A Vintage Murder (14 page)

“Nikki, yoo-hoo, I think someone is here for you?”

They heard a tap at the door. Simon swung it open and in stepped a petite woman with brunette hair cut in a pixie, carefully applied makeup, and an outfit that looked as if she could have stepped directly out of a J. Crew catalog. Long-sleeved, white button-up cardigan sweater and a pair of chinos. “Good morning. I’m Amy Applebaum. I’m in charge of wardrobe.” She eyed Nikki up and down. “Okay, so it looks like we have to go up a couple of sizes with you.” Nikki frowned and then remembered that Lucy had been a wisp, and reminded herself that there was nothing wrong with a womanly figure. “My assistant, Harv, should be right along with some outfits. Now your character Elizabeth is not exactly a fashionista. Unlucky for you, no designer duds to stash away.” She laughed. Nikki was already not liking this woman. “You’ve read the script, I’m sure, so you know that Elizabeth was a conservationist and big-time animal kingdom chick. Completely over the top. Even started a zoo but then the croc thing happened and you know . . .” She tossed up her hands. “I don’t know. I’m sure the zoo is still there. I’m not much into animals.”

Now Nikki was
really
not liking the woman. Someone who didn’t like animals? The script, yeah. She’d like to be getting to that, considering she was supposed to be filming a scene in a couple of hours.

“Oh good, here’s Harv now. Chop-chop, darling. We have a lot to do here. Good thing we have some bigger sizes.” She turned back to Nikki. “You never know on a movie set. Actresses do get replaced and you have to be prepared for all sizes. Alrighty then.” Amy clapped her hands together and flashed a fake smile.

Her assistant, Harv, entered the motor home. Nikki’s jaw almost dropped. An image of Marco flashed through her mind and she knew it did Simon’s as well as she watched him look at the man—same high cheekbones, dark hair and eyes, not to mention style. If Marco had a twin, this Harv guy was it. “Hello, darling. I pulled the outfits you asked for . . . in a size six.” He lowered his voice as if that was horrendous. Nikki began to have serious second thoughts. “Ms. Sands, would you like to take a look?” Before she could reply, he stepped down and lifted a clothing rack into the trailer.

“You can call me Nikki,” she said.

“Great. Well, Nikki, why don’t you try these on, and let’s see what works.”

The three of them stood there staring at her. She realized after several seconds that they weren’t going anywhere.

“What? Here?”

“Of course here,” Amy replied.

“Can I have some privacy?”

Harv waved a hand at her. “Oh, honey, you’ve been in show business, you’ll just have to get over the modesty thing.”

Simon nodded in agreement. Who did he think he was? “Fine, but I’ll step in here.”

“Suit yourself,” Amy said.

Nikki took the clothes, walked into the bedroom area, and pulled the curtained partition across. The clothes all fit a kind of outback theme—khaki or denim, T-shirts, that kind of thing. As she dressed she could hear Amy, Harv, and Simon talking.

“It’s different being in here and not having someone yell at you. I’m sorry about what happened to Lucy, but she was difficult,” Amy said.

“Seriously difficult,” Harv said. “May her soul rest in peace, though.”

Nikki nearly tripped over the camouflage pants she was trying on. The way he said it sounded so insincere.

Nikki zipped up her pants and opened the curtain. “Everything fits.”

“Good. You better get yourself off to makeup. Johnny will be waiting for you,” Amy said.

“I heard you all talking about Lucy.”

“Yeah.” Amy crossed her arms. Long seconds passed without her saying anything else.

Oh, so it was going to be like that. Was Nikki already being considered an outsider? “I was wondering if the police were further investigating her death as a crime.”

Amy shrugged. “Don’t know. Must go. See you on the set. Glad that all fit. I was a little worried we’d have to get you a size eight.” She motioned for Harv to follow her.

“Did you see that? Him?” Simon asked. “My heart be still.”

“He looks like Marco.”

Simon shook his head. “What? No he doesn’t. No way.”

