Soul Walk (A Lacey Fitzpatrick and Sam Firecloud Mystery Book 7) Page 9

  “Sure. What time?”

  “How about two o’clock?”

  Lacey jotted down the time. “That should work. Also, we found out who the little girl is.”

  She gave Diana a short version of the cold case file.

  “Oh, my God,” Diana said. “How awful.”

  “Yeah.” Lacey sighed. “But now we have everything we need to do a releasement. When do you think we can schedule that?”

  Diana paused, and Lacey heard papers being shuffled. “I’m not sure. We need to set up two sessions for the research revelations, then we’ll want you two to meet with the Offendahls again to give them the results. So it’ll be after that.”

  Too bad, Lacey thought. Both she and Sam would feel better when this case was resolved.

  “I was able to reach an archivist at Pepperdine, though,” Diana continued. “She’s agreed to do the research segment with you. What’s your schedule like the rest of this week and next?”

  “I’m available anytime,” Lacey said. “You don’t need Sam for this part, right?”

  “Right. Okay, I’ll call her and see how soon we can do it. I’ll let you know.”

  “Great. Thanks, Diana.”

  “No,” she chuckled, “thank you.”

  ~~~

  Surprisingly, Diana was able to set up filming at Pepperdine for Friday. Lacey was thankful. She was going cross-eyed doing background checks all day.

  Thursday afternoon, she and Sam made the familiar trip to the Unexplained Channel’s offices. This time, Diana took them to a new area on the first floor, a screening room, a small theater that could accommodate fifty people or so. She guided Lacey and Sam to the center of the seating area.

  Lacey settled into the comfy, padded seat and glanced around. It felt funny being the only people in the room.

  “Can I get you any water?” Diana asked before they started. She waved toward a back counter that had a trove of water bottles, but both Sam and Lacey declined. “Okay. Let’s start.” She spoke to someone via her phone, and within seconds, the lights dimmed and the big screen at the front of the room flickered to life.

  It was surreal to see themselves up on the screen. Lacey always watched Sam as he worked, either directly or through her phone, but had never seen herself until now. Although Kevin had pulled back for wider shots showing both of them from time to time, the bulk of the filming was of Sam only. Some of Lacey’s video had been interspliced with Kevin’s footage, showing a different view of Sam. Lacey found the entire thing to be fascinating.

  She noticed one thing that was different. The lighting was darker than she remembered. She guessed they did that purposefully, in keeping with Barry’s mention of atmosphere. She had to admit, it did look spookier this way.

  She was actually glad for the lower light level when the film progressed to the second room. She remembered how Sam’s connection with the little girl—Trudy—had surprised her, and she was glad that his anguish wasn’t clearly visible on the screen. That was such a purely personal reaction—and now she knew why—and it didn’t need to be put on display. He’d been spared that much at least.

  When the first walk was over, the film stopped and the lights came up. Diana turned toward them with a beaming smile.

  “Well? What do you think? It turned out good, didn’t it?”

  Lacey glanced at Sam. He didn’t look angry, so that was a relief. She turned back to Diana.

  “Looks pretty good to me,” she said.

  “Yeah?” Diana peered past Lacey. “Sam? Look okay to you?”

  He was still thinking it over. As always, his stoic expression gave nothing away. Lacey noticed Diana fidgeting with her clipboard as she waited.

  “Yeah, I guess,” he said finally.

  Diana’s smile sagged a little. “Is there a problem with any of it?”

  Sam shook his head. “No. It’s fine.”

  “It’s just weird seeing us up there,” Lacey said.

  Diana laughed. “You’ll get used to it. Okay, let’s go on to the session with the Offendahls.” Again she cued someone with her phone and the lights dimmed.

  Lacey sat back this time, more relaxed. She found it interesting to notice how the camera angles changed from wide views of the four of them to close-ups of Sam and Lacey or the Offendahls, then tight head shots as Sam described his impressions or Bobbi talked about her experiences. She noticed how the lighting, the camera angles and some very pregnant pauses added suspense to the exchange. The whole had a very different feeling to it now, much more dramatic than she remembered.

