Page 64 of Scripted for Love and Poison
“Right. My colleague and I are drafting the full report, but do you want to inform your bosses while we do the same with the police?” He wanted to at least wrap up that part of the case soon.
“The police?” Claudia said, as if the concept of talking to the legal authorities sounded completely preposterous and bizarre.
“We can hardly hide this from them, as they have an open investigation on Simon Smith’s disappearance,” explained Luke.
“Oh, okay, okay. Can the sharing of information with theauthorities be put on pause for, let’s say, a couple of hours? We need to get an article about this story published ASAP, and I don’t want to get scooped by a competing outlet,” Claudia explained.
These people!
“Are you sure about giving it this kind of publicity? This is exactly what Simon wanted when he started this ruse,” Luke said.
“But it’s such a well-crafted ruse! The headline?—”
“I know, it writes itself.” Luke sighed. And he didn’t even try to persuade Claudia any further, because the truth was that Divya and he could not only use the money resulting from that case but also all the publicity. Of course, Sol had been right, and he’d have to let her know.
While Luke was having a surreal conversationwith editor Claudia Hopkins, Sol was dialing the number of editor Julie McQueen. The Londoner picked up after two tones.
“You found Simon?” the editor answered. Fortunately, Sol had much better news than the last time the editor had used that line on her.
“I mean, I didn’t, but Luke and Divya did. I helped a bit, though,” Sol said. “But Simon is well.”
“Sol, hon. That’s such a relief. So what happened to him? He got the director from one of the movies he’s trashed over the years to drug him and keep him in their basement while they force fed him brussels sprouts and chicken liver, right?”
“That’s weirdly specific, but no.” Sol realized she didn’t exactly know how she was going to deliver the information. She’d never done well when it came to empathy. “Hepretended to disappear in an attempt to get publicity and get his book published.”
“Oh, the rascal!” Julie laughed.
Sol couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. “Rascal? Aren’t you upset that he had you worried sick and nothing happened to him?”
“I’m glad nothing happened to him, hon.”
“Of course you are, but still, aren’t you infuriated?”
“I mean, it’s just such a clever plan. Don’t you think?” Julie continued. “And I see now that I may have been crucial to its whole development. I was the one to insist from the beginning that something had happened to him. I’m sure he counted on my friendship, and my tenacity, to stir some trouble.”
“When you put it like this . . .” Sol said. Maybe she really had tried to empathize and see things from Julie’s perspective. Or maybe she’d just been working too long in an environment where all kinds of publicity could be seen as good publicity. Either way, she thought Julie was right.
32
“Officer Tom Owens?”Luke had called the number of the detective in charge of Simon Smith’s disappearance.
“DetectiveTom Owens,” a frustrated Hunky Dory told Luke.
“Luke Contadino here. I thought you’d be interested in some of that quid pro quo.”
“If you called to tell me that Simon Smith is not dead, I’ve already read the article atPerformance Weekly, thank you very much, buddy.”
“It looks like your boss was right, after all,” Luke said. “The key to some of this mess was in someone’s writings.”
“The fucking book,” Owens said.
“Look, I called because thePerformance Weeklyarticle didn’t mention all the details. But if you’re not interested in some friendly exchange of information, I can just hang up and let you go back to your open investigations.” He was only slightly bluffing. There was some minor information he’d give Owens, but he needed the detective and couldn’t afford not getting access to whatever he had.
“Hold on a second. What details?” Hunky Dory sounded mildly nicer.
“Well, he obviously staged his own kidnapping or whatever the scene at his flat was supposed to imply,” Luke started.
“The lab results for the blood at his apartment came back as a mixture of corn syrup, food coloring, and cocoa powder. It’s the kind of ingredients used by practical effects and makeup teams in movie sets,” Hunky Dory explained, and Luke thought that the whole thing sounded preposterously Hollywoodonce again. “So we were a bit puzzled by that.”
