The Watched (CSI Reilly Steel #4) (17 page)

When he’d begun his research to decide what
movies he wanted to improve, he’d had to take into account the nature of each story’s antagonist. For example, he wouldn’t be recreating anything from
It
even though the idea of ripping off a victim’s arm was compelling. He hated clowns. Always had. They scared the shit out of him.

Movies
like
Nightmare on Elm Street
and
Alien
also had to be eliminated due to being logistically impossible without CGI. And what was the point of realism if special effects had to be used?

And of course the typical
‘phone call coming from inside the house’ babysitter-slash-sorority-house-slash-slumber-party-slash-prom-horror flicks were also out of the question. Too many unknown variables. Besides, he hated working with teenagers.

When he’d started choosing his initial scenes
he’d begun with the ones that didn’t require the antagonist to be on screen. Once he’d completed a couple of small acts, he’d moved on to the big one, the one he’d been waiting to use when he finally announced himself to the world.

And what a debut
the new and improved
Hitcher
had been.

He’d originally intended to
improve on movies that pissed him off, the ones that had inexplicable fan bases or were huge blockbusters while other more deserving films were ignored.

Hence his most recent creative endeavors, though in truth that jaw-crunching scene from
American History X
needed no improvement, iconic perfection as it was.

Still, fun to recreate.

Now, as he mused on the recent realization that he actually liked being in front of the camera as well as behind it, he considered some of his previously disregarded scenarios.

The hook-handed
bad guy of urban lore had appeared in numerous frat-fests including
I Know What You Did Last Summer
and its godawful sequel. Perhaps, if he was feeling particularly adventurous, he could even try
Silence of the Lambs
? He smiled. Then again, perhaps not; even he wasn’t willing to go as far as to consume human flesh. And since the entire point of this exercise was that everything be real, changing out the meat would be a cop-out. Perhaps another scene from the movie would work better, something with a little less cannibalism?

Although, he
thought as he drained his glass, maybe it would be best to wait to do a reboot of such a classic. That particular one was a tough act to follow; maybe a bit more experience might be a good idea before tackling such an iconic role.

He wasn’t comp
letely narcissistic, after all.

That being said, he had
a letter to write . . .

As
Daniel and Reilly consulted the festival schedule to see where Bruce Reynolds might be, he asked. ‘Did you see the guy on
Leno
?’

She remembered that she hadn’t paid much attention to it
at the time, but the actor’s public meltdown had been reported in the Irish media too. High-profile star begins ranting about how his psychic had confirmed his past lives as none other than Abraham Lincoln and Gandhi. Yeah, that’ll cross oceans to be a headline.

Later
the actor’s public relations people had claimed Reynolds had been suffering from exhaustion and over-medication for a sinus condition. While subsequent interviews had been done with poise and little excitement, the man’s career had yet to recover.

‘Says here he’s supposed to be signing autographs.’ Daniel pointed on one of the festival maps posted every few feet. ‘Here.’

As they wove their way through the crowd, Reilly made a mental note to boycott Toby Carpenter movies in the future. She’d dealt with her fair share of lecherous men – it kind of came with the territory being a woman in a mostly male field – but this had been the first time that she’d felt like someone had actually succeeded in undressing her with his eyes.

Daniel pointed. ‘Right there.’ He flashed his
investigator’s badge at the security guard and stepped behind the table.

‘Mr
Reynolds?’ Reilly asked.

‘No comment,’ Bruce grumbled as he scrawled
lazily across a head shot. The woman he passed it to looked disappointed. Reilly couldn’t say that she blamed her. Finding out that one of your celebrity idols was a douche-bag in reality was never easy.

‘We’re here about Drew
Sheldon.’ Daniel put his badge closer to Bruce’s face.

‘Oh, that
again.’ Bruce leaned back in his chair, looking up at Daniel with an insolent grin on his once handsome face. The last few years of hard living hadn’t been kind. ‘I heard he’s missing.’

‘He is.’ Daniel kept his voice mild. ‘Know anything about it?’

Bruce laughed. ‘Like I already told the cops, I barely have enough money to pay my bills. I certainly wouldn’t waste a dime of it to pay someone to take him out.’

‘Who said anything about him being taken out?’ Daniel asked. ‘As of now, he’s considered missing. Unless there’s something you’d like to share.’

Bruce shrugged. ‘Only that I wouldn’t see any reason to keep a hack like Sheldon around.’

‘Hack?’ Daniel said. ‘From what we understand, Drew
Sheldon is one of the most sought after writers in the business.’

‘Yeah, because he’ll bend over and take it.’ Bruce’s smile disappeared. ‘He cares more about money than about the integrity of his work. The guy’ll do anything to make a buck.’

‘Whereas you’re in it for the craft?’ Reilly indicated one of the movie posters on the table. Bruce Reynolds’s biggest blockbuster had been slammed by the critics as being ‘so brain-dead that a zombie toddler could’ve produced a finer piece of work’. Reilly had seen it while on a blind date back in Dublin. The guy had loved it. That had been their only date.

‘
Look, what do you want?’ Bruce’s swagger dissolved into petulance. ‘I already told the cops everything I know.’

‘I know that you had a reason to be angry at
Sheldon, to want revenge. After all, he wrote you out of what was supposed to be your comeback role.’ Daniel was smooth.

‘Maybe I do have
a reason to be angry,’ Bruce said, ‘but I don’t have the money to do anything.’

‘Doesn’t mean you couldn’t have done something yourself,’
Reilly said.

Bruce snorted. ‘Yeah, right. I only play the action hero. I’m not much of an action guy in real life.’

