"What's wrong with the tiger stripes?"

Nash stifled a laugh, and Wilder looked out at the surrounding forest and swamp that looked nothing like tiger stripes and thought of John Wayne wearing the same type of camouflage in that terrible movie The Green Berets, detested by all the manly men on Smoke Bomb Hill. Four days of this, he thought. Of course, that was also four days of looking at Althea. And Armstrong.

"J.T.? What's wrong with the tiger stripes?"

Wilder gave up. "Not a thing, Bryce."

Screw the hangover; he really needed a drink.

Chapter 3

By the time they were ready to shoot, Lucy had spoken to most of the cast and crew and was ready to ditch them all and go back to dog food commercials. The dogs were so much better behaved.

Daisy was refusing to talk about what was wrong with her, Pepper was being manic about some ghost in the swamp, Althea was distracted, Connor was fuming, Bryce wouldn't shut up, and Gloom kept humming "Holding Out tor A Hero" whenever Wilder got close. Even the makeup department was getting on her nerves. A woman had come up to Lucy asking for him, her false eyelashes fluttering and her lipsticked mouth working nervously. "I need to see Bryce," she'd said, and Lucy had thought, Why? A makeup emergency? and sent her back to base camp.

But the worst was Wilder. If she'd had to choose only one of them to drop off the bridge, it would have been him. He wasn't doing anything wrong, but he was the one screwing up her concentration the most.

Shoving him firmly out of her mind, she headed for the rail where Althea Bergdorf, her lead actress, was cabled in under the bright set lights. Pepper followed, and Lucy thought about sending her back to the monitors at video village and then relented. Pepper's mom was having a very bad time. Pepper could stick close until Lucy found out whatever was wrong with Daisy and fixed it.

Lucy slowed. Maybe the problem was more complicated than just Daisy being tired. Maybe Pepper's climb on the rail had been a bid for attention. Maybe she needed somebody to ask what was wrong, somebody to listen to her.

"Is there anything you want to talk about, Pepper?" Lucy said, looking down into her niece's round little face.

Pepper nodded. "There's a ghost in the swamp."

"No, baby, I meant is there anything you're worried about? Anything you want? Anything you need?"

Pepper looked startled, then thoughtful, but before she could answer, Lucy heard Althea call, "Lucy?" and thought, Oh, hell. "We'll talk in a minute, okay?" she said to Pepper, and the little girl nodded, looking relieved.

When they reached her, Althea was leaning over the bridge rail looking at a gator parked on the riverbank below. Meeting of minds, Lucy thought, having heard about Althea in action with men. "Anybody you know?" she said.

Althea smiled, a perfect Hollywood smile. "He kinda reminds me of some of the guys I've dated. Listen, I-"

From behind them a woman said, "We're ready," and Pepper slid neatly between Lucy and the rail, folding herself out of sight.

Lucy turned to see a slender brunette gazing at her with what looked like contempt. I don't even know you, Lucy thought. What's your problem?

"I'm Stephanie, your assistant," the brunette said. "I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier." She didn't sound sorry. "I was helping Connor. He said to tell you Althea's cable is good to go." Her voice gave the slightest emphasis to Connor, as if she were talking about a celebrity, and she lifted her chin a little and met Lucy's eyes as if daring her to challenge any of that, especially the Connor part. "I realize you don't work much with stunt cables on dog food commercials, so I'd just take his word for it if I were you."

Would you now? Lucy thought, now recognizing her as the woman who'd been arguing with Connor. "Lovely to meet you, Stephanie. Get me a script, please. A full script, one with all the pages. Thanks." Now go be snotty to somebody who cares. She turned back to Althea. "You ready for the scene? Terror on tap?"

Althea looked over the rail at the dark river. "There's a gator down there," she said, her face distorted as she faked fear. "They're dangerous."

"Yes, there's an alligator," Stephanie said to Althea, in a voice she'd use to talk to a small child she didn't like. "But since he's not going to be climbing up on the bridge, he's moot."

Watch it, Lucy thought, prepared to drop-kick her off the bridge if Althea took offense, but Althea just smoothed out her face and said, "Moot. That's a funny name for a gator."

"Moot?" Pepper said, forgetting to lie low. She looked over the rail and trained her binoculars down on the gator, floating in the moonlight now.

Stephanie curled her lip. "Yes, it is a funny name. Are you ready?"

"Just about," Althea said.

"You can go now," Lucy said to Stephanie. And later we will talk about not patronizing the talent.

Stephanie walked off into the darkness, and Althea dropped her chin and watched her from under lowered brows, no smile at all.

Mistake, Stephanie, Lucy thought.

"I think Moot only has one eye," Pepper said, still staring through her binoculars.

Althea met Lucy's eyes. "Maybe I'll get a chicken to throw to old Moot tomorrow."

"That would be better than throwing Stephanie."

Althea grinned, a real smile this time.

"It's bad to feed the alligators," Pepper said, looking up at them. "If you feed them, they lose their fear of humans and attack."

Lucy looked down at Moot, sneering at them from the river. "Too late. Moot already thinks we're worthless."

"Bryce throws Ding Dongs from Crafty to him," Pepper said sadly.

Althea rolled her eyes and then leaned a little closer to Lucy. "Listen, can we talk? After this take, I mean? About Bryce. And some other things."

I miss the dogs, Lucy thought. They never want to talk. "Absolutely. You ready to go here?"

Althea nodded, and Lucy smiled encouragingly at her and headed back to video village with Pepper in her wake, thinking, It's going to be a really long four days.

"How's it going?" Gloom said when she got there.

Lucy settled into her chair. "My assistant is an elitist snot who thinks Connor's God, my lead actress wants to chat about the lead actor, and there's a gator underneath the bridge who's gonna call for a wine list if anybody falls off."

"So we're good then."

"Oh, yeah," Lucy said as Pepper climbed up onto the chair to her far right, leaving empty the seat between them where her mother was supposed to be. No script supervisor again, Lucy thought. That's not like Daisy.

"You okay?" Gloom said.

"I'm beginning to sense a distinct lack of enthusiasm on the part of the crew," Lucy said, nodding at Daisy's vacant seat.

"I know how they feel," Gloom said and called, "Stand by," as people melted off the set. Then he called, "Roll sound," and someone echoed, "Rolling," and a cameraman shoved a clapper in front of Althea's face, yelled, "Take one," and smacked it shut.

Lucy called, "Camera," and then, "Action," and Althea slung her leg over the rail and boosted herself up and then screamed halfheart-edly as Rick dragged her back down and called her an idiot with much the same force that he'd use to ask for a latte. Althea said, "What do you care?" as if she didn't, and then let him drag her back to the car.

Lucy yelled, "Cut," and looked at Gloom.

"Distinct Lack of Enthusiasm," he said. "Part Two: The Cast."

Lucy took off her headphones and walked over to Althea. "You feeling okay?"

"Yes." Althea blinked at her. "Why?"