Peter James - Not Dead Yet

‘What time tomorrow afternoon?’ Brooker growled.

‘What time do you need it?’

‘We were planning to shoot after it closes to the public: 5.45 p.m. onwards.’

‘Chief!’ Tingley cautioned.

‘Fine,’ Grace said, ignoring Tingley’s protestation. ‘You’ll have it back for then. Are you able to do any filming outside, or in a different location tonight?’

‘That was the plan – we have over one hundred extras here. It’s a very important scene – it’s a key scene in the movie. But how can we even shoot outside with all these police vehicles here?’

‘We’ll get them moved – if you tell us which area you want cleared outside, we’ll make that happen.’

Then he turned to the DI. ‘My car’s outside. Meet me there in five minutes.’

He hurried out of the building, looking around for Andrew Gulli, but could see no sign of him. Then he crossed the lawns towards the little village of motorhomes and trailers. Four man-mountain security guards stood by the steps to Gaia’s motorhome. Grace showed his warrant card, then asked if any of them had seen Mr Gulli.

‘He went over to the hotel to see about stepping up security there,’ one of them replied, talking in a voice that sounded like he had a mouth full of ice cubes.

Grace knocked on the door. It was opened a few moments later by a female assistant, who he had seen before in Gaia’s suite in The Grand. She had ginger hair, cut in a fashionably skewed style, and wore a black T-shirt and black jeans over deck plimsolls. ‘Lori, right?’

She smiled in recognition, but looked uneasy. ‘Inspector Grace – what can I do for you?’ she said in a clipped American accent.

‘I wanted to check that Roan is okay.’

‘Uh huh, he’s fine, thank you.’

‘He’s not injured?’

‘No, he’s good, he’s not even upset – I think he was more confused than anything. Thank you for asking. What’s actually happened? Andrew Gulli told us there’s been some kind of accident with a chandelier, but we don’t have any details.’

‘Yes, I’d just like to explain the situation – is Gaia here?’

The assistant stepped back for a moment and called out, ‘It’s Inspector Grace!’

Moments later she beckoned him to come on board.

He climbed the steps and entered the cavernous interior of the vehicle, which smelled of a very appealing perfume, and the fainter smell of a recently smoked cigarette. A television was on, tuned to a cartoon channel, and Roan sat at a table, wearing his baseball cap, a computer game in front of him, staring at the cartoon with a rather bored expression, then turned his attention to his game.

‘You okay?’ Grace asked him.

He shrugged and pressed a toggle on his game.

Then a woman he did not at first recognize appeared through a partition door, wrapped in a cream silk dressing gown, her blonde hair cropped short in a male cut. She looked tearful, but greeted him with a cheery and very sexy voice. ‘Hey, Mr Paul Newman Eyes!’

He smiled at her; she looked different but still strikingly beautiful.

‘What’s going on? Is the goddamn building falling down or something?’

He shook his head. ‘I’m really sorry – we’re doing our best to establish what happened.’

She strode up to him, put her arms around him and hugged him hard. ‘This is scary,’ she said.

‘We’ll get to the bottom of it quickly, I promise you.’

Suddenly, she gave him a quick – but not that quick – peck on the cheek, then stared into his eyes for some moments. Staring back into hers, he felt an electrifying frisson between them.

‘I know you will. Thank you for everything you’re doing while we’re here in your city, Chief Inspector.’ Her breath smelled minty.

He shrugged and blushed. ‘I’m afraid with this incident in the Banqueting Room, it’s clearly not enough.’

‘Can I offer you a drink?’

He shook his head. ‘Thank you, but I have to get on in a second. I just wanted to make sure Roan was okay. It’s too early to say whether there’s any foul play, but we’ve closed down the Pavilion in order to conduct our investigations, so there won’t be any filming in there tonight.’

‘You think someone might have done something to bring that chandelier down?’

‘I wouldn’t want to alarm you, but it’s a distinct possibility.’

‘They were targeting my son?’ Her eyes opened wide in fear.

‘If what happened is connected to the email that was sent last night, and that’s pure speculation at this stage, I’d say it was more likely they were targeting you and got their timings wrong. But I wouldn’t want to say anything that might cause you to worry unduly at this stage.’

She stared him in the eyes again. ‘So long as you’re around, Chief Inspector, I won’t be worried!’

He thought for a moment she was going to kiss him again, and he took a step back, half turning away, trying, albeit rather unconvincingly, to retain a professional detachment. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘Thank you for being so understanding.’

‘ De nada! ’ She blew him a kiss.

Grace hurried back across the Pavilion lawns towards his car with a spring in his step. Despite his worries, he felt he was walking on air. He’d never imagined the day might come when he was kissed by an icon!

‘What are you smiling about, chief?’ Jason Tingley greeted him, standing by his car. ‘You look like you just won the lottery!’

‘Gaia’s kid’s okay, thank God. I’m relieved, that’s all.’

‘You sure that’s all it is?’

‘What’s that meant to mean?’ Grace grinned at him. Tingley was a sharp detective who missed nothing.

The DI looked at his watch. ‘That was a long five minutes. Get lucky in there, did you?’

‘It was a purely professional visit.’

‘Oh yes?’

Ignoring the innuendo, Grace climbed into the car and pulled his seat belt on. Tingley sat in the passenger seat. ‘None of my business, of course,’ he said.

There was a rap on Grace’s window. He lowered it to talk to the tall woman with long fair hair who was holding a reporter’s notepad.

‘Detective Superintendent Grace?’ she queried. ‘Sorry to bother you. Iona Spencer, from the Argus .’

Shit , Grace thought, cursing silently. He should have known that Spinella would be replaced pretty smartly. ‘Can I help you?’

‘Is there anything you could tell me about what’s happening in the Pavilion? I gather there’s been a fatality.’

‘There’ll be a press conference in the morning,’ he said, politely. ‘It would appear at the moment that a maintenance worker has been fatally injured in an industrial accident.’

‘Are any of the cast of the film involved?’

‘No, I can assure you of that. I’m sorry, we are in a hurry, but I will have more information for you tomorrow.’

‘Thank you,’ she said.

As he drove off, Tingley commented, ‘Well, at least she’s better looking than Spinella.’

‘And better mannered,’ Grace said, inserting his phone into the hands-free cradle, then calling the Chief Constable’s number.

Five minutes later Grace pulled the car up on the driveway in front of The Grand Hotel, and they went inside and straight up to the front desk. Grace was aware that, strictly speaking, he shouldn’t be doing this kind of legwork they were embarking on, and should have delegated it to a much lower rank – a DC or DS. But, having been given overall responsibility for Gaia’s security, at this moment he wanted to be hands on. Equally importantly, he genuinely loved real, old-fashioned detective work – the slog to find clues and unravel tiny parts of the puzzle. If he let it, his work would keep him permanently desk-bound, and he never wanted that to happen.