Chapter 12

TWELVE

Following the same routine as the day before, we walked up to the same security guy and had no trouble passing through after he gave Key’s ID card a bored glance.

Clearly , there was a hungry market for security seminars waiting to be tapped in Olmeda .

Key led me deeper into the park, where a series of lighting contraptions were being tested around a clearing and some of the trees. Two stand-ins milled around in the center, waiting for instructions. A couple of paths away, folding tables had been set up next to a series of coolers, and Shane was restocking a tray holding bread rolls.

“ Boss ,” he acknowledged with a solemn nod, putting the empty box of bread away.

A member of the crew came by and picked a roll. “ Good stuff,” she said before strolling away.

I studied the rolls closely. They were golden and deliciously puffed out under the set-up lights. Maybe I needed to introduce something like this to my muffin and cookies selection. Would Veva’s friend mind cooking savory?

A young man stopped by. “ Do you have more of those garlic knots? Curtis loves them.”

Nate Curtis , aka producer, aka suspect number three. “ Does he?” I asked in a friendly tone. “ They’re good, right?”

The man studied me with some curiosity. “ I haven’t tried them yet. You’re new?”

“ She picked up a shift today,” Shane said curtly, dropping a few knots into a small takeout box and handing it over, along with a couple of paper napkins.

“ Cool ,” the man said. He was about my height, thin and wiry, wearing a faux leather jacket and a cap with the movie studio logo on it. “ See you around.”

After he left, I turned to Key and Shane . “ We should look into the PAs . They handle all the drinks and food and have access everywhere.”

“ The other times it had nothing to do with food,” Shane pointed out. “ And everyone has access everywhere here.”

He had a point. “ Were any of our suspects around when Brett got the coffee?”

“ Lydia Lee was in the monitor’s tent, I think,” Key said, “so close by.”

“ And Curtis had just walked by shouting at someone on the phone,” Shane added. “ Oh , we got word from the creepy fan hanging around. He got arrested yesterday for trespassing.”

“ So that’s one less suspect. What about Lisa Woodward , the show’s writer?”

“ I don’t think she came to set today,” Key said.

“ Sanders ?”

“ Saw him earlier, but not sure where he was when the coffee arrived. It’s been a little chaotic today.”

“ Did you look up that name I send you? Craig Turner ?” I asked.

“ Yeah . I asked around, but nobody’s heard of him,” she said.

“ Same ,” Shane said.

Well , it’d been worth a try.

“ Three suspects out, three remaining,” I murmured to myself. Then , louder, “ We need to figure out a way to talk to Lee , Curtis , and Sanders . See if they let anything slip.”

“ But how?” Key asked.

“ I was thinking they’ll probably go to Guiles and Romary at some point, right? Maybe even tonight.”

She picked up on my line of reasoning. “ We could follow them and strike up a conversation?”

I checked the time on my phone. It was getting late but wasn’t quite nighttime yet. When did hospital visiting hours end? “ I should go to the hospital and see if I can talk to Brett . Maybe he remembers who handed him the cup.”

Shane shook his head. “ No point. If he’s being treated, they’ll make you wait for hours. Plus , you’re not family. They’re not going to let you see him.”

Key touched my arm. “ We’ll be more useful here.”

They were right. “ You think they called his family already?”

“ I called them myself,” Shane said.

“ You’re a good egg,” I told him. “ Like Ian .”

He grinned at that. “ But like one of those black eggs that’s been buried for centuries, huh?”

“ An egg is still an egg,” I assured him.

Key laughed.

It felt strange to laugh while Brett was in the hospital, but I doubted the UNSUB meant to murder anyone. Sabotaging was one thing. Murder meant heavy time in the bounty hunters’ cells, or worse.

Still …

I opened my mouth but hesitated.

“ What ?” Key urged.

“ Maybe we should bring in Officer Brooks . The UNSUB is clearly escalating.”

“ If they run tests on Brett and find human poison, they’ll involve the police anyway,” Shane said.

“ Brett didn’t want to get in trouble with Hutton ,” Key reminded me. “ If we call Officer Brooks , we’ll have to tell her why we’re here, and he’ll be admonished for not telling them about the magic sabotage earlier.”

As far as reasons not to call the police, that was extremely thin and easily dismissed.

Key truly had learned a lot from me. It made me want to weep with pride.