“Simon, the guy is a twin to your boyfriend.”

“
Ex
-boyfriend. Ex, remember? He walked out on me.”

“Hmm. Right. You miss him, though, don’t you?”

“We better get you into makeup,” he replied.

“You know, I bet if you call him and talk to him, you can work this out.”

“Snow White, I’ve moved on. Plenty of fish in the sea. Even around here.”

“You haven’t moved on.”

“Whatever. Off to makeup. Grab your script. No time to stand around and gab. You have a ton of work to do.”

“I don’t think I need a reminder.” She’d drop the subject of Marco for now, and bring it up another time. “What do you think about what they said about Lucy?”

“That’s a no-brainer. It was apparent the woman was not easy for anyone to work with.”

“I know, which could mean someone with a screw loose could want to kill her, and the way that Harv guy made the remark about her resting in peace, I don’t know, I thought it sounded kind of like sarcasm.”

“Let it go, Snow White. Let it go.”

“I’d sure like to talk with that detective again,” she muttered.

“No, Nikki dear. You are here to be a movie star. Just think Beverly Hills, swimming pools, and movie stars.”

“Okay, Jethro, let’s go.” No use arguing with him. “Why did you come with me again this morning?”

“I’m your manager and bodyguard.”

“Right.”

Simon wrapped an arm around her. “And I know that you’re happy about it.”

Nikki nodded. Maybe, maybe not. Simon could be a detriment, but then again, she could turn his hanging around the set to her advantage. Granted he would need some convincing, possibly even some bribing. The crew didn’t look like they were going to warm up to her anytime soon, but they might Simon. She smiled at him. “I know you’ll be the best manager ever.”

He rolled his eyes. “Okay, what do you want?”

“Nothing.”
Yet.
But she had a plan for her friend. Yes, Simon was going to be put to good use.

Nikki turned to Simon when they neared Johnny’s trailer. “Instead of coming in with me, I have an idea. Maybe you can wander around, meet some of the crew . . . you know, pave the way for me. See if you can score me some brownie points.”

Simon rubbed his chin as if he actually had facial hair. His skin was as bare and soft as a baby’s. “That’s probably not a bad idea. Build up your image as a good gal.”

“Exactly.”

He headed off with a smile on his face. Nikki entered the trailer and stretched out her hand to the same young man who had been part of the post-barbecue trouble with Hannah and Lucy. “I’m Nikki.”

“Johnny Byrne. Nice to meet you. Take a seat and we’ll start with your makeup. It’s pretty basic, because your character Elizabeth was a naturalist.” He handed her the script that Kane had left there.

“Crazy stuff going on around here,” Johnny continued. He motioned her into a chair in front of an array of mirrors and bright lights.

“Definitely.”

Johnny looked to be in his midtwenties and she could see why Lucy and Hannah had taken off with him the other night. He was a good-looking guy in an Ashton Kutcher kind of way, with a boyish face and pretty brown eyes. Stereotypically he should have been gay, considering his job description. But from what Nikki could tell, Johnny was an all-American, red-blooded male.

“It must feel really weird to be one of the last people to see Lucy alive,” she said.

He turned around to get his equipment out. Nikki read the back of his shirt: “Social Distortion.” The other day it had been the Sex Pistols.

“For sure. One minute we’re hanging, and the next . . . you know.” He snapped. “She’s like gone.”

“You knew her pretty well, I take it? I mean, I don’t want to pry, but I did see you, Lucy, and Hannah take off the other night. And, I heard about what happened with Hannah’s mom’s car.”

“Yeah. Mrs. Hahndorf was pretty pissed at us. She kind of wigged out. Thing is we were run off the road by some lunatic racing by who cut us off. But no one believed that.”

“Can’t really blame her since you were all drinking. She’s a mom. They can smell a lie from miles away.”

“It’s not a lie.”

Despite Johnny’s claim, Nikki was skeptical and she wondered what Hannah might have lied about.

“At least none of you were hurt . . . until of course Lucy, later on.”

