dead body in a warehouse. Everywhere she looked, there were fake dead bodies and countless individual bloody latex limbs that looked like they’d been ripped from torsos. It reminded Jessie of a meat processing plant, only with fake humans. A number of “dead” female torsos had been placed in a circle around Corinne in the center of the room.
The deputy coroner stood quietly off to the side, ready to collect the body and take it to the morgue. According to Detective Bray, she’d been waiting for an hour but wasn’t allowed to move the body until the HSS folks had checked her out.
“Sorry,” Trembley told her. “We won’t be long.”
Jessie motioned for him to come closer to her.
“Don’t ever apologize for doing your job,” she muttered under her breath. “We’re here to solve this murder, not expedite the process. If we need to study the body for two hours before she takes it, then we get two damn hours, okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” Trembley said, his face turning crimson. “I was just being polite.”
“Be polite on your own time. This woman on the floor deserves our best efforts to get justice, not good manners.”
She could sense he was about to apologize to her too and nipped it in the bud.
“What do you make of this?” she asked, nodding at what both of them had immediately noticed upon seeing the body.
In Weatherly’s right hand was a white rose. It had clearly been placed there after her death. Whatever significance it had was lost on Jessie. Looking over at Trembley, she could tell he had a different take.
“It’s from the film,” he said. “Petals and Petulance.”
“I saw the movie,” Jessie said. “But it was a long time ago. I think I was in college. So I have no recollection of a rose.”
Trembley glanced at Detective Bray to see if she wanted to explain. She shrugged.
“I remember that the guy gave her one in the movie but that’s about it.”
Trembley, seemingly stunned, refreshed them on the plot.
“In the movie, she played a woman named Rosie who owns a small floral shop. Sparks fly with a charming guy named Dave who comes by the store. But it turns out that he’s a rich entrepreneur who has bought out the property across the street to turn it into a huge nursery in his chain. They end up in this love-hate thing.”
“I remember that part, Trembley,” Jessie said. “It was basically a rip-off of You’ve Got Mail, which was a rip-off of The Shop Around the Corner.”
“I thought you didn’t pay attention to movies,” Trembley said, impressed.
“I didn’t grow up in a nunnery,” Jessie replied. “Go on.”
“Well, at the end of the movie, he comes to her with her favorite flower, a white rose, and proposes.”
“That sounds familiar,” Jessie said. “And you think that whoever killed her intended for us to make that connection?”
“It seems pretty obvious,” Trembley said.
“Maybe too obvious,” Detective Bray piped up.
“I guess,” Trembley conceded. “But either way, it seems clear that whoever did this knew about the movie and its back story. Maybe it was an obsessive fan. Maybe it was somebody who worked on the movie. But it sure appears that Petals and Petulance is somehow relevant to all this. It reinforces my feeling that we need to talk to Boatwright.”
“I don’t disagree,” Jessie said vaguely as her attention was diverted by a small, red-faced man marching toward them. “Detective Bray, do you want to let us know who the angry little guy headed our way is?”
Bray looked over and her shoulders visibly slumped.
“That’s Anton Zyskowski. He’s the director. Not a barrel of laughs, that one. Buck up.”
Zyskowski halted in front of them and stared directly at Trembley, ignoring Jessie entirely.
“Are you the special detective?” he asked officiously, staring up at Trembley, who, like Jessie, had a good six inches on him.
“Special detective?” he repeated.
“The one who handles special cases,” the little man said in obvious frustration. “This woman says nothing can be done on the picture until the special detective arrives.”
“I guess I’m one of the special detectives,” Trembley allowed. “We’re a team.”
“Team means nothing to me. I need the person in charge to finish so I can begin shooting again. Every hour without shooting is many dollars. Time matters very much.”
Jessie bit her tongue, waiting to see how Trembley would react. The detective looked back down at the tiny man. He started to mumble something about procedure, which Jessie didn’t understand. She seriously doubted that the director would get it.