Well over three hours had passed. It was after midnight and Aunt Amber still wasn’t back. That worried me, since Aunt Amber drove like a NASCAR driver and Shady Creek was just an hour away. While she had been forced to physically drive the photographer back, she could have easily used witchcraft for her return trip.
Yet she still hadn’t returned.
“Maybe she can get the photographer’s second memory card without us having to bring him back.” I was pretty sure my spell wouldn’t work a second time. “I’ll try to reach her.”
Aunt Amber’s cell phone went straight to voicemail. I willed her to call me but my telepathy skills were pathetic. I was feeling pretty down and out and even considered calling in Aunt Pearl and Mom for assistance.
Tyler tapped his watch. “It’s going to be morning soon. I don’t think Brayden’s going to wait any longer, especially with all those people outside. I just wish we had more answers.” He paced back and forth.
I sucked in my breath. “I’m going to try that spell one more time. Maybe I didn’t ask for everything the first time.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Tyler said. “What am I saying? I guess I’m so desperate, I’m agreeing with you.”
“Okay, here I go.” That made me want to try even harder. I took a deep breath and repeated the Boomerang spell. My skills were pretty hit or miss so I wasn’t expecting the spell to work a second time. But at this point, we had everything to lose if something didn’t happen quickly.
This time I visualized a stack of photographs and a pile of memory cards as I repeated the spell. If any occasion warranted using magic with reckless abandon, it was this one. I really didn’t see how it could make matters any worse. It wasn’t exactly cheating since the enhanced photographs would be made eventually. I was just speeding up the process.
I jumped as something popped behind me. The sound was a cross between popcorn and a crackling fire, except that it grew louder and faster until it finally exploded in a crescendo of sound.
A puff of gray-green smoke enveloped us. Tyler was barely visible across the table.
“Wow.” Tyler coughed as the smoke dissipated. “That was spectacular.”
“And effective too.” I looked down at my hand, which contained another memory card and a dozen or so photographs. I wasn’t sure if it was lucky or unlucky, but this time there was no freaked-out photographer or Aunt Amber.
The top photo showed Amber seated with the set in the background, similar to the ones we had seen on the last memory card. The next photo in the pile appeared to have been taken a few seconds after the first. They all appeared to be in sequence. The time frame of these new pictures paralleled the earlier ones, though these photos appeared to be ones that had been rejected due to poor exposure, composition, or other reasons. Maybe that was why they had been kept separate from the first batch. All of the photos in this latest batch had something wrong with them.
But one picture had everything right because a figure on the roof was clearly visible.
It was a man, his face obscured by a hoodie and scarf across his mouth and nose. No matter how much we enlarged the photograph, we couldn’t make out his identity.
Tyler hunched over the table, squinting at the photograph. “I wish I recognized him, but I don’t.”
As I stood behind him, something jumped out at me. “Look at his hand. I’ve seen that ring before.” It was a black signet ring. I couldn’t make out the engraving, but it was very familiar to me. I just couldn’t place where I had seen it before.
If only I could remember.
Tyler nodded. “Too bad we couldn’t see more detail because that person has absolutely no reason to be there. All the actors are accounted for.”
I squinted at the hand at the edge of the photograph, but it remained a mystery.
“We’ll find the wearer, as long as they haven’t taken off the ring,” he said. “Maybe you can check everyone who’s staying at the Inn, for starters.”
That was the great thing about a small town like Westwick Corners. There were very few places to eat or drink. Sooner or later everybody ended up at the Inn’s dining room or at the Witching Post’s bar.
I checked my watch. It was three in the morning, but given today’s events, maybe some late-night revelers were still around. “I’ll head over there now.”
“One more thing.” Tyler slid a file folder across the table. “I have more bad news. Steven Scarabelli had a million-dollar policy on Dirk Diamond, just like Bill said. He also had one on Dirk’s wife, Rose Lamont.”
“That’s not so uncommon, is it? After all, Rose and Dirk were Steven Scarabelli’s two biggest stars. If something happens to them, an insurance policy avoids financial disaster. A lot of businesses do that. That way no matter what, Steven could use the proceeds to pay the cast and crew.”
“That won’t happen anytime soon,” Tyler said. “The money will go to Steven’s estate first. I guess the actors will have to sue to get paid. There’s something I think you should know, Cen.”
“What?” I never suspected Tyler was holding anything back from me.
“We’ve got three people dead now if you count Rose Lamont’s aneurysm.”
I gasped. “You think Rose’s death might be from something other than a brain aneurysm?”
“I don’t know, Cen. But the timing’s interesting. Two spouses die within a week of each other, and they have no kids. Rose in particular—she was only in her thirties. Statistically, that is highly unusual.”
“That’s true,” I said. “Rose and Dirk were mega-stars. I wonder who inherits their fortune.”
“I wondered too.” Tyler tapped the manila file folder. “I checked, and you’d never guess in a million years.”
“Who?”
“Amber West. Looks like she was a good friend of Dirk’s after all.”
I felt like I was going to faint. “How is that possible? Dirk and his wife leave their fortune to her, yet Dirk wants her fired from the movie?”
Tyler shrugged. “Maybe she’s a good friend but a bad actor?”
“She never mentioned any inheritance.” Maybe she hadn’t exaggerated their friendship after all. But until the movie, she had never even mentioned Dirk Diamond by name. Yet apparently they were so close that she was named as his life insurance beneficiary. It was almost like she had a secret life that no one in our family knew about. “Maybe she didn’t know about it.”
“Or it could explain why she’s so late coming back. Maybe she decided not to return after all.” Tyler stood and paced back and forth. “She knows she’ll have to answer a lot of questions.”
“No, that’s not possible. How can you even say that?” I frowned. “She would never leave her family. Besides, she has to actually collect the money, right?”
“True, but you can do that through lawyers and stuff,” Tyler said. “I’m not accusing her, just stating the obvious. If it’s true, anyone can see she stood to gain from Dirk’s death. What is their relationship, exactly? How long did she know Dirk?”
I threw my hands up in defeat. “No idea. I only found out today that she knew any of them. She never talked about them before, but apparently they’ve all been friends forever. I’ve always known that she likes to be the center of attention but had no clue she did any kind of acting. Or that she gave Dirk his ‘lucky’ break.” I made quote marks in the air.
I guess I didn’t really know my aunt at all.
“Maybe Amber’s not so lucky,” Tyler said. “She still has to live long enough to collect it.”