“No, he didn’t. And I don’t think that was just because I refused to sleep with him or give him my money. I think it was by design. You know what? I think Wayne was full of horse poop.” Nicole’s kid-friendly non-curse almost made Roz smile. “I found out he talked to other people in the book club—you know, the one at Big Bang Books?—who were screenwriters, too. We have a little writing group there. He had them all going.”
“You mean they contributed to his screenplay scheme?”
“You know it’s a scheme, don’t you?” Nicole’s face had a look of satisfaction. “Yes, that’s what I mean.”
“How many of those writers was he talking to?”
“At least three or four.”
Wow. They needed to ask Mae about that. “What is your screenplay about?”
Nicole’s eyebrows scrunched together at the question. “It’s about a woman who goes on vacation to the beach with her girlfriends and realizes there’s more to life than her cranky husband and college-age kids, and she starts over. It’s kind of a dramedy.”
“So, no airplane stuff?”
“No.” Nicole seemed puzzled. “The friends drive to the beach town.”
What was Roz supposed to make of that? The story sounded a little like wish fulfillment—ditching the husband and starting over. Though Nicole said Sebastian was really nice. So maybe she didn’t want to kill him.
Perhaps more relevant, at least as Nicole told it, the script had nothing to do with sabotaging airplanes.
“Did you ever talk to Blake Burbage?” Roz asked.
Nicole’s face softened. “Oh, I’d sure like to. I loved him in Chain of Honor!”
“So did I!” Now they were bonding over a TV show. Nicole had good taste.
“Sebastian said Wayne was going to produce a movie at the studio starring Blake.” Nicole took another sip of her coffee and looked wistful. “But now that the studio is on ice, I’ll probably never get a chance to meet him. I should’ve talked to him during the signing, but I would feel weird introducing myself to a celebrity, you know?”
So she hated Wayne and didn’t know Blake.
“Do you know Chuck Teague?” Roz asked.
Nicole hesitated. “He’s the plane mechanic, right? I’ve met him a couple of times. He seemed OK. A little rough around the edges.”
So Roz couldn’t rule out an acquaintance with Chuck. Alden seemed to like Chuck, but Chuck also knew how to sabotage airplanes. Would he have done it for Nicole? Or someone else?
There was one more thing she had to ask. “On Saturday, when you took the kids to the bookstore bathroom, you left them alone for a few minutes.”
Nicole froze with her coffee cup halfway to her mouth. “What is this? Are you accusing me of child neglect?”
“No! No, of course not. Mateo told me he was in charge.”
Nicole rolled her eyes and took a sip and set down her cup again. “He’s adorable, isn’t he? I was only gone a minute.”
“Did you happen to see Wayne, by chance?”
Nicole’s face shifted. The wariness returned to her eyes. “I didn’t hurt him, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“What? I mean, what did you see? What did you say to him? Did you arrange to meet him?” She’d gone to see Wayne Vandershell!
“No! I—I was aware he was at the store and saw him heading to the back hallway. I knew he smoked. When I had to take the kids to the bathroom, I figured it gave me a chance to give him a piece of my mind. I went to the back door, but someone had beaten me to it. So I returned to the bathroom to deal with the kids, which took a while. And then after I took them back into the store, there was that scream, and I heard what happened.” Nicole shuddered.
“Wait a second.” Roz’s heart beat faster. “Someone had beaten you to it? Was Wayne dead?”
“No, of course not! Someone else was yelling at him. I figured I’d wait my turn. And then it was too late.”
Roz took a sip of coffee to ease her nerves and make sure she didn’t screw this up. Then she posed her question. “Someone else was yelling at him? Who?”
