TWENTY-FOUR

SAM HAD LEFT a message at Josie’s office. It was brief and to the point. He had gotten the tapes. Why didn’t she come over to his house when she was done with work and he’d cook dinner and they could go through them together.

She had wasted most of her day. She had worried about Cheryl and Howard. She had wondered about Sam and his ex-lover. She had thought about where Courtney’s body might have gone and who might have moved it. She had wondered exactly what Sam and his gorgeous ex-lover were doing.

Then she had tried to put up a wall while listening in on Bobby interviewing her crew members. Dottie had started out characteristically abrupt, verging on rude. Surprisingly, after a while, Bobby Valentine had appeared to charm her, and by the last question they had been chuckling together over something one of them had said. Jill had been less susceptible to Bobby Valentine’s charms although he began the questioning by flattering her. (Had his “Wow! I haven’t met many carpenters who look this gorgeous!” been more than a bit insulting to the rest of them? Josie thought.) Jill had merely nodded and waited for the questions to begin. She hadn’t warmed up. She had been polite, professional, and cold. Annette had been a nice contrast. Young, bubbly, obviously thrilled with the possibility of being on television, she had chatted on and on, full of enthusiasm for her job, her life, the house they were remodeling. Bobby Valentine had been smitten. Her interview had exceeded the total time he had spent with the other two.

When the interviews were finished, Josie had watched Chad help another young man roll wires and put lights and microphones and things away. Then she had started to wonder again what Sam and Sondra had been doing all this time.

Josie had taken the time to go home and change before heading to Sam’s house at the north end of the island. Her closet didn’t provide anything as chic as the wraparound silk blouse and linen capri pants Sondra had worn to lunch, but her jeans were clean, her yellow-and-white-striped oxford-cloth shirt pressed, and her green plastic flipflops only a few weeks old.

Sam lived in a small ranch house tucked into the dunes at the exclusive north end of the island. He and Josie had been remodeling it over the years; recently they had installed some rather elegant outdoor lighting. It was still light out, but Sam had turned on the display and Josie smiled as she hopped from her truck and walked up the wooden boardwalk to the deck that encircled the house. She peeked through the screen door into the living room. Sam was stretched out on one of the twin couches, a remote control in one hand fast-forwarding through the channels on the large TV, which stood to the left of the fireplace.

“Sam?”

“Josie, come on in.” Sam slid his lean, jean-clad legs to the floor, stood, stretched, and smiled. He was tall and tan, his sandy hair falling over his glasses and into his eyes, and Josie was instantly glad they were having this evening together. She might even have forgotten about Sondra if the woman herself hadn’t appeared in the kitchen doorway, a tray in her hands.

“I found some munchies,” Sondra announced, walking into the room. “You must be Josie. I’m Sondra.”

“Hi.” Josie looked over at Sam. “I thought you were going to be cooking.”

“The grill is warming up,” he explained. “Sondra volunteered to prepare some appetizers while I got these things organized for you. There’s a lot here, but you should be able to scan them in a little over an hour.”

“Sam’s spent the last few hours going over the tapes, getting them in order, tossing out the duplicates and the ones that don’t show Courtney. I’m afraid I just grabbed from a pile in the tape room, and some of the ones I brought weren’t at all useful or relevant,” Sondra added, putting the tray down on the cherry coffee table.

“It was very nice of you to bring these,” Josie said, remembering her manners.

“It wasn’t a big deal. I was coming down for a long weekend anyway. And it’s been great seeing Sam. He and I go way back.” Sondra beamed at Sam. Sam beamed back at Sondra. Josie reached out for a gourmet potato chip.

“We put the tapes in chronological order, and the first one is in the player. I’ve marked the rest of them. They’re on the coffee table,” Sam explained. “You might want to get started while I cook dinner. There are about three hours of tape here. But Sondra and I found that once you get going, you can start zipping through fast-forward. You’ll see for yourself.”

“Great.” Not thrilled that this would leave more time for Sam and Sondra to reminisce, Josie sat down on the couch Sam had just vacated and pressed play on the remote.

And found herself in the early eighties with a very perky, very curly Courtney Castle. Once again Josie wondered what she would look like if she went to Courtney’s hairdresser.

“Good evening. Welcome to Crafty Times with Courtney Castle.” Courtney as a brunette was sitting on a bench with what looked like a million stuffed animals scattered around her. “Today’s show is called ‘Stuffies for All,’ and we’re going to meet Janie Jones, creator of this plethora of absolutely adorable toys, and she’s going to tell us how to make them ourselves…”

Josie watched about fifteen minutes of this show before pressing fast-forward and heading to another Crafty Times with Courtney Castle, to a show entitled ‘Stenciling for All.’ She pressed the fast-forward button again and found a Courtney in a new environment with shorter, flatter, lighter hair.

Josie leaned forward and squinted at the screen. Courtney, wearing denim overalls, was actually sitting on a bale of hay in what appeared to be a garden-variety barn. “Welcome to Country by Courtney,” she announced, smiling broadly. “Today our topic is apples and we’re going to make apple butter and apple chutney, see cider being pressed during a short field trip, and then learn all about those absolutely appealing Appalachian apple dolls…” Josie pressed fast-forward.

“Welcome to Country by Courtney…” The hair was the same, but the overalls had been replaced with jeans and a gingham blouse. “On this show we’re going to be talking about corn. Corncob pipes. Corn stacks to decorate your home for Halloween. Corn relish…”

Josie pressed again. And again. And again. Through Country by Courtney and “Rhubarb, the First Sign of Spring in our Garden.” Through Country by Courtney and “Beans from the Vine and Bush.” To Country by Courtney and “Give Peas a Chance,” where she switched from fast-forward to eject.

The next tape contained another show, another Courtney. Blond this time, still curly but less bubbly. Although perhaps the topic and the set lent themselves to a more conservative tone. “Hello, I’m Courtney Castle and this is the first show of Crewel with Courtney. Now some in our audience will understand me when I say there is really nothing cruel about crewel…”

Josie couldn’t hit the button fast enough.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one. On this tape, at least, Crewel with Courtney had a very short run. The next transformation was entitled Decorate Your Castle with Courtney Castle. Courtney was moving into her own now. Her hair was golden and worn in a polished style reminiscent of those popularized by the Breck girls of Josie’s childhood. She was dressed in an elegant navy suit and looked right at home in the English chintz drawing room, where, apparently, the opening of the show took place. There was an entire tape filled with three hours of this show and covering topics from “Swags for Every Room” to “Tassels to Go” to “Damask and the Den.”

From the general to the specific. The next tape was of two different shows: Stencil Your Castle with Courtney Castle and Faux Finishes in Your Castle with Courtney. Josie didn’t take her thumb off the fast-forward button until she arrived at the end.