Would you now? Lucy thought, now recognizing her as the woman who'd been arguing with Connor. "Lovely to meet you, Stephanie. Get me a script, please. A full script, one with all the pages. Thanks." Now go be snotty to somebody who cares. She turned back to Althea. "You ready for the scene? Terror on tap?"

Althea looked over the rail at the dark river. "There's a gator down there," she said, her face distorted as she faked fear. "They're dangerous."

"Yes, there's an alligator," Stephanie said to Althea, in a voice she'd use to talk to a small child she didn't like. "But since he's not going to be climbing up on the bridge, he's moot."

Watch it, Lucy thought, prepared to drop-kick her off the bridge if Althea took offense, but Althea just smoothed out her face and said, "Moot. That's a funny name for a gator."

"Moot?" Pepper said, forgetting to lie low. She looked over the rail and trained her binoculars down on the gator, floating in the moonlight now.

Stephanie curled her lip. "Yes, it is a funny name. Are you ready?"

"Just about," Althea said.

"You can go now," Lucy said to Stephanie. And later we will talk about not patronizing the talent.

Stephanie walked off into the darkness, and Althea dropped her chin and watched her from under lowered brows, no smile at all.

Mistake, Stephanie, Lucy thought.

"I think Moot only has one eye," Pepper said, still staring through her binoculars.

Althea met Lucy's eyes. "Maybe I'll get a chicken to throw to old Moot tomorrow."

"That would be better than throwing Stephanie."

Althea grinned, a real smile this time.

"It's bad to feed the alligators," Pepper said, looking up at them. "If you feed them, they lose their fear of humans and attack."

Lucy looked down at Moot, sneering at them from the river. "Too late. Moot already thinks we're worthless."

"Bryce throws Ding Dongs from Crafty to him," Pepper said sadly.

Althea rolled her eyes and then leaned a little closer to Lucy. "Listen, can we talk? After this take, I mean? About Bryce. And some other things."

I miss the dogs, Lucy thought. They never want to talk. "Absolutely. You ready to go here?"

Althea nodded, and Lucy smiled encouragingly at her and headed back to video village with Pepper in her wake, thinking, It's going to be a really long four days.

"How's it going?" Gloom said when she got there.

Lucy settled into her chair. "My assistant is an elitist snot who thinks Connor's God, my lead actress wants to chat about the lead actor, and there's a gator underneath the bridge who's gonna call for a wine list if anybody falls off."

"So we're good then."

"Oh, yeah," Lucy said as Pepper climbed up onto the chair to her far right, leaving empty the seat between them where her mother was supposed to be. No script supervisor again, Lucy thought. That's not like Daisy.

"You okay?" Gloom said.

"I'm beginning to sense a distinct lack of enthusiasm on the part of the crew," Lucy said, nodding at Daisy's vacant seat.

"I know how they feel," Gloom said and called, "Stand by," as people melted off the set. Then he called, "Roll sound," and someone echoed, "Rolling," and a cameraman shoved a clapper in front of Althea's face, yelled, "Take one," and smacked it shut.

Lucy called, "Camera," and then, "Action," and Althea slung her leg over the rail and boosted herself up and then screamed halfheart-edly as Rick dragged her back down and called her an idiot with much the same force that he'd use to ask for a latte. Althea said, "What do you care?" as if she didn't, and then let him drag her back to the car.

Lucy yelled, "Cut," and looked at Gloom.

"Distinct Lack of Enthusiasm," he said. "Part Two: The Cast."

Lucy took off her headphones and walked over to Althea. "You feeling okay?"

"Yes." Althea blinked at her. "Why?"

"Because you're a better actress than that." My dogs are better actors than that. "Is there something wrong?"

Althea nodded. "Well, yeah. About Bryce. He-"

"Bryce isn't in this scene," Lucy said. "We're going to try it again and-"

"Again?" Althea seemed dumbfounded.

Connor came up. "What's wrong? You got the shot."

Lucy turned to him, glad to have somebody she could snap at. "Go away."

"What?" he asked, as dumbfounded as Althea had been.

"You're the stunt coordinator," Lucy said. "If you're worried about her cable, check it, but do not now or ever tell me when I've got the shot. Understand?" Connor jerked back, and Lucy turned to Althea. "You ready to do this for real?"

