by Sandi Scott
“Never mind,” Georgie did her best to sound flustered. “You need to get out here. I’ve got some very interesting information for you.”
“This information requires I drive almost forty-five minutes in traffic? You can’t tell me over the phone?”
“Well, I could, sure, if you want to rob me of any fun,” she huffed.
“Tell me what you’ve got, Georgie. I’m listening.”
Taking a deep breath, Georgie gave a detailed account of why she thought Lorelei Carmello could be responsible for Jason’s death. She also dove deep into the words Ryn Hudson had shared with her over coffee and how she was so quick to push the blame to Georgie’s third suspect.
“Robbie Dodson. Now you aren’t going to believe this one,” she exclaimed, making sure Stan couldn’t get a word in edgewise. Explaining how she had gotten the information from the handsome movie star, Georgie couldn’t help but giggle.
“So, what do you think of all that?” she asked.
"That's all very interesting, Georgie, but Jason Hobbs died of a heart attack. What are you suggesting? That one of these folks jumped out of Jason’s closet and gave him a third-degree jump-scare resulting in a massive ‘grabber’?"
“Do you have to use the term ‘grabber’ instead of heart attack? It sounds like you should be in vice instead of homicide,” Georgie scolded.
“Sorry to offend your delicate sensibilities,” Stan teased, “but it doesn’t change the fact that the guy’s heart gave out.”
“Yes, that might be, but wait.” Stan could hear his ex-wife rustling around in her purse, mumbling to herself as she always did. “Ah-ha! Here it is. I made a list of poisons that could simulate the same symptoms as a heart attack. No one would expect poison if they thought it was a heart attack, right?”
She began to read them off and finally reached the bottom of her list, almost panting as she hurried to relay them all to Stan.
“So, are you coming up here to the movie set?”
“Georgie, I appreciate your help. But even if you are spot-on, that doesn’t give me any reason to arrest, or even question, anyone up there. I’d need concrete evidence before I could make any type of move.”
Georgie sank into the leather interior of her sister's car. She knew Stan was right. Part of her mind harshly reprimanded her for the spontaneous and premature act of calling Stan at all, but another part of her was glad she had found out if he thought there was even the smallest seedling of possibility to her observation that he should be looking into Jason Hobbs’ death. Plus, she still liked to hear him on the phone. It wouldn't be right to find out all that she did and not share it with Stan. Georgie sometimes wondered what their lives would be like if she became a private investigator and worked alongside him. From where she was currently sitting, it looked terribly romantic.
“Do I need to remind you that you are not qualified to be questioning anyone, or making any accusations of any kind? I don’t, right Georgie?”
That type of condescension was like an ice-cold bucket of water poured over the head.
“I’m just trying to help, Stan.”
“I know you are, Georgie,” Stan’s voice was soothing, “but have you forgotten what happened the last time you helped out? I just don’t want you to get hurt in the process.”
Georgie shuddered as she remembered the tense moments she had with a deranged killer’s hands around her throat. Fortunately for her, Stan had been close by. She knew he meant well, but he could be such a drag sometimes.
“Well, when I find something solid, I’ll give you a shout.”
“Georgie, you need to ease up on this. Go on home. Take Aleta to lunch, or something, and I’ll look into the things you mentioned.”
Go to lunch? Stan must have been drinking, even though he never touched anything harder than ginger beer. Georgie sighed loudly, knowing there was no use arguing with him when he used that tone of voice.
“That sounds like a good idea.” Georgie was afraid he could hear her sarcasm. Thankfully he couldn’t see her ultra-annoyed, mega-magnified eye-rolling.
“Hey, Georgie. Do that sexy voice again for me. Just tell me you need my help. You’re being blackmailed and need to get some pictures back from a guy who does most of his talking with a gun. I promise to reply in my best Sam Spade.”
“Good-bye, Stan,” Georgie used her regular voice and hung up.
