by K. M. Morgan
Candy had other ideas. They had been a couple once in the past. Ethan wanted to rekindle that flame. Acting opposite Candy made Ethan crazy with desire for her again.
Only this time, his feelings were unrequited. Ethan didn’t have quit in him however. Actors faced a lot of rejection. It was all too common in their lives. Because of that, actors learned to power through the rejections and keep their eyes on the prize.
It was that kind of determination that led to getting what they wanted in the end. Ethan was trying to bring that never say die attitude to his pursuit of Candy’s heart.
“I’m telling you, we have some amazing chemistry,” Ethan said.
“Maybe onscreen, but not off,” Candy replied.
Ethan shook his head. “This fire between us is more than just an act. We were great together once and we could be that way again.”
Candy wasn’t having any of it. She was already inching her way out of the conversation. “I have somewhere I need to be.”
Ethan kept trying to win her over. “I’m telling you, just give me another shot. You won’t regret it.”
Candy grimaced. “I’m sorry. That’s just not going to happen.”
“Oh come on. Remember how things used to be? We were so hot for each other. There was a time when you couldn’t keep your hands off me.”
“Those days are over. I’ve moved on, and so should you.”
“What, because of Hunter? Come on, do you really think that is going to last? A man like that is no good for you. He thinks he’s some kind of great artist. You need a man who thinks the world of you, not himself,” Ethan insisted.
“Don’t tell me what I need. You don’t know Hunter like I do,” Candy said.
“I know enough to hate the man’s guts. He’s not the artistic genius he thinks he is.”
“Says who? The fact is, he knows how to treat a woman right.”
Ethan put his foot down. “You’re making a big mistake. If you stay with Hunter, you’re only going to get hurt. And I can’t wait around forever.”
“Please, don’t wait at all. I’ve already told you that we’re through.”
Ethan stared her down. “You don’t know what you’re missing. A lot of women would be happy to have a man like me interested in them.”
“Then be with one of them,” Candy insisted.
Candy then walked away towards Hunter’s trailer.
Ethan muttered to himself. “No artsy fool is going to steal my woman.”
Chapter Ten
It was the worst kept secret on the set what really happened in Hunter’s trailer. Although it was meant to serve as his production office, Hunter used the trailer as his own personal love shack. He and Candy had a romantic rendezvous in there any chance they got.
That day was different. Hunter’s mind was squarely on kissing Candy, where it always was. Hers was elsewhere however.
“Put your tongue back in your mouth,” Candy said, as she pulled away from a kiss.
Hunter was outraged. “What’s the matter with you?”
“I have some serious stuff on my mind, alright?” Candy whined.
Hunter looked shocked that any serious thoughts could ever enter Candy’s ditzy air head, even by accident.
“Really?
Candy was far from smart, but she still hated having her limited intelligence insulted. “Yes really. Is that so hard to believe?”
Hunter went into damage control mode. These trailer meetings were supposed to be a break from his stressful life, not something that added extra drama. “This isn’t regarding the comment about why I gave you the lead role, is it?”
“No. It’s about Ethan Crabtree.”
“Don’t worry your pretty little head. I’m getting rid of that kiss in the script.”
“It’s not just that.”
Hunter furrowed his brow. “Is there something else going on?”
“It’s really uncomfortable having to act with him. I’d feel much better if there was a different leading man in this movie.”
“You want me to replace Ethan?”
Candy moved in close to Hunter and batted her eyes at him.
“You don’t want me to feel uncomfortable, do you? You know what they say—a happy woman makes for a happy man too.”
Hunter gazed into her eyes.
“It’s not that easy getting rid of him,” he admitted.
“What are you talking about? You’re the director. I thought you had all the power around here.”
His ego took hold once again. “Oh, I do. I can find a way to get rid of Ethan. Problem is, who am I going to replace him with? There aren’t exactly a lot of leading men in Cozy Creek.”
She really started to butter him up now. “An artistic genius like you—I’m sure you’ll figure something out. So what do you say, will you do this favor for me?”
Candy then leaned in close and gave him a deep kiss. When she finally pulled back, he was putty in her hands.
“Consider him gone,” Hunter revealed.
Candy smiled wide. “Good.”
Hunter’s mind was squarely on one thing at that point. “What do you say you give me another kiss like that last one?”
Candy smiled.
Chapter Eleven
Ten minutes later, Daisy was working on her décor from the set when she saw Candy leave Hunter’s trailer with a smile on her face. The rest of the cast and crew may have been running their lines, but they all knew exactly what had just happened in that trailer.
Ainsley Adamson was the exception. Then again, she was just a visitor to the set, and an unexpected one at that. Ainsley looked strikingly familiar to Candy. They both fit that airheaded bubbly blonde beauty pageant mold perfectly.
Ainsley looked none too happy to see a random blonde woman walking out of Hunter’s trailer when everyone else on the set was eating lunch. She didn’t get a good look at Candy, just her backside as she walked away, but that was still enough to arouse plenty of suspicion in her mind. Ainsley got a fire in her eyes and darted to the trailer.
Ainsley then swung the trailer door open and unloaded on Hunter.
