Page 48 of Love On and Off Set

“Someone's going to be having a funeral, and it's not Sally.” I holstered my gun, having figured the noise I’d heard was this woman. Although that didn’t explain the loud noise I’d heard earlier. “Breathe, Sally. You’re all right.”

The woman, who appeared on the verge of hyperventilating, kept breathing harshly. Still, she also appeared to be calming.

“Sally.”

She snapped her gaze to mine.

“Did you see anyone out there?”

“No.” She swallowed hard. “Everyone's still downtown. I left Coco in charge so I could come back here. Lisette wants Mirela to have a different briefcase in the next office scene. She thinks it’ll create a mystery. I don’t remember seeing any of that in the script, and I can’t figure out what mystery she’s talking about but…” She gazed back and forth between the two of us, as if finally registering the situation. “What's wrong?”

“We think someone's stolen the Ming vase.”

“Oh, shit. I'm sorry. I didn't hear anything. I was in costuming. No one there either. If anyone stayed behind, they must be on lunch.”

“Did you come here first?”

“Well, duh.”

“So did you see the Ming vase? Or the box?”

“No. I was just clearing stuff away.” She scratched her forehead. “You’re telling me you’ve misplaced the vase?”

“We think it was stolen.” Myles voice betrayed a note of panic.

“Show me what you were doing.” I held my voice steady.

“I was just clearing the table.” She mimicked moving things to the shelves.

“Oh my God, look! There's the box.” Myles nearly jumped in clear excitement.

“What box? That's just some junk that some people dropped off before this morning’s shoot. I nearly tripped over the trunk. One of the buyers—”

But I was already seizing the box and moving it to the table. Slowly I opened it, holding my breath until I confirmed the vase was there. I lifted it to check the markings. Everything was exactly as it was supposed to be.

“Oh, baby Jesus.” Sally shot out the words. “That was the box? With the vase? I almost dropped that.”

My heart seized.

Myles glared. “You didn’t realize? Hallstein’s been carrying that box around all last week.”

“Sure.” Sally shook her head, as if trying to dislodge something. “But I’ve never seen the box without Hallstein. I didn’t see him, so I just assumed the box was something else.” She pointed to the mess.

My sex partner winced. “Uh…”

Sally arched an eyebrow. “Hallstein isn’t even supposed to be here. Seamus told you to text him to ensure he didn’t come. Because of the fog, we raced down to the waterfront—”

My eyebrows shot up I turned to Myles. “You were supposed to text me?”

He examined his shoes with great scrutiny.

I looked down.

Oh my God, as he was so fond of saying. A drop of cum on the pristine white runner.

Sally was about to look down when I cleared my throat. Her gaze shot to mine. “I, uh…” I swallowed. “Let’s just keep this between us, okay? No harm, no foul? I’m such an idiot.” And I was. How the hell had I allowed this to happen?

“You’re human, and humans make mistakes.” Myles gazed at me. Then he spun his gaze back to Sally. “So, no sharing this little boo-boo.”