Page 31 of Romance Is Dead

“What the hell are you doing here?” Scott set down the scythe and grabbed both of us by the ears, yanking us into the light pouring out from the door.

I craned my neck, frantically trying to get another look at the head. A shock of pain tore through the side of my head and I stopped, not wanting my ear to be added to the list of severed body parts in the immediate vicinity.

“Lay off, man.” Teddy wrestled free. “We weren’t trying to spy.” He moved between me and Scott, succeeding in getting him to release me.

“Shut up,” I said, my teeth gritted. “He wasn’t even thinking that.” Rubbing my ear, I was finally able to squint into the trailer and see that the head was, in fact, a prop.

Damn it, of course it was a prop. It looked eerily real—its eyes bright and glassy, the mouth gaping and bloodied—but the wig had slipped off, revealing an obviously plastic scalp with bolts holding the plates together.

“Bullshit you weren’t spying.” Scott looked at me, his eyes narrowing. “Hey, you’re Quinn, right? Jim’s little girl?”

I bristled. “I’m hardly little. But yeah, he’s my dad.”

“Figures.” Scott rolled up the arms of his shirt, which had slipped down in our scuffle. “Any kid of his was bound to make trouble. What are you two doing here if you weren’t trying to stick your nose where it don’t belong?”

“Natasha asked us to stop by,” I blurted.

Teddy’s eyebrows jumped in alarm. “Yeah, uh. . . she wanted to make sure the. . . special prop would be ready for tomorrow.”

My brain spun, trying to remember what scene we’d be filming tomorrow in case Scott asked us to be more specific. Thankfully, he didn’t.

Instead, he beamed. “Sure will be!” He opened the door and motioned inside. “Want to see?”

I did not, actually, want to see. But Teddy and I complied, climbing into the trailer after him. Scott picked up the fake head lovingly, smoothing the blonde wig back into place.

“Now, I only have the one.” He glanced at Teddy out of the corner of his eye. “So we can’t afford to ruin it.”

“Hey.” Teddy held up his hands. “That was Trevor who broke the lamp, not me.”

Scott grumbled something indecipherable.

“Speaking of Trevor,” I said. “Did you happen to see him? The night he died?” Realizing this probably seemed out of the blue, I hurried to add, “I thought I heard him say he was stopping by.”

“Yeah, he did. To drop off props and apologize about the lamp.” Scott shook his head. “Real nice kid. A shame what happened to him.”

Teddy and I exchanged a meaningful glance, which didn’t go unnoticed by Scott.

“Why?” He set the head back down and crossed his arms. “What’s going on?”

“The police think Trevor’s death was an accident, but we’re not so sure,” Teddy said carefully. “We’re just trying to figure out what really happened. Right?” He looked down at me, his eyes stern. Normally I would chafe at such a blatant attempt to keep me in line, but considering we were dealing with a potential murderer, I decided to comply.

And, coming from Teddy, I kind of liked it.

The realization took me off guard. When, precisely, had I stopped hating being in his presence? Was it when I was straddling him for the camera? When he’d pushed himself between me and Scott just minutes ago? I brushed the thought away.

Meanwhile, Scott looked taken aback. “Listen, I may not have liked that kid too much after he broke that lamp.” He ran a hand over his head. “But hell, it wasn’t worth killing over.”

“Do you have an alibi?” I asked.

“As a matter of fact, not that I owe you two anything, but I do.” He knelt to the floor and started rummaging through an old, worn backpack. “Here you go.” He pulled something out and extended his hand. It was a receipt.

I studied the small piece of paper. Sure enough, it was from the date of the murder and timestamped at 10:07 p.m. Teddy and I had found Trevor shortly after that, so it seemed like Scott would have been far away at the time the murder took place. Still, that didn’t mean he couldn’t have killed Trevor before scurrying off to get a receipt for this very reason.

I squinted at the top of the slip of paper. “Why did you need to go to Jenny’s Beauty Supply?”

Scott rolled his eyes toward Teddy, elbowing him playfully in the ribs. “Your girl here is a right pain in the ass.”

Teddy opened his mouth, but before he could get a word out, Scott continued.

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