"His hands are cut," Stephanie said, shortly. "The EMTs are taking care of him."

Wilder looked over his shoulder at Karen. "You meet Nash in the Army?"

"No," Karen said.

Stephanie pushed harder on the gas, and for the next twenty minutes they broke every posted speed limit until they raced over a turn bridge that spanned the Savannah River. Then she slammed on the brakes and took the turn onto the gravel road way too fast.

Mad or stupid? Wilder wondered, but then she stopped the car, spraying gravel, and glared over the wheel.

Straight ahead on the road, in the middle of the movie set, Arm-strong was talking to Nash, her face determined, his stony. While they watched, she turned and saw the car and narrowed her eyes. Then she put her hands on her hips and waited.

She looked angry.

She looked really good angry.

LaFavre would have a heart attack.

"She wants to talk to you," Stephanie said to Wilder, sounding like a hall monitor about to turn him in for running with scissors.

"She wants to talk to me first," Karen said, and got out and slammed the door, the sound reverberating through the car.

Wilder watched as Nash said something to Armstrong and walked away staring at the bandages on his hands, ignoring Karen's approach even though she slowed as she passed him.

Stephanie looked through the windshield, her face drawn with dislike. "Well, don't keep her waiting," she said to Wilder with a knife in her voice. "She likes things done her way."

"Who doesn't?" Wilder said and got out of the car.

Next time the Angel of Death showed up as his driver, he was walking.

After the helicopter had gone, Lucy and Gloom had gotten the set back to a semblance of normal pretty much on grim determination alone. Fortunately, they were good at grim determination. Even Stephanie had obeyed orders. She'd found the cable and given it to Lucy, almost babbling, "It took me longer than I thought it would, somebody had unhooked it from Bryce and tossed it away, I had to hunt." She'd looked flustered for the first time since Lucy had known her.

"Thank you," Lucy had said, taking the cable from her. "Go get Karen and Wilder at the airfield," and she'd gone without argument, a good sign, Lucy had thought. And she needed a good sign because they were going to have to do the next stunt. The cameraman swore they'd gotten enough of Bryce before he fell to edit into the shot, but now Wilder was going to have to jump out of that helicopter on a ca-ble. She went over to video village and sat down behind the monitors beside Daisy, not happy at all.

"That was ugly," Daisy said. She looked serious but not upset enough to reach for pills, still under control.

"Yeah," Lucy said. "I want to know what happened before I send anybody else up there."

"You don't have much time,' Daisy said. "We're losing the light. You've got time for one, maybe two shots if they get back fast."

"Wilder does not go up there until I find out what happened and fix it." Lucy sat back in her chair. "He can be a pain in the ass, but I want him breathing and driving me crazy, not dead and making me feel guilty."

"Good for you," Connor said, and she jumped a little, surprised he was there. He was standing on the other side of the monitors, pale and quiet and, Lucy guessed, in pain.

"Are you okay?" she said.

He waved that away with one bandaged hand. "No big deal. But good for you for doing the stunt again. You are going to do it again, right?"

Lucy narrowed her eyes at him. "What the hell was Bryce doing on the skid?"

He flinched at her tone. "He insisted and Wilder agreed. I think Wilder put him up to it."

Lucy stared at him, dumbfounded. "The hell he did. As you keep reminding everyone, you're the stunt coordinator. Nobody does anything without your say-so."

"Yeah, but you keep overruling me. No wonder Bryce won't pay attention to me." Connor leaned forward. "Look, Luce, you have to get rid of Wilder. He's the one who talked Bryce into it. It was his fault-"

"No." Lucy drew back. "For God's sake, would you stop whining at out Wilder?"

Connor jerked back. "Whining? Lucy-"

"Connor?" Pepper came up to the monitors and climbed up into her chair so she could see him. "Do your hands hurt?"

"I'm fine, honey." He looked down at his bandaged hands and shot a wounded look at Lucy, clearly going for noble suffering, and Lucy thought, Sweet Jesus, and I married this guy.

"What is your problem?" she said to him.

"Problem?" He straightened at the tone in her voice. "I don't have a problem. I'm just trying to help my girl." He smiled at her, one hundred percent all charm.

"I am not your girl," Lucy said, and watched his smile disappear.

"Lucy. Come on." He glanced over at Daisy and Pepper, who weren't even pretending not to listen. "We were going to talk today, remember?"

"No." Lucy shook her head once. "I'm sorry. No."

His face twisted again, and she had to stop herself from saying anything else and making it worse. Then he said, "Fuck," and she followed his eyes down to his hands, blood soaking the bandages.

"I know," Pepper said. "That's a bad word, don't use it."

He'd clenched his hands into fists and opened his wounds, Lucy realized. He looked at her, blame in his eyes.

"You did that," Lucy said. "Don't even think about blaming me because you made yourself bleed, or blaming Wilder either." She turned back to the set and yelled, "Doc!"

Doc came out of the crowd, his glasses gleaming, and came toward her.

"Grab that EMT and get Connor to the ER, please, he's bleeding again," she said, and he nodded and went toward Connor, who looked at her, rage in his eyes. Well, too damn bad. She heard tires squeal and turned as a car pulled up in a spray of gravel. Stephanie was behind the wheel, glowering at her, and beside her was Wilder, looking as blank as ever. That must have been a fun ride, Lucy thought, and then Karen got out of the backseat, looking tense, and came toward her.

Lucy grabbed the cable that Stephanie had found and waited for

Karen as she slowed to talk to Nash, who walked right past her as if she weren't there.

"Aunt Lucy?" Pepper said.

"What, Pepper?" Lucy said, watching Karen and thinking, You know something, dammit.

"I saw the ghost," Pepper said. "It was in that building over there."

"Okay, honey," Lucy said as Karen came toward her, and then she jerked her head to the trees on the side of the road and Karen followed her.

Chapter 11

When they were out of earshot, Lucy held up the cable. "I've been over this cable twenty times since it came off Bryce. Aside from Nash's blood, there's nothing wrong with it. And yet, we almost lost Bryce."

Karen shook her head. "It wasn't the cable. The rope broke."

"The rope?" Lucy let the cable drop to her side, confused. "What rope?"

Karen tried to look bored and just looked tense. "There's a rope at the end of the cable, because rope gives and cable doesn't, so-"

"Where's the rope?" Lucy said, not giving a damn about stunt theory. She wrestled with the cable until she could hold up both ends. "No rope. Where is it?"

Karen looked surprised. "It should be tied on there," she said, pointing to the end that hadn't been hooked to Bryce. "Somebody probably threw it away or it fell out somewhere." She shrugged again. "It broke. It happens."

"Does it now?" Lucy crossed her arms. "You'd think if it happened, they'd find a better way. After they'd dropped, oh, say, half a dozen people like eggs on the pavement, you'd think they'd say, 'You know, the thing about this kind of rope is, it breaks' And then they wouldn't use it anymore."