He didn’t reply.

He was starting to clam up and she couldn’t let that happen. “You must have gone to some pretty cool places around here. I haven’t had a chance to get out. Any good bars?” She knew how stupid that sounded.

“We went to one on Main Street. It was okay, I guess.”

She knew she was pushing it, but what the hell. She wanted answers. “Main Street.” That was funny, because each one of the little towns around here had a Main Street. “Did you guys meet any locals when you were out?”

“A few. You know, with Lucy being who she was and everything. But it’s not like in the States where everyone is all obsessed with movie stars. Everyone was cool. One of the guys who works security here met up with us. Lucy told him to hook up with the group when he got off.”

“Which guy? I haven’t met everyone, yet.”

“Will. He’s a big, farmer-type kid. Local around here. I know he’s a friend of Hannah’s or at least they’ve known each other since they were kids. Nice guy. Lucy was working him, though, you know, doing one of her tease acts. Kind of felt sorry for him. I think Lucy was upsetting Hannah because Lucy was leading Will on.”

“Did Hannah say anything to Will?”

Johnny nodded. “Actually I think she did, because when Lucy went off to the bathroom and Will started to get up and follow her, Hannah grabbed him and whispered something to him. He didn’t look too happy, but he took off right after that.”

This was all good and interesting stuff that Nikki knew she would have to digest and run through her brain. First she wanted some more information.

“You must’ve been pretty good friends with the girls.” If Lucy was hitting on this Will guy, then maybe it was Hannah who Johnny had an interest in. Then again, Lucy didn’t seem to have a problem hitting on anyone. She recalled her screaming at Shawn about him having a little
problem
, though Shawn had deflected that well enough. She could buy into Shawn not being seduced by Lucy. Still, Lucy had been quite a looker.

He shrugged. “I like to hang out.”

“Oh come on, you went out with Lucy and Hannah two nights ago. The night that Lucy was killed.”

Johnny set down the sponge he’d started using to apply foundation to her face. He looked at her reflection in the mirror. “That’s the second time you brought it up. You know, I thought maybe since you were new on the set that you’d be different. But you’re like everyone else around here. All you care about is the dirt.”

“No. That’s not it. I swear.” Okay, that was partly true, but not for the reasons he thought. She didn’t plan on going to any tabloid to sell them gossip. How to handle this one? Delicately. “Oh gosh. I’m sorry.” Think quick. “It’s just . . . well, no one is talking to me. I guess because I’m new here, and everyone seems to be talking about Lucy and what happened. I thought that maybe if I tried to join in, people would warm up to me. So maybe I was fishing, but it’s not because I’m a snoop.”
Not technically anyway.

He picked the sponge and a jar of foundation back up and started applying it again. “Okay, you seem cool. I haven’t been talking much to anyone about what happened. Like I said, everyone around here is all about gossip and rumors. I even heard one that I was sleeping with Lucy.” He laughed.

“Jeez.” Nikki had wondered it herself.

“That didn’t happen.”

“What about this Will? Did he make plans to hang out with Lucy the next day or even later that night before he left?”

“I doubt it. Lucy gets a thrill—got a thrill—from being a tease. I think Will could probably see it coming from a mile away. And, I’m pretty sure that was what the powwow between him and Hannah was about. Hannah gave the guy the skinny and he figured it wasn’t worth being led on, only to have to wind up taking a cold shower.”

“Probably, but still, it
was
Lucy Swanson. Don’t you think that a local boy might have been interested in hanging with Lucy, even if all he could do was entertain the thought of being with her?”

“I don’t know. I guess. I really don’t want to talk about it anymore. It bugs me, you know? It’s creepy and kind of disrespectful. Lucy is dead after all. I want to do my job and get back home, so I can put all that happened here behind me.”

“You missing L.A.?” she asked. She knew what she was doing was risky, but Aunt Cara had taught her a lot about people’s psychology, and she had to get Johnny to trust her. She had to get inside his head.