Wild Action (13 page)

“They’d be the obvious ones. You know any reason one of the techs might be into sabotage?”

Royce shrugged. “I haven’t heard about anything. They’re local guys. Toronto, I mean. So they’re probably thrilled to be working on a Jay Wall movie. And with Barb hoping this film will lead to other set director jobs, I can’t see it being her.”

“No, Carly and I pretty well ruled her out long ago.”

“Oh?”

“Uh-huh. Aside from the job thing, if Goodie looses his shirt on this movie and walks into divorce court crying poor…”

“Oh, yeah, I see what you mean.”

“Okay, so if we eliminate those three, who else could have done it?”

“Hell, I guess it could have been almost anybody. Somebody’s just wandering by, stops to have a look at the rock…”

Thinking back, Nick recalled how many people had been in that clearing. There’d been dozens of them.

“Let’s try a different angle,” he said. “We’re assuming the point of all this is to screw Jay. So is there anyone aside from Sarina and Garth who’d have an obvious reason? Anyone who was on the set this morning?”

“Well, I guess there’s…No, that would
really
be reaching.”

“What would?”

“Oh, I was thinking about the chef, but that’s crazy.”

“Then what made you think of him? Did you notice him near the rock?”

“No, it’s just that…Well, Jay and Raffaello have been at each other’s throats since day one. Actually, according to the rumor mill, the problem started before Jay even laid eyes on Raffaello.

“See, Jay wanted to bring a chef with him from L.A. The one he usually uses when he’s on location. But Goodie wouldn’t go for it—said why should they fly this guy up, then pay him the princely wages he demands, when they could get somebody here a lot cheaper?

“In any event, Jay pulled one of his famous screaming routines at the very first meal Raffaello served in Toronto.”

“Isn’t that kind of unusual?” Carly asked. “Having a chef when you’re shooting in a city with a zillion restaurants?”

“Well, you can play it either way. But having everyone eat together is the way Goodie likes it. I think he figures that if he lets people escape to restaurants, it wastes a lot more time. And Goodie’s a real time-is-money guy.”

“Yeah, we’ve noticed,” Nick said.

They’d reached the edge of the woods, and since the camp and Attila’s field lay in different directions, they paused where they were.

“Sit,”
Carly told Attila. “You have a little rest while we finish talking.”

The bear obediently flopped down onto his haunches and Carly began stroking his neck.

“Let’s get back to that screaming performance Jay put on,” Nick said.

“Oh, it was a real scene,” Royce told them. “He made it plain that he didn’t like the cooking. And he told Raffaello it had better improve—fast. Then he said something about Italians not knowing how to cook anything but pasta and that they should have hired a French chef.

“Raffaello went ballistic at that, so Jay fired him on the spot. But Goodie intervened—I think mostly because he’d hired Raffaello personally, so he took Jay’s criticism as an insult to him, too.”

“What do you think?” Carly asked Nick. “Would public humiliation be enough to make Raffaello try to ruin the movie?”

“I guess it would depend on how hard he took being humiliated.”

“He
does
have a hot Latin temperament,” Royce put in.

“You know,” Carly said slowly, “when Raffaello arrived on the porch the other night, when he thought there was a bear in his kitchen…Well, he didn’t exactly scare me, but he certainly made me think he was a man I wouldn’t want to cross.”

Nick rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. The idea of a revenge-crazed chef struck him as decidedly off the wall, but you could never rule out anyone with motive, means and opportunity.

“Let’s think this through,” he said at last. “Raffaello certainly could have brought some raw chicken along this morning. Then all he’d have had to do was hide it.”

“He’d have known about the rock scene,” Royce said. “Once the rock was in place, Jay started going on about wanting the bear to dig under it.”

“But you said you didn’t actually notice Raffaello near it,” Nick said.

“No. I wasn’t paying much attention to what people were doing, though. When I wasn’t behind my camera, framing shots, I was getting the grips to adjust the lighting.

“I mean, I’d have noticed if Garth or Sarina had shown up, because it would have been unusual. They’re never around the set unless they’re in a scene. But I wouldn’t have noticed anything like a guy checking out the rock.”