“What’s going on here?” Ainsley barked.
It wasn’t every day that someone marched onto the set and told off the director. The cast and crew immediately stopped eating mid bite and turned their attention to the trailer. Candy also watched the action unfold with great curiosity, with extra focus paid on Ainsley.
Hunter meanwhile was on his heels. He thanked his blessings that Ainsley hadn’t arrived ten minutes earlier.
“Ainsley, what a surprise. It’s so good to see you,” Hunter deflected.
Ainsley stared Hunter down.
“Cut the crap. Why was there a random woman walking out of your trailer?”
Hunter went on the defensive. “It wasn’t a random woman, it was my lead actress, and we were just running some lines.”
Ainsley scoffed, not the least bit fooled. “Oh yeah? I didn’t know you needed to take your shirt off to run lines.”
Hunter got white as a sheet. “What are you talking about?”
Ainsley stared at his shirt. “You missed a couple buttons there.”
Hunter looked down and realized he skipped a few buttons when he put his shirt back on.
“I can explain--”
Ainsley wasn’t about to listen to excuses. “You’re a dog. How dare you fool around on me? I’m your fiancé.”
The ears of the cast and crew really perked up now as they overheard the shouting match going on through the open trailer door. Candy Caldwell in particular was hanging on every word. Fiancé?
Back in the trailer, Hunter fumbled for words.
“This isn’t what it looks like--”
“Really? Because it looks like you’ve been cheating on me. You have a lot of nerve,” Ainsley yelled.
“Wait, Ainsley. Just hear me out,” Hunter insisted.
“I’ve already listened to enough of your lies today. It’s over,” she replied.
>
Ainsley slapped Hunter’s face and stormed out of the trailer. She wanted to be anywhere but there all of a sudden. But on the way out, a face in the crowd caught her eye.
When Ainsley first arrived on set, she only saw the backside of Candy as she walked away from the trailer. Now Ainsley and Candy’s eyes locked. There was an undeniable sense of familiarity as they looked at each other. They had clearly run into each other in the past.
Ainsley somehow managed to dig up even more outrage. “Candy Caldwell.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Wow, can this day get any worse?”
Ainsley then ran off the set and to the parking lot in a hurry.
Candy was working through emotions of her own. She muttered to herself. “Hunter is engaged? To Ainsley ‘All The Way’ Adamson?”
Candy then noticed the cast and crew including Daisy staring at her. She had no interest in prying eyes. What she really needed now was some time alone. She darted off to the ladies restroom still rambling on to herself. “This can’t be happening again. No--I won’t let it happen again.”
Daisy meanwhile nearly dropped a lamp she was rearranging on the set as she took this all in. What a crazy turn of events. It all seemed like way to much drama to deal with. She suddenly got an urge for a huge dessert.
Chapter Twelve
If the events of the morning weren’t shocking enough, Hunter decided to add another layer to the mix. When the cast and crew were done with lunch, Hunter decided to call it an early day. Apparently rehearsals were no match for the behind the scenes drama that morning.
Hunter told everyone to go over lines and reconvene tomorrow. He said it would be best for everyone to clear their heads and let things simmer down overnight, but really that advice was meant for him as much as the cast.
It had been a banner day for Hunter, for all the wrong reasons. There was a fracture within the cast, quibbling amongst the crew, the film was over budget, his fiancé broke up with him, and the woman he was cheating with was now steaming as well. It was safe to say a break was in order.
The question was, what would Daisy and the rest of the cast and crew be walking into tomorrow? Was this movie doomed to failure before it even started filming? Could this crazy train be put on the tracks? Or would the situation find a way to get even hairier?
Daisy didn’t know. Luckily she had plenty of chocolate chip cookies at home to get through whatever craziness life threw at her. She knew she should try to rein in her sweet tooth, but chocolate was an opiate for her nerves. And after a day like today, it really fit the bill.
Chapter Thirteen
Daisy didn’t know what to expect when she arrived on the set the next day, but a dead body wasn’t one of them. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what she found. Her eyes went wide when she saw the victim. It was Hunter. She couldn’t believe it.
Hunter Hayworth was dead.
Police were everywhere. Daisy wondered what happened. What an awful shame. Granted Hunter was a real handful to work for, but that didn’t mean the man deserved to die. He hardly had the market cornered on being an egomaniacal pain in the rear after all. Bad bosses were a dime a dozen, but very few of them were sent to an early grave.
Hunter just happened to be one of the unlucky ones. Then again, the man had a knack for making enemies. Just ask the cast and crew.
It looked like The Cozy Creek police department was getting ready to do just that. Unfortunately, they wanted to have some words with Daisy as well. Oh dear. This was shaping up to be a doozy of a day. Luckily she had packed a double fudge brownie in her purse before she left home that morning.
Chapter Fourteen
One thought kept racing through Daisy’s mind--how could this have happened again? Another redecorating job, another dead body. It seemed too surreal to be true, yet there was no denying what was right before her eyes. So much for business as usual. Things weren’t supposed to be like this—certainly not in Cozy Creek.
