‘Thomas,’ Choi reminded her. ‘His name is Thomas Cameron.’
Mary was through fighting that battle. ‘Whatever. Did he tell you that I was on medication?’
‘He doesn’t even know who you are,’ Choi revealed.
Something lodged itself in Mary’s throat. ‘What?’
‘But I think we do,’ Kendall said, placing what looked to bea manuscript on the table, which must’ve been around one hundred and fifty pages long.
‘What is that?’ Mary’s voice came out shaky.
‘It’s a script for a new production that Mr. Cameron’s company has been working on,’ Choi replied.
‘A script?’ Mary’s stare bounced between the two detectives again. To Mary, the more they talked, the less sense everything made.
‘That’s right,’ Kendall confirmed. ‘A movie script… or maybe a TV series. They’re not sure yet. And like I said earlier, this is where it goes from crazy to absolutely insane.’ He indicated the thirteen photos on the table. ‘All these people… who you’ve said you’ve crossed paths with in the past two years – from Antonia, the housemaid, to Betsy, the artist – they are all actors and actresses, working for Thomas Cameron’s production company in LA.’ He paused to allow Mary to ponder over the implications of what he’d just said before resting his left palm over the manuscript. ‘And they’re thecastfor this script.’
Mary could practically feel the ground starting to crack just under her feet.
‘And all the names you gave us…’ Choi said, reading from his notes, ‘… Luke, Betsy, Natálie, Antonia, Gabriella, Jonas, etc… they’re all characters in this script, Mary… created to fit the story. They aren’t real. And you named them all. How’s that possible?’ He reached for the photos and began turning them over. On the back of each photograph there were two names – the actor or actress’ real name and the character that they were playing in the script. An actor named Eddie Cowell was playing Luke Jenkins. Laura Dickens was playing Betsy Fletcher. Manuela Oliver was playing Natálie…
Mary heard the words, but her brain seemed to reject their meaning. ‘Excuse me… what?’
‘We haven’t read the script,’ Kendall added. ‘I’m not muchof a reader myself, but at the hospital, Mr. Cameron was kind enough to summarize the whole story for us, which is based on real facts… and the main character, who is not in any of these pictures – she’s real, a real-life dirt bag.’
‘Mr. Cameron never met her,’ Choi took over. ‘He’d never seen any photos of her either because there are none around. Apparently, she’s a real modern-day legend, and that was why Mr. Cameron decided to write this script. Would you like to know what the story is all about?’
The thoughts inside Mary’s head weren’t just colliding with each other anymore – they were crashing and burning.
‘It’s about a con artist,’ Kendall told her. ‘A female con artist who marries rich men before divorcing them two years later and bleeding them dry.’
‘A bit like my ex-wife,’ Choi commented with a forced chuckle. ‘That bitch took everything.’
What in the world is going on here?
‘What a crazy story, don’t you think?’ Kendall asked.
Mary remained quiet.
‘But it gets better,’ Kendall added. ‘In this story, the con artist goes after a millionaire from Boston called…’ he looked at Choi, ‘… drum roll, please.’
Choi used both hands on the table, mimicking a drum roll.
‘Quaddra Buckner,’ Kendall told her. ‘Double D. Is that mad or what? And before you ask – yes, we’ve googled Quaddra Buckner, double “D”. There’s not a single entry. The man doesn’t exist. He’s a fictional character.’
Mary felt faint.
‘The insane part is that I think that Mr. Cameron is right,’ Kendall continued.
‘I do too,’ Choi agreed.
‘What he told us at the hospital,’ Kendall explained, ‘is that he thinks thatyouare the real-life con woman – the dirt bagthat this whole script is based on.’ He placed his left palm on the manuscript again. ‘And somehow you found out about this production… this script… and in a desperate attempt to stop this from becoming a blockbuster that would ruin your life and certainly throw you in prison, you turned up at Mr. Cameron’s house with the sole intention of ending his life.’
Mary said nothing in return because she knew that there was nothing that she could say. What she needed to do was find time to think, and she couldn’t do that while she was in that interrogation room with both detectives. Her last hope of proving that she wasn’t trying to kill Quaddra was Dr. Fox. She would be there at any minute now with an attorney and the package that Mary had given her. Once both detectives had talked to Dr. Fox and had a look at the contents of that ‘evidence’ package, Mary was sure that Kendall and Choi would re-evaluate the story that they were told by Quaddra… Thomas… whoever the fuck he really was.
‘I think I’m done talking until my attorney gets here,’ Mary finally said, nodding at the detectives.
‘That would be a wise move,’ Kendall agreed, signaling whoever was on the other side of the two-way mirror to pause both the voice and the video recording.
