I shrugged myself. “She was young, pretty, successful. You know the profiles—someone like her usually doesn’t end up the victim of a crime like this.” I sighed. “My bet is she was involved with some nefarious types and got caught up in something.”

He just stared at me, taking a moment to compute this. “Are you trying to write this into some sort of story line in your head?”

“No!” Now I was indignant. “I’m just running the possibilities. This is what I do. I know this shit.”

“Well, let it go. We’ve got to move forward. I’m going to call Deb Miller in casting and see who she can get in here to start work tomorrow or, better yet, today.”

Steve picked up the phone and I took that as my cue to leave. This was definitely a first for him: an actress dead in the middle of shooting. It was going to be some week.

Closing the door to Steve’s office behind me, I full on bumped into Evil Janet, who’d been lurking outside. “Hi, Janet,” I offered.

“Hi, Dani, how are you?” She had no emotion in her voice.

I murmured “Fine, thanks,” and moved to brush by her.

“I bet. I bet you’re really, really good,” she said to my back.

I stopped and turned around to hold her gaze. “I’m great. Thanks for asking.” I decided to play it cool. “Hey, are you feeling better?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I thought I’d heard you’d been sick or something. Haven’t you had a cold?”

Squinting at me she smiled. “I’ve had a bit of a cold, but I’m better now, thanks.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better,” I replied. I turned again and gave her my back, moving down the hall to my office. When I reached my doorway, I chanced a glance over my shoulder. Evil Janet remained outside Steve’s office, still staring at me. I smiled again and closed my door.

Normally it was tough getting going Monday morning at work. I’d have to down two lattes to even function. But today was just one of those days where the words came easy. Punching up dialogue was a breeze! I loved my job! A couple of hours into it, sensing a presence in my office, I glanced up from my computer screen, annoyed.

“Hey, Dani.” Rich stood in my doorway, all hulking Italian male.

“Hi, Rich, how are you?” My eyes strayed from him back to the flickering page, then lingered on Rich.

“I’m good, I’m good. I’ve been meaning to talk to you, but I just haven’t been around when you’ve been around.”

“Well, here we are!” I joked.