Page 102 of Jace 4Ever
Nelson
Iscrubbed my hands over my face. “Tom! What the hell is the holdup here?”
“Why the hell are you so damn impatient?” he snapped the words back at me. “You’re being paid millions of dollars—”
“Don’t. Don’t go there. It’s not my fault someone erased two days of good shoots. It’s not. I was visiting my father who just finished chemo, was in the middle of radiation, and had just had a heart attack. There were many important things happening and I just don’t need to be here.”
Many important things.That was professional sounding. Christ, I missed Jace already. I’d only been away for a day, but I’d noticed the past few times I’d had to go on a shoot or publicity tour, it took less and less time for me to miss him and want to be back with him. I was going to have to remedy this, especially for longer shoots like Xavier Renegade.
The idea of him traveling with me to all these location shoots made me smile. Especially if he could get to do his job while I did mine.
“Tom, we all want to get home,” Laura said, hands on her hips. “None of us thought we would have to come back for these scenes. None of us want to be here after the hell you put us through the first time.”
I cocked my head at her and looked back at him. “Tom. Who erased the drives?”
“I told you the gaffer did it,” he said.
“Why was a gaffer handling the final takes? Gaffers handle electricity and power for the set. They don’t handle the final footage at all for any reason. That’s what the key grip is for. To handle the drives.”
“People on the set do what I tell them.”
Laura threw her hands in the air. “You are without a doubt the biggest asshole I have worked with. And, Tom? I have worked with some real assholes.”
“Did you give him the drives already erased? Or did you turn on your charm and charisma and seduce someone into erasing them?” I stared at him, and as soon as I asked the question, I saw the answer. “You erased them. Why? Why did you want to come back here and do those two scenes again?”
Denworth cocked his head. “You just didn’t like the results? You could have asked us to do them again. This is ridiculous. I’m going to miss my mother’s eightieth birthday because of your bullshit.”
I didn’t think it was that, but I didn’t say anything. I had ideas. Narrowing my eyes, I shook my head. “The footage is gone. Let’s get this going and get it done again. I want to get home. I have something to do on Friday night that I really don’t want to miss.”
Tom walked away, chided but not saying anything. Not an explanation, not an apology. It stank.
“I don’t like it,” Laura mumbled.
“Me neither,” Denworth agreed. “I’m going to bet that most of us here think something is seriously not right about this.”
“I’m going to take five,” I said. “I need to get out of the sun. Yesterday I was in Iceland, today I’m standing in the sun in South Africa. My body is just so not liking this.”
The tent, which was a concession from the trailers we had last time, was at least under another canopy to keep it out of the sun. There was a small, portable cooler in the corner, which worked to keep the air flowing and drop the temperature in the tent tonot quite as hot as outside.
My cell was in the small footlocker we all had to store our stuff. Digging it out, I paged through my contacts and dialed.
“Major. What on earth are you doing calling me?” Smoke’s voice was almost a comfort.
“Captain, I need a favor.”
“So, I assumed, calling this number.”
“His name is Thomas William Fitzpatrick.”
“The director?” Smoke was clearly shocked at my request.
“Yes,” I answered. “Something weird is going on with him. He intentionally erased or had two days of footage erased. I wouldn’t be suspicious, normally, but almost everyone on this set has been pulled away from something important and we all agree this smells like a setup. We just talked to Tom and he didn’t confirm or deny it. All of his answers have been dodgy.”
“Maybe he’s an asshole?”
“Maybe, most likely. But after the head in a box at Jace’s a few months ago, I’m a little paranoid.”
“Excuse me, head in a what?”
