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Eyes shining, Maddie said, “Is this the coolest or what?” She was taking in all of the action, watching the new scene being set up with one eye on Teej, who was joking around with Austin on the far side of the campfire.
“I guess.”
Mel was heading to Teej and Austin, directing them to sit next to the campfire.
Her gaze never leaving Teej, Maddie said to Bianca, “I can’t believe your mom didn’t want to be a part of it.”
“She doesn’t believe all this stuff about Big Foot. Thinks it’s all a lot of hype.”
“So?” Lara asked. “I mean, when does something like television come to Grizzly Frickin’ Falls. Never.”
Bianca said shortly, “Mom’s busy.”
“Oh, well, yeah, with the investigation,” Lara said.
For a second, Maddie and Lara both tried to look sad, almost as if on cue acting like they cared about Destiny. It kinda made Bianca sick.
Maddie broke the uncomfortable silence. “I’m going to grab something to drink. They’ve got Diet Coke. You guys want anything?”
“That stuff’ll kill you,” Lara advised.
“Oh, right. When? In about a hundred years?” Maddie tossed her hair and headed toward the drink cart, and Lara turned back to Bianca.
“At least Michelle gets to play your mom in the series. Kinda keeps it in the family, and besides she’s so cool. Sorry to say, but way cooler than your real mom.”
Bianca pressed her lips together.
“She’s hotter. Be better for the show,” Lara went on. “I mean, no offense, your mom’s okay, but she doesn’t have the same ‘it’ factor that Michelle does. This is way better. She makes a better cop.”
“What?”
“I mean TV cop. Oh, come on, you know I’m right.”
Bianca glanced over at the area tagged for the next scene: Bianca’s meeting with her cop mom. If the production crew had intended to make Michelle seem like Regan, they’d already got it wrong, Bianca thought. In heeled boots and a tight outfit Regan Pescoli wouldn’t have been caught dead in, Michelle was deep in conversation with Barclay Sphinx. Her platinum hair, braided and falling over a shoulder, gleamed in the production lights as she, intent on what the producer was saying, leaned a hip against a Jeep that had been fitted with a light bar and a sheriff’s department logo.
“See what I mean?” Lara said as Barclay even touched Michelle lightly on the shoulder as he went through the scene with her.
Yeah, Bianca thought, the television version of a female detective. So why didn’t it ring true? Why did it bug her so much?
Michelle looked fantastic, no question, but it wasn’t right. Bianca took another swallow of water and caught Michelle raining a smile back at the producer, the kind of smile she usually reserved for Dad. It was weird. Unsettling. Bianca had always known Michelle was a flirt, the kind of woman who lit up around men, but this was different. Bianca sensed a deeper emotion running here.
“And your mom’s sooo prego,” Lara went on. “Like huge. She’d fill up the whole picture on a wide screen.”
“She’s going to have a baby,” Bianca ground out.
“I’m just saying, she’s not right,” Lara sniffed.
Maddie returned, a sweating Diet Coke can in hand. “So has your mom figured out who killed her?” she asked Bianca as she cracked the top of the can open.
“What?” Bianca was pissed at Lara and everything else.
“Destiny. Does she know who did it? You said she doesn’t think it was a Big Foot.” She took a sip as a worker stretched an electrical cord around the perimeter of the next scene. “I mean, I don’t either, but who would have done it? Who does she think?”
“I don’t know,” Bianca said, more annoyed than ever. She didn’t want to discuss her mom’s work or the case. “She’s working on it.”
“Does she think that the baby’s father did it? Killed her?” Maddie asked. “I hear it wasn’t Donny’s.”
“I don’t know,” Bianca snapped again. Her ankle throbbed, she was sure the makeup used to disguise the split on her lip wasn’t working, the mosquitoes were driving her nuts, and the whole night was a big pain.
