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An amused male voice floated through the open window above her. “Whoa! Nice shooting there, Tex,” he said with a laugh.
Yvette’s voice followed. “Walter! What do you think you’re doing sneaking up on me like that? I could have killed you!”
Arden tucked the towel around her and stood on her tiptoes. She couldn’t see the couple through the window far above the tub but she could hear the two on the other side of the wall clearly enough.
There was a scrape of what sounded like the patio furniture on the balcony, then a grunt. “You almost did,” Walter said. “I’m lucky your aim’s so bad...”
Someone banging on the door interrupted whatever he was about to say.
Arden dried off, as everything became quiet outside. She was just wrapping the towel around herself again when Yvette’s voice returned. “That was Haskell. He heard the gunshot and came running.” There were more sounds of patio furniture scraping against the balcony. “Have you met him yet?”
He snorted. “Where did you dig him up?”
“Zeke hired him for his stupid mystery game.”
There was the sound of a match being struck. Then a few seconds later the pungent smell of cigar smoke. “I thought that was over.”
There was a moment of silence then, “He found out I was throwing a party and decided to take over.”
The man laughed as if her statement was the funniest thing he had heard in a while.
“It’s not funny,” she said hotly. “He’s liable to ruin everything. Things would be so much easier if he was gone. Dennis and I would be in control and could do as we like.”
He grunted. “You and Dennis still together?”
“Of course, we’re still together. We’re celebrating our twenty-sixth wedding anniversary next month. Dennis promised to take me somewhere exotic this year.”
Arden picked up a comb.
“Well, congratulations,” Walter said. “I’m shocked you made it this far.”
“Thank you,” Yvette said in a wry tone.
“I just assumed, since he was sleeping in a room on the opposite end of the hall, you two might be having problems.”
“I sleep better alone, not that it’s any of your business. What are you doing here anyways?”
“I got an invitation to the party.”
It was her turn to laugh. “I don’t believe you. Why would Zeke invite you? He hates you.”
“Here, see for yourself. I wasn’t going to come, but then I heard a little rumor about you.”
“A rumor? What sort of rumor?” Yvette asked warily.
“A little birdy told me that you had a project in the works and might need my assistance.”
There was a pause then a soft, “Perhaps. It depends on Savannah. She’s the wildcard.”
Arden glanced over her shoulder at the window.
“She’s always the wildcard. You think she’ll go for it?”
“I don’t know, but I hope so. We’re all counting on it. I’m worried Zeke’s going to screw everything up though. He’s been acting strange lately.”
He snorted again. “What else is new?”
“He doesn’t want to be involved.”
“I thought you all had his power of attorney or something.”
“We did but not anymore. Now, we need him to agree to our plans or sell us his rights to the show. He said he would, but I don’t think he will. He’s very stubborn.”
“What else is new?”
“I could use your help.”
“No kidding. My condolences on the death of your boyfriend by the way.”
“Boyfriend? I don’t know what you are implying.”
“Brad called me a week or two ago. I guess you could say he left me with the impression you and he were a couple.”
“I love my husband,” she said defensively. “I don’t know what Brad told you, but we were nothing more than friends.”
Walter laughed again. “Sure.”
“What did Brad want with you?”
“He just wanted to ask me all sorts of nosey questions.”
“About what?”
“About the show . . . about you . . . about me. He wanted to know what really caused Zeke’s nervous breakdown and what made you and Dennis spirit him away to that clinic overseas under an assumed name after the show ended. Sounded like he was preparing to write some tell all book.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Less than you, apparently.”
There was a sharp intake of breath then, “I didn’t tell him anything.”
“That’s not what he said. Do they know who killed him?”
Arden stilled, as her entire focused turned to the window.
“No, they don’t have a clue,” Yvette said.
Arden set the comb she was holding down and padded back toward the window.
Walter grunted as in pain.
“What happened to you, anyway?” Yvette asked. “How did you break your fingers?”
“I had a string of bad luck recently and owe some rather dangerous men some money. They were nice enough to remind me that my bill was coming due soon and that I ought to pay sooner rather than later.”
“How much do you owe?”
“$35,000.” There was a lengthy pause. “Well, what do you say?”
Yvette laughed. “You must be crazy. Why ask me? Go talk to Reese. He’s got more than enough money.”
“He said he’s broke. His ex-wives are bleeding him dry.”
She chuckled. “Moron. He should have gotten a pre-nup.”
“Come on, Yvette, consider it an advance on my pay. You need my help, don’t you? I don’t work for free, honey.”