“Nick?” Carly said so anxiously that Attila gave a little snort

“It’s all right, boy.” She patted him reassuringly,
then looked at Nick again. “I was just thinking, Garth got the roast he was going to feed Attila from Raffaello. So if it
was
poisoned, Raffaello could have done it as easily as Garth.”

“Probably more easily,” Nick muttered. “Hell, I’ve had some pretty strange suspects in my time, but a chef with an attitude…?”

“You’ve had some pretty strange suspects in your time?” Royce said.

Nick swore under his breath. It wasn’t like him to think out loud.

“It’s okay,” Carly told him. “Royce can keep a secret.”

“Yeah…well…”

“In real life, Nick’s a police detective,” she explained to Royce. “In Edmonton. He’s only helping me here for a few weeks because Wild Action was suddenly half his and we had this movie lined up. And with Gus gone, I desperately needed help.”

“You’re serious.” A grin spread across Royce’» face. “But if you’re not really a bear trainer,” he said to Nick, “how did you get him to work for you?”

“You call the way he behaved this morning working for me? But listen, keep the detective bit quiet, okay? I don’t want Jay thinking we’ve been trying to pass me off as a bear expert when I’m not.” Even though that was exactly what they’d been doing.

“Sure, no problem. I won’t say a word.” Royce glanced in the direction of the camp. “Well, I guess I’ll head back to base. After spending the morning in the sun, I could do with about a gallon of ice water. See you later,” he added, turning to go.

“And Royce?” Nick called after him. “If you hear
about anyone else having a serious grudge against Jay, let me know, eh?”

“Sure thing.”

Nick, Carly and Attila started in the direction of his field, Nick’s conscience nagging him loud and clear. It had been easy, at first, to simply avoid mentioning that he was no longer a detective. But with each passing day, he was feeling more uncomfortable about lying to Carly.

What could he do, though? Tell her the truth at this late date? By now, he knew her well enough to be certain she wouldn’t take it well. She’d somehow twist things around in her mind and decide he’d been playing her for a fool. But if he
didn’t
tell her…

He mentally shook his head. For the last little while, the thought that he’d probably never see her again once this movie was made had been bothering the devil out of him. But he just couldn’t see any hope of working out something permanent between them. There were too many obstacles.

Still, given the way he felt, he shouldn’t be lying to her.

Before he could decide whether he should just bite the bullet and come clean, they’d reached Attila’s field, and she said, “You think he’ll be safe enough with only the boys watching him? This last episode has me wondering if I shouldn’t bring a sleeping bag down here and stay with him twenty-four hours a day.”

“I think he’ll be just fine with the boys. They’ve been doing a good job so far.”

“I guess,” she said slowly.

They got the bear into his field, and after she’d
reminded Jonathan no one was to get anywhere near the fence, they started for the house.

By that point, Nick had put the idea of coming clean onto the back burner, because a growing suspicion had begun worming its way into his mind. He told himself he was way off base, but once he smelled a rat he always wanted to pursue it right away.

At last he said, “How well do you know Royce?”

Carly gave him a curious glance. “I thought I told you. He worked on a couple of documentaries that Gus and I were involved with.”

“No, I mean do you know him
really
well or do you just run into him on jobs now and then.”

“Why are you asking?”

“Carly, just give me an answer, okay?”

She shrugged. “If you’re asking has there ever been anything between us, the answer is no.”

Nick smiled to himself. That
wasn’t
what he’d been asking, but he sure liked the answer. “Well, regardless of that, you obviously trust him, but…”

“But what?”

“Something’s bothering me. It was Royce who told you about Sarina having an affair with Jay.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Has anyone else said anything about it?”

“No. But I haven’t talked to many of the movie people.”

“And what about the blowup between Jay and Raffaello? Everybody must know about that, but nobody except Royce has referred to it.”

“Well, as I said, we haven’t really been talking to that many people, so—”

“I have. Last night, when I had dinner in the camp, I was talking to a whole lot of people.”

“Nick, what are you getting at?”