"Yeah." Althea straightened. "Yes, I am."

"Go to one," Lucy called to the set, and Althea went back to the rail while Rick took his position beside the car. Lucy stopped to talk to him on her way back to the monitors. "I don't know what's going on here, but we're going to shoot this sucker until we get a good take. That okay with you?"

"Yep," Rick said, also surprised. "More than okay."

"All right, then." Lucy went back to the monitors to sit down and found Daisy back in her chair. "There's something weird about this shoot," she said to Daisy.

"No idea what you're talking about," Daisy said, staring at the set, her notebook in her lap, as the set echoed with "Stand by."

"Roll sound."

"Rolling."

"Take two," and the sound of the clapper.

Lucy watched the monitor and this time Althea flung herself over the bridge rail with such force that Rick really had to catch her and bring her back, and his "You little idiot!" sounded real, as did Althea's sobbed scream, "What do you care?" Rick yelled back, "Dead hostage? I care a lot," and dragged her toward the car while she fought him tooth and nail.

"Cut!" Lucy called, feeling much better. "That was excellent. Really great, guys. Let's go again and then we'll do the close-ups."

Althea beamed at her and motioned her over.

Oh, hell, Lucy thought and went.

Althea leaned close to her. "I need to ask you something. You know, girl to girl."

"Uh," Lucy said, thinking, Kill me now.

"I mean, I know you're really busy because this is your big break-"

"Not so much," Lucy said. Where are they getting this big break stuff?

"-But what do you think of Bryce?"

"Fine actor," Lucy said automatically.

"No, I mean, you know." Althea began to look impatient. "As a man."

Lucy tried again. "He seems like a really nice guy."

Gloom called, "Let's go," and Lucy smiled at Althea.

"Okay, that last take was a great one, so let's do another one to make sure."

Althea nodded. "Could you come back while they're doing the next camera setup?"

"Sure. You bet."

Lucy went back to the monitors and watched while Althea and Rick nailed another take and thought, This could work. "Fantastic," she called to them. "Reset, please."

Pepper climbed into the seat beside her. "I brought you an apple."

Lucy said, "Thank you," thinking, I'm going to die of an apple overdose, and then glanced at Daisy.

She looked like leftover death, her eyes red, her eyelids drooping as if she were struggling to stay conscious.

"You sure you're getting enough sleep?" Lucy bit into her apple, trying to act unconcerned.

"Uh huh." Daisy kept her head bent over her notebook.

So much for acting. "Daisy, what the hell-"

"Working here," Daisy said and kept her head down.

"Lucy!" Althea called, and Lucy went back to her, looking back over her shoulder at Daisy as she went.

When she reached Althea, she said, "That was great, Al," but she kept an eye on Daisy, slumped in her chair at the monitors.

"Thank you," Althea said. "Listen, anybody who can make Connor do what she wants knows what she's doing."

"What?" Lucy said, distracted from Daisy.

"I need your advice," Althea said. "About men. I want security, that's why I'm with Bryce right now, because he's good for my career. But I want something permanent, too, you know?"

"Oh," Lucy said, as Pepper came up to join them. "Well, Bryce is probably rich. He's done pretty well for himself-"

Althea frowned at her. "I don't mean for him to support me, I'm going to get my own money, I've got a line on that, but I don't want to be alone. I want security, you know? Somebody I can depend on?"

"Oh." Lucy nodded. "Emotional security." And you're sleeping with an actor?

Connor came up to the rail about ten feet from them to direct the camera basket in, and Althea turned her hip so that he could see her concave stomach and the bulge of her breasts in her tank top. Pepper watched her and then tried to do the same, her little potbelly sticking out where Altheas abdomen collapsed toward her backbone.

Connor looked over at them, much too offhand, and nodded, but Lucy saw his eyes connect with Althea's.

Althea met his stare and held it until he nodded again.

Oh, God, don't let Althea be cheating on Bryce with Connor, Lucy thought. Bryce did not look like a man who would take well to being dumped for a stunt coordinator. And if he found out and sulked, goodbye shooting schedule.

Althea turned back to Lucy. "Not just emotional security. I want physical security, too. I want it all."

"Physical security. Like bodyguards?" Lucy said.