Chapter 10
Before Georgie went to find Aleta, she took some time to explore the entire area that the movie crew had spread out over. The sun was already directly overhead making the place look cheery and highly charged. Even if the set was several yards away, when Robbie yelled, “Quiet on the set!” the whole place came to a standstill.
Not wanting to draw attention to herself, Georgie froze, too—watching people, their expressions, their body language. Since Jason’s removal from the area, there was a calm that had seemed to settle over everything.
“If I could just get a couple of people to talk, but I’ll bet they aren’t going to have much to say to an eccentric old lady who is asking morbid questions about the producer who died on the set.” She shook her head. “I’ll just look like a crazy lady.”
Snapping her fingers Georgie headed toward the Craft Service trailer. But before she got there she caught a glimpse of her sister standing out of the way near the set they had watched the previous day.
Planted firmly in the middle of the scene was Dustin Stetson. He stood perfectly still as a woman with a box of make-up came and brushed his forehead with a make-up sponge. He spoke quietly with Robbie who had gotten up from his director’s chair and put a gentle hand on Dustin’s shoulder. Their conversation was private but obviously positive as Dustin patted Robbie’s shoulder before they repeated the shot.
That was interesting enough. But what Georgie couldn’t help but notice was Dustin’s eyes finding her sister and giving her a playful wink. This made Georgie smile, partially because she loved to see her sister so happy, but also because poor Dustin had no idea that he’d never do anything more than look at Aleta. She had room for only one love in her life and right now that one love was her independence. She wouldn’t give that up for all the tea in China. On the other hand, there wasn’t a woman worth her salt who didn’t appreciate the occasional flirt session with a handsome fellow—Dustin was very handsome.
Carefully and quietly Georgie tiptoed over to Aleta and gently elbowed her star-struck sister.
“Is Stan coming?” Aleta whispered.
“No. He says there’s not enough evidence.”
“That’s too bad,” Aleta replied in a hushed voice—her eyes didn’t leave the lighting crew that was continually adjusting things high above the set. “This is really fascinating. You wouldn’t believe how they change the lights to make it look like it’s certain times of the day. Dustin has to stand still for the entire time. If he has to move to go to the bathroom, or take a break, a guy who is his same height and weight, wearing the same kind of clothes, comes and stands there until he comes back.”
“Wow!”
“I don’t know about you, but I’d really like to stay until tonight to see how the rest of the scenes are done.”
“Yeah. I’m going to go over to Craft Service. You want anything while I’m over there?” Georgie could see that her twin was reluctant to miss a thing.
“I’m actually getting a little tired, but I don’t want to leave yet.”
“Why don’t you go lie down in the car for a spell? Take a nap.”
“That’s a good idea. But do me a favor,” Aleta was serious.
“Sure.” Georgie took her sister’s hand.
“Don’t tell Dustin I’m resting in the car.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t do that.” Georgie squeezed her sister’s hand tightly. “He’s handsome but good-looking guys come a dime a dozen. Look at Stan—gorgeous, but not the kind of guy you’d bring home to Mom.”
“You did.”
"Yes, and neither you nor she
warned me."
The sisters giggled as they walked through the crew and extras, finally parting ways as Aleta went to the car and Georgie headed toward Craft Service.
“Where is Stacy?” Lorelei asked, sounding as frazzled as always. “She should have been back twenty minutes ago.”
"I haven't seen her in a while." Stacy was the girl who had returned Georgie’s wallet. A bystander offered a possibility for her whereabouts, “Her boyfriend is acting as backup to hold the boom mike. She's probably over there with him.”
“I can’t believe this,” Lorelei hissed, shoving a box at the man who had offered the suggestion about where Stacy might be. “Here, you better get this to Ryn’s trailer or we’ll have to listen to her complain. How am I going to get that stuff from the van?”
“Hi,” Georgie interrupted. “You look like you’re losing your mind a little.”
