He didnt know whyespecially with his jaw still hurtingbut he put his hands on her shoulders, causing her to actually look at him and heed his words. And I told you. No one there is dead. Those are mannequins at the Mansion.
It took a second for that to register in her mind. He saw anger filter into her eyes. It was all a joke for that ridiculous show Gotcha? she demanded.
Not all, he said quietly. The woman in the snow is really dead. He hesitated. Natalie Fontaine is dead, too.
Her eyes widened again. He realized just how striking she was then. The color of her eyes was blue, and yet a blue nothing at all like his ice color. Her eyes were deep and rich, almost a royal blue, and set against features with fine bone structure, arched honey brows and a perfectly straight nose.
Her face was flushed, of course. Reddened from their scramble in the snow.
Natalie...and Amelia? she whispered, as if the two women being dead was the most confusing possibility known to man.
You knew them well? he asked quietly.
I had just met them. Still...
Im sorry, he said.
But, but my friends...are here. Somewhere. And if all the people at the house...if the scene wasnt real... I dont understand whats going on at all, but I know that my friends are supposed to be on the island somewhere. Cast mates, from the show were doing on the ship. They headed out before metheyre here on the island.
The next sentences lay unspoken between them.
They are here. Dead or alive, no one knows.
The way she looked at him now, he wondered if she really believed that he was who he wasand whether he still might intend to kill her.
She seemed to shrink beneath his hold.
She lowered her head and inched back half a footas if anxious to be free from his touch.
Then she looked up at him and there was a hard strength that shed forced into her features. I came for Vacation USA. Thats what the head of entertainment for Celtic American asked me to do. The other cast membersexcept for our ingenue, who is finishing up a previous engagementcame here ahead of me this morning. But that was a hoax, youre telling me? They were going to try to scare us half to death to film us for Gotcha. So those corpses at the Mansion werent real. But, Amelia is really...dead. And Natalie Fontaine is dead, too. That is the real situation?
Yes, Im sorry.
She swallowed hard and nodded.
Miss Avery, have you seen anyone else here on the islandalive?
She looked at him with alarm. Oh, God! Oh, God, Simon... Larry... Ralph!
She turned and started to run. He tore after her. He realized that she was headed for the Alaska Hut.
He didnt want to tackle her again. But he also didnt want her rushing into the building if there was a sword/knife/machete-wielding killer awaiting her.
Miss Avery!
She kept running.
No choice.
He caught her by the shoulders and they went down together again. She started to fight him but he gripped her hard.
Wait! he said firmly. Let me go first
My friends
I have a gun. You dont! he snapped.
She went still and nodded at that, probably realizing the folly of running into the unknown. Thor rose, not waiting for her to accept an offered hand, just pulling her back up with him. They were both covered in snow. He went first, moving with good speed through the soft snow. He heard her behind him. At the door of the rustic log cabin, he pulled his weapon, and then threw the wooden door open.
A flash of light went off.
Gotcha! someone shouted.
He assessed that six people were there, five men, one woman; the lone woman held a microphone, while one man held a large camera.
The woman dropped the microphone and screamed as she noted that he was wielding a gun.
FBI, he said quickly.
From behind him, Clara Avery went tearing through, throwing herself into the arms of a tall blond man.
What the hell...? the man asked.
Natalie Fontaine is dead, Clara said. And...and Amelia Carson. Shes deaddead in the snow.
No, no! the woman in the group said, trying to ascertain how badly she had damaged the microphone shed dropped. No, its all just for Gotcha. See the mic you made me drop? Im Becca Marle, sound. Itsits just a joke, she finished weakly.
A man at her side, slightly older, spoke up. Tommy Marchant, cameraman, videographer... Were filming them. Thats it. See, we got your cast mates before you, toothey also thought it was real. Maybe they decided to join in and scare us as well or...
He desperately wanted his words to be true.
No, Thor said harshly, holstering his gun and producing his credentials. Nothe scene at the Mansion might have been for your show, but Miss Fontaine and Miss Carson are dead.
Dont try to trick a trickster, one of the men protested. Whatare you from dial-a-stripper or something? Set up to play bad cop? Hey, dont mess with me. Im Nate Mahoney, best young fabricator coming up the ranks. Trust me, I know Im good. But its for TV, its for a show, a reality show.