However , it was one thing for me to choose not to report a murder, and another for the strays not to do it. In my case, the person had already been dead. Here , there was a chance for more harm to come.

On the other hand, this was Key’s case and her decision. If I brought in Officer Brooks , she might never forgive me.

What would Ian do—for real this time? Would he trust his strays or interfere? He had always allowed me to make the decisions, even when he didn’t fully agree. He would abide by the strays’ wishes. For the time being, at least.

Shane interrupted my conundrum by taking out his phone and speaking quietly into it. Once he was done, he turned back to us with a slight curve to his lips. “ They moved Brett to the clinic. They say he’s probably going to be fine, but they’re keeping him overnight for observation.”

The clinic? “ Not the hospital?”

“ It’s a private place run by the Pack for paranormals,” Shane explained. “ In case.”

How had I not known about this before now? Me and Hutton were going to have a long chat after this was over. “ So he’s not gravely ill?”

“ Didn’t sound like it.”

A huge weight slid off my shoulders. And with it went the rational part of me that said we should bring in the police. “ If we find anything incriminatory or it looks like the UNSUB is going to strike again, we’re calling Officer Brooks .”

Shane glanced at Key .

Key made a face but agreed reluctantly. “ Okay .”

“ Better safe than sorry,” I told her gently.

Shane snorted.

“ What ?”

He gave me a look that encompassed every dead body involved with my person they’d helped bury. “ In my defense, two of them were evil, and the third I found too late to save.”

“ Sure , boss,” he drawled.

Key giggled. And there was probably something very wrong with finding humor in these types of grim matters, but, as Grandma liked to say, a happy outlook helps bury every body.

Paraphrasing .

A low murmur went through the set, and there was a sudden burst of action.

“ What’s happening?” I whispered.

“ I think they’re going to film a scene,” Key said.

Sudden excitement lodged like a stone in my throat. “ Can … Can we watch?”

Key gave me an odd look. “ Sure .”

We moved to the bigger clearing and stood behind a row of crew members. I found a small opening that gave me a direct view of the scene and drank in the sight greedily.

The actors playing Lily and her love interest stood on opposite ends of the clearing, wearing coats over their shoulders.

Someone yelled for silence, and the place fell deadly quiet. A couple of assistants took the coats away, and then, just like in the movies about movies, someone brought out a clapboard, and the scene began shooting.

Lily and the man rushed in, and they met in the middle as the camera crane made a sweeping arc forward and closed in.

“ Jack ,” Lily exclaimed. “ I’m so glad you’re here!”

“ I thought you were hurt,” he answered roughly, then pulled her into his arms.

“ Oh , Jack ,” Lily whispered loudly, staring up at him in plain fear. “ I was so scared.”

“ Not as scared as I ,” he answered. My breath caught at the passion in his tone. I forgot about the crew around me, the camera hanging right next to them, the boom mic hovering from above, and everything beyond the look of adoration in his eyes.

Then he lowered his head and kissed her.

My insides melted.

Oh , my goodness.

“ Cut !” someone yelled, snapping me back to reality. “ That was great. Let’s do it again.”

I blinked as the crew jumped into action and the two actors broke the embrace, their expressions bland and showing no traces of passion or fear. They walked back to the small marks on the dirt ground signaling their starting spot, and the coats went back over their shoulders while the crane was repositioned.

“ That was cool, huh?” Key whispered.

“ Like magic,” I whispered back.

“ Nah , magic is much cooler.”

We grinned at each other, then watched them redo the scene, then again from a different camera angle.

On the fourth go, I remembered we were supposed to be looking out for a dangerous saboteur and tore my gaze away from the clearing to study the crew. Most were concentrated on their tasks having to do with the technical side of filming, and a few were simply watching the scene unfold over and over again. No one appeared especially malicious, and slight boredom was the common theme among their postures and expressions.

Key pointed out Sanders for me, but he was laser-focused on the scene. The producer and Lydia Lee were nowhere to be seen. Planning another sabotaging attempt?

After they were done with the kissing, they began to change some lights to film a few chasing-and-hiding scenes through the trees and the bushes. I noticed they had placed extra dressings to give the paths a lot more covering than they normally had.

Key and I went back to Shane , keeping an eye out for anything out of order, but it was hard to know what might be out of order in such a chaotic space. Nobody ran around twirling their villain mustache or wagging a bad guy flag.

