I had rearranged some of my sticky notes two or three times before he replied.
Max: Both medically and socially.
I chuffed a quiet laugh at that, sitting back on my heels to admire and despair over my board from a new vantage point.The pink notes about Anmorata were sparse while the yellow ones I’d used for Tubbs were thick enough to be a problem.
After a few minutes’ dithering, I took a picture of the board and sent it to Max, mentally holding my breath and counting until he called.
“That took four minutes,” I said by way of greeting when the phone rang.“Are you slowing down?”
“Are youcrazy?”he huffed.The background was quiet and had that muffled quality of hotel room silence.“Again?”
“It’s just a thinking board!”
“Okay,” he muttered.“Thinking aboutmurder!”
“It’s not like that...”I trailed off under his annoyed silence.“Okay it’s alittlelike that.Like just a tiny bit.A microscopic particle.”
He sighed heavily, the sound on his end of the line changing as he moved from wherever he was with voices in the background to somewhere quiet.The click of a door closing then locking was followed by another sigh.“Video call time.”
A few minutes later, I had my phone propped up against the sofa as I showed him my thinking board, Muffin helpfully standing behind it for size comparison.Or waiting for treats.Whichever.“So which is it,” Max asked once I’d run him through the entire thing.“Are you thinking Anmorata had something to do with Tubbs’ death, or that she’s your pap stalker?You can’t have it both ways.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but paused midhey.Gingerly, I moved the sticky note with the fight between Anmorata and Tubbs down the line of pictures, placing it just under the image of me taken through the front window of Witte House.“And she couldn’t take the shot of me and Tubbs talking, because she’s in it,” I muttered, making another note and placing it under that pic.
“I know you were hoping it was something simple,” Max said, “but she can’t be both involved in his deathandthe stalker pap, not unless she’s got magic powers or somehow became a time traveler.”
“Given how this year’s been going, might not be too far out of the realm of possibility.”
“Show me the pics again.”
I moved my phone closer to the board as we dissected the angles, the lighting, the possibilities.“I can’t shake the idea that Tubbs argument with Anmorata was tied to his accident though.”
Max leaned back—he was in his trailer on set, in the bedroom area, and leaning against the plasticky fake wood of the headboard.His eyes were dark-bagged and red-shot, but I knew without him telling me he still had several more hours ahead of him.Movie shoots were a lot of hurry up and wait, but when you wereon, it was a slog.“I love you, Damien.Nothing you can say or do will ever change that.”
My turn to sigh.“But?”
“But...I think maybe Heath is right.You’re seeing ghosts where there’s nothing.He was expectingyouso had out two glasses.He was on a boat, slipped, fell, hit his head and that was it.No one pushed him or poisoned him.”
“But...the fight on the boat?”
“You said he had a cat?”
As if summoned, Charlemagne sauntered into the room, holding one of his crinkle toys in his teeth.He wedged himself between me and the phone, staring at Max before dropping the toy and meandering over to give Muffin a death glare that made Muffin roll onto his back and wiggle happily.
Weirdo.
“I’m sorry,” Max said slowly.“What the hell was that?”
“Charlemagne.He’s Tubbs’ cat.He’s naked.”
Charlemagne made a yowly, rumbly sound and batted at Muffin’s ears.
Max winced.“Okay, if the neighbors heardthatand maybe Tubbs talking to him?I can totally see how they’d think there was a fight.Especially if they had their own noise going on.”
Charlemagne made another weird sound, this time ending in a sort of prolonged purr-meow as he stretched out beside Muffin and proceeded to lick his own paws.
“It’s just...”I trailed off, a knot of annoyance and embarrassment lodged firmly under my ribs.“It justfeelsoff, you know?”
“Babe, I’m no shrink, but I think what happened over the summer is messing with your head.Was this a weird coincidence?Hell yes.But that doesn’t mean Tubbs was murdered too.He died.He sucked, he was a terrible person, and he died.End of.”
