  Nikki might have been sure that Johnny didn’t take Lucy out, and he did seem to be more friend than foe in this strange world, but all the same, she didn’t know who to trust. She had no clue who was feeding Marne all the dirt, and she wasn’t willing to take a chance on Johnny. She hadn’t forgotten that he’d supposedly promised Will he wouldn’t tell anyone that he’d been out with him and the girls. “You know, I’ve been rethinking all that, and no, I don’t think Lucy was murdered. It was a fluke accident. That’s all. I guess I let my brain get carried away.” Nikki was lying through her teeth.

  “That can happen in this business. We creative types love to make up all sorts of stories.”

  “Yes, we do.” Although only a minute earlier Nikki’s radar had told her Johnny was one of the good guys, however, with his last comment, she wondered if he wasn’t just flying under the radar. He was a “creative type,” too. Was he the one who’d just fed her one helluva story to get her to stop making waves?

  Chapter 25

  Nikki didn’t have a whole lot of time to prepare for her scenes. She memorized her lines, made some notes, and asked Nathan a few questions, but so far she hadn’t done a great job all morning and she knew everyone was growing frustrated with her.

  “Cut!” Nathan yelled again. “It’s all wrong. Nikki, come on now, you’ve read the lines, you’re a professional, and by this time you should have had enough time to get to know this character.”

  Sure. Everyone gets to know their character in barely two days. Nikki smiled. Tonight she’d watch those documentaries and read what Kane had for her regarding her character, Elizabeth. “I’m sorry, Nathan. I’m not sure what I missed.”

  “First of all, this scene is supposed to be filled with passion. Elizabeth is finally falling for James, and it goes against her nature because she has never been emotionally close to another human being. Her life is the animals. She finally allows herself to go to this man.”

  Nikki nodded. She knew Nathan was right. Here she was supposed to be acting out a scene where she is falling in love with Shawn’s character, and all she could think about was Derek. It wasn’t comfortable, and she knew she was in way over her head. She didn’t have any feelings for Shawn, and that’s why she had to remind herself that this was acting. She was only acting. She was supposed to be Elizabeth Wells, dammit.

  Shawn took her hand and glanced at Nathan. “We’re going to take five and do this scene again. I think Nikki just needs a cup of tea. Okay?”

  Nathan scowled, but Kane said, “I think that’s a good idea.”

  She walked off the set with Shawn, touched by his concern. They sat down at a catering table. “Look, I know this is your first go at a major picture, and it’s been hard,” Shawn said. “On top of it you have some added pressures. First, I’m sure this is the last thing in the world that you expected.” She nodded. “Second, you’re filling in for an actress who died only a few days ago and you’re having to learn a part and become a character you’re unfamiliar with. Not to mention, you are working with one of the greatest directors out there.”

  “Don’t remind me.”

  “These guys would not have hired you if they didn’t believe in you. I can see it, too. You’ve got what it takes to make this all work. What you need to do with this scene is pretend that James—me—is your man. It’s Derek, right? I’ve seen the way you look at that guy. Before you go back out there, get yourself in a state of passion. Think of the most romantic moment the two of you have ever had together. See yourself in that moment, and feel it. Then take those feelings and bring them onto the set, and I guarantee you’ll nail it.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know so. Now why don’t you take an extra ten? I’ll let them know that you need a few more minutes and then let’s get this thing done.”

  “Okay.” Shawn started to walk back to the set. “Hey, Shawn?” He turned. “Thanks.” He waved at her. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. Sure, he could have selfish reasons for wanting to get the scene wrapped, but that was okay. He hadn’t been mean to her.

  Now, to take his advice and think about the most romantic moment she’d spent with Derek; it wasn’t hard. There had been plenty. What was difficult was that she had no idea if there would be any more between them. If only she could talk to him. A twinge of guilt struck her, knowing that if things had gone as originally planned they’d likely be touring the outback right now. Who would have guessed it would turn out like this? Just thinking about him though made her warm all over. The other day, when she’d pumped Sarah Fritz for gossip, he’d been so upset with her. But when she’d explained her reasons for caring about Lucy and her demise and he’d pulled the car over to kiss her—now that had been downright hot.
Ooh boy, right down to her tippy toes. Yes, that kiss and that moment would have qualified as “romantic,” at least in her book. Okay, she could do the scene now.

  And she did. Returning to the set, she took Shawn’s advice and as soon as she closed her eyes and visualized Derek’s arms around her, the moment was golden.

  “And . . . cut! Bravo,” Nathan said. “I don’t know what Shawn told you, but that was brilliant. That’s what I want to see more of, Nikki. Exactly what you just did.”

  “Thank you.”

  Shawn winked at her. Now this was the high that came with acting, or just doing any good job, for that matter. Her buzz was killed though when Nathan called her over. Something in his tone said that, even though she’d just given a great performance, he either wanted more, or there was something else on his mind.

  “Yes?”

  “Kane and I wanted to speak with you. We have some concerns.”

  “I watched the scene you were shooting. I knew we made the right choice with you, Nikki,” Kane said.

  “Okay,” Nikki replied. “So what’s the problem?”

  “It’s a bit troublesome that Marne Pickett has decided to pick on you. We had no idea when you did your TV show that you had been such a diva.” Kane chuckled.

  “Oh my God, you two of all people should know how these things work. I was never a diva.” She proceeded to tell them what had gone down back then.

  Kane shrugged. “The woman is a bitch. I think we can do something to put a kibosh on her storytelling.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good,” Nathan said. “The last thing we need is any more negative publicity surrounding this picture. Lucy’s death has been enough.”

  “Thanks.” Nikki was still confused by what they wanted with her, but she also felt relieved. If anyone could help stop Marne from spreading lies it was probably someone like Kane, who had influence. Then again, stopping tabloid writers from doing their thing wasn’t easy for anyone to do. Nothing was sacred. Not even the president, or even Jesus. A few weeks ago she’d read a headline in one of the tabloids that aliens were on their way with Jesus himself on board. If people believed stories like Jesus hanging with little green men from Mars, they wouldn’t have to work too hard to buy into the diva story about her. And, why did she care? Because it wasn’t true.