“The possibility that Royce has been feeding us red herrings. That Sarina and Jay never had an affair and that there was never any big scene between Jay and Raffaello. That maybe Royce has just been blowing smoke so we wouldn’t realize
he’s
our saboteur.”

C
ARLY STOPPED DEAD
and stood staring at Nick. He had to be joking, but his expression said he wasn’t.

“Royce?” she said at last. “You think it’s
Royce?”

“I’m saying it could be.”

“Why? Just because he happened to mention both the affair and Jay’s scene with Raffaello?”

“No. That’s only part of it. I’ve been thinking back over all the incidents we’ve heard about.

“Jay fired someone because a couple of reels of film went missing. And the lab claimed they didn’t screw up that processing, remember? They said the film must have been exposed before it was shot.

“Both those problems were related to film, and Royce is the number one cameraman. And then there were those camera filters that mysteriously got left behind in Toronto.”

“Nick, it was
Royce
who had to drive all the way back and find them.”

“Sure. But maybe he wasn’t the one who noticed they weren’t here. And maybe he was hoping nobody
would
notice until they needed them. And, today, he could have slipped that chicken under the rock as easily as anyone else.”

“But what about the roast? I don’t see how he could have had anything to do with that.”

“No, so maybe the story there was exactly what you were told. Maybe Garth just asked Raffaello for something to feed Attila, and the roast was what Raffaello gave him.”

Carly had to admit that everything Nick was saying added up to Royce being a suspect, but she just couldn’t buy the idea that he was their man. “What about motive?” she asked.

“Good. You’ve been paying attention in detective class,” Nick said.

Then he smiled. And even though sex had been the last thing on her mind, his smile suddenly made her hot all over.

Lord, everything about the man was sexy, from the tips of his toes to his gorgeous eyes. Even his hair, which she’d initially thought was far too short, was starting to look so good that she’d been running her fingers through it in her dreams last night.

Forcing her brain back into gear, she said, “Why on earth would Royce want to cause trouble? If this movie’s a hit, it’ll be great for his reputation.”

Nick shrugged. “Maybe there’s something more important to him.”

“Like what?”

“Well, this isn’t the first time he’s worked for Jay, so somewhere along the way
he
could have developed a major grudge against the guy. Or maybe somebody’s
paying
him to cause trouble. Money’s a great motivator.”

“I just don’t think it could be him.”

“Well, we can easily find out whether those stories
of his are true. And he drops way down on the suspect list if they are.”

“If they are, I don’t see why you’d leave him on the list at all.”

“Because so many of those incidents were film related. At any rate, I’m going to wander down to the camp and check out the stories—catch someone to talk to before dinner.”

“Just you?”

He nodded. “I think I should handle this on my own.”

“Why?”

“Oh…people talk more freely to one person than to two. And it’ll just seem less obvious.”

She felt a stab of annoyance. “You mean you think I might be too obvious.”

“Well, you aren’t quite detective, first grade material yet.”

That line would have annoyed her, as well, except that Nick delivered it with another smile. If he could bottle the effect of his smile, he could retire and stay here with her forever.

The thought lingered in her mind, making her ask herself how she’d feel about his doing exactly that. Then she forced the question away unanswered, because it didn’t matter how she’d feel. He’d be leaving in no time at all.

She took a couple of backward steps toward the house, not quite able to force her eyes from his. “I guess it’s just as well if you go on your own. The Marx brothers will be wanting their dinner.”

“Crackers, too.” Nick held her gaze, sending another rush of heat through her.

“Crackers, too,” she agreed.

“And the cats.”

“Of course. I wasn’t forgetting about them.” But she had been. And about Crackers.

That made her feel awfully uneasy. If just gazing into Nick Montgomery’s eyes could make her forget about the animals, she was in even deeper than she’d realized.

“I’ll see you in a little while, then,” he said, turning to leave.

“Oh, wait a sec. With everything that’s been going on, I forgot to mention I’ll be out tonight.”

“Out?”

“I have a painting class. And I’m meeting a friend for dinner before we go.”

“I didn’t know you painted.”

