“Sorry to interrupt, team,” Brett announced. Even though his tone was polite, his impatience was evident.
Where Laurie’s office had felt alive seconds earlier amid the buzz of a busy brainstorming session, an awkward silence had fallen over the room with the sudden appearance of Brett and Ryan.
“No problem,” Laurie said. She managed to maintain her composure as she tucked a strand of her honey-colored bob behind one ear. “Did we have a meeting scheduled?”
“I didn’t know I needed to schedule a meeting to find out what happened in Boston. Given the circumstances, I expected you to brief me by now. When Ryan was in my office, I asked him what he knew, but he was in the dark as well. So here we are.”
By the circumstances, Laurie assumed he meant the fact that Ryan Nichols had somehow convinced Brett that he needed to breathe down Laurie’s neck about the next Under Suspicion production.
“You know I don’t like to draw on your valuable time until we have a game plan in place,” she said diplomatically, “and we’re not quite there yet with the details. I was just discussing next steps with Jerry and Grace.”
Brett glanced at Jerry and Grace as if he were only now realizing that other people were in the room.
“Of course. Always nice to see two of the best dressed employees of Fisher Blake,” Brett said, one of his unsettling smiles spreading across his face. “Jerry, Grace, if you could give us a moment.”
“Of course,” Jerry replied, his affable tone belying the mischief in his eyes.
As they walked toward her office door, Laurie caught the exchange of a knowing glance between Jerry and Grace. Approximately once a year, a Photoshopped image at Brett’s expense would mysteriously appear on the office copy machines. Brett’s face pasted onto the body of a swaddled baby grasping his rattle. Brett holding the hand of a smaller version of himself, on which someone had pasted Ryan’s face. The caption: “I love my mini-me.”
Laurie had long suspected that sweet, innocent, earnest-appearing Jerry was the culprit behind the high jinx, but she had taken a don’t-ask-don’t-tell approach to the situation. In the shared amusement she witnessed between Jerry and Grace as they left her office, she believed she had found confirmation. If she was right, Brett should expect to have another photocopy forthcoming soon.
“Now, Laurie, why are you stalling?” Brett asked, his tone a mix of frustration and anticipation. “Did you convince the twins or not?”
Laurie took a deep breath, choosing her words carefully. “We’re making progress, Brett, but there’s a roadblock. Ethan Harrington won’t agree to participate until we have something new to bring to the table.”
“We are the something new,” he said, plopping himself down behind her desk. His fingers tapped rhythmically on the desktop as he looked to Ryan for answers.
Ryan sat in one of the chairs across from her desk, making her feel like she was an outsider on the sofa, observing a meeting in her own office that she wasn’t invited to.
“We can just tell him he’s going to look guilty if he doesn’t speak up,” Ryan said, his back now turned to her.
She rose from the sofa and took the seat next to Ryan. “I suggested as much, but he doesn’t care. I need a breakthrough or Ethan won’t budge,” Laurie explained.
“We need a breakthrough,” Ryan emphasized.
At that moment, her phone buzzed with a text. Glancing at the screen, she felt a sudden spark of hope. It was from her father. He had found a New York cop friend who knew someone in the Salem, Massachusetts, police department who knew someone in the Harbor Bay department. Long story short: he had contact information for Roberta Hanson.
“Good news,” she said. “I located the deputy police chief who handled the original Harrington investigation.” She explained that the lead investigators were the Chief and his deputy, but that the Chief had since passed away and his deputy had left the department. “Apparently she traded in one beach town for another. She opened a bookstore in the Hamptons.”
“From a cop to a bookstore?” Ryan said derisively. “Clearly not a woman who cares about money.”
Laurie suppressed an eye roll. Is that why Ryan wanted to steal her show? For money? She wanted to tell him that Alex had earned far more as a hardworking lawyer than she had ever made as a producer, but she decided to take the high ground.
“The important thing is that I know where she is now. If she’ll talk to me, even on background, that should be enough to prove to Ethan that I—” She quickly corrected herself. “That the show is worth his time.”
“Now that sounds like a plan,” Brett said, holding up an enthusiastic index finger. “Get out there as soon as you can.” Now the index finger was wagging between Laurie and Ryan.
“I’m happy to do the initial screening,” she offered, even as Brett was already shaking his head. “Ryan usually gets involved when we’re closer to filming.”
“You said this deputy chief person is a she, right?” Brett asked.
Laurie had a bad feeling she knew where his thoughts were leading. “Yes. Her name’s Roberta Hanson.”
“So take Ryan. Women can’t resist this guy.”
Laurie was quite certain there was at least one woman who would disagree.
“Go out there today,” Brett said, as if he hadn’t already made the urgency clear. “Use the studio car service. Lock this down, you two. I want this show. Otherwise, we’re going to need to talk about some major changes.”