Thor had to take in a deep breath. The reality is, he said sharply, that the two women are really dead.
They all stared at him, disbelieving.
Its true! Clara Avery said. I saw Amelia.
Thor noted the grouping: the film people huddled together, and Clara in the arms of the tall blond man who somehow seemed to have actor written all over him. Another young man was next to him, and a third, solid mancloser to middle-agedstood protectively by Clara, as well.
For a moment, they were all silent.
Disbelief began to change to confusionand horror.
Gotcha. Great.
The sound of a snowmobile broke through. Thor turned. Mikefollowed by members of the state police on their vehicleswere arriving at the Alaska Hut at last.
Thor pointed at the group. Stay here, right where you are. Who else is here that you all know about?
No one answered at first. They all just stared at him. No one seemed to comprehend the situation.
Who else is here? he demanded roughly.
Um, um...the housekeeper. And the groundskeeper...the Crowley couple, the woman, fumbling awkwardly with the fallen microphone, managed to say.
Get them, please. Bring everyone to the parlor, he said curtly. They all continued to stare at him.
Now, he said loudly and firmly, adding, Please!
He wasnt sure if they moved or not. He turned to greet Mike and the others. Someone needed to draw a perimeter around the bodythe body piecesof Amelia Carson.
Forensic teams needed to get out to the island.
And they had to determine if a killer was in the Alaska Hut...
Or watching them all with glee from somewhere on the cold and windswept island.
Gotcha.
Sadly, death was the reality now.
* * *
Safe.
Clara had reached the Alaska Hut at last.
She wasnt aloneand she didnt need to be afraid. She was surrounded by policemen and FBI agents, and other scared and frightened members of her own cast and crew and the film crew.
She sat in a chair at the kitchen table, a blanket around her shoulders, a cup of hot coffee in her handsand still she was shivering.
Come, lets sail the Alaskan cruise, it will be different, it will be fun! Ralph Martini, at her side, murmured. Fun! he sniffed. He glanced over at Clara and then winced. Sorry, he said softly.
No, its all rightit was my idea for us all to work on this cruise, Clara said. She still felt like an ice cube even though the log cabin that was the Alaska Hut was well heated. She knew that the numbness was inside her. She was managing to speak, to sound somewhat coherentand to take it all in.
The truth of everything was beginning to sink into her consciousness and comprehension. What was real and what was not.
The Mansionwhere she had stumbled upon all kinds of horrorshad not offered anything real. Shed run from an imaginary foe when shed left the place, too terrified to scream. Cameras had been shooting her movements. She shouldnt have been there alone, though. She should have been there with Natalie Fontaine.
Except she knew now that Natalie Fontaine was deadbut not among the carnage that had appeared to fill the Mansion. Shed never made it to the island. She was dead back at her hotel room.
Decapitated.
While the members of the Fate cast had traveled to the islandRalph, Simon and Larry had come together. Theyd arrived at the Mansion about a half hour before Clara. They had also screamed their way out and run to the Alaska Hutonly they hadnt stumbled upon the body of Amelia Carson along the way.
Cameras rigged at the Mansion would have captured first the terrorand then what was supposed to have been a laugh.
No one was laughing.
Because of what had happened to Natalie, Misty Blaine hadnt gone to the island, and Amelia Carson hadnt been there because shed been dead, as well.
According to Nate Mahoneywho had spoken as if hed become a zombie himselfit would have been a great crossover. The cast would have been featured on Gotcha, and then on Vacation USA as wonderful people who had come to work an Alaskan cruise, talking about why they loved the state so very much.
At the moment, Clara wasnt sure that she loved Alaska at all. But then, she was still in shock, she assumed.
It really doesnt have anything at all to do with the ship, Larry Hepburn said, trying to speak lightly.
Thats right, Simon Green said. This is someonesomeone who hates reality TV. And, I mean, thats half of America. Some shows are coolyou know, where they save people or really give people jobs at the end. But, most of it...
His voice trailed off.
Alaska is beautiful, Ralph said.
