As if he didn"t feel guilty enough.
Joe turned to Howe. "This guy actually extinguishes extinguishesfires for a living. He"s a fireman in Douglas County. Stunt work is just his part-time gig."
"How did you find him?"
"A friend of mine did security for another movie this company made. They grind out six films a year, all straight-to-video. Lots of bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s and stuff blowing up."
Howe grinned. "My kind of flick."
"This stunt guy"s specialty is fire gags. I figure he might be able to help us figure out what happened to Monica Gaines."
"Have you heard anything from the fire inspector?"
"Nah. I heard he visited the scene, but he"s just as clueless as-"
"-as you are?" Howe finished for him.
"I was going to say as anybody, anybody,but yes, if you want to put it that way."
An a.s.sistant director"s whistle cut the air, and a strong voice shouted,"Quiet, please!We"re rolling!"
Fifteen yards away, a gorgeous blond woman in tight black jeans and a ripped T-shirt held up an automatic handgun and aimed it down the street.
"Hey," Howe whispered,"I think I saw her in Playboy Playboya few months ago."
A Jeep rounded the corner and sped toward her. She raised the gun and opened fire, grimacing as each blank sh.e.l.l flew. The car abruptly veered to the left and rolled twice. It ignited, and the driver stumbled out onto the pavement, screaming as flames covered him.
A camera operator moved in for a close-up. After a few moments, the driver held his hands over his head, obviously a signal to the two firemen waiting just off camera with large chrome extinguishers. They were on him in an instant, covering him head-to-toe with white foam.
"Cut!"the director shouted.
There was halfhearted applause from the crew members, but it was apparent that they filmed scenes like this all the time. Just another day at the office. The firemen pulled the charred clothing from the stuntman, leaving him with a form-fitting black bodysuit.
"Yes!" The stuntman smiled broadly, obviously stoked by adrenaline. His blond hair was soaked with extinguisher foam, and his sunburned face glowed. "You sure you don"t want another take, guys?"
The director shook his head. "We got the shot. Guess you"ll have to do something else for your beer money this week."
"Aw, h.e.l.l, I"d do it again for free."
"Sorry, Pete. We"re moving on."
As the crew prepared for their next camera setup, Joe and Howe walked toward the stuntman.
Joe smiled at him."PeteTreadwell?"
Pete winced as he spotted the badge clipped to Howe"s belt. "Aw, s.h.i.t. Cops. Look, guys, the director just came up with that bulls.h.i.t car roll in the past couple of days. We didn"t have time to get permits, but if you wanna talk to the production manager-"
"Relax," Joe said. "We"re not here to bust your chops about filming permits. I"m Detective Joe Bailey, this is Mark Howe. Nice work out there."
Pete still wore a guarded expression."Thanks."
Joe lowered his voice."Pete, have you heard about what happened to Monica Gaines?"
"You mean the human torch?"
Joe nodded.
"Sure. Me and the guys were taking bets on whether she set it herself for the publicity."
"Not likely," Joe said. "Even if you think she"s a fraud, she has no experience with this kind of thing. Plus, we have it on video. If she engineered it herself, she put on one h.e.l.l of a show."
Pete lifted his eyebrows."Video?"
Joe held up a brown padded envelope. "Security camera caught the whole thing. Anywhere we can show you this?"
Pete led them to a dilapidated Winnebago recreational vehicle that served as the production"s onsite office. The lime-green interior was littered with production reports, storyboards, and hundreds of cigarette b.u.t.ts.
"Cla.s.sy," Howe said.
"Hey, this isn"t exactly big-budget stuff we"re doing here." Pete pointed to a VCR/TV combo unit resting on a small card table. "Go ahead and show me your tape."
Joe inserted the ca.s.sette and played the Monica Gaines fire footage.
"Awesome!" Pete shook his head in disbelief."Can I see it again?"
They watched it four more times, and Joe noticed that Pete seemed to be viewing it more as a piece of action-packed entertainment than as a tragic occurrence.
Joe finally ejected the tape. "Show"s over. Any ideas?"
Pete scratched his head. "Well, you need to find the trigger. The ignition mechanism had to be somewhere on her."
"She was wearing only a robe," Joe said. "She slipped it on less than thirty seconds before this happened."
"That"s too bizarre. If I were to try to rig something like this, I"d cover her with a flammable compound, then strap a remote-controlled igniter under her clothes somewhere."
"Remote controlled?" Howe asked.
"Yep. I push a b.u.t.ton on my keypad, and as long as she"s within three hundred feet, it creates a spark, lights the compound, and up she goes. Poof."
Joe shook his head. "She said she"d just stepped out of a bathtub, and there was no ignition mechanism. The paramedics would have seen it."
"I"m telling you, there had to be one somewhere. Did you check her clothes, her hair, everything? It could be as small as a hairpin or a b.u.t.ton. This stuff has gotten really tiny."
"We"ll take another look," Joe said. "What was left of her robe is in evidence. If there"s anything there that strikes us as odd, we might ask you to come in and give us your thoughts. Okay?"
"Sure." His glance went back to the monitor. "Think maybe you can show me that again?"
Joe ejected the ca.s.sette, remembering the vulture nurse waiting to snap pictures of Monica"s corpse. Sickos."Sorry, Pete. We have to get going."