  And, luckily, it was still done in a respectful manner. She was glad for that.

  At the end of that section, the lights came up again and Diana checked for their approval. She was pleased and relieved when both Sam and Lacey gave their thumbs up.

  “Isn’t this fun?” she asked. “Okay, now the second walk.”

  Lacey watched Sam struggle to obtain more information from the hanging man—information they now had—recognizing Gerald’s reluctance to be freed from his self-imposed prison of emotions. Now of course it all made sense. She really hoped he would accept their help and allow them to release him.

  In the second room, she saw again Sam’s tension as he pulled in as much as he could about Trudy, as the facts of her death strummed that chord of guilt in him over Kenzie’s disappearance. No one else, certainly no one who didn’t know him intimately, would see it, she felt sure. But she did. And he did.

  The sudden end of the tape, the blank white screen and the lights flashing on startled her. She peered over at Sam. His expression was hard. Thoughtful, but hard.

  “So,” Diana said, “pretty great, huh?” Her gaze jumped from Lacey to Sam and back, clearly expecting agreement.

  Lacey sat back and watched her partner wrestle with it. She figured this one was totally his call.

  And wrestle he did. Lacey saw his brow crease and release, saw his hands tighten on the arm rest, then relax.

  Diana leaned forward. “Sam?”

  “Yeah, it’s okay,” he said. “Sorry. It’s a little tough to review.”

  Diana’s gaze slid from Sam to Lacey, her frown evidence that she was looking for a bit more enthusiasm. Lacey smiled reassurance.

  “Yes, it’s fine,” she said. “The filming is fine. It’s just the case that’s hard.”

  “All right.” Sobered by the response, Diana accepted the approval in the spirit that it was given. “I’m glad you like it. I think we struck the right tone with it. As you said, ‘respectful.’”

  She flipped through the papers on her clipboard. “So, if we’re all in agreement, I need you both to sign off on this review milestone. Here you go.”

  She handed the clipboard and a pen to Lacey. The single sheet was blessedly in simple English. As heretofore agreed… blah, blah, blah. All in order. Lacey signed on the line with her name typed underneath, dated it, then handed it to Sam. He quickly signed off and pushed it back.

  “Great,” Diana said as she collected it. “Now, Lacey, tomorrow, we’ll start filming early at Pepperdine. Can you be there by eight?”

  “Sure. Is there anything specific you want me to bring or wear?”

  “Whatever’s comfortable, as long as it’s not white. You normally take your pack with you, right? Where you keep your notebook and your recorder and all?”

  “Right.”

  “Bring that,” Diana said. “We’ll have you act as if you’re hearing the information for the first time, so you’d most likely be taking notes. Otherwise, you’ll just be prompting the archivist.”

  “Prompting?” Lacey asked.

  “Yeah. Things like, ‘why have you called me here,’ or ‘what did you want to show me?’ Questions that will get the archivist talking. Don’t worry. We’ll do several takes, so if one gets flubbed up, we’ll have others. And of course editing makes all the difference. You’ll be fine.”

  “Okay,” Lacey said. “Sounds easy enough.”

  “Great.”
Diana beamed at them. “Well, all right, then. We’re done for today unless you have questions.”

  They didn’t. Diana saw them out and they climbed in Lacey’s car.

  “Just checking,” Lacey said to Sam as she started the car. “You really were okay with the film sequences?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Don’t worry; if I’m not, I’ll say so.”

  “Okay, good.” She turned out of the parking lot and headed for the freeway. “It’s weird seeing us up on the big screen, huh?”

  “That’s the truth,” he said. “This whole thing is weird. If I didn’t think we were really doing good things here, I’d bow out in a heartbeat.” He looked over at her. “But we are doing good things, aren’t we?”

  She smiled, recognizing the price of their newfound fame. “Yes, we are. It’ll all be worth it once we set Trudy and Gerald free.”

  ~~~

  EIGHTEEN

  The next morning, Lacey left shortly after Sam, heading for Malibu. It felt funny to not have him navigating for her, and funnier still to think of spending the entire day filming.