“All our money is tied up.”
He snorted. “That ring you're wearing looks expensive.”
“It’s costume jewelry. I’m telling the truth about our finances. If everything works out the way I expect it to, I might be able to get you the money in six months. If Zeke causes problems then . . .”
There was another grunt as the furniture scraped against the balcony.
“Where are you going?” Yvette asked.
“I can’t stay here. I need the money now,” he said bluntly. “If I don’t pay them back by Monday, I’m a dead man. Sorry, honey, if you can’t help me, I can’t help you.”
“Wait!” There was a long pause then a sigh. “I’m going into town tomorrow afternoon. I can get you ten thousand...”
“Might as well be zero.”
“I will have the rest to you by Thursday.”
There was a deep sigh. “I might be able to hold them off with ten grand for a few days at least. You’re sure you can get the money tomorrow?”
“I’m sure.”
“Well, good, I’ll go with you.”
“Wonderful! Now that that’s taken care of,” she said cheerfully, “we need to talk about what you’re going to do to earn that money.”
Walter laughed. “I have a feeling my price just went up.”
“Oh, come on, let’s talk about it inside. It’s starting to rain.”
There was a grunt then, “Does Dennis know about you and your boyfriend?”
“I told you Brad wasn’t my boyfriend,” she said, her voice fading the further away she moved.
* * *
“YOU’RE SURE YVETTE called him Walter?” At Arden’s nod, Savannah glanced up at the ceiling, her brow furrowed in thought. “I wonder if she was talking to Walter Elmore.”
Arden shrugged as she perched on the end of the large red velvet sofa in Savannah’s room. She checked her reflection in the gilded mirror above the fireplace and fussed with her hair while Savannah finished applying her makeup at the black vanity table in the corner of the room.
“Was he an actor too?” Paige asked as she puttered around the room re-arranging the roses.
“No, he used to be Kevin’s stuntman.” Savannah looked thoughtfully at her reflection in the vanity mirror. “I didn’t realize he and Yvette were that close.” She reached for her mascara wand. “It’s not like they moved in the same social circles.”
“What do you mean?” Paige asked.
Savannah leaned toward the mirror as she expertly applied a layer of mascara. “Yvette didn’t exactly like to socialize with the talent or the crew. We were beneath her.” She blinked at her reflection before replacing the mascara wand and reaching for her compact. “As for Walter, he was always in some scrape or another. His favorite hobbies tended to be brawling, drinking and gambling and not necessarily in that order. Last I heard, he was in jail for assault.”
The sound of thunder caught Arden’s attention. She walked over to the window and looked out as flashes of light lit up the sky and illuminated the ocean below. “From what I overheard,” she said wrapping her hands around her middle, “he hasn’t changed much.”
Savannah glanced over at Arden with a critical eye. “Are you really wearing that?”
Arden glanced down at her casual black dress then back at Savannah’s beautiful evening dress. “Unless you’ve got something better...”
Savannah stood and began rummaging through her closet, selecting first one dress, and then another. “What else did they say?”
“Yvette’s got some project in the works that depends on you,” Arden said. “She’s worried that Zeke will mess it up.”
Savanah held a red dress which shimmered under the light, underneath Arden’s chin “Hmm. I wonder what they’re planning.”
“It has to have something to do with the show, don’t you think? Maybe they want you to act again.”
Savannah frowned. “It probably has something to do with royalties. Although I don’t know what that would have to do with Zeke.” She pressed the dress into Arden’s hands. “Try this one.”
Paige jumped to her feet with a hopeful smile and she was rewarded with a short pink halter-top dress that swirled around her petite frame.
“I have a belt around here somewhere,” Savannah said digging into her suitcases.
Arden chewed on her bottom lip as stepped behind a cherry blossom painted dressing screen. “Do you know a man named Brad?” she asked as she slipped out of her dress.
“I don’t think so,” Savannah said, “why?”
“Well, from what I could tell, it sounds like he was murdered recently,” she said as she laid her dress on top of the screen. “That’s why Yvette’s had a gun with her today.” She glanced over the top of the screen as she spoke. “Walter said that he owed some dangerous people money and then she offered to give him ten thousand dollars tomorrow.”
Savannah arched an eyebrow. “Hmm, the plot thickens.”
Zipping up the red dress, she stepped out from behind the screen and walked over to the floor length mirror in the corner of the room. “What do you mean by that?”
