They were all staring at him. Armstrong. Bryce. Althea. Even Nash had stopped scowling. Perhaps too much detail.

He lowered the weapon and slid it back into the sheath, giving Bryce a comforting pat on the shoulder with one hand as he locked it down with the other.

Armstrong smiled at them all, the kind of smile that said, I'm cheerful but don't fuck with me. "Thank you. The knife stays. Let's get this show on the road."

She walked off and Wilder watched her long, strong legs crossing concrete again, her red cowboy boots clicking on the pavement. Yep, she was in charge. He turned to Bryce. "Hey, no big deal. Stallone will have knife envy for sure when he sees you with that thing." He looked Bryce over and felt a wave of sadness. "I guess dumping the tiger stripes is a no go, eh?"

"What's wrong with the tiger stripes?"

Nash stifled a laugh, and Wilder looked out at the surrounding forest and swamp that looked nothing like tiger stripes and thought of John Wayne wearing the same type of camouflage in that terrible movie The Green Berets, detested by all the manly men on Smoke Bomb Hill. Four days of this, he thought. Of course, that was also four days of looking at Althea. And Armstrong.

"J.T.? What's wrong with the tiger stripes?"

Wilder gave up. "Not a thing, Bryce."

Screw the hangover; he really needed a drink.

Chapter 3

By the time they were ready to shoot, Lucy had spoken to most of the cast and crew and was ready to ditch them all and go back to dog food commercials. The dogs were so much better behaved.

Daisy was refusing to talk about what was wrong with her, Pepper was being manic about some ghost in the swamp, Althea was distracted, Connor was fuming, Bryce wouldn't shut up, and Gloom kept humming "Holding Out tor A Hero" whenever Wilder got close. Even the makeup department was getting on her nerves. A woman had come up to Lucy asking for him, her false eyelashes fluttering and her lipsticked mouth working nervously. "I need to see Bryce," she'd said, and Lucy had thought, Why? A makeup emergency? and sent her back to base camp.

But the worst was Wilder. If she'd had to choose only one of them to drop off the bridge, it would have been him. He wasn't doing anything wrong, but he was the one screwing up her concentration the most.

Shoving him firmly out of her mind, she headed for the rail where Althea Bergdorf, her lead actress, was cabled in under the bright set lights. Pepper followed, and Lucy thought about sending her back to the monitors at video village and then relented. Pepper's mom was having a very bad time. Pepper could stick close until Lucy found out whatever was wrong with Daisy and fixed it.

Lucy slowed. Maybe the problem was more complicated than just Daisy being tired. Maybe Pepper's climb on the rail had been a bid for attention. Maybe she needed somebody to ask what was wrong, somebody to listen to her.

"Is there anything you want to talk about, Pepper?" Lucy said, looking down into her niece's round little face.

Pepper nodded. "There's a ghost in the swamp."

"No, baby, I meant is there anything you're worried about? Anything you want? Anything you need?"

Pepper looked startled, then thoughtful, but before she could answer, Lucy heard Althea call, "Lucy?" and thought, Oh, hell. "We'll talk in a minute, okay?" she said to Pepper, and the little girl nodded, looking relieved.

When they reached her, Althea was leaning over the bridge rail looking at a gator parked on the riverbank below. Meeting of minds, Lucy thought, having heard about Althea in action with men. "Anybody you know?" she said.

Althea smiled, a perfect Hollywood smile. "He kinda reminds me of some of the guys I've dated. Listen, I-"

From behind them a woman said, "We're ready," and Pepper slid neatly between Lucy and the rail, folding herself out of sight.

Lucy turned to see a slender brunette gazing at her with what looked like contempt. I don't even know you, Lucy thought. What's your problem?

"I'm Stephanie, your assistant," the brunette said. "I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier." She didn't sound sorry. "I was helping Connor. He said to tell you Althea's cable is good to go." Her voice gave the slightest emphasis to Connor, as if she were talking about a celebrity, and she lifted her chin a little and met Lucy's eyes as if daring her to challenge any of that, especially the Connor part. "I realize you don't work much with stunt cables on dog food commercials, so I'd just take his word for it if I were you."

Would you now? Lucy thought, now recognizing her as the woman who'd been arguing with Connor. "Lovely to meet you, Stephanie. Get me a script, please. A full script, one with all the pages. Thanks." Now go be snotty to somebody who cares. She turned back to Althea. "You ready for the scene? Terror on tap?"

Althea looked over the rail at the dark river. "There's a gator down there," she said, her face distorted as she faked fear. "They're dangerous."

"Yes, there's an alligator," Stephanie said to Althea, in a voice she'd use to talk to a small child she didn't like. "But since he's not going to be climbing up on the bridge, he's moot."

Watch it, Lucy thought, prepared to drop-kick her off the bridge if Althea took offense, but Althea just smoothed out her face and said, "Moot. That's a funny name for a gator."

"Moot?" Pepper said, forgetting to lie low. She looked over the rail and trained her binoculars down on the gator, floating in the moonlight now.

Stephanie curled her lip. "Yes, it is a funny name. Are you ready?"

"Just about," Althea said.

"You can go now," Lucy said to Stephanie. And later we will talk about not patronizing the talent.

Stephanie walked off into the darkness, and Althea dropped her chin and watched her from under lowered brows, no smile at all.

Mistake, Stephanie, Lucy thought.

"I think Moot only has one eye," Pepper said, still staring through her binoculars.

Althea met Lucy's eyes. "Maybe I'll get a chicken to throw to old Moot tomorrow."