“I am.” Lorelei smiled. “It’s nice to see you again, Georgie. Did they hire you on as an extra?”
“Not exactly,” Georgie patted Lorelei’s arm, “but I’ve got some time. Is there anything I can help you with?”
“You must be an angel sent from heaven, Georgie. I need creamer and sugar from the van. It’s parked at the entrance. It’s a huge white monster with LS&B on the side. Here are the keys.”
Georgie couldn’t believe her luck.
"I'll be back in no time." Georgie waved the keys at Lorelei and headed in the direction she had indicated. Within a few minutes, she saw the van and hurried up to it. Opening the backdoor Georgie found several odd-looking boxes with strange writing on the sides. She began to rummage through the boxes finding dried ginger, dried spices, and dried flowers, including bachelor buttons and pansies. Georgie knew those were edible flowers because Aleta had taken her to a swanky lunch in downtown Chicago for her birthday several years ago and the salads had the same flowers sprinkled all over them. Digging deeper into the van she found plastic utensils, straws, some bagged snacks, and table cloths.
"This is too close to not consider her a primary suspect," Georgie muttered. "If Lorelei knows which flowers can be eaten, then she knows which flowers should not be eaten. Plus, she prepared a special meal for that Barry character. She probably did that for all the important people on the set. It only makes sense."
Before she could stop herself, she was stretched awkwardly across the stacks of boxes and shelves attached to the sides of the van when she heard a voice behind her.
“Excuse me. You got any pretzels back there?”
Georgie spun around and saw a young lady with a baseball cap, a baggy t-shirt, and jeans looking up at her from outside the van. She had no make-up on and her hair was short, but her cheeks dimpled cutely when she smiled.
“Pretzels?” Georgie looked around quickly and found nothing but a huge bag of pretzel sticks. There was nothing that looked like a small snack size bag anywhere.
“It looks like this is all I have. Will this work for you?”
The young lady blinked and grinned even wider.
“You bet it works for me. Thanks.”
Georgie smiled quickly and waved the girl away. Without taking any more time to look around, she grabbed a bag of sugar and powdered creamer from a shelf stacked with them, hopped down off the back of the van, and slammed the two back doors shut, making sure they were locked before heading back to the set.
Lorelei was a maybe in the suspect pool. She’d have to stay there for now.
Chapter 11
There was so much that went into the shooting of one scene in a movie that Georgie couldn’t believe anyone would have the patience to tackle such an overwhelming endeavor.
The first production assistant would tell the second production assistant to let the props master know that there was a conflict with the special effects supervisor. Meanwhile, the camera operator would have words with the director of photography about needing to capture a certain kind of light or shadow. In addition to this, the make-up artist would be busy with the costume designer as alterations and highlights were addressed and worked out.
That didn't include what the director was doing with the cast members and how the crew maintained, or modified, the lighting and atmosphere of the whole set.
When there was a break during filming, Georgie tried to get some information. Using Dustin’s suggestion that she was just interviewing people for her blog giving praise to Dustin Stetson’s new movie, she was surprised to find so many people unwilling to talk.
“I was wondering if you had any opinion on the sad event that took place yesterday?” She asked innocently.
“I really don’t have any comment,” Gary, one of the key grips answered. “I didn’t really know him.”
"I'm not comfortable making a statement about that," Denise, the makeup director's assistant replied, "especially since I didn't know him."
“I think it’s terribly tragic, but it doesn’t really affect me,” said KC, the gopher for Ross, the minor character Ryn had mentioned. “I didn’t work for him.”
"This is going nowhere," Georgie muttered. Just as she turned to go ask the clapboard guy, she was cut off by an angry looking Ryn.
“Georgie, what are you doing?”
“Hi, Ryn.” Georgie gave the actress a smile. “I’m just talking to people. Nothing important. I was trying to get a little information on how people were feeling after the incident the other day for my blog.”
“Blog?” Ryn snapped. “You never told me you had a blog.”