“I guess there’s a lot we don’t know about each other. We’ve never had time to talk about anything except Attila and the movie.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

He simply gazed at her for a minute, and the look in his eyes tempted her to cancel her plans for the evening. But she knew she needed time alone—to think. Because she’d developed the terrible sense that no matter what she did, it might be a mistake.

If she got further involved with him, she’d only feel worse when he left. On the other hand, now that she’d kissed him, now that she knew how wonderful it had made her feel, she suspected that if she didn’t make love with him, she’d regret it for the rest of her life.

So what was she going to do?

Telling herself she wasn’t going to do
anything
until she could make a decision that felt right, she checked her watch. “Actually, I’ve got to get going
pretty soon. So if you’re not there when I’m ready to leave, you’ve got your key?”

He nodded.

“Good. Well, there’s lots of food in the fridge. Or maybe you could have dinner at the camp again." With that, she forced herself to turn away.

N
ICK MIGHT HAVE BEEN
dying to be alone with Carly tonight, but as he headed for the camp he did his best to convince himself it was a good thing she was going out.

If she wasn’t, he was pretty certain they’d have ended up in bed. When you added the way she made him feel to the way she’d kissed him earlier, there was little doubt where a few hours alone would have led. And he’d have wanted things to lead there so badly that he’d have had no trouble ignoring his conscience.

But right now it was telling him, in no uncertain terms, that he couldn’t make love with her until he’d told her exactly how things stood. After all, he
was
a man of principles, even if he
had
glossed over a few details recently. So he was going to have to admit that he hadn’t been quite straight with her.

He’d have to explain how he’d quit his job, then tell her about his plans to start up his own investigation agency back in Edmonton—-just as soon as he could get enough equity out of Wild Action.

He wasn’t going to try to snow her into thinking there was a chance he might stay on here, that there was a chance for a long-term relationship. It just wouldn’t be right.

But if he could live with the reality that there
wasn’t, maybe she could, too. Especially if he told her how he felt about her.

After he did that…

Well, what happened then would depend on her. But before he came clean, he had to figure out the best way of explaining that he hadn’t exactly been lying to her—that he’d merely failed to correct her false assumptions.

When he reached the camp, it looked as if pretty well everyone who’d been on the set was back. He spotted Jay talking to the makeup woman, and Goodie was lurking around the kitchen trailer—even though Raffaello couldn’t possibly have had time to get dinner ready yet.

As he wandered between a row of trailers looking for someone he knew to try a few questions on, a female voice called, “Hi there, Nick.”

Glancing to his left, he saw Barb Hunt, and decided she’d be as good as anyone.

“Hey, just the lady I was looking for.”

“Oh?” She flashed one of her Hollywood smiles and wandered over.

“Yeah, I wanted to apologize for the way Attila wrecked your rock. I don’t imagine it’ll be the easiest thing to fix.”

“No, but I’m not really blaming him. I mean, with that chicken there and all…What did you make of that?”

“Well, it struck me that somebody was trying to interrupt the filming.”

Barb nodded. “From what people are saying, that’s what everybody figures.”

“And who do they figure it was?”

“Who knows?” She glanced around, clearly making
sure there was no one nearby. Then, her voice lowered, she said, “Most of us would have put our money on the stars, but they weren’t on the set.”

“Oh?” Nick said. He often learned a lot more by playing dumb than by filling in the gaps.

“Uh-huh. I don’t normally tell tales, but since you and Carly are probably the only ones working on the picture who don’t know…Well, to be blunt, Garth and Sarina hate Jay’s guts.”

“Really? Why?”

“Because Sarina had an affair with Jay a while back.” Barb paused and wrinkled her nose. Obviously she found the idea of getting it on with Jay disgusting. “And it came to a very messy end.”

“Really?” Nick said again. So Royce
hadn’t
fabricated that. “Then why are they doing this movie with him?” He’d been curious about that from the first minute he’d heard the story.

“Because Goodie twisted their arms. He’s got the movie rights to an absolutely fabulous bestseller, and he dangled the staring roles in front of their noses. But he said that if they wanted those, they had to commit to
Two for Trouble.”

