Mama Sees Stars: A Mace Bauer Mystery (12 page)

Toby struggled to stand.
He staggered, and fell again.

I swung down from my saddle. Jesse leapt straight off Zeke, leaving the horse’s reins hanging. She’d barely hit the ground before she started running to Toby. I grabbed the reins of both horses and followed.

Toby had managed to hoist himself to a sitting position. He watched, looking dazed, as we approached. He was filthy. Leaves clung to his hair, normally so flawless. Scratches crisscrossed his face. Dirt streaked the back of his torn shirt. Both knees of his jeans were stained.

“Someone tried to run me down in the parking lot.’’ He put a hand to his head, and it came away red with blood. “I think I’m hurt.’’

Jesse performed a quick check, peering into his hair to see the source of the oozing blood. She looked up at me. “Scalp wound …”

“It hurts, Jess …”

“… bloody, but not deep.’’

She studied his pupils, checking for brain injury or shock. Lifting the torn shirt gently off his body, she surveyed his bare chest and back for evidence of other wounds. Toby’s voice was weak, but he kept talking:

“I was running away, but I tripped and fell. When I felt the asphalt, I kept rolling. I came to a stop in a muddy ditch.’’ He gingerly fingered his bloodied hair. “I think I smacked my head on a rock.’’

“So the car didn’t hit you?’’ she asked.

He shook his head, wincing in pain.

“Can you stand up?’’ I asked him. “We’ll get you up on one of the horses and take you to the medical trailer.’’

Still holding both sets of reins in one hand, I extended the other to Toby. Jesse did the same. Together, we pulled him to his feet.

“Can you walk?’’ she asked.

He tested his weight on one leg, and then the other. He grimaced. “I must have hurt the same knee that got smacked at the bar.’’

She leaned down to feel for swelling. “How bad’s the pain, scale of one to five?”

“Two, maybe,’’ he said.

“You’ll probably live.’’ Jesse grinned at him. “But I think we should get you to the medic, just to be safe.’’

“I don’t want to live if I can’t have you.’’

Her forehead wrinkled. “Very funny, Toby. What film is that line from?’’

“It’s not from a movie. I mean it. You realize what’s important when you’re hiding in a ditch, wondering if somebody’s going to make a U-turn and come back to try and kill you.’’ He stroked her cheek. “I love you, Jess. I want us to be a couple, for real.’’

Jesse cut her eyes toward me. I pretended to be studying the ground.

“No response?’’ Toby searched her face, looking for an answer he didn’t seem to find.

It was so quiet, I could hear the horses swishing their tails. Still, he stared at her. I coughed quietly, and then cleared my throat. I wanted to ask another question. “Did you see what kind of car it was?’’

He couldn’t tear his eyes from Jesse, even though she gazed indifferently into the trees.

“The car?’’ I prodded.

Finally, he looked at me. “It was white, or at least light in color.’’ His voice was thick with hurt. I was pretty sure it wasn’t from the physical injuries. “I’m not sure what kind. It might even have been a truck, or a van. It happened so fast.’’

“What about the driver?’’

“Big hat. Sun was glinting off the windshield. I couldn’t tell who was behind the wheel. Sorry.’’

So the vehicle was possibly white, like half the movie company’s rental fleet. And the driver might have been a man; or maybe a woman. He, or possibly she, was young … or maybe old. Carlos was going to love getting this report.

We were about to help Toby onto my horse to take him to the medical trailer when we heard another crash in the brush. It was followed by a string of curses. Barbara emerged, yanking spider webs from her face.

“There you are, Toby!’’ Her tone was scolding, until she seemed to register that her star client was bruised and bloodied and leaning on Jesse.

“Ohmigod, what happened?’’ She rushed to push Jesse out of the way.

“I’ve got him, Barbara,’’ Jesse said. “He had an accident. It doesn’t look serious.’’

“An accident?’’ She cupped Toby’s face, looking into his eyes. She touched the blood staining his brow. “My poor baby!’’

He tried to jerk his head away. “Somebody tried to run over me in the parking lot. Don’t worry. I survived. Your fifteen percent is safe.’’

