Dead ends and discussions

We whirled around, already stammering out excuses. Lainie stood there looking confused.

“Um, I mean, oh, is this your cabin?” I babbled. “We were just passing by and were wondering what they looked like inside. What a coincidence!”

Lainie crossed her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes. “Come on, you guys,” she said. “Bo already told me you’re, like, detectives or something. But why are you snooping around here?”

Oops! It looked like we were busted. Deciding to take advantage of the chance encounter to try to surprise a confession out of her, I took a deep breath.

“I’ll tell you why,” I said. “But first, I want you to tell us something, Lainie. Are you MrSilhouette?”

Lainie looked more confused than ever. “Mr. Who?” she said. “What are you talking about?”

“Come on,” George put in. “We saw the wig. Have you been stalking Syd all this time? Doing all the bad stuff?”

“Me?” By now, Lainie’s expression had gone from confused to downright astonished. If she was acting, she was awfully good at it. “You mean all the accidents and problems that have been happening during this shoot, like the loose rock at the pool and the wrecked honeymoon bungalow and whatever? Of course I didn’t do any of that! Why would I?”

“Because you’ve been obsessed with Sydney for the past couple of years?” Bess put in. “Because you didn’t want her to marry Vic?”

Lainie held up both hands. “Hang on,” she said. “You’ve totally lost me. Why would I care if Sydney and Vic got married? Hey, their wedding landed me a job, okay?”

“It did?” I said. “So you mean you just got hired on for this special? You didn’t work on Daredevils before that?”

Lainie shook her head. “Before this I was doing temp work for a bunch of low-budget plays and stuff.”

“Was that in New York?” Bess asked.

“Nope. L.A.” Lainie shrugged. “Look, I don’t know why you guys suddenly decided I was, like, some criminal mastermind or something. But I can tell you, it wasn’t me. I never met or even heard of Sydney before about two months ago when I got hired for this gig. And the only place I’d ever seen Vic was on TV.”

“But the wig,” George blurted out. “MrSilhouette sent Syd those photos of the back of a bald head….”

At that, Lainie’s face suddenly sort of crumpled and went red. I perked up. Was she about to confess?

“Okay,” she muttered. “Now I get it, sort of. Although I wouldn’t exactly say I’m technically bald. Not anymore.”

With that, she pulled off her strawberry blond braided hair, revealing a head of wispy dark hair barely two inches long. Nope. Definitely not bald, at least not like in that photo….

“I’m a cancer survivor,” Lainie said, her voice shaking a little as she stood there with her wig in one hand and her wisps blowing in the light breeze. “I finished my last round of chemo right before I got this job. That’s why I wear wigs — I lost all my hair during the treatment.”

“Oh!” Bess took a step forward, touching her gently on the arm. “Lainie, we’re so sorry. We didn’t know — and when we saw the wig, and knowing what we know about Sydney’s stalker being someone bald, we just thought —”

“It’s okay,” Lainie broke in, her voice stronger now. “I haven’t told anyone here about it, so there’s no way you could have known. I — I just didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for me or treat me any differently, you know?”

“Like Bo,” I said, suddenly realizing that this explained that odd little scene by the pool. “That’s why you got so upset when he tried to pull you into the water yesterday.”

She looked surprised for a moment. Then she nodded. “Right,” she said. “He’s cool and we’re having fun together and all. But I just wasn’t ready to tell him. Especially not in front of all those people and the cameras and everything.”

I exchanged a look with my friends. “Don’t worry,” I said. “We won’t tell a soul.”

Bess nodded. “Your secret is safe with us.”

“So how do you guys know Lainie was telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but?” George said a few minutes later as the three of us made our way along a shelly path leading toward the beach. “Maybe we should double-check her story.”

Bess rolled her eyes. “Come on,” she said. “The wig thing and her weird behavior by the pool were the only reasons to suspect her in the first place. Besides, you saw her — there’s no way she could have taken that bald lagoon photo just a few days ago and already have her hair grow out that much.”

“Bess is right.” I bit my lip. “Still, something’s kind of bugging me about that whole scene. I’m just not sure what it is.”

Bess raised an eyebrow. “You mean you think Lainie might have done it after all?”

“No, I’m pretty sure she’s innocent,” I said. “But still…”

At that moment the sound of Sydney’s voice came drifting toward us from somewhere ahead. We were too far away to hear what she was saying, but she sounded pretty hysterical.

“Uh-oh.” Bess put on a burst of speed. “Sounds like something’s wrong.”

“Again,” George added.

