Presley: Is there what?
Interviewer: Love?
Presley: Of course.
Interviewer: What about the song he wrote? About the one that got away.
Presley: We all have that person, but obviously it didn’t work out. Maybe they weren’t compatible long term. Maybe they wanted to go different directions. Maybe they just couldn’t make it work, you know?
Interviewer: I do know. I really do.
Next, I started watching a deleted scene, this one back in the Music Room at the Rose Palace. On-screen again, Mr. Finch pressed a button on the mantel and out of it slid a record collection ranging from Bach to the Beatles to Britney Spears. He held one record after another out to Brett, who looked on admiringly, glancing up every now and then to point out a classic to the camera. I had to give it to Brett, he was a natural.
Finally, after two full minutes of admiring records—I could see why this scene hadn’t made it into the show—Mr. Finch held one up to the camera and grinned broadly.
Do you recognize this one?Mr. Finch asked Brett.
He smiled sheepishly.That’s not what I think it is, is it?But by his smile and the gleam in his eye, he obviously knew it was his single, “The One That Got Away.”He’d recorded it only months before, in early 2023, and the song’s popularity had likely been the thing to cement Brett’s place on the show later that fall.
And we just happen to have the writer and performer here.Mr. Finch winked at the camera.What a great coincidence.
I leaned closer to the screen, looking for something, anything, that might offer a clue about this song’s origins or inspiration. All I saw was the two men’s cheesy grins as they preened for the camera, Brett grabbing a guitar that just happened to be behind him. He sat on a stool and began to play, the words and chord progression as basic as always.
Mr. Finch stood behind Brett for the entire fifty-second verse and chorus of the song, an unabashed plug for whatever Brett was selling: charm, goodwill, or actual merchandise. The entire scene was clearly staged for Brett to perform his runaway single because in the corner, a QR code had popped up.
I paused the clip, taking out my phone and holding it up to the code. A website appeared for a company I’d never heard of, but in large letters visitors were encouraged toWATCH THE MUSIC VIDEO for “The One That Got Away.”I scanned the page for the fine print, reading aloud the name of the production company: Petal Productions.
The logo was a wreath of green leaves with a rosebud in the center. Petals, like on a rose. The Finches certainly remained on brand.
If Petal Productions had helped Brett, that meant that Mr. Finch had had a hand in pushing Brett into the limelight. It would make sense for Mr. Finch to want to pull an up-and-comer under his wing. He’d done it with Dr. Bellingham, the disgraced plastic surgeon and pageant judge who had then taken part in a plot to murder him. Mr. Finch obviously hadn’t been a great judge of character, but it would stand to reason that he would see potential in a young Aubergine resident in his daughter’s class and try to bolster him, give him a head start in life. It would also make sense in terms of Mr. Finch’s expansion into various streams of income from diamonds to pageants to plastic surgery. A production company for pop-culture trash would fit right in.
I wondered if there might be clues to the identity of the one that got away, so I opened the chord chart for the music, which contained the lyrics to the now-infamous song. I read all the way to the bridge when he referred to “the pretty face with all the frills and lace, my young rose, full of love and grace.” No wonder Lacy first thought the song was about her. As I read, I pressed the link for the music video to follow along.
There was Brett standing with a guitar and full band in front of the rose hedge maze at night, the mountains barely visible in the distance. I studied each of the band members, but I didn’t recognize a single person. Maybe that wasn’t surprising since the group had disbanded as quickly as it had come together.
Brett had been the truest definition of a one-hit wonder.
I thought how strange it was that he—and apparently Mr. Finch—had put so much time and effort and money into this one song and then never recorded another note: according to the Internet and a quick search on Spotify. But then, I supposed the timing didn’t make sense to pursue a music career when soon after he landed a spot on a show that became such a sensation.Brett had obviously been far less passionate about music than he was about fame in any form.
The music video was straightforward—Brett wandering the estate, singing to camera. But when he hit the bridge, a woman in white appeared in the peach orchard. Ethereal in a gauzy dress, she kept her back to the camera. Just as she turned, about to reveal her face, she vanished. In her place, Brett’s hand opened to reveal a rose-pink stone before the camera pulled back to show him alone by the hedge maze.
Right before the camera screen went to black, though, there was a woman’s voice, low and sonorous, whispering the last line of the song: “The one that got away.”
Goosebumps rose on my arms. I recognized that voice. I rewound it and played it back. Then, I did it again.
I could swear that was the same voice in the interview clips, the same voice I’d heard echoing through the speakers in the Media Room earlier that evening when I’d stumbled on Anton and Lacy. I played it again, even more certain this time that the voice of the woman in the music video was the same as the interviewer off-screen inSmall Town, Big Romance.
But that timing didn’t make sense. This song had been produced before he’d been on the show.
I considered what this might mean. The date of the files confirmed the fact that the music video had been finished a few months beforeSmall Town, Big Romanceeven started filming. But the voice unmistakably belonged to the same woman.
Did that mean that Brett had known the interviewer before he arrived at the show? Or had this person been a convenient actress for the recording of the video? Had she somehow also gotten the gig as the interviewer onSmall Town, Big Romance?
FIFTEEN
I took the CD out of the drive and made my way back out into the hall.
Almost immediately I found Anton, leaning against the wall, his head drooping. He was drunk and held a full drink in his hand as if he’d decided to get one to go. I approached him with caution as I would a wild horse who might buck if startled.
