“I’m just glad you’re not one of those women,” Hannah said. But before she could say anything else, the assistant director called for quiet on the set.

Some of the prop men hurried up to the set carrying champagne classes and handed them to some of the guests at the cocktail party. Others didn’t get glasses and Hannah assumed that they would be approached by waitresses in the scene with their trays of filled glasses.

“Are they really drinking champagne?” Hannah asked her youngest sister.

Michelle shook her head. “It’s cream soda. We’ll do a couple of second unit inserts later with glasses being filled with real champagne.”

“Like the inserts Clark shot of Moishe?”

“That’s right. Excuse me a second, Hannah. Ross needs me.”

Michelle rushed onto the set and up to Ross, who’d motioned to her. A second later she headed for the door and came back with Mike in tow.

“Oh, boy!” Hannah said under her breath. Mike was a sight for sore eyes in his full-dress Cherrywood P. D. uniform. Actually, he was a sight for sore eyes in anything he wore, but she didn’t want to think about that right now.

Mike, his brass gleaming under the lights, followed Ross and Lloyd, the head prop man, as they led him to an ornate white desk trimmed with gold that sat in the corner of the room. It was a double desk, the kind Hannah had always wanted but wasn’t sure why, with room for two people to sit on either side and use it together. Hannah watched as Mike pulled out one of the center drawers and examined what was inside. Then he closed it again, exchanged a couple of words with Lloyd and Ross, and went back out through the living room doorway.

“What was he doing?” Hannah asked Michelle, who’d come back to stand by Andrea.

“He was checking the gun to make sure it was unloaded and Lloyd had removed the firing pin.”

“Is that the gun they use in the suicide scene?” Andrea wanted to know.

“That’s right.”

Hannah started to frown. “But it won’t make any noise at all without a firing pin.”

“That’s right. We’ll add the sound of a gun firing in post production.”

“Why not use blanks?” Andrea asked.

“Blanks are only safe if your target is a few yards away,” Hannah answered, remembering the way Ross had described the suicide scene. “Burke has to put the gun right up to his temple.”

“So?”

“Blanks have a primer and gunpowder inside a casing. It’s sealed with a wad of something that looks like shellac. When the gun’s fired, the wad can exit the barrel with enough velocity to kill Burke.”

“I didn’t know that!” Andrea breathed, shivering a bit.

“A lot of people don’t know that. The only reason I know is that Lisa told me.”