We hurried down the path and emerged onto the strip of sand at the base of the stairs that led up to the bungalow walkways. Sydney was standing at the top of the stairway, tears streaming down her face as she babbled almost incoherently. Donald was there too, ineffectively trying to soothe her as Butch stood by filming it all with a slight smirk on his broad face.

“Syd!” Bess rushed up to her, taking the steps two at a time. “What’s going on?”

Sydney whirled to face us as George and I hurried up the steps as well. “It’s Vic!” she wailed. “He was supposed to meet me back in our bungalow for a nice catered lunch. We were both looking forward to it all day. But I’ve been waiting twenty minutes and he still hasn’t showed!”

George looked relieved. “Oh, is that all?” she said. “Look, Syd, I get why you’re upset. But this is Vic we’re talking about, remember? Mr. ADHD himself? He probably just lost track of the time.”

“That’s what I thought.” Sydney choked back a sob. “I mean, I spent the whole morning in the spa with Akinyi, so it wouldn’t be that surprising that he’d forget without me around to remind him. But he’s not answering his cell, and Kinnie and I have been searching the whole resort and can’t find him anywhere!”

I couldn’t tell whether she was upset because Vic missed their romantic lunch, or if she was afraid he was late because something had happened to him. Either way, she was pretty freaked out.

“Don’t worry, Syd,” I said. “We’ll track him down. Now, when was the last time you —”

“Hello, hello!” Vic’s breathless voice burst out from the sand below. “Sorry I’m late. Whoa, Syd, you okay, love?” He leaped up the steps three at a time.

“Vic!” Sydney shrieked, flinging herself at him. “Thank goodness! I thought I’d never see you again.”

“Sorry, babe.” Vic’s eyes widened in surprise as he gently stroked her red hair. “Oh, man, I’m really sorry. I totally didn’t mean to upset you. I was playing poker with the guys over at Jamal’s bungalow and I guess we lost track of time.”

Sydney buried her face in his chest. “It’s okay,” she said, her voice muffled by his shirt. “Just don’t do that to me again, all right?”

“I promise.” Vic squeezed her tight and planted a kiss on the top of her head.

Sydney seemed mollified by his apology. Her expression was already clearing, and her sniffles getting further apart. But I wasn’t really buying Vic’s story — especially since I’d just noticed that his shoes were muddy.

“Come on, you two.” Donald started waving his hands around, shooing the couple farther down the walkway. In all the excitement, I’d almost forgotten he was still there. “You don’t want your food getting cold.” He smiled and shrugged. “Well, any colder than it already is, anyway.”

Vic and Sydney chuckled and headed arm in arm down the walkway toward their bungalow. Butch followed, filming the whole time, and Donald trailed along behind him.

That left me alone with my friends at the top of the steps. “Did you guys see Vic’s shoes?” I asked as soon as I was sure the others were out of earshot.

“His shoes? No, why?” George asked.

I quickly explained about the mud. Bess’s eyes widened. She glanced down at the planked walkway and nodded grimly as she spotted one of the muddy prints he’d left.

“I can tell you one thing,” she said. “He didn’t get them muddy in Jamal’s bungalow! So where was he, and what was he really doing all this time?”

“Good question.” I shrugged. “At least Akinyi doesn’t seem to be involved this time. Syd said they spent the whole morning together, remember?”

“Unless she and Vic are working together,” George pointed out darkly. “Don’t forget it was her cabin we caught Vic leaving last night.”

“That’s true,” I said reluctantly. “I still just hate to think there could be anything —”

I cut myself off as a piercing scream rang out over the entire area, echoing off the lagoon. “That sounded like Syd!” Bess cried, already running down the walkway.

“Hey,” someone called from the direction of the beach. “What’s going on?”

Glancing that way, I saw that Jamal and Bo had just appeared at the edge of the sand carrying tennis rackets. But I didn’t bother stopping to explain anything to them as I took off after my friends.

When we reached the honeymoon hut we found Donald dancing around helplessly on the porch. “Oh, it’s terrible!” he exclaimed. “Why do these things keep happening? It’s like this wedding is cursed….”

Ignoring him, I pushed past and burst into the bungalow. Sydney and Vic were seated at a small table covered in a white linen cloth. A pretty, young waitress stood nearby, her eyes wide and a napkin pressed against her mouth. Butch was there too, his mouth ajar and his camera pointing at the floor. All four of them were staring in horror at the gourmet lunch spread out on the table. Or, to be specific, at Vic’s plate. Vic was holding a knife and fork over a juicy piece of steak, watching in horror as dozens of wriggling maggots came squirming out of the cut in the meat!

Дата добавления: 2017-01-14