Jake searched for somewhere to set his mug and then, giving up, rested it on his knee. “She isn’t wrong. It did look like Maddie was wishing Dixie gone.”
“Where can we find Maddie?”
“She should be in her trailer over there.” Jake motioned toward a group of trailers sitting at the far left edge of the lot.
Catriona turned to find Broch had moved several feet away to commandeer a large camera. He had it pointed at her.
“Ah kin see the wee holes in yer face,” he said.
Catriona turned away. She doubted he’d discovered how to roll film, but the last thing she needed was a permanent record of her swollen lip and every pore in her face.
“My assistant,” she said to Jake, and he chuckled.
“So you feel my pain.”
“I do. Thanks. Anything else you can think to share that could help?”
“No. But if I think of anything I’ve got Sean’s number.”
“That’ll work.”
Catriona glanced over her shoulder and motioned to Broch to follow her. When he didn’t move, she put her hand in front of her face and beckoned with her finger. His head bobbed from behind the camera.
“Eh?”
“We’re going.”
“Ach. Richt.” He tipped an invisible cap at Jake and followed her toward the trailers.
They traversed the lot, passing a large, brightly lit cross-section of a fake room packed with nine wooden workstations. On the walls hung every tool imaginable and shelves containing bags of glitter, bottles of glue, spray-adhesive, construction paper and other craft-building paraphernalia.
She glanced up at Broch as he strode beside her.
“You liked the camera?”
“Aye. Ye cuid see things far away like a spyglass.”
He answered with enthusiasm and Catriona smiled, turning her head so he wouldn’t see.
He’s forgotten he’s mad at me.
They reached the trailer with “Maddie” written on a whiteboard pressed to the door and Catriona knocked. A moment later, an attractive dark-haired woman with bright red lipstick opened the door. Catriona guessed her to be about twenty-five. She had the broad smile and flashy teeth of a person who looked good on camera. Her hair was rolled into a fifties-style hairdo, with a thick fringe of dark bangs across her forehead. All she needed was a red dress with big white polka dots to complete the look. Glancing past her into the trailer, Catriona could see she owned at least one.
“Yes?”
“Hi. My name is Catriona. This is Broch. We’re looking for your co-host and we’ve been told you might have been the last to see her?”
Maddie put her hand on her chest. “Me? I doubt that.” She walked down the short flight of stairs to join them outside, shutting the trailer door behind her. Smoothing her oversized black t-shirt over her black tights, she looked up at Broch and flashed him a demure smile before turning her attention back to Catriona. “Who said that?”
“We heard you carpooled sometimes?”
“Oh.” Maddie nodded her head, as if that explained everything. “Right. I picked her up a few times.”
“When was the last time?”
“Yesterday.”
“And you took her home?”
“Yes.”
“And this morning?”
“I came in by myself this morning. It wasn’t a regular thing. Just a way to get to know her, you know? So we could bond for the show and our on camera relationship could feel genuine.”
“But it wasn’t?”
Maddie’s expression flashed with annoyance before shifting to open-eyed confusion.
“What?”
“You said, ‘so the relationship could feel genuine.’ As if there was no way it actually would be, but you wanted to be sure you faked it well.”
Maddie laughed and all traces of vexation disappeared from her demeanor. “Oh, no, that’s not how I meant it. I meant so we could get to know each other and become friends and then that would show on camera.”
“So you considered yourself friends with her?”
“Yes. I mean, we’ve only known each other a couple of weeks but sure. She was swell.”
“Is.”
“Huh?”
“She is swell.”
“Right. What did I say?”
“Was.”
“I meant was swell to me during the friending process.”
“Gotcha.” Catriona chewed at her lip, wondering what question she could ask to trigger another response like Maddie’s last. The craft star hadn’t seemed flustered after being called out for using the past tense. Maybe it was nothing.
Maybe Maddie was a seasoned liar.
“So you don’t know where she is?” asked Catriona.
“Nope. I’m sure she’s fine. Might have had a call back for another opportunity. Actors hide things like that all the time. You think they’ve gone missing or caught the flu and the next thing you know, they’ve left to join another cast.”
“Is there any reason to believe she might want to leave this show?”
“No.”
“Was her job in danger here?”
“No. I mean, I don’t know. We do have two hosts. Maybe she wanted to be solo lead somewhere else. Who knows?” Maddie reached for the knob on the door of her trailer, a move that made Catriona feel as though she’d been dismissed.
Catriona felt Broch’s presence behind her and glanced back. The Highlander loomed over her shoulder, staring down at Maddie, his mouth a straight, grim line. His right eye squinted, as if he were trying to bore a laser through the woman’s head with his left.
“What’s up with you?” she muttered.
He grunted and crossed his arms against his chest.
Maddie’s megawatt smile dimmed a shade. “Is that all? I have to get ready. I think we’re going to shoot around her.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Maddie nodded, glanced once at Broch and disappeared inside the trailer.
“What was up with the death stare?” Catriona asked Broch as they started back across the lot.
“She doesnae lik’ her.”
“Maddie doesn’t like Dixie?”
“Nae. And her smile is lik’ a mask.”
“In all fairness, around here it’s hard to tell sometimes. Everyone’s always pretending to be