“So they’re here but they’re not happy about it.”

Barb laughed. “I think you could safely use a stronger term than
not happy.”

“Still…they weren’t on the set this morning.”

“No. Which kind of lets them off the hook, doesn’t it? Unless they got someone else to do it.”

“I guess they could have. But, you know, until you told me about them, I was figuring it might have been Raffaello.”

“Oh, you heard about that set-to, did you? Jay can
be
so
rotten to people. It’s a wonder someone hasn’t murdered him by now.”

Nick smiled, but he was hardly happy. Since Royce hadn’t made up either story, he was no longer looking guilty as sin. Which had to put Raffaello at the top of the list, even though it seemed darned improbable that he was their man.

But maybe there were other likely suspects he didn’t know about—and Barb might.

“Since that chicken was obviously planted,” he said, “are people starting to figure some of the other problems were caused deliberately?”

“For sure. You can practically see everyone looking at everyone else, wondering if
they’re
the troublemaker. I mean, you’ve seen the way Jay acts, so who knows? There could be dozens of people in this camp who’d just love to see him fall on his face.”

Terrific.
Nick had gone from having a couple of really strong suspects to what was sounding like an almost endless list of possibilities.

Hell, this was reminding him of a Peter Sellers’s line from one of the old Pink Panther movies: “I suspect everyone, and I suspect no one.”

“So there are dozens of people who might have it in for Jay,” he said, focusing his attention on Barb again. “But there aren’t any obvious suspects?”

“Well, as I said, Sarina and Garth seemed to be until today. But even if they’d been on the set…”

“What?”

Barb shook her head. “Everyone working on a movie wants it to be good. It’s our names-up on the big screen when the credits roll. I mean, even the lowliest production assistant gets her few seconds of glory. So when you really start thinking about it, the
idea that anyone in the cast or crew would want to screw things up…” She paused and looked toward the kitchen trailer.

“You know,” she said, turning back toward Nick, “what you said about Raffaello’s got me thinking. He’s one of the few people who has nothing to lose if the movie flops. And when Jay was screaming at him that day, you could tell he was absolutely furious.”

Nick could feel his adrenaline starting to pump. Sometimes an improbable suspect
did
turn out to be the perp. “But would Raffaello have had the opportunity to cause any of those other problems?”

“Oh, sure. When you’ve got a chef on the set, he’s always wandering around everywhere—making sure the snack table’s looking okay and all kinds of things. After a few days, he becomes the invisible man.”

While Barb looked in the direction of the kitchen again, Nick wondered if a chef became invisible enough to pick up a couple of reels of film and stash them under his uniform.

“You think we should say anything to Jay?” Barb asked. “I mean, I’d
really
like these problems to stop. This film could do a lot for my career, but only if it does good box office.”

“Well…I’m not sure talking to Jay’s a good idea. Not right now, at least. I raised the issue of sabotage before I left the set, and he wasn’t buying it. So we should probably just let him think on it awhile—until he’s ready to accept the obvious.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess. It’s never smart to try telling Jay something he doesn’t want to hear.

“So,” she went on, flashing another of her smiles, “I saw you having dinner down here last night. You
want to hang around until the kitchen’s open and do a repeat?”

He was just deciding that was a good idea, that he might pick up something of interest, when she added, “I don’t know if anyone’s told you what my situation is, but if you heard Goodie and I are married, you heard stale news. We’re splitsville, so he could care less if you and I ate together.

“Oh, unless you and Carly are…more than business partners?”

“No, no, that’s all we are.” But he was sure as hell hoping that would change.

N
ICK WAS ALL
C
ARLY
could think about as she drove home from Port Perry, which was hardly surprising when he’d been on her mind the entire evening.

They’d had a nude male model at their class, and the whole time she’d been trying to paint him, she’d been imagining
Nick
nude. She seemed to have become positively obsessed with the man.

Not that it was
only
physical attraction involved, although she strongly suspected she’d be better off if it was. But she’d fallen for him for a lot of different reasons.