Ugh.I sounded like Rory.
The ladies are still absolutely gorgeous—don’t look a day over sixty despite both of them being nearly ninety!Both of them have the prettiest smiles.Well, before the whole incident with Tubbs.Not a lot of smiling right now.Not gonna lie, even that biopic Tubbs was working on about Beth Ellison would make either of them happy right now.
Speaking of being pretty—I guess you’ve seen my new head shots.AKA those pap shots that’ve been popping up o some of the indie gossip pages.WTH is up with that?I don’t suppose you know who’s doing it?Rory isnothappy.
Another little lie, throwing Rory just a teeny bit in the grease on that one, and hopefully Paul might spill what he knew if he thought my agent was about to go ham on someone over unauthorized pics.It was a given that Paul would somehow manage to let all what I’d told him out into the gossip-sphere, probably within a few hours of him reading my email.It was nothing earth-shaking and no doubt that Gwendolyn and Pamela would know exactly where it came from the second it got back to them, but it was small potatoes.Nothing harmful, nothing career-ending.
Not for them anyway.
They could easily put me on blast about starting rumors and all it would take is their word against mine, given how thin the ice was under my feet right now.
Or it could absolutely do nothing.And Paul would tell me that he hadn’t heard anything, laugh about has-been stars taking the commercials and ‘influencer’ route, then not-so-subtly ask me about Max’s romantic life to gauge if he had an opening with my best friend.
Speaking of...I opened a new email to send.I putLost Phone Againin the subject line and sent Mom a short email, promising I was okay and telling her that we needed to do a video chat ASAP.I’d just navigated away from email and started one for Max when the flashing and pinging of my video chat program started going bananas.Max was scowling at me when I accepted the request.
“So you’re not dead,” he snapped in a pitch-perfect impression of my mother.“Good god, Damien!I’ve been trying to get hold of you for hours!Don’t you have a house phone or something?You live in one of those old houses with landlines, right?”
“Hello.I miss you too.I’m fine.Just a little boo boo,” I said dryly, showing him my bright green fiberglass cast.“Oh!I have a favor to ask you.Like...kind of a big one?”
Max’s face underwent several quick, complicated changes in expression before he settled onannoyed but scared.“I heard you were dead,” he hissed, and I realized belatedly his eyes were red-rimmed not from losing sleep over a long shoot but because he’d been crying.“Hightower said he’d heard through the grapevine you’d been killed in mugging gone bad then I couldn’t get hold of you and do you know how many Benjamin Wittes are in the world and how few of them have publicly accessible phone numbers and why doesn’t he have freaking social media or something, damn it?”
“He does,” I fumbled.“He just doesn’t check it.He posted a picture of Muffin once,” I offered, stunned.“Max, I’m so sorry.I...how did Hightower hear about me getting hurt?”Geoff Hightower, the director of Max’s current project, wasn’t exactly super high powered but he was gaining traction in the industry and also kind of a gossip.The sort of person who might be dangerous in a few years, once he had more sway in our professional world and people gave him what he wanted too easily, too often.
Max shook his head, dashing his tears with the back of his hand.“I don’t know.I think someone back home did.He’s been really pissed about Tubbs dying owing him so much money and it’s just become a whole thing on set lately.Like he’s been bitching nonstop about it.”He took a shaking breath and schooled his features into stern lines.“What the hell is going on, D?”
“Tubbs owed him money?”I straightened.“How much?Why?”Hello, new problem...
“No idea.Hell, Damien, most of the movers and shakers are in debt to one another in the industry, you know that.So many private deals andyou owe mesecrets going on.For all I know, he loaned Tubbs money for rent or something.Does it matter?”
“No freaking idea,” I groaned, flopping sideways and taking the laptop with me, sending the world inside the chat screen topsy-turvy for a second.So I told him about the weird morning, about Pamela begging for my help, then blackmailing me for it.About gate crashing, then the encounter on the lighthouse walk that apparently led to the rumor about my early death.
“Wait, wait,” he said, cutting in suddenly.“Who pushed you in the water?”
“No idea.They were bigger than me though.”I paused, thinking hard, dredging up the sense memory of the moment.“Taller.Not bigger like heavier or bulkier.They had on layers though.Like a coat over a sweater or something.They didn’t move like it was their body that was big,” I said slowly.“Kind of like they weren’t able to bend their arms right or something.”Elusive Nate skittered through my thoughts—he was definitely taller than me, and he definitely had taken an instant dislike to me.But enough to try and throw me into the cove?Enough to maybe kill me?
Max lifted his brows.“And you’ve been sniffing around for this Anmorata Blue person because you think they killed Tubbs?Andsomeone is pap stalking you?”
“Busy week.”
“Damien...”
“I know, I know,” I sighed, closing my eyes.“I swear to god, this town...”
“I’ll talk to Geoff in a bit—we’re on a break.”
“Ooooh,” I arched.“Personally or professionally?”
That was enough to break Max’s foul temper.“Ass,” he huffed.“They thought I was about to absolutely lose my shit when I couldn’t get hold of you.I thought you were dead, dorkface!”He sniffed hard, lips pressed into a thin line.“I’ll find out who told him that.”
“And why.I’m not exactly on Hightower’s holiday card list.Why would he care whether I’m alive or dead?”
“It’s a story,” Max pointed out quietly.“Newly reclusive actor, rumors swirling about his involvement in the death of a Broadway star from the golden age of stage...”
“I’m barely a footnote,” I muttered.“Why would killing me help anyone?”
Max raked a careful, sad look over my face and shook his head.“Sometimes I wonder how you lasted so long, Damien.Fame.Notoriety.Titillation.And what could be more titillating than a child star tied—however wrongly—to the death of a famous actor, who then dies in mysterious circumstances?”
#