Barbara dropped her hand from his face like she’d touched a hot stove. She looked stunned, crushed by his cruel words. Then again, she had been an actress way back when.

“You didn’t happen to see anything, did you?’’ I asked her.

She narrowed her eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?’’

I shrugged. “Nothing. Just that Toby didn’t see who almost hit him. Maybe you noticed somebody burning rubber out of the parking lot.’’

“I was nowhere near there. I was in Toby’s trailer, waiting for him, until one of the production assistants told me Toby was headed into town. I was on my way to check to see if his car was gone, when I got lost trying to take the shortcut to the parking lot.’’

I was going to follow up, try to find out how Barbara came to be around each of the locations where someone had been hurt, when a shout sounded from the trail: “Hey, is Sam with you guys? We were supposed to go to dinner, but he stood me up. I can’t find him anywhere.’’

Kelly Conover stood in the path, shading her eyes and looking in our direction. When I answered that we hadn’t seen Sam, she hurried on her way toward the parking area. Not even a backward glance. How typical. She didn’t notice Toby’s disheveled state; it didn’t directly concern her.

I helped Jesse onto Zeke, and then got on my horse, so Toby could ride double behind me. Helping to pull him up, it occurred to me Toby moved pretty well for someone who’d just taken a bad tumble into a ditch.

“I’ll meet you at the trailer, Toby,’’ Barbara called out as we left.

“Don’t bother.’’ He didn’t even look at his manager. He hooked his hands around my waist. “Okay if I hang on like this, Mace? I’m not hitting on you or anything.’’

“If you were, cowboy, it’d be the most exciting thing to happen to me all year.’’

Toby chuckled, which I took as an encouraging sign that his injuries weren’t too bad. As we rode off toward the trailer, Toby bouncing a bit behind the saddle, two questions ran through my head.

What would make Sam miss the chance to take Kelly to dinner? And why did Barbara emerge from the woods near the parking area, if she’d been in Toby’s trailer on the opposite side of the set?

“Look, everybody! There she
is … Hollywood’s newest star.’’

My cousin Henry rose from our table at Gladys’ Diner and lifted his voice over the breakfast din. Mama paused at the door to make a proper entrance. Preening, she fluffed her hair, smoothed her lemon yellow pantsuit, and took the measure of the room.

Once she was sure all eyes were on her, she made the rounds, bestowing cheek kisses and beauty-queen waves to the customers. Henry whistled as she did a red-carpet amble along the counter.

Sitting with my sisters, I muttered, “Don’t encourage her, Henry. She’s just one air kiss away from Hollywood Diva as it is.’’

“Amen,’’ Maddie said.

“Oh, let your mama have her fifteen minutes, girls. It won’t kill you.’’

Sitting back down, Henry stole a biscuit from Maddie’s plate. Despite the poke she gave his hand with her fork, Henry polished off the biscuit in two bites. Then he grabbed another one from Marty’s plate. She glared. “Just because you came in late doesn’t mean you get to eat our food, Henry.’’

“Jeez, Marty!’’ he said. “Since when did you start suffering from PMS?’’

When Henry zeroed in on my plate, I raised my steak knife at him: “Don’t even think about it.’’

Gladys’ restaurant had done a makeover, replacing the wagon-wheel hanging lamps and gingham tablecloths with soft lighting and tasteful landscapes. There was some grumbling at first, as Himmarshee doesn’t take well to change. But the grub was still good, and people were getting used to the new look.

Mama sidled up to the table just as Charlene, the waitress, got there with a coffee pot and Henry’s breakfast order, the Hungry Hog. “I guess I’ll have to get your autograph, Rosalee. I hear you’re going to be in the movie.’’

“It’s just a small part, Charlene.’’ Mama lowered her eyes, signaling modesty. “But it’s absolutely crucial to the plot. Or so my director tells me. That’s Paul Watkins. He’s the one who noticed I had a certain star quality.’’

I mentally amended that to
false
modesty.