Very disappointing.

“ Anything ?” Key asked Shane .

“ Nothing . You ?”

She pursed her lips. “ Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“ Can I tell Ian about this? He might have some ideas?” I asked.

Key frowned and opened her mouth, but Shane spoke before she could. “ Already told him.”

She let out a squeak of outrage.

He shrugged. “ Boss knew something was up.”

Key turned her accusatory glare on me, and I lifted my hands in a peace gesture. “ I didn’t tell him anything. But since he knows,” I added smoothly, “why not use his vast knowledge of the paranormals in Olmeda ?”

Key looked like we had stolen her favorite toy. On Christmas day. “ I guess.”

I squeezed her arm. “ Ian won’t interfere in your business.”

“ I know. It’s just…” She seemed to deflate in front of us but then got herself under control. “ It doesn’t matter.”

I totally understood where she was coming from. “ Ian does have a way to get involved in everything, doesn’t he? There’s little we can do on our own without him looming nearby.”

“ Boss , you’re the one who always calls him,” Shane said dryly and unhelpfully.

“ Anyway ,” I said in a bright voice, “does Brim —your uncle have a food video log?”

Key’s sadness receded. “ Oh , yeah. He did that for a few months. It’s fun, you should watch it.”

I brought out my phone and looked at her expectantly. “ Can you send me the link?”

“ Oh , I don’t have it on me. I’ll see if I can find it later.”

Aww . “ Thank you.” I leaned in. “ Is it true he was part of a boy band?”

Key snorted a laugh. “ What ? No . No way.” Then she blinked, as if the idea suddenly had merit. “ At least, I don’t think? I know Uncle Jeremy is a little showy, but I can’t see him being part of a boy band.”

“ The person who told me sounded certain.”

“ Maybe they have him confused with someone else?”

We looked at Shane , as if he would’ve had the opportunity to know Brimstone and Destruction better than his niece or his current employer.

“ I have no idea what you guys are talking about,” he said deadpan.

Suspicious . He was too good at doing the whole Ian -stone-expression thing. Maybe I’d ask him for Natalia’s number and text her later.

The crew around us burst into action again, signaling more scenes were about to be filmed. I checked my phone; it was getting late.

On the one hand, I wanted to stay and continue watching the movie be filmed (and keep an eye out for our suspects, of course). But on the other, the longer I stood around, the bigger chance someone would finally notice I had no ID and didn’t belong here, which would get Key and Shane in trouble. With Brett out of the picture for now, we needed someone inside the set to watch out for anything suspicious. I was confident Key and Shane wouldn’t be drinking anything from strangers, and they both had the magic-detecting potions now. They would be safe enough.

No , of course they wouldn’t be safe enough, and worry about what could happen gnawed at my insides. But they were adults, and if I were to be truthful to myself, they had a lot more experience with the dangerous side of the paranormal world than I did. Like , a lot, lot. Even after all the happenings so far with me and my shop, I was the baby here experience-wise.

Besides , if I didn’t get back, Fluffy and Rufus were going to show their displeasure in dirty, smelly ways.

“ I have to get back home,” I told them. “ Will you be okay here?”

“ Yeah , boss,” Shane said in that assured way of his.

“ Will you come later if they go out to the bars?” Key asked in a whisper.

They , meaning our suspects. I wanted to go, but I also needed to get the Council test potion done. If there was something I’d learned in my tenure as a shop owner was that nothing beat getting things out of the way sooner than later.

And to check for possible ghosts before signing the lease.

“ I can’t today. I need to make a big potion.”

They nodded in understanding, then exchanged a glance.

“ We’ll call Alex ,” Shane said.

“ That’ll make things easier,” Key agreed.

Three strays with three fake IDs to follow three suspects into the bars of Old Olmeda . The math checked out. “ Don’t do anything dangerous. If it looks like trouble, you stay back, okay?”

Key agreed eagerly while Shane gave me a one-eyed pointed look. Right . I was one to talk.

I cleared my throat. “ I’ll leave you to it, then. Update me tonight, please?” I might be passed out, but I’d see the texts first thing in the morning.

“ Sure , boss,” Key said happily.

I left the set by the same security guard, who again made no effort to check I belonged there. No wonder they were having sabotage issues! The question was how they were only having that one issue.