But as I leaf through the scene, it seems like Maggie has an airtight alibi—she was out of town during the time frame when the book was stolen. She couldn’t have done it. Another dead end!

There are more pages in my script, though. I have one more scene to shoot today besides the one in the restaurant. It looks like Sadie is visiting her old friend, a psychic named Madame Curio. Yes. I love the woman who plays Madame Curio, a famous actress named Siobhan Cross who hosts dance parties in her trailer after our scenes have wrapped and tells all of us hilarious stories about working with major movie stars. This is going to be great!

In the scene, Madame Curio is going to tell Sadie that the book of spells is still in town somewhere, but that Sadie needs to think outside the box. “The pizza box, that is,” go Madame Curio’s lines. “You see a book of pizza spells, and you think pizza maker. But maybe that’s what who stole it wants you to think.”

Think outside the box. Can that help in this case too? Is someone scaring us for reasons we haven’t come up with yet?

But before I can brainstorm, someone yelps out the window. Then I hear a scream. Someone yells, “Fire! Run!”

Fire?

I jump up from the couch and push open my door. I gasp when I see thick, black smoke pouring from Stage Five. Everyone is running into the alley. Some people have their shirts over their mouths.

I grab Siobhan Cross—aka Madame Curio—as she steps onto the road. “What’s going on? And hi, by the way. I’ve missed you.”

“You too.” Siobhan Cross looks like she’s going to burst into tears. “Oh Hayley, I don’t know how it happened. It just suddenly caught fire right in front of me!”

“It’s okay, Siobhan.” Paul swoops over and pats her shoulder. He’s with Mr. York, Monique, and a few of the writers. Everyone looks shaken. “You’re not hurt, are you? Is everyone okay?”

“There’s really a fire?” I ask, though maybe this is a silly question because of the black smoke. I also hear sirens in the distance.

Paul nods. He has a bleak look on his face. “Electrical fire. A bunch of wires—seemed fine a minute before, but then, poof!”

“It was really strange,” Mr. York adds. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Anyway,” Paul says, “all the electricity in the stage is down.”

“All the electricity?” I cry. This is bad. Really bad. One thing a TV show needs to function is electricity. It powers the lights, the cameras, the video screens, the microphone…basically everything.