  Luckily she wasn’t as nervous as she had been at first; now that she was somewhat familiar with the process, she didn’t expect any surprises.

  She found the parking area Diana had mapped out for her and noticed the Unexplained van parked near the main entrance of Pepperdine. She parked her car, slung her pack over her shoulder and headed for the van.

  Pepperdine was a gorgeous location for a shoot, she decided. Nestled between the Santa Monica Mountains on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west, it was the epitome of Southern California. The Mediterranean architecture—whitewashed walls and red tile roofs—was perfectly at home in the historical Spanish influence evident here. Glancing westward, Lacey realized she could even see Catalina Island in the distance, the location of one of her and Sam’s early cases.

  Arriving at the van, Lacey was surprised to find no one there. She scanned the area and finally noticed Diana, Kevin and a couple other techs in and around a white Chevy Tahoe parked nearby. Diana saw her and waved, and she and one of the techs met her at the van.

  “Good morning,” Diana said. “It’s a gorgeous day, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is,” Lacey agreed. She nodded to the sound tech whose name she couldn’t remember.

  “We can get the mic on you while Kevin is planning the shoot in the car. Come on.”

  Lacey obediently climbed into the van and wired herself. “In the car?” she asked.

  “Yeah. What we’re going to do is this: we’ll film you approaching Pepperdine in the Tahoe, and as you’re driving, you’ll say, ‘I’m meeting an archivist at Pepperdine University who has some information for me about who the hanging man might be.’ This sets the scene, but also keeps it a little iffy, like you don’t know if this will really identify him or not. Tension, you know?” Diana smiled.

  “Okay, I see.” Out the open door of the van, she eyed the Tahoe. “Couldn’t get a smaller car, huh?”

  “Need room for all the guys and gear. We have a contract with Chevy. Product placement, you know.”

  Once Lacey had her mic secured and the sound check was complete, she and Diana walked to the Tahoe. Kevin and Skip waved to her.

  There was a lengthy discussion about angles and backdrops. Diana wanted the Pacific Ocean visible outside the driver’s side window, so she and Kevin were figuring the best way to have Lacey drive in to facilitate that. While they were hashing that out, Lacey looked around. She’d actually never been to Pepperdine, but had gone to UCLA until she entered the academy for the LAPD. While UCLA was no slouch, this campus was definitely more picturesque. She pulled in a deep breath of bracing sea air and thought how nice it would be to have class with this view.

  “Okay, Lacey?”

  She turned at Diana’s call. They were ready for her. She climbed into the Tahoe—feeling like she was climbing into a tank after her little Toyota—and slung her pack on the floor. Kevin got into the passenger seat, his big camera barely two feet from her. Skip and Diana got into the back seat, Skip’s smaller camera angled her way.

  “Okay, let’s go on out to the main road and turn right,” Diana said.

  Lacey did as instructed. She was super careful of the big rig, driving slowly until she got a feel for the thing. When Diana decided she liked the view to the west, she prompted Lacey to start her monologue while Kevin and Skip filmed. It was just slightly nerve-racking to remember her lines as she was steering the Tahoe around the curving terrain. Cars coming at her from the north tended to screw up her concentration as she worried about the width of her rig, and multiple takes were necessary.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Diana said when she voiced her concern about the flubs. “That’s what editing is for.”

  More driving; more takes. Diana asked Lacey to try her monologue in a different way: more serious. Not glancing in the rearview mirror so much. Kevin moved around, sometimes filming her profile, sometimes shifting forward in his seat to film her more from the front. She had no idea what Skip was filming but often could see him over her shoulder in the rearview mirror.

  Lacey was beginning to wonder if they would spend the entire day in the car when Diana called it good.

  “Okay, let’s head back to campus,” Diana said. “Take it slow and park where the car was when we started.”

  Lacey did. Kevin was filming out the windshield, getting, apparently, her point of view as the large Pepperdine sign came into view. She pulled carefully to the curb and stopped the car.

