Harper leaned forward and took the purse, knowing it had been scanned twice so far. As Dani had said, there wasn’t much inside. A black leather wallet was the first thing she picked up. She opened it, finding two credit cards and some cash. She saw five or six one hundred dollar bills and a couple of twenties. She glanced up at Dani.

“You can buy dinner tomorrow.”

Dani smiled at her. “I offered to buy dinner tonight.”

Her fingers wrapped around a shiny gold tube. She spun it around, then opened it, revealing a light-tinted lipstick. She looked at Dani. Did she wear lipstick? As if reading her mind, Dani nodded.

“I was never really into makeup. Bare minimum when I’m being me. A whole lot more when I’m Danielle Stevens.”

Harper inspected the case, wondering if something could be hidden inside. “At your house, where did you keep this?”

“The lipstick? It stays in the purse. And I usually always took my purse into the bedroom.”

Harper sighed. “So probably this wasn’t left out where he could have access to it.”

“No.”

Harper handed it back to Dani. “You live alone, I know…but do you have…well, you know, ‘your people’ around much or what?”

Dani laughed. “My people? No, not really. My assistant, Shelly, came over almost daily, whether I needed her—or wanted her—or not. She takes care of the little things that I no longer feel comfortable doing, like shopping.”

“So if you’d go out to…say, a grocery store, you’d get bombarded with autograph seekers?”

“Not so much that. I mean, I’m not this huge megastar that would get swarmed if I went out in public. It’s not that.” Dani leaned back on the bed, resting on her elbows. “People would stare and point and whisper. And cell phones would be pointed at me. And eventually someone would come up and ask for an autograph or ask to take a picture with me.”

“All things you hate.”

“Yes.”

“You also said you hated the talk show circuit. Do you have to do it anyway?”

“When a new movie comes out, yes. Promotion. I hate it. I’m really rather shy and I don’t like talking about myself. And I hate the personal questions that come up. I mean, you can only be so evasive without it raising eyebrows.”

“How do you come across? Cool? Disinterested?”

Dani smiled and shook her head. “It’s a game. I’ve been coached. I know all the right answers. I know how to fake it. I smile and laugh at the appropriate spots and I make up just enough little tidbits to be entertaining.”

Harper shook her head. “I can’t imagine having to do that, telling strangers things about myself.”