"You like L.A.?"

"I hate LA."

Wilder nodded. "Did Daisy ask for help?"

"No," Lucy said, getting annoyed. "But she's my little sister-"

"When did you know she was in trouble?"

Well, aren't you chatty all of a sudden, Lucy thought. "She called on Saturday, three days ago, and asked me to come down to direct this mess. She said it would be a good opportunity."

"And you said yes."

"No," Lucy said. "I said no. I don't like doing full-length features. But then Pepper got on the phone and cried, and she's not a crier, so I said yes."

"So, as soon as you knew something was wrong, you came." Wilder shrugged.

Lucy shifted in her chair. "Look, I knew Connor had a lot of influence on her and I never got her away from him."

"How old is Daisy?" he said.

"Thirty." Lucy shook her head. "Yeah, I know, that's a grown-up. But that doesn't mean I haven't let her down. I should have invited her to come stay with me before this, told her I'd put Pepper in school, help her take care of her, and I didn't. I was selfish." She sat back, suddenly tired. "We have kind of a rocky history. When she was eighteen, she told me to get lost. Actually, I divorced Connor, and she chose him instead of me. She wanted a big brother more than she wanted a big sister." She stopped. "That's not fair. She chose to stay and work on her own career in feature films rather than come to New York and be part of mine in advertising. Which makes sense, she had a job, and why follow your big sister around, especially if you think she's going to the dogs." Lucy tried to smile. "Family joke. My specialty is working with animals. I like dogs."

Wilder nodded, relaxed in his chair.

"I'm sorry," Lucy said. "I'm babbling. The point is, Daisy's in trouble now, and it's my responsibility to save her and her kid, and given that whatever is going on here involves Finnegan, and that he wanted you off the set, and that right after I said no, you had a knife pulled on you…" Lucy swallowed and then tried to look chipper. "Well, I guess that means now I have to save you, too."

Wilder jerked his head up.

"Well, I'm the director," Lucy said. "You're my responsibility now."

"No, I'm not," Wilder said. "The bar fight could be just dumb-ass good old boys. Probably nothing to worry about. Forget about me. Your sister's different. What's wrong with the movie?"

"Oh, God, where do I start?" Lucy poured herself another drink and offered him the bottle. When he shook his head, she went on. "Well, everybody with any responsibility quit when the old director died, and I think they all left so they'd be far away when whatever it is hits the fan. Which should be shortly."

"High Noon" Wilder said. "The townspeople clearing out."

"Not you, too," Lucy said. "Has everybody seen that damn movie?" She took another sip and went on. "Then we're working with almost no crew and I'm betting that's because whoever's behind this wants to keep most of the four million for himself."

"Four million?" he repeated, looking very interested.

"According to Stephanie, this Finnegan, the guy who wants you gone, paid four million dollars for the extra week of stunt shooting."

"So the old director made the deal?"

Lucy shook her head. "I'm betting Connor made it and cut the old director in on it. This whole mess has Connor written all over it." She realized she sounded bitter and looked up to see if he'd noticed.

If he had, it wasn't bothering him much. In fact, he looked almost cheerful. "I thought you and Nash were…"

"Were what?"

"Together." He looked uncomfortable even as he said it.

"Uh, no," Lucy said. "That ended twelve years ago.'

"He thinks you're together."

"He's wrong. I've got Daisy in trouble and a shoot that makes no sense, and if Connor's behind any of it, I'm going to want him dropped off the damn bridge." She stopped, surprised to realize how angry she was.

"I can do that," Wilder said, and she grinned at him, feeling less of an idiot. "What else is wrong?"

She leaned back in her chair, the combination of the scotch and Wilder making her feel better than she had since she'd arrived. "Well, the change in the script is ridiculous. The movie was a romantic comedy, but now it turns out Brad's a Navy SEAL and Rip's a thief. It's like going to see Sleepless in Seattle and finding out Bill Pullman is a terrorist and they blow up the Empire State Building."

Wilder looked lost. Must not have seen Sleepless in Seattle. "The Empire State Building is in New York. How do-"

"Okay, forget that. Try Brad jumps out of a helicopter and lands on a car trying to save Annie, not breaking every bone in his body. Whoever wrote these new pages didn't care about it making sense." She stopped. "Finnegan pays them all this money to shoot the stunts and they make them stupid. I don't get it."

Wilder shrugged. "If they're going slow enough and low enough, it'd be possible to jump and land on the car without getting hurt. Personally, I'd double-tap the bad guy, but then the movie would be over."

"Right," Lucy said. "Then there's the helicopter stunt on Thursday night which does not make sense. So why are they doing it? Because I think Connor really expects Karen to bring that copter down low enough on the bridge so that the actors can fill that cargo net. And there's something else. Connor just handed me another script change today. Rip, the bad guy, handcuffs Annie to the armored car and then puts a bomb on it. Only Brad runs up and puts a gun on the chain between the cuffs and shoots it out. Wouldn't that blow off Annie's hand?"

"Maybe not if she stretched her hand out. Depends on the caliber of the gun." He shrugged. "But it's a movie. Why-"

"Because I'm wondering if it's all a movie," Lucy said. "The whole helicopter thing is stupid. Why not take the money, jump into the car, and go off. Why a helicopter?"

"It's easy to follow people on roads," Wilder said. "Hard as hell to track through the low country, especially if the copter drops them on a boat. They'd be pretty much free at that point-"

The camper door banged open and Daisy looked in, her face drawn and tense. "Is Pepper here?"

"No," Lucy said. "I told Stephanie to take her to you."

"She did," Daisy said, breathing harder. "And I told her to wait for me until I finished my notes, but she said she had to find somebody so we could have a party tomorrow, and I told her to come right back. When she didn't, I looked for Connor because she likes to be with him, but he's gone, rehearsing with Karen."

"Who'd she have to find?" Lucy said, watching Daisy vibrate. If she'd been shaking like this, it was easy to see why somebody had prescribed something for her.

"Somebody named Mole?" Daisy said, her voice shaking.

"Oh, God, no.' Lucy stood up, her heart in her throat. "The mole. She thinks it's in the woods."

Wilder was out the door before Lucy could say anything else, not moving particularly fast but moving just the same.

"The woods!" Daisy said, her voice rising.

"You stay here and search base camp," Lucy said, pushing past her. "Tell everybody to look for her. Look everywhere."

Then she ran to catch up with Wilder.

Tyler was about to crush the beer can when he heard something moving through the swamp to the east, between his position and the movie camp. He slipped the empty back into the ammunition pocket and stared at the open bag of Cheetos, knowing he couldn't touch it for fear of making too much noise. It was still half full. A damn waste.

He slid onto his belly and crawled, moving away from his hide site, staying in the thick undergrowth, slithering in the mud, and then paused as he heard rustling to his right. Without moving his body or the sniper rifle, he turned his head and peered across the swamp. Peering back was the one-eyed gator, less than twenty feet away in the water, its head raised, the body almost completely submerged, next to a mound about three feet high. As he watched, it opened its mouth, revealing teeth and fangs.