wrought with her pliable morality and entitled attitude. She moved through the world like she owned it and everyone else was there to serve her. It was simply too much. She had to pay. And she did.”
“What’s going on?” Boatwright moaned groggily from across the room. He was still out of it but he could speak and focus his eyes. He was coherent enough.
The rehearsal was over. It was time for the real show to begin.
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
“Haven’t you been listening, Miller?” she asked him testily as she unhooked the bungee cords keeping him in place and stepped back out of his reach. “I told you there would be a test later. That time has come. Do you remember me?”
Boatwright squinted at the woman. She was a little fuzzy around the edges of his blurry vision but she looked vaguely familiar. She was in her thirties, about five foot six with medium-length, light brown hair and brown eyes that were currently trying to burn through him. She was attractive with a thin but shapely physique and sharp, angular features that would pop onscreen. He sensed that she had to be an actress.
“No,” he said, though he wasn’t sure that was true.
He wanted to demand what the hell was going on but something in the intensity of those eyes made him reconsider. He tried to swallow the creeping fear that he felt growing inside of him. Something about his throat felt funny.
“Come on, Miller,” she said teasingly as she paced back and forth. “Cast your mind back. I’d like to think I made at least a small impression on you.”
Hearing her speak more, there was definitely a familiarity to her voice. He tried to place it. Did he know her from around the lot? Had she been in one of his films? It had to be something else.
He glanced around and saw that he was lying on a filing cabinet high above the ground. Touching his neck, he realized the weird feeling was a rope wrapped tightly around it. He looked up and saw that the rope was connected to an exposed pipe above him. Both his wrists and ankles were bound. However he knew this woman, she wasn’t pleased with him.
“Did we work together?” he asked, his voice raspy.
She smiled and her perfect while teeth gleamed, almost hurting his eyes.
“Not quite,” she said, walking toward him.
And then, in a flash, it came to him. This was Calliope Mott, the actress who’d been cast in Petals and Petulance before he’d discovered Corinne. The one who’d tried to kill herself when she lost the role. She looked different but it was definitely her. He tried to hide the recognition in his eyes but could tell she’d caught it.
“Finally,” she said. “You were starting to hurt my feelings.”
“You killed Corinne,” he said more than asked. “Because she got the role you wanted? And you’re mad at me because I picked her?”
Calliope had stopped moving and now stood directly in front of him. He was tempted to reach out and grab her throat but doubted he could grab her with his hands tied. Besides, he was worried he might topple off the cabinet.
“Is that how you remember it, Miller? I was simply beaten out for the role by a better actress?”
“No,” he said, swallowing again, trying to find some saliva in his bone-dry mouth. “You were very good. I remember we offered you the role. Corinne was a late audition, a favor to an agent friend. No one expected anything from her. I’ve always felt bad that you got such a raw deal.”
“So she was just a late audition, huh?” Calliope said with a nasty edge. “It had nothing to do with me refusing to ‘act out’ a romantic scene with you in your apartment? It had nothing to do with her being willing to do whatever it took?”
The memory flooded