He’d been a little distracted at the time.

Looking up toward the ceiling, he said, “You’re welcome” again but this time he meant it.

“Quiet, please!”

As Peter’s voice echoed through the soundstage, Tony crammed the jack back in his ear and turned up his radio.

“Let’s settle, people!”

He reached the set in time to call, “Rolling!” with the rest and found a place behind the video village as the second assistant camera called the slate.

“Scene twenty-seven, take two.”

Lee grinned as Mason settled his shoulders against the padded satin lining of the coffin and said something that caused the other actor to give a less than bloodsucking undead type snicker.

“Action!”

Left thumb rubbing the scar on his right wrist, Tony watched the monitors as the scene unfolded. Stretched out behind him on the concrete floor, his shadow reached out and held up two fingers behind the shadow of the director’s head.

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Teaser chapter

Keep reading for a sneak preview of

Smoke and Mirrors,

Tony Foster’s second adventure,
coming in hardcover in July from DAW

CAULFIELD House was anything but average.

Built around the turn of the last century by Creighton Caulfield, who’d made a fortune in both mining and timber, the house rested on huge blocks of pale granite with massive beams of Western Red Cedar holding up the porch roof. Three stories high with eight bedrooms, a ballroom, a conservatory, and servants’ quarters on the third floor, it sat tucked away in Deer Lake Park at the end of a long rutted path too overgrown to be called a road. Matt, the freelance location finder CB Productions generally employed, had driven down Deer Lake Drive to have a look at Edgar House—which turned out to be far too small to accommodate the script. Following what he called a hunch, although Tony suspected he’d gotten lost—it wouldn’t be the first time—he spotted a set of ruts and followed them. Chester Bane, the CB of CB Productions, had taken one look at the digital images Matt had shot of the house he’d stumbled on at the end of the ruts, and decided it was perfect for Darkest Night.

Although well within the boundaries of the park, Caulfield House remained privately owned and all but forgotten. Tony had no idea how CB had gotten permission to use the building but shouting had figured prominently—shouting into the phone, shouting behind the closed door of his office, shouting into his cell as he crossed the parking lot ignoring the cars pulling out and causing two fender benders as his staff tried to avoid hitting him. Evidence suggested that CB felt volume could succeed when reason failed, and his track record seemed to support his belief.