One Step Ahead

Everybody Out !

      Within minutes, the garage was swarming with police, paramedics, and other emergency personnel, and was almost instantly sealed off from onlookers by several uniformed officers and what seemed like miles of yellow tape. Briar and Ashley sat quietly in the office area, watching paramedics tending to Dalton and Ted, while some of their colleagues examined the bodies, which still lay on the concrete floor. One of the officers stood nearby, presumably to make sure that they didn't discuss the matter with each other before detectives had the opportunity to question them.

      As they gazed through the window, they saw Lieutenant Sanger step into the garage, followed by a slim Asian woman, who Briar recognized as the detective who had filmed her identification of Sylvia's necklace, and another woman, who continued past her companions toward the bodies. The detectives paused, speaking to one of the paramedics for a moment, and then moving on to uniformed officers, listening as he appeared to be reading something from the small notebook he carried. The patrolman then gestured to the office, and the detectives began walking toward the door.

      As they entered, Sanger nodded to the officer who had been watching Ashley and Briar, and he stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him. Briar glanced up at the pair, and said, "Do they call you out for everything, Lieutenant?"

      "They do when I've had both of your names flagged by dispatch," he replied. "The second you told that 911 operator who you were, she had someone else put in a direct call to my line, and Detective Han and I headed right out. So, let's start with the basics, all right? Do either of you know the victims?"

      Ashley shook his head, while Briar sighed, and responded, "Yeah, I knew both of them a little bit, from working here. His name is Earl Duffy, he's one of the mechanics here. Or he was, I guess I should say. He was kinda friendly with a buddy of mine, so I ran into him a couple of times outside of work, over at Wiley's place. He was a little bit gruff, but basically a decent guy."

      "What about his family?" Detective Han inquired. "Was he married, any children?"

      "No idea," Briar returned. "They should have that on file in the office, but if not, I can call Wiley and ask him, if you want."

      "We'll hold off on that for now," Sanger said. "What about the woman? Who is she?"

      "That's Delight DeLavalle, and I have no frickin' clue what she was doing here. Dalton fired her a few days ago, so there's no reason why she should be anywhere around the set."

      The name seemed vaguely familiar to Sanger, but he couldn't quite place why, so he sent Eloise Han a questioning look, and she informed him, "She was an actress, she started out on one of those kids channels a few years ago, then decided to try other things when her show got cancelled. According to the media, she had a bit of a reputation as a primadonna."

      "Hey!" Briar interrupted. "What's going on out there? Why are Ted and Dalton on stretchers?"

      "The EMT's thought it would be best to take them to the ER, as they both appear to be in shock," Sanger replied.

      "Yeah, I guess that shouldn't surprise me. We had a guy rip open a flap of his scalp on the Venezuelan shoot, and Ted whoopsed his cookies that time, too," she mumbled.

      "How the fuck does he do this job, if he can't stand the sight of blood?" Ashley wondered.

      "Sometimes I wonder that myself. He's great at putting everything together, but if somebody gets hurt, he loses his shit."

      Attempting to get things back on track, Sanger instructed Eloise Han to accompany Ashley into the next room and take his statement, while he questioned Briar about the days events. He had her repeatedly take him step by step through everything they had seen and done, until she broke off and asked, "Why the hell do you want me to repeat everything twenty thousand times, anyway? Do you think I'm gonna change my story or something?"