“Well, we didn’t plan on writing anything until Mr. Stetson gave us an interview.”
“You spoke with Dustin? What did you talk about?” Ryn asked nervously.
"Just the normal stuff. How he liked the role he was playing. What he thought of his co-stars," Georgie said pleasantly. "How the death of Jason Hobbs has affected him, if it has."
“You need to stop that right now,” Ryn snapped.
“What?”
“You need to stop asking questions.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Look, I don’t mean to be rude, but you have no idea what this industry is like. Some rube asking a bunch of questions after a major producer dies, a truly gifted man, is just not what this production needs.”
“I thought in your business any publicity was good publicity,” Georgie bit back with a sweet smile on her face. “Besides, what makes you think that what I’m writing will hurt the reception of the film? It might be a glowing review.”
“Again, you are not in my industry. You and your sister got free passes from a radio station to come to the set. You were lucky enough to sucker Dustin into giving you an interview and now you think you’re Barbara Walters or something.”
“I don’t think that at all, Ryn, and I don’t appreciate your attitude, either,” Georgie scolded.
"I'm not interested in what you like or don't like. This isn't about you. This is about keeping the reputation of this film intact," Ryn glowered, putting her hands on her hips. She was not the same girl who met Georgie at the coffee shop just twenty-four short hours ago, nearly in tears talking about how she was treated on the set. This was a spoiled brat. "One wrong word from a novice blogger and the ripple effect could be devastating."
“I think you are overreacting.”
“I think you are out of your element, Georgie.”
“Is there a problem here?” Georgie and Ryn both turned around to find Dustin wiping off the make-up that had been caked on his face.
“No, Dustin,” Ryn piped up nervously. “I was explaining to Georgie how difficult it can be for a reporter, or anyone not familiar with the movie business, to really grasp what it takes to make a successful film.”
"It takes even more talent to make a lousy film," Dustin joked.
“I was actually just getting ready to leave,” Georgie stared at Ryn for a moment, but the young starlet refused to meet her gaze now that Dustin was there.
“So soon? I was hoping you and your delightful sister would join m
e in my trailer for dinner.
Georgie smiled, but her mind flashed to two nights ago when Jason Hobbs keeled over dead after having dinner. However, she didn’t want to make the decision without checking with Aleta first.
"That's very kind of you. I'll ask Aleta. I know she's around here somewhere. She was also interviewing a couple of members of the crew," Georgie said, looking at Ryn, who winced as if those words were painful to hear.
“Just stop by my trailer.” Dustin put his hand gently on Georgie’s arm. “I look forward to the company.”
Dustin strolled toward his trailer as if he were in no hurry for anything or anyone. He was supposed to be playing some ex-con, or an ex-cowboy, or an ex-cop, or someone who was reunited with his estranged wife, or daughter, or maybe a cousin. Georgie wasn’t sure. She wasn’t all that interested in the film anymore.
As soon as he was out of earshot, Ryn took Georgie by the wrist.
“I think you’ve gotten enough information for your blog. You won’t need to come back tomorrow.”
“Well, that depends on how much information my sister has collected. Truthfully, Ryn, without saying much of anything you gave me some of the best material to use.”
Georgie didn’t like playing hardball. She was used to people opening up to her because she was a harmless old lady. No one had ever acted like Ryn did and it made her think there was something more behind her behavior than just worrying about a review of this film.
Before Ryn could respond, Max came running up to them, panting and holding a cellphone to one ear while pressing his headset to the other.
“Ryn, you’re needed on set!” Then he looked over and smiled, “Hey, Georgie.”
“You know a guy on the crew?” Ryn snapped. “This is all too much.
"Ryn, I really don't understand what you're getting so mad about. I'm just an older lady who has a blog and passes the time writing about her day. That's it. That's all I'm doing."
“I think you’ve done enough and should be making your way off the set,” Ryn snarled and stomped off.