Smiling, Savannah triumphantly held up a rhinestone-studded belt, which she then handed to Paige. “I have this sneaky suspicion the game has already started.”
Paige’s mouth dropped open in outrage. “What? I thought it wasn’t going to start until dinner tonight.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time Zeke threw a curveball at us,” Savannah said. “The one time I played the killer, Zeke had me dropping hints and clues the day before the game officially started.”
Paige made a sound of disapproval as she stepped behind the screen. “That doesn’t seem fair. I didn’t think I had to start paying attention yet.”
Arden’s frown deepened as she shook her head. “But Yvette and Walter weren’t playing characters...at least I don’t think they were. It seemed...real.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Savannah said, retuning to the vanity table. “I have a feeling Zeke has pulled out all the stops for this game.” She nodded at her reflection. “Trust me, girls, he’s absolutely without a doubt one of the most brilliant men I’ve ever met. If it weren’t for him, I doubt our show would have lasted past a season. He penned some of our best episodes. I’m sure that whatever he has planned for us is going to be amazing.”
Arden tilted her head to the side as she regarded the excited look on her friend’s face. “Why did you quit the show? It was still one of the most popular shows on the air when it ended. It could have gone on for another couple of seasons.”
“My heart just wasn’t in it anymore.”
“Why?” Arden asked. “Didn’t you like acting?”
“Oh, I loved it, but I just couldn’t do it anymore.” She turned around in her seat. “To be honest, I never intended to be an actress. You know, I was sixteen years old when Zeke Tapper discovered me. I left my family, my friends, everything behind to go to Hollywood and become Sunny Sutton.” Her face lit up. “At first, everything was exciting and new. I loved it more than anything and I thought I would never ever leave but then...the excitement wore off and that’s when I realized that I had lost the thing I loved more than anything else in the world,” she said her smile falling.
“What was that?” Paige asked transfixed by her reflection in the mirror.
Savannah hesitated for a moment before shrugging carelessly. “Oh, he was just a boy.”
Ever the romantic, Paige promptly abandoned the mirror and turned to Savannah. “That’s terrible. What happened?”
Savannah smiled sadly. “His name was Ben Quinn. Oh, how I loved that boy. I thought we’d always be together, but two years into the series, he called me up to tell me he met another girl and had fallen in love.”
Paige gasped as she sank down to the edge of the couch. “What a jerk.”
“Oh, well, I can’t really blame him. I was never around anymore and the tabloids were going crazy printing a bunch of lies about me and my co-star.”
Arden’s eyes widened. “So, none of that was true about you and Kevin?”
Savannah began laughing. “Honey, Kevin was handsome and sweet, but I had my heart set on Ben.” She shrugged. “It all worked out for the best in the end,” she said philosophically. “At least for me. I eventually fell in love, married Shane Winchester, and had six beautiful, smart and healthy children. I wouldn’t trade that for the world.” She glanced down at the wedding ring she still wore on her finger, a reminder of her late husband and smiled softly.
“How did you and Shane meet?” Arden asked. “Was he an actor too?”
“No, he was a police officer.” She smiled in remembrance. “He pulled me over for speeding.”
“No,” Arden said with a wry tone. “You?”
Savannah’s lips curled up. “I meant to get stopped. See, Ben was a police officer too and he was avoiding me, so I came up with a brilliant plan to get his attention. I figured if I went just a teeny tiny bit over the speed limit right in front of his cruiser that he’d have to stop me and talk to me.”
“And?” Arden prompted as she sat down next to Paige.
“As it turned out, Ben was off that day and it was Shane that pulled me over.”
Paige sighed happily. “And you two fell in love.”
“No,” Savannah said, “actually, he arrested me for resisting arrest.”
Arden smiled. “I thought you were just doing a teeny tiny bit over the speed limit.”
“I was...at first,” Savannah said then added defensively, “I thought Ben was in that cruiser. Had I known then that it was Shane, I would never have led him on that chase across town.” She paused. “And then into the next county.”
“He must have been mad,” Paige said.
“Not as mad as me,” Savannah said. “I had to do the same thing all over the next day.” She scowled. “Turned out Ben called in sick the next morning too. He had the flu.” She rubbed her thumb over her wedding ring. “Oh well, like I said, it worked out for the best. I fell head over heels in love with Shane Winchester and that was that.”
“So, that’s why you wanted off the show,” Arden said.
“Well, that and my secret admirer was making me a nervous wreck,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
“You had a secret admirer?” Paige asked in a horrified whisper.
Savannah nodded. “Well, stalker was more like it.”