She said, “Let me just borrow your pen and pad, honey, and I’ll give you my John Hancock.’’

Charlene refilled our cups, then put her coffee carafe on the table and handed Mama a blank sheet from her pad. As Mama worked out her new movie star signature—“Do you girls think I should put a star right here, between Rosalee and Provenza?’’—Charlene pulled up a seat.

“I hear you’re teaching Jesse Donahue how to ride, Mace.’’

“How’d you hear that, Charlene?’’ I glared at Mama, the teller of secrets.

Shrugging off my question, the waitress babbled on excitedly, “I’ve been watching her ever since she was a little girl. Why, I’ve seen her grow up on screen. What’s Jesse really like? Has she slept with as many men as they say? Is it true she’s on heroin?’’

Mama started to give her version of the real Jesse, but I cut her off. “She’s not a drug addict so far as I can tell. I think people have the wrong idea about Jesse.’’

Maddie snorted.

“What does that mean?’’ I asked.

“I don’t like her,’’ Maddie said. “Making a spectacle of herself the way she does? If she was my daughter, her hide would be double-tanned by now.’’

Henry slathered butter on a biscuit from his own plate, finally. “Forget about Jesse,’’ he said. “What’s the story with Kelly Conover? Now, there’s a woman! Is she nice? Is she as pretty in person as in the movies?’’

Marty sighed. “She’s beautiful, even more so than she looks on screen. Tiny, too. She’s hardly any bigger than me.’’

“I wonder if that’s what people will say about me, once my movie comes out.” Pausing mid-autograph, Mama’s face took on a dreamy look.

“Well, Kelly’s not tiny everywhere,’’ Maddie sipped her coffee, “thanks to the miracle of silicone and a skilled plastic surgeon.’’

Marty looked over each shoulder, a guilty look on her face. “Keep it down, Maddie. That’s mean, and people may hear you.’’

“Kelly’s fake bosom isn’t exactly a secret.’’ Maddie said. “The scandal sheets have even run before and after pictures. Besides, her boobies look like two jumbo honeydews balanced on a plank of plywood. You are such an innocent, Marty.’’

Charlene took Marty’s scowl as her exit cue. Mama stood up and called after her, “You forgot to take my autograph, honey … Well, okay, I’ll leave it with your tip.’’

Marty said, “You know, I get really tired of y’all treating me like a child …’’

“Don’t blame me! I didn’t say a word,’’ I said.

Maddie snickered. “C’mon, Marty … only a moron would think those ‘girls’ of Kelly’s are real.’’

“Well, they look real enough to me,’’ Henry said.

“See my point?’’ Maddie sat back, arms folded.

Marty pressed her lips together and glared at our big sister.

Mama examined her profile in the mirror behind the counter. “I wonder if I should think about plastic surgery, girls. It’s quite common in Hollywood. And speaking of Hollywood, I see some folks in the corner I didn’t get the chance to talk to about my movie.’’

Waving, she traipsed off to another round of
My Life on the D List
, Himmarshee style.

Henry smacked his lips and closed his eyes. “I had a poster of Kelly in a crocheted bikini taped to my bedroom ceiling. I spent many happy hours dreaming of the day she’d be my bride.’’

“Dreaming, right,’’ I said.

“Bride, right,’’ Maddie added.

We both looked at Marty, but she didn’t chime in to rag on our cousin.

“Maybe y’all will think I’m a
moron
for saying this, but all you ever do is pick fights,’’ Marty said. “As for you, Henry, while you’re so busy drooling over Kelly, you might not have heard a crazed murderer is loose on the movie set. Mace already had a close call. And now someone tried to run over Toby Wyle. Anyone could be next. Y’all seem like you don’t even care.’’

“Calm down, Marty. You’re not acting like yourself,’’ I said.

“Don’t tell me how to act, Mace. Maddie always criticizes, and you always tell people what to do. Maybe all three of you should be spending more time thinking about who’s responsible and how to stop them.’’

With that, Marty grabbed Henry’s second biscuit right out of his hand. She took two big bites, tossed it back on his plate, and stalked out of the diner.