“Look, I’d better get back to the set,” Nancy said, putting down her soda. “Security should have had a good look around by now, and I want to find out exactly what happened. Are you coming, Bess?” she asked.
“Is it okay if I meet you back there in a little while?” Bess responded.
“Don’t worry about Bess here,” Rick put in with a grin. “I’ll take care of her.”
That was just what Nancy was afraid of.
Pushing through the thick, soundproof door, Nancy stepped back onto the set. Immediately she saw Mattie trying to break up a fight. One of the men was William Pappas. Nancy hadn’t seen the other man before. He was slim, handsome, and at that moment his eyes were ablaze with anger.
“It was an accident!” Pappas was shouting. “Technicians are only human. Now, if you’ll get off my back, I’ll find out who was responsible and deal with that person. I can’t do anything if you’re going to stand here and scream at me all day!”
“You still don’t get it, do you?” the other man shouted back. “Mattie could have been killed in there! And I promise you, if so much as a hair on my client’s head is ever hurt, your network will be facing the biggest lawsuit the world has ever seen! Come on, Mattie!” He grabbed Mattie’s arm and marched toward the door. Nancy ducked behind a piece of scenery and continued to watch.
“Dwayne, please, calm down!” Mattie protested. “No one was trying to hurt me! I was nowhere near the accident!”
“It’s the network’s responsibility to protect you from things like this, Mattie. Look at those shards of glass! What if one of them had cut your face? Your career would be ruined.”
“Nobody is going to get hurt, Dwayne,” Pappas said, calmer now. “This is never going to happen again. Now, will you please get out of here so we can clean up this mess and get on with the show?”
As Dwayne stalked off, Nancy heard Pappas remark to Mattie, “It’s just my luck that that idiot agent was here today. The last thing I need is a nervous Nellie on the set the day the roof falls in. No offense, Mattie, but the man is a complete fool. Excuse me, please, will you?”
As Pappas breezed by her, Nancy grabbed Mattie’s elbow, and they followed him. The producer walked immediately over to the chief of security and began asking questions. Nancy and Mattie got as close as they could without being noticed and listened intently.
“It looks like an accident, plain and simple, Mr. Pappas,” the security man was saying.
“Thank you,” Pappas muttered. Then he strode directly over to where the lighting technicians were gathered. “Which one of you was responsible for checking the lights this week?” he asked.
“I was,” admitted one of the men unhappily. It was the man with the beard who had talked to Nancy and Bess earlier. “But they checked out fine. In fact, just this morning—”
“What’s your name?” asked Pappas darkly.
“Uh, MacPherson, Mr. Pappas, but—”
“You’re fired, MacPherson. Stop by the front office and pick up your severance pay. I don’t ever want to see you around here again, understand?” Before the man could say another word, Pappas was gone.
Mattie and Nancy looked at each other. “You’ve got to believe me,” Mattie whispered urgently. “That was no accident, I’m sure of it!”
Nancy sighed. If security thought it was an accident, it probably was. Still . . . “I think I’ll take a look around myself. You never know.”
There wasn’t much to see. All the glass from the broken light had been swept into a pile in the corner, and the light itself was in pieces against the wall. Each piece had been tagged for reference. Security seemed to have done a thorough job.
Nancy was about to give up and go back to Rick’s dressing room but decided to take a last look around. As she walked over to the back wall of the living room, a flash of something metallic caught her eye, and she bent to the floor. There, almost completely hidden from view, was a piece of metal with a bolt attached. One edge of the metal was shiny, as if it had been scraped or cut.