“The school wants to say something nice about him, and she was looking up people he’d helped at St. Catherine’s over the years.” Philip dismantled another piece of the meat grinder. “She came across the scholarship that he’d endowed and the letter that he wrote in favor of Layla receiving it. Apparently, he said a lot of nice things about her and you. He mentioned you’d auditioned for him.”

Philip looked up at her, demanding confirmation.

Tonya wondered what he already knew—or suspected. Had Nate mentioned to Philip that he was seeing one of his waitresses on the side? Had Philip known all this time and kept quiet?

“I didn’t really know him.” Tonya spoke like she was testing a hot pan. “I went on so many auditions in my youth for directors, producers, casting agents. God knows I was always chatting. Trying to be memorable and get the part, right? The scholarship isn’t the Nate Walker scholarship—it’s just an academic and need-based thing. I wasn’t sure who was endowing it.”

Philip continued to stare. Did he know that the last part was a blatant lie? Was she failing this audition, trying too hard to make her story believable, keeping her voice too high to feign surprise? Should she have changed the dialogue to something that fit better?

Tonya lowered her tone, an effort to sound less flippant about a man who, as far as Philip likely knew, had supported her daughter’s education and then been murdered. She should sound sadder, she realized. More appreciative. “He was your friend, right?”

Philip’s lips pressed into a line on his unmasked face. “More the husband of my wife’s friend.”

Tonya exhaled, thankful that the mask was there to muffle the sound. If Philip and Nate hadn’t actually been close, then chances were that Nate hadn’t disclosed anything. Philip hadn’t been tactfully avoiding the subject all this time. He really didn’t know the deal.

“He came here a lot before the pandemic,” Tonya continued, shifting the conversation from her relationship with the director to Philip’s clearly complicated one. “I remember waiting on him in Coffre. I guess he really liked the food.”

Philip’s noncommittal expression morphed into a smirk. “I wish.”

“Well, I mean, if he was coming here, he had to like it.” She forced a laugh that only managed to sound nervous. “He certainly wasn’t scouting for actresses to put in a movie.”