“I’m afraid crosschecking isn’t the answer. My name isn’t on there. I’m Catriona Phoenix. I work for the studio. You called me.”
Greg scoffed. “I didn’t call you.”
“Not you, personally. You, as in the show. Someone here called Sean and then Sean called me.”
Greg’s gaze dropped to his clipboard once more. “Last name of this Sean person?”
Catriona dug her nails into her palms and tried not to lose her patience. Her head throbbed, making it twice as hard not to lose her mind on the boy with the inflated sense of importance. Crafty People was a new show, inspired by the popularity of HGTV and other ‘homey’ shows and networks. She knew little about it, which was a good thing. Generally, when she had to pay attention to a show, something was going horribly wrong.
She spotted a camera man strolling by with a plate full of eggs and bacon from craft services.
“John!” she called. He turned at the sound of his name. Upon seeing her, his face cracked into a grin.
“Hey, Cat. What are you doing here?”
“One of your hosts is missing?”
John nodded. “Yeah. Dixie. I think they’ve been looking for her a while now.”
She motioned to Greg. “Can you tell him I’m legit?”
John turned his attention to the boy. “She’s legit. She works here.”
Greg frowned. “She’s not on the list. I don’t really know you either, for that matter. How do I know she works here and you’re not working together?”
Catriona laughed. “Working together? Why? So I can sneak in and get my macramé plant holder autographed?”
John dipped his head to peer over his sunglasses. “Because if you don’t let her in, you won’t be working here much longer. That’ll be your tipoff we both work here.”
Greg seemed to pale a shade as he turned the clipboard toward Catriona. “Fine. But I need you to sign—”
Catriona was already several steps past him before he could finish his sentence. She headed toward a man sitting in a director’s chair wearing headphones, watching something on a small screen.
She glanced behind her to be sure Greg didn’t give Broch a hard time. Greg tilted to the left as if to block the Scot and then thought better of it and bounced back to the right.
“Ah nae in the mood,” grumbled Broch as he closed the gap between himself and Catriona.
She smiled. At least Broch’s displeasure with her could be channeled into useful work-related crankiness.
She approached the man in the chair.
“You the director?” she asked.
He didn’t flinch, so she waved her hand in front of his eyes. He pulled off his earphones.
“Yeah?” He stared at her face, peering over his readers, his eyebrows knit. She suspected he was curious about her battered appearance, but after a moment he looked away to make it clear he wouldn’t be asking questions.
“I’m Catriona. Sean called me. You have a missing host?”
The man’s expression changed and he smiled with what looked like relief. “Oh, great. I’m Jake Hastings.” He shook Catriona’s hand and glanced up at Broch. “Whoa. Big man on campus.”
“Brochan.” The Highlander held out his enormous paw and folded it around the small-boned director’s hand like a loaf of bread swallowing a muffin.
“You’ve got someone missing?” asked Catriona.
Jake nodded. “The second host.”
“The likable one,” mumbled a young woman sitting to Jake’s left. His gaze darted in her direction without his head following and he offered Catriona an embarrassed smile.
“She is sweet. Pretty. Name’s Dixie. She’s got that sex-appeal-without-trying thing. Sexy but women like her, too. It’s rare.”
Catriona nodded. “Girl-next-door pretty. A Mary Ann.”
“Exactly. Only with Ginger’s body.”
“Ew,” said the girl.
From her repulsion at the idea of Jake noticing Dixie’s body, Catriona guessed the girl to be his daughter.
“Any idea where Dixie might be? Did she leave any word?”
“No. She just didn’t come into work and today was a big shoot day for her. She knew it, and she’s not the sort to blow off work.”
“Any drug or alcohol issues?”
“If there are, she hides them well.”
“Last one to see her?”
“From here, probably Maddie, the other host.”
“The unlikable one,” mumbled the girl.
Jake twisted in his chair to look at her.
“Why don’t you go get me some coffee?”
The girl looked up from her phone, glanced at Catriona and Broch and huffed before standing. Her shoulders were so loose Catriona could almost hear her bones jangling as she sauntered away.
Jake watched her go. “Sorry. My daughter. I’ve got her shadowing me, working as my assistant but she’s got opinions.”
Catriona smirked. “At that age nothing’s an opinion. Everything’s a fact.”
Jake chuckled. “Isn’t that the truth.”
“She doesn’t like Maddie?”
The director grimaced. “She thinks she’s fake. Do you know her? Maddie?”
“Should I?”
“She got famous on YouTube making things out of trash, basically. She’s got a real bubblegum, sticky-sweet personality online that clicked with the younger gen, but in real life she can be a little intense.”
“Intense, how?”
“I dunno. Everything has to be right, you know? Real type A.”
“She and Dixie get along?”
“They seem too but...” Jake nodded his head back and forth, seeming to look for the words. “I don’t know. You’d have to see them together. Maddie was real sweet to Dixie—I’ve heard they carpooled, which is why I think she might have been the last to see her—but I’d catch Maddie looking at her sometimes like—”
“Like she’s trying to figure out how to make her explode with her mind,” said the director’s daughter appearing behind him with a cup of coffee in hand.
Jake jumped at the sound of his daughter’s voice and took the Parasol Pictures’ mug from her. “Go find something to do.”
The girl