“Who was he?” Paige asked scooting to the edge of the seat.
“I never found out. Kevin thought it might have been Walter, but I don’t think so. Walter’s allergic to roses. Breaks out in hives if he even gets close to them and my stalker was very partial to red roses.”
Arden glanced at the red roses surrounding them, then back at her friend. “What did your stalker do?”
“Nothing...at first. For the first four seasons, all he did was leave roses in my dressing room. I thought it was kind of sweet, but then at the end of the fourth season, things took a dark turn. He became angry with me all of the sudden. It was so odd though. Sometimes, I would find flowers and little gifts in my dressing room. Other times, I’d walk in and everything would be torn to shreds. The only thing I can figure is that he was jealous of Shane. He ripped up all the pictures of him. He completely shredded them. Threw the pieces around like confetti.” She frowned. “He never bothered the pictures of Ben I had put up the first couple of seasons, which I always thought was odd, but Shane’s pictures, he destroyed. Made everyone a nervous wreck. Dennis hired extra security.” She pursed her lips. “Yvette upped the life insurance they had out on me. Then Reese kept trying to convince me not to renew my contract for another year.”
“It was that serious?” Arden asked.
“Well, actually, I think Reese’s concern was just a touch self-serving. He had been offered the lead role in a Spielberg movie a few days after he signed a two-year contract with Zeke and Dennis. When I told him about my stalker, you should have seen his eyes light up like two little flashlights. All of a sudden, he was an expert on stalkers. Scared me half to death. I was checking under my bed and in my closets every night after that. Even Kevin was concerned about me. He started following me around wherever I went. I swear I couldn’t shake the boy no matter how hard I tried.”
“Did they ever catch the guy?” Paige asked.
“No, but he seemed to calm down for a while when the extra guards showed up. He went back to leaving me flowers and gifts, but then Shane asked me to marry him and that’s when things got scary. He started leaving me notes in my dressing room. Up till then, he just left me things but didn’t actually try to communicate with me. Then, right after the engagement party they threw me, he left me a little message on my mirror. I remember we were shooting at a hollowed out castle for the Halloween episode in the fifth season, murder under the something or other and...”
“Murder Underneath the Full Moon,” Arden provided helpfully. When Savannah and Paige paused to stare, she added, “Go on.”
“Yes, well, he left me a message in my trailer while we were filming. Called me a fake. Said I wasn’t the real Sunny Sutton and if I were so smart, I would have caught him by now. Made me so mad. I tried to set up a trap but I ended up getting caught.”
“How?” Arden asked.
Savannah made a disgusted noise. “I confided in Kevin who tattled on me. He called Shane and told him what I was up to.” She made a face. “Shane was on the next flight. As much as I adored the man, he really could be a buzz kill at times. I never got another moment to myself after that.” A slow smile crossed her face. “Not that I complained that much. Shane even ended up as an extra in one of the episodes we shot.” She lifted her gaze to the ceiling. “I think it was the one we shot in Las Vegas.”
Arden shook her head. “San Francisco. He played the cute security guard Sunny flirted with to get information about where Clay was being held hostage.”
“Oh, that’s right.” She tilted her head to the side, her eyes lighting up in amusement. “You know, I keep calling my stalker he, but I really don’t know if it was a man or a woman. Honey, where were you back then?”
Arden’s lips quirked up. “In high school, probably writing to the producers that it was time for Sunny and Grimes to declare their love for one another.”
Savannah laughed. “Anyway, Shane stuck by my side and three months later, we were married, and by the end of the season, I was pregnant with twins.”
“When did Kevin get hurt?” Paige asked.
“At the end of the season. Kevin and I were about to film our first big kiss and the chandelier came down right on top of us. If he hadn’t pushed me out of the way when he did...” Her eyes teared up. “I still get upset whenever I think about it.”
“How long was Kevin in the hospital?” Paige asked.
“Months, it seemed,” Savannah said reaching for her lipstick tube. “When the network found out he was going to be out for half of the next season, they cancelled the show.”
“What a horrible accident,” Arden said.
“It wasn’t an accident,” Savannah said bitterly, “someone intentionally caused that chandelier to fall. The day before the chandelier came down, I walked in my dressing room and found a room full of roses and a death threat on my mirror.” She glanced down at the lipstick tube in her hand and then to the mirror behind her. “He used my lipstick to write, ‘I’m going to kill you Sunny and this time you’re going to stay dead.’ The very next day, he almost succeeded.”