"That would be better than throwing Stephanie."

Althea grinned, a real smile this time.

"It's bad to feed the alligators," Pepper said, looking up at them. "If you feed them, they lose their fear of humans and attack."

Lucy looked down at Moot, sneering at them from the river. "Too late. Moot already thinks we're worthless."

"Bryce throws Ding Dongs from Crafty to him," Pepper said sadly.

Althea rolled her eyes and then leaned a little closer to Lucy. "Listen, can we talk? After this take, I mean? About Bryce. And some other things."

I miss the dogs, Lucy thought. They never want to talk. "Absolutely. You ready to go here?"

Althea nodded, and Lucy smiled encouragingly at her and headed back to video village with Pepper in her wake, thinking, It's going to be a really long four days.

"How's it going?" Gloom said when she got there.

Lucy settled into her chair. "My assistant is an elitist snot who thinks Connor's God, my lead actress wants to chat about the lead actor, and there's a gator underneath the bridge who's gonna call for a wine list if anybody falls off."

"So we're good then."

"Oh, yeah," Lucy said as Pepper climbed up onto the chair to her far right, leaving empty the seat between them where her mother was supposed to be. No script supervisor again, Lucy thought. That's not like Daisy.

"You okay?" Gloom said.

"I'm beginning to sense a distinct lack of enthusiasm on the part of the crew," Lucy said, nodding at Daisy's vacant seat.

"I know how they feel," Gloom said and called, "Stand by," as people melted off the set. Then he called, "Roll sound," and someone echoed, "Rolling," and a cameraman shoved a clapper in front of Althea's face, yelled, "Take one," and smacked it shut.

Lucy called, "Camera," and then, "Action," and Althea slung her leg over the rail and boosted herself up and then screamed halfheart-edly as Rick dragged her back down and called her an idiot with much the same force that he'd use to ask for a latte. Althea said, "What do you care?" as if she didn't, and then let him drag her back to the car.

Lucy yelled, "Cut," and looked at Gloom.

"Distinct Lack of Enthusiasm," he said. "Part Two: The Cast."

Lucy took off her headphones and walked over to Althea. "You feeling okay?"

"Yes." Althea blinked at her. "Why?"

"Because you're a better actress than that." My dogs are better actors than that. "Is there something wrong?"

Althea nodded. "Well, yeah. About Bryce. He-"

"Bryce isn't in this scene," Lucy said. "We're going to try it again and-"

"Again?" Althea seemed dumbfounded.

Connor came up. "What's wrong? You got the shot."

Lucy turned to him, glad to have somebody she could snap at. "Go away."

"What?" he asked, as dumbfounded as Althea had been.

"You're the stunt coordinator," Lucy said. "If you're worried about her cable, check it, but do not now or ever tell me when I've got the shot. Understand?" Connor jerked back, and Lucy turned to Althea. "You ready to do this for real?"

"Yeah." Althea straightened. "Yes, I am."

"Go to one," Lucy called to the set, and Althea went back to the rail while Rick took his position beside the car. Lucy stopped to talk to him on her way back to the monitors. "I don't know what's going on here, but we're going to shoot this sucker until we get a good take. That okay with you?"

"Yep," Rick said, also surprised. "More than okay."

"All right, then." Lucy went back to the monitors to sit down and found Daisy back in her chair. "There's something weird about this shoot," she said to Daisy.

"No idea what you're talking about," Daisy said, staring at the set, her notebook in her lap, as the set echoed with "Stand by."

"Roll sound."

"Rolling."

"Take two," and the sound of the clapper.

Lucy watched the monitor and this time Althea flung herself over the bridge rail with such force that Rick really had to catch her and bring her back, and his "You little idiot!" sounded real, as did Althea's sobbed scream, "What do you care?" Rick yelled back, "Dead hostage? I care a lot," and dragged her toward the car while she fought him tooth and nail.

"Cut!" Lucy called, feeling much better. "That was excellent. Really great, guys. Let's go again and then we'll do the close-ups."

Althea beamed at her and motioned her over.

Oh, hell, Lucy thought and went.

Althea leaned close to her. "I need to ask you something. You know, girl to girl."

"Uh," Lucy said, thinking, Kill me now.

"I mean, I know you're really busy because this is your big break-"

"Not so much," Lucy said. Where are they getting this big break stuff?

"-But what do you think of Bryce?"

"Fine actor," Lucy said automatically.

"No, I mean, you know." Althea began to look impatient. "As a man."

Lucy tried again. "He seems like a really nice guy."

Gloom called, "Let's go," and Lucy smiled at Althea.

"Okay, that last take was a great one, so let's do another one to make sure."

Althea nodded. "Could you come back while they're doing the next camera setup?"

"Sure. You bet."

Lucy went back to the monitors and watched while Althea and Rick nailed another take and thought, This could work. "Fantastic," she called to them. "Reset, please."

Pepper climbed into the seat beside her. "I brought you an apple."

Lucy said, "Thank you," thinking, I'm going to die of an apple overdose, and then glanced at Daisy.

She looked like leftover death, her eyes red, her eyelids drooping as if she were struggling to stay conscious.

"You sure you're getting enough sleep?" Lucy bit into her apple, trying to act unconcerned.

"Uh huh." Daisy kept her head bent over her notebook.

So much for acting. "Daisy, what the hell-"

"Working here," Daisy said and kept her head down.

"Lucy!" Althea called, and Lucy went back to her, looking back over her shoulder at Daisy as she went.