EXT. RIVERBANK DAY
Victoria is looking down away from the camera. She is dressed in a yellow life jacket, her face is sunburned, her hair matted and tangled, eyes red and swollen.
VICTORIA
(sniffles and wipes her nose with the back of her hand) Um . . . I’m Victoria Wilson, one of the contestants on Expedition Improbable. (lets out a muffled cry) Well, I was one of the contestants on Expedition Improbable! I’ve just been eliminated, but I don’t think it’s very fair. (She bites her knuckle and searches the sky in an overly dramatic way.) I really wanted to win. Winning would be everything. There’s this thing I want to do back home and now . . . (She shrugs.) I guess it doesn’t matter. Nobody would vote for me after the way I behaved here. (She shakes her head and cries violently.) I don’t know what came over me. (wailing) I’m so ashamed.
(A dejected Parker joins her.)
PARKER
Vicky, you gotta suck it up.
VICTORIA
(leans her head on Parker’s shoulder) I’m sorry I ruined this for us, Parker.
PARKER
(shrugs) You were just being yourself.
VICTORIA
(gasps) No. Really? Come on, the competition brought out the worst in me, that’s all. That woman, Georgia, brought out the worst in me!
PARKER
You say that about everyone.
VICTORIA
(slugs him in the shoulder) Parker!
PARKER
See what I mean?
• • •
That evening I could barely stand to shower, my skin was lobster red and I had to borrow buckets full of aloe vera from Double D. It had taken several crew members along with Dad to pull Victoria off of me. It was little consolation when Cheryl had congratulated me on a fine dramatic moment and credited me with being irritating enough to get choked on camera.
Victoria wasn’t talking to me and she and Parker were getting ready to be taken to the bus stop to leave the country via the Madrid airport. I couldn’t believe Sergio would give them clearance to leave, but right now I had bigger fish to fry.
Becca had gone off with Kyle and one of the local crew people, Juan Jose, to scout out the next location for the contest. Cheryl had somehow talked Dad into watching the jousting tournament they’d missed last night. Miraculously, Dad, being the trooper he was, had agreed to accompany her despite his hangover.
I really wanted to win the contest now. Dad needed the money and he deserved it.
As I hurried to get dressed, a knock on my door interrupted me. “Just a minute,” I called out, as I shrugged into my clean jeans. “Who is it?” I asked, walking over to the door. I hesitated when no answer came and cautiously cracked the door open an inch.
Cooper was standing in the doorway waiting patiently, his million-dollar grin on his face.
I pulled open the door. “Yeah?”
Cooper pointed at my bare feet. “What are you doing, girl? We’re all downstairs having some dinner. Then we’re going into the town square for more dancing.”
“Not me. Thank you. I . . .”
“What are you talking about, ‘not me’? Come on!”
“No, no, no. I’m sunburned. I . . .”
“Sunburned? Shoot, don’t you know you need fluids for a sunburn,” he said.
I laughed. “Sangría will not help a sunburn.”
“The hell, you say.”
I laughed again in spite of myself. “Well, I am hungry. You may convince me to go down with you. On one condition.”
He cocked a brow at me. “I like conditions.”
“Get your mind out of the gutter. Is Victoria still down there or have they left for the bus station?” I asked.
Cooper was so big he took up the entire doorway. “Ha! That little scruff of a girl sure does talk a lot of trash. She got you scared? Is that what’s on your mind?”
“I’m not scared!” I said.
He glanced up and down the hallway.
“What are you looking at? Is someone in the hallway?” After filming all day it was hard to shake the idea of someone always listening.
“No,” he said, but he looked unconvinced. “I thought I heard something.”
“Come in,” I said, doubting my own sanity. For all I knew, Cooper could have killed Annalise, but it wouldn’t have been the first time I was alone with a murderer. I was after all, a trained police officer, albeit unemployed.
Cooper smiled slowly. “Okay, sweetheart. Have it your way.” He came in and glanced around the room. My side was clean and tidy; Becca’s looked as if her suitcase had thrown up and strewn articles of clothing throughout. “Wow,” Cooper said. He hesitated, then lumbered over to the small writing desk in the corner.
“Have a seat,” I said, gesturing to the white wooden chair in front of the desk. He had to remove three tops and two skirts before he could sit down. I seated myself on my bed across the room from him.
“So, why don’t you want to come downstairs?” he asked. “It can’t be because of Victoria? Is it Todd?”
I laughed. “I’m tired. That’s all. But since you mention it, what’s up with him?”
He shrugged. “Dude’s a strange duck. I know he rubs a lot of people the wrong way. But he’s had my back a long time. He’d do anything for me.”
I squinted at him. “He’d do anything for you, huh?”
Even kill?
There were plenty of cases where friends took the fall for high-profile athletes. I knew of a few who’d done jail time and a few who’d gotten off, even when we were convinced they were guilty.
Cooper gave me his signature deep chuckle, the kind that sounded like an approaching locomotive. “Now, don’t get all distracted with Todd. You know how good friends are.” He leaned back in the chair and looked around the room. “So, where’s your friend?”
Aha! He’d come to check on Becca.
I smiled at his cockiness. “You want to know about my friend? What, now that Victoria’s gone, you’re looking for another girl to take her place?”
He pretended to be offended. “What do you mean?”
Finally I had something I could use to leverage against him. Loosen his tongue. “I’ll tell you where Becca is if you tell me about that night at the campground.”
He swallowed, clearly uncomfortable. “I don’t have anything to tell, or I would have told you already. I just took a walk. I knew Victoria wanted to hook up with me. You know, I talk a good game, but I’m here to win the contest. I can’t really get messed up with chicks right now. There’s a lot of cash at stake.”
I studied him for a moment. “Oh? You need the cash, Cooper?”
He looked back at me blankly. “Well, yeah. Of course. Why else would I be doing this?”
I laughed. “Some people want to do it for the fun of it.”
He shook his head. “Maybe that mother-and-son. They don’t know what it feels like to have cameras follow you around all day. Or the Double Ds, they want the limelight so they can get discovered. Have you heard them sing? They’re pretty good.”
I nodded. “Yeah. But you’ve got money, right Cooper? Big NFL star like you?”
He leaned forward. “Well, you have money, too, right? You won the last show.”
I shrugged. “No tax planning . . . old medical bills . . .”
“Me and you are in the same boat, sister. So where’s your cute friend?”
I understood now. He wanted to know about Becca because he wanted to get information out of her about the next contest.
“She won’t tell you anything.”
He quirked an eyebrow at me, giving his most irresistible and practiced smile. “How do you know?”
“She doesn’t tell me anything and I’m a lot cuter than you are.”
He laughed. “Don’t underestimate me.”
“You don’t need to cheat. You’re going to win. No one can compete with you.”
He drummed his fingers on his legs. “Yeah, well, don’t forget about Todd.”
“What about him?”
Cooper got up and headed toward the door, mumbling, “Weak link.”
As soon as Cooper left, I knew it was time for action. I put on my sneakers and slipped out of the back door of the B&B.