  “Just sit tight for a minute, Lacey, while we set up outside. Then, when I tell you, we need you to get out of the car and walk to the front door.”

  She waited, watching the three of them dance around each other as they discussed camera angles. She could see Diana framing the scene with her hands, showing Kevin what she had in mind for the pan shot.

  “All right.” She waved to Lacey. “Get out and walk this way.” She pointed out the arc of the shot. “Go on up to the front doors and go inside. Anytime you’re ready.”

  Lacey walked. And walked. And walked. She looked around as she walked. Didn’t look around. Walked faster. Slower. She wondered if they would ever get to the interior shots.

  Finally she called a halt. “Can I get a drink of water, please?”

  Diana blinked at her. “Oh, sure. We’ve got a cooler in the van. Didn’t I tell you?”

  The cooler, thankfully, held not only water but Gatorade and vitamin water. Lacey snagged the latter and downed half of it at a go.

  “We’ve got a food truck coming shortly,” Diana said. “We’ll take a break when it gets here, then go on into the library.”

  Lacey checked her watch: just after eleven. They’d shot two sequences. Was it always like this? The slow pace was killing her.

  The food truck arrived and the half dozen people swarmed it. Lacey built a sandwich with cold cuts and cheese and dished up a Styrofoam container of fresh fruit. She passed up the potato salad, coleslaw and crabmeat salad, but her colleagues ate heartily of all that and more. They sat on a low wall near the parking lot, and Kevin parked next to Lacey.

  “Doing okay?” he asked her.

  She nodded, mouth full of fresh strawberries. “Yeah. There’s a lot more to it than I thought.”

  “I know, it’s a pain at first. You’ll get used to it. You’re doing great.”

  She eyed him. “I am? I don’t feel like I am.”

  “No, no, really, you’re doing fine,” he insisted. “You take direction really well and you don’t overact. Believe me, compared to a lot of people we work with, you’re acing it.”

  She couldn’t tell if he was being honest with her or just being nice, but took it at face value. “So with those other people, then, it takes longer?”

  “Oh, much longer,” he said. “Some are so nervous, they go completely blank. Some stare right at the camera. We spend more time trying to get them to calm down than we do filming.”

 
; Lacey knew she wasn’t that bad, so maybe Kevin wasn’t bullshitting her after all. She flexed her shoulders and neck, willed some of the stiffness to drain away.

  “You need a mini-massage?” he asked. “I’ve gotten pretty good at it over the years.”

  She flashed him a smile. “Thanks, but I’m okay. Just an old war wound that acts up now and then.”

  “War wound?”

  “I got shot in the shoulder on a case in Las Vegas. Sam and I went up against a drug cartel that murdered his former brother-in-law.”

  “No shit?” Kevin asked, clearly impressed. “What was that like?”

  Lacey laughed. “It hurt like hell.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  Lacey found it easier to talk about that past case than to think about how long the rest of this day might be. And because that case had been in Vegas, removed from LA, and had been covered by the LVPD, her and Sam’s involvement had been minimally publicized. Kevin had certainly never heard about it and was enthralled.

  “Wow,” he said when Lacey finished the recounting. “That’s radical. Esmeralda and Webb have never done anything like that. Does Diana know about that?”

  “No, and don’t you tell her,” Lacey said firmly. “She’ll try to set up something like that in East LA for us. No, thanks.”

  Kevin laughed. “Yeah, okay. Mum’s the word.”

  As if hearing her name, Diana suddenly appeared, calling to the team and hurrying them along.

  “Come on, people, let’s go. We’re burning daylight.”

  The debris from lunch was cleared away—Lacey snagged another bottle of water and a few baby carrots to clean her mouth—and Diana herded them all to the library. The crew got some odd looks from students in the hallways, especially Kevin with his large camera on his shoulder, but the library was empty except for two women.

  Diana took the lead. “Irene, Barbara, good to see you again,” she said, shaking both women’s hands. “I want you to meet Lacey Fitzpatrick. Lacey, this is Irene Hewlett, the archivist, and Barbara Searle, the head librarian.”