A police deputy led Daisy to Chris Crumple, the town’s bumbling detective. Crumple was a rotund man. His cherubic figure reminded Daisy of Santa Claus. That image was only reinforced by his full mustache and beard, not to mention bifocal glasses.
Detective Crumple was sixty years old if he was a day, but his age had not brought him wisdom. He was slurping a coffee and chowing down on a jelly donut. When Crumple turned to Daisy, she couldn’t help but notice a family of crumbs that were making a new home in his beard.
She wasn’t sure whether to point them out to him. He clearly didn’t know they were there. She didn’t want to embarrass him. At the same time, she couldn’t help but zero in on them either.
“Ms. McDare, we have to stop running into each other like this,” Crumple said.
After defense lawyer Max Cash was found murdered at one of Daisy’s previous redecorating jobs, she hoped deja-vu wouldn’t make an unwelcome appearance in the future. Unfortunately, the McDare family unlucky streak seemed to follow Daisy everywhere she went.
She was not looking forward to talking with the detective. After what happened with the Max Case murder case, Crumple was determined to take his time with this investigation. He’d jumped to conclusions too quickly on his last case and it blew up in his face when Daisy became the one to find the real killer.
Crumple was a rare breed of bumbling detective. He was so prideful and stubborn that he didn’t realize he even was bumbling. Knowing that, Daisy approached with caution.
“I was actually hoping I wouldn’t have to run into you ever again,” Daisy said.
“Come on, everyone loves Chris Crumple—except for criminals that is,” he replied.
“I meant I was hoping to never stumble across another dead body at work.”
“You get used to it,” Crumple insisted.
“Maybe you do. You’re a police detective. I’m an interior decorator, remember?” Daisy replied.
“Oh—right. In that case, why don’t you leave the murder investigation to me this time?”
“Wait, Hunter was murdered?”
“You don’t see a whole lot of twenty-seven years olds just dropping dead at random all willy nilly, do you? Especially with blunt force trauma to the back of their head,” Crumple explained.
“What do you mean blunt force trauma?” Daisy asked.
“He took a frying pan to the back of his noggin. What an unsavory way to go.”
“Frying pan? What a weird choice.”
It was rather odd. It also happened to be the murder weapon used in the script too.
“Now hold on a cotton picking minute. I’m the detective, you’re the decorator. I’m doing the hypothesizing. Got it?” Crumple asked.
“Hmm, this is very peculiar. I have a lot of questions all of a sudden,” Daisy said.
“Wait a minute. There you go, trying to derail me again Ms. McDare. Now, as the decorator of this set I have to ask you a few questions,” Crumple replied.
“Ok.”
“Now, where were you between the hours of seven and eight o’clock yesterday?”
“I was at Sweet Tooth talking with my best friend Samantha and her grandmother Annie,” Daisy said.
Detective Crumple’s focus got derailed at the first mention of sweets. “Wait a minute, did you say Sweet Tooth?”
Daisy nodded. “Yeah. My friend runs the place.”
Crumple’s eyes lit up. “Does that mean you get discounts?”
“Are you kidding? I get plenty of freebies.”
Crumple looked jealous. His wild sugar cravings then got the better of him and he started talking wistfully about pastries. “Their apple cobbler is simply to die for.”
“If you want, I can get you some for free.”
“That would be heavenly.”
“Consider it done,” Daisy said.
“Mmm…”
Crumple’s mouth started watering. It got a little uncomfortable for a moment. With the detective’s mind adrift in the land of desserts, it was up to Daisy to get his head out of the clouds.
“Anyway, should we get back to the murder investigation?” Daisy suggested.
“Oh, right. Well, it sounds like you have a delicious alibi. In that case, do you know of anyone who would have wanted Hunter Hayworth dead?”
Daisy couldn’t help but laugh at that question.
“Is something funny Ms. McDare?” Crumple continued.
“Have you talked to anyone else on this set? Everyone here hated the man. Not to mention a few people who aren’t here,” Daisy said.
“Care to be more specific?”
“Why don’t you pull up a chair? We’re going to be here a while,” Daisy insisted.
Chapter Fifteen
When Detective Crumple was done talking with Daisy, he gathered up the cast and crew to get everyone’s alibis. Fiona, Ethan, Logan, Candy, Isabel, and David were all there. Before he could get anyone’s whereabouts, he had to contend with gossip making the rounds.
“It’s eerie that he was hit in the head with a frying pan,” the producer David Foster said.
“Yeah. Just like in the script,” lead actor Ethan Crabtree commented.
Detective Crumple interrupted him, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“In the screenplay, the victim gets killed by being hit in the back of the head with a frying pan,” assistant director Logan Lark said.
Detective Crumple was still befuddled. “No he doesn’t.”
The screenwriter Isabel Foster jumped in. “I hate to correct you, but yes he does.”
Crumple didn’t believe them. “Not in the script on Hunter Hayworth’s laptop. In that one, the victim gets shot in the chest.”
Murmurings were heard in the crowd.
Isabel Foster spoke up again. “But wait, that’s not possible.”
“Trust me, it is. I read it. Pretty good noir script too. I love a good femme fatale. Those wacky killer dames,” Crumple said.
More rumblings were heard in the crowd.