Not really any shock there, Reilly thought. Then, taking her cue from Daniel, she changed her tone. ‘On an unrelated note, we’ve also been hearing rumors about someone posting movie inserts online – taking famous movie clips and splicing in their own newly shot footage. Have you heard anything about that?’ She deliberately left out the fact that the clips in question were famed murder scenes.

‘Movie inserts . . .
’ Bruce looked more interested than worried. ‘Hadn’t heard, but that sounds like a good idea to me.’ He shrugged. ‘Have you seen some of the crap that gets called “classic” these days? Whoever it is, if you find them, give ’em my number. I could use the work.’

‘Will do,’ Daniel said
, meeting Reilly’s gaze, which she took it as a cue to move on.

‘And as for people who had issues with Drew
Sheldon, you should be checking out Wesley Fisher,’ Bruce said, now giving a dazzling smile to the pretty thirty-something who approached his table.

‘Who?’ Daniel asked
, turning to him once again. He glanced at Reilly and she shook her head. She didn’t recognize the name either.

‘Wesley Fisher,’ Bruce
repeated. He added a note under his signature and gave it the girl.

Reilly rolled her eyes as she read over his shoulder.
His room number. Typical.

‘He’s another director here at the festival,’ Reynolds went on. ‘
Thinks he’s the next big thing but can’t get anyone to watch anything he does. Probably because it’s even worse crap than what’s already being peddled around here. I do know he was trying to get Sheldon to write for him. Match made in heaven if you ask me,’ he added sardonically. ‘Sure to have the straight-to-DVD crowd salivating.’

‘Thanks.’ Daniel looked over at
Reilly and she nodded, silently agreeing that they weren’t going to get anything else out of the actor.

Finding
Wesley Fisher in the hotel turned out to be much harder than finding the other two. Fitting his image as a little-known director, he didn’t seem to be on any schedules. Finally, following a tip-off from Fisher’s co-producer, they tracked him down at the front desk where he was arguing with the concierge.

‘Sir, for the last time, we are not upgrading your room. We are completely booked
this week for the festival. I’m sorry.’ Though the pencil-thin man looked anything but.

‘Wesley Fisher?’ Daniel cut in and the man at the desk gave the investigator a grateful look.

‘Who wants to know?’ Fisher was average in every way. Sandy-brown hair, brown eyes, just under six feet tall. Absolutely nothing about him was remarkable which, in a hotel full of movie bigwigs, was in a way a bit remarkable in and of itself.

‘I’m Daniel Forrest, this is Reilly Steel.’ Daniel showed his badge. ‘We’re looking into the disappearance of Drew
Sheldon.’

‘
Of course.’ The attitude in Fisher’s voice vanished, replaced by concern. ‘I’d heard he was missing.’

‘And we heard that you might have had a problem with him.’ Reilly deliberately phrased her statement to provoke a response. Something about Fisher’s concern struck her as false.

Fisher gave a half-smile. ‘I wouldn’t go that far. Drew and I had our disagreements, but nothing more than two creative minds trying to collaborate on one vision.’

‘So he was going to write a screenplay for you to direct?’ Daniel asked.

Fisher shook his head. ‘No. We tried for a few days but decided that our creative vision was just too different. We parted on good terms.’

‘Do you know anyone who might not have been quite so willing to let things go?’

The director considered the question before answering. ‘It’s hard to say for sure. In this business, simple misunderstandings are blown up into feuds, disagreements into vendettas. I do know Toby Carpenter was arguing with Drew on the first day of the festival.’

‘How do you know?’ Reilly tried to keep the suspicion from her voice. Fisher’s answers came easily, without a trace of guile.
But for some reason, she didn’t trust him.

‘I heard them. Actually, everybody heard them. They were in the middle of the lobby having a shouting match.’ Fisher shrugged. ‘Then again, Toby doesn’t really seem like the type to
kidnap someone. He’s more of a “ruin their reputation” type of guy.’

Reilly caught Daniel’s eye and he nodded slightly.

‘One more thing,’ Reilly said. ‘There are some other rumors going around about someone messing around with classic movie scenes.’

‘Really?’ Fisher asked. ‘What do you mean
, “messing around”?’

She chose her words carefully. ‘C
rosscutting new film together with old.’

‘Hmm.’ H
e cocked an eyebrow. ‘Interesting. What does Drew’s disappearance have to do with that?’

‘
Just covering all angles, Mr Fisher,’ Reilly replied smoothly, giving nothing away. ‘So what kind of movies do you direct? Sorry to say I don’t think I’ve heard of you before.’

Fisher smirked. ‘Let me guess, you like those s
oppy chick-flicks where boy meets girl, there’s some misunderstanding or lie that breaks them up, then there’s a big emotional scene where they get back together.’

Reilly blinked. Not exactly the response she’d been expecting from someone who’d tried to be overly pleasant and helpful so far. She smiled. ‘No, I’m more of a mystery fan
, actually. I like figuring out who did it.’

‘Well,’ Fisher
said, returning the smile, the corners of his eyes tightening, ‘good luck with that. And be sure to let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.’

‘Sure.’ Daniel looked back and forth between Fisher and Reilly, a puzzled expression on his face. As he and Reilly
moved away, he said, ‘You were pretty rough on him even by your standards. Any particular reason for that?’

‘
I don’t know. I just think there’s something off about him.’

‘
This is the movie business, Reilly. There’s something off with almost everyone here,’ Daniel joked.

‘
Hey, are you the investigators looking into the disappearance of Drew Sheldon?’ asked a middle-aged man, interrupting the banter.

‘That’s right.
And you are?’ Reilly held out a hand.

The man shook it;
a firm, confident shake without lingering. His eyes were intelligent, his gaze appraising without leering. ‘Jason Stuart, I’m a casting director. I was scheduled to work with Drew on his next project. Kai told me you were here, said I should talk to you. She doesn’t have much faith in the cops.’