THE NEXT MORNING I sat in Steph’s lobby, my legs stretched out under an amorphous glass-topped table. A young guy in the back office kept glancing over his laptop screen at me. I fidgeted until my agent appeared suddenly.
With a wry smile, she asked, “What, your phone not working again?”
“It is.”
“Too big to call first?”
“Come on—”
“I’m just kidding. You’ve never just shown up before. Come to think of it, you’ve never even called me.” Her head tilted. “You look … different.”
I tried to protest, but she cut me off.
“No, I mean in a good way. Confident. I guess a couple million can do that for someone.”
“Maybe,” I said.
That’s when her eyes narrowed. I knew she saw it. She’d worked with me long enough to recognize the look in my eyes. I was back on the hunt. Her head just shook knowingly, and she led me into a small adjacent conference room. Shutting the glass door behind her, she took a seat.
“You’re up to something,” she said.
“I just have a question for you, really.”
She put a hand up. “Before you even ask, I think it is my job to say, just deliver your film and take the money. Then move on to the next one.”
I ignored her and asked, “Who told you about the Cassandra thing?”
“Cassandra thing? You mean about her coming after you?”
“Yeah,” I blurted out. “That she was going to do a movie on me and that Bender crap.”
Steph shook her head and laughed. “I think that was all noise.”
“How do you mean?”
“I think people got nervous. You weren’t acting like yourself, you know? I mean, you looked like shit, really.”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“No, I mean it. In hindsight, it all makes sense, right? Jasper had been manipulating you. To get to that young lady … what’s her name?”
“Miracle Jones.”
“Yeah, that’s it. To be honest, when I saw you that night, I didn’t think things were going to work out. You looked—”
“Who got nervous?” I asked.
“I think I told you. It was that investigator, Zora.”
“You spoke to her? She told you that directly?”
“No.” She squinted. “I heard it from Kent. But, maybe …”
“What?”
“I promised him I wouldn’t say,” Steph said. She looked out the window, as I had before. “At the time, it made sense. He and Zora go way back. If she was nervous, he’d—”
“Zora? He and Zora go way back?”
“Sure,” she said. “I think she’s his half sister or cousin. Something on his mom’s side. Or maybe they went to grade school or something.”
“Are you shitting me?”
“Um, no, I’m not.”
“So, could Zora have had Kent tell you that stuff?”
Steph nodded. “Maybe. Look, I’ve spoken to Cassandra since. She said there was nothing to it. Like I said … noise. But she was glad to know that’s what brought you out there. She was a little worried about you.”
“There was nothing to it? At all? Cassandra was never upset with me?”
“Not one bit. She’s the one that called me, to see if you were okay. I guess she’s a big fan. But it’s all cool now, Theo. You’re great. She’s great. All clear. She did ask me about something you said to her. About harassing your mother?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said, sheepishly. “I thought she had Zora …”
Zora.
I just sat there, staring at Steph without actually seeing her. Another piece fell into place. Then the memory hit me so quickly that I said it out loud.
“She told me she had a friend at a big cellular provider. That’s how she found Barbara Yost.”
Steph frowned at me. “What?”
“Oh, nothing,” I said, still distracted.
She patted me on the knee. “You just need to finish up that film of yours on time. That’s not going to be a problem, is it?”
“Oh, no,” I said, as more pieces clicked together in my head. “Not a problem at all.”