ISBN : 978-1-101-57311-2

First Paperback Printing, April 2005

DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED
U.S. PAT. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES
—MARCA REGISTRADA
HECHO EN U.S.A.

S.A.

http://us.penguingroup.com

For Karen Lahey because until I met her I never made the connection that “people” write books. (Where I thought they came from, I have no idea.) Essentially, Karen’s responsible for my being a writer so if you’ve enjoyed any of my books, you should thank her. Thank you, Karen.

I’d like to thank Blanche McDermaid and the cast and crew of A&E’s Nero Wolfe Mysteries, who graciously allowed me to hang about the set. I’d especially like to thank Matt and PJ, the PAs, who were more than patient with two solid days of stupid questions. Anything I got right, I owe to them. Mistakes are all my own.

One

LEANING forward, brushing red-gold hair back off his face, he locked eyes with the cowering young woman and smiled, teeth too white within the sardonic curve of his mouth.

“There’s no need to be frightened,” he told her, his voice holding menace and comfort equally mixed. “You have my word that nothing will happen to you; unless—and I did warn you about this—unless you’ve been holding out on me, Melissa.”

A full lower lip trembled as her fingers clutched the edge of the park bench. “I swear I’ve told you everything I know!”

“I hope so.” He leaned just a little closer, his smile broadening as she trembled. “I truly hope so.”

“Cut! Mason, the girl’s name isn’t Melissa. It’s Catherine.”

Mason Reed, star of Darkest Night, straightened as the director moved out from behind his pair of monitors. “Catherine?”

“That’s right.”

“Why does it matter, Peter? She’ll be dead by the end of the episode.”

Safely out of Mason’s line of sight, the actress rolled her eyes.

“It matters because everyone else is calling her Catherine,” Peter told him calmly, wondering, and not for the first time that morning, what the hell was taking the tech guys so long to come up with believable CGI actors. Or, conversely, what was taking the genetics guys so long to breed the ego out of the ones they had. Years of practice kept either thought from showing. “It matters because Raymond Dark called her Catherine the last time he spoke to her. And it matters because that’s her name; if we start calling her by a different name, the audience will get confused. Let’s do it one more time and then we’ll rig for close-ups.”

“What was wrong with the last take?” Mason demanded, fiddling with his left fang. “I liked the last take.”

“Sorge didn’t like the shadows.”

“They changed?”

“Apparently. He said they made you look livide.”

Mason turned toward the director of photography who was deep in conversation with the gaffer and ignoring him completely. His expression suggested he was less than impressed with being ignored. “Livid?”