Clara looked at the three men at the table with her. Ralph Martini, kick-ass tenor, star of many a Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway show. Simon Green, new kid on the block, early twenties, thrilled to have his first speaking role/solo song in Annabelle Lee, the play they were set to perform on the Fate the following Saturday night. Larry Hepburn, tall, blond, bronzedeveryones golden-hunk guy, leading man for the play.
Theyd all worked the Caribbean and Mexico together on the Celtic American Lines Destiny shipuntil a serial killer had been taken down aboard. Clara had known she was in danger on the ship, but she had never faced anything like this, nor had she stumbled upon a dead body then...a dead body in two pieces.
Not that the previous situation hadnt been awful. And naturally, after it had all happened, shed wanted to go in a new direction.
When shed learned about Annabelle Lee, her new path had seemed perfectly clear. Alaska! What could be more different from the sunny Caribbean? And the cast called for a middle-aged tenor in a great role as the father of the houseRalph!as well as two younger men and two younger women. Larry and Simon fit the bill perfectly for Ashley, the haunted husband, and Billie Boy, Annabelles brother. Clara had gotten the role of Annabelle, the light and ethereal ghost still longing for life, while Connie Shaw, great dark-haired alto, was the young heros new wife, having to deal with the ghost of the pastwho just didnt want to go away.
Simon, heroically trying to save Claras friend Alexi Cromwell when they were on the Destiny, had broken a leg in a fall down a flight of stairs on the ship. His injury was healing nicely, but since he was a song-and-dance man, it was great that this show only required a few ballroom-dancing numbers between the ghost and Ashley, played by Larry Hepburn. It made the part perfect for Simon while he continued working his rehab exercises on his leg.
It had seemed so good. And so they had all headed up to Seward. Shed heard about the beauty of Alaska for years from other performers with whom shed worked. Clara had come as soon as possiblelonging to see as much as she could of Seward before going into the long days and nights of rehearsals. Shed spent time at the museum, learning about the native people, the first Russians on the scene, Sewards Folly, the quake that had devastated the area in 1964, and more. Shed been able to take a small local cruise to see the majesty of the glaciers, giant whales breeching, the power of falling ice...but there was so much more she wanted to discover. The wildlife, dogsled races, the raw geography of the area, Kenai Fjords National Parkeverything that made Alaska so special and different. And, eventually, she would find the time, but then...
The time she had given herself just hadnt been enough.
Rehearsals had started, and then Celtic American had contacted her and some of the others about filming for Vacation USA and she had met with Natalie Fontaine and agreed to head out on the ferry and meet her at the Mansion, and then the blood and guts that had been fake and now...
Now the blood and guts that were real.
Simon, slim, young and earnest, reached over for her hand. Its going to be all right.
Yeah, Ralph said. None of us blames you.
Blames me! she repeated, staring at him, her temper rising. Blames me? For what? Heyyou guys were out of a job. The ship was being held for months. I found out about this opportunity and told you about it!
I could have been playing that new role on Broadway, Ralph said.
Clara felt the frown that gripped her brow. That role is being played by Jeff Goldblum. I dont think you should have counted on itno offense, Ralph. Mr. Goldblum does have one hell of a résumé.
Ralph sniffed.
HeyIm happy. Im out of the chorus, Simon said. He smiled at Clara. And I know I wouldnt have any role on Broadway!
That didnt come out right, Ralph murmured. Im sorry, Clara. Really. I mean, this is going to be okay. This doesnt have to do with us. This has to do with someone who really, really, really hates reality TV.
Clara was silent. She prayed it went beyond that. One woman decapitated; one woman cut in half. That seemed like a lot more than anger.
Miss Avery?
She looked up. It was the wall of an FBI man who had pitched her down into the snowand scared her out of ten years of life. She realized that she hadnt been thinking FBI because these guys looked so different. Hed been bundled up in an official parka; now, he had doffed the jacket and he looked like a Norse lumberjack. He was Norsehe had said so. Norse American, obviously. He was very tallpossibly six-four or six-fiveand definitely built like a logger. But then, shed spent enough time with Jude McCoy and Jackson Crow of the FBI to know that they took their work seriously. They went to the gun range frequently, and they went regularly to the gym, since their strength and agility in the field could be just as important as tools of their trade.