Joe and Howe walked into the squad room, to find Carla on the telephone, holding up her freckly index finger as an indication that this call was somehow significant to them.
"Got it," she said into the phone."We 11 see you in a few minutes." She hung up.
"What is it?" Howe brushed aside the candy wrappers on his desk, looking for any message slips that may have been left for him."Is the fajita truck outside already? Pedro"s early today."
Carla stood and pulled on her jacket."Sorry to disappoint you, but this is a little more official than that."
"The doughnut van?"
"Nope. That was the security chief at Monica Gaines"s hotel. They apprehended a woman who"d broken into an office there."
Joe and Howe traded puzzled stares.
Carla motioned for them to follow. "She"s Monica Gaines"s TV producer."
"Either arrest me or let me the h.e.l.l out of here!" Tess Wayland stood in the small office as Joe, Howe, and Carla entered. Tess was a short, slender bundle of energy with a strong chin, spiked brown hair, and gla.s.ses that were slightly too large for her face. She c.o.c.ked her head toward Bonafas. "d.i.c.k Tracy here figured he was going to impress you guys, is that it? Tell me, are you impressed with his crime-fighting skills? "Cause I sure as h.e.l.l am not."
Bonafas sighed."She"s been like this ever since we caught her. It"s been a real joy, let me tell you."
"What"s the story?" Carla asked.
Tess let out a rueful cackle."The story? I"ll tell you what the st-"
Carla held up a hand to silence her. "I was talking to him. You"ll get your turn."
Bonafas gestured toward a closed door."One of the guys caught her in the room next to the monitor bank. It looked like she was about to cart away our security tapes."
Howe turned toward her."Something in there you don"t want everybody to see?"
"Don"t be stupid," she hissed. "I know you guys would have already taken copies of the security tapes you needed."
"Then enlighten us," Carla said."Because right now I"m inclined to treat you as a suspect in an attempted murder."
"Oh Lord," she moaned."In two minutes I can have a team of lawyers on the phone who can tear you guys to tiny bite-size chunks."
"Bring "em on," Carla said. "In the meantime, why don"t we talk about why you broke into this place?"
"I"m here on behalf of Monica Gaines."
Joe stepped forward. "You"re trying to tell us that she sent you here?"
"Not exactly. I produce her television show, a little thing called Monica Gaines Monica Gaines"s Psychic World.Perhaps you"ve heard of it."
Howe grimaced."Aw, Christ."
Joe shared Howe"s disgust. "You wanted Monica"s fire footage to use on the show?"
"d.a.m.ned right. It"s only a matter of time before somebody gets it. Why not us?"
"For one thing, it"s evidence in what may become a murder investigation," Carla said.
"We"re doing our own investigation on the show every night," Tess said. "We have the leading psychic authorities appearing on live television and offering their-"
Howe interrupted. "So you thought this footage would spice things up?"
"It"s hard to engage in any meaningful discussion without knowing exactly what we"re talking about."
"Well, isn"t that sort of what your show does every night?" Carla said.
Tess checked her watch."Look, guys, I have a show to produce. If you"re gonna arrest me, I"d appreciate it if you could get it over with. The sooner you book me, the sooner my lawyer will be all over your a.s.ses, and the sooner I"ll be back with my crew."
Joe glanced at Carla and Howe. They obviously agreed that it wasn"t worth incurring the wrath of Tess Wayland"s attorneys. He turned back to Tess. "Tone down the att.i.tude, and we might be able to work something out."
Tess hesitated, and then nodded. "Finally, a reasonable man."
Joe sat next to her. "How well do you know Ms. Gaines?"
"I"ve produced her show for the past two years."
"That doesn"t answer my question."
"I guess I know her better than most people. She"s a pretty private person."
"Does she have any enemies?"
"Besides the entire editorial staff of Skeptical Inquirer? Skeptical Inquirer?Not really. There"s the occasional nut whose feelings may be hurt because she doesn"t accept his marriage proposal, but that"s pretty standard for any media star at her level."
"Any professional rivals?"
"None that would benefit from her death. Psychics who are as popular as Monica give credibility to everyone else in her profession."
Joe nodded. It was true. Whenever a spiritualist or psychic suddenly gained widespread popularity, there was an upswing in the number of successful charlatans emulating their techniques.
"Has there been anything unusual about Monica"s life lately or the people she"s been a.s.sociating with?" Carla asked.
Tess considered the question. "Like I said, she"s a private person. To tell you the truth, I don"t think she has much of a personal life. She"s all about work. But there has been something unusual in the past few months. Between each production cycle, Monica has disappeared."
Howe grinned. "You don"t mean literally, as in thin air, right?"
"No," Tess said. "At least, I don"t think so. Monica goes away for weeks at a time and no one can reach her. She doesn"t post updates to her website and we don"t have a clue where she goes."
"Well, we know she has three residences," Howe said.
"We know that too," Tess snapped. "We once needed her to meet with a station group president to close a syndication deal and we sent people to each of her homes. She wasn"t at any of them. Even her immediate family had no idea how to contact her."
"Has she ever given you any idea what she"s doing?" Carla asked."Health spa? Plastic surgery? Maybe a married lover?"
Tess smiled."I know her, and I don"t think she"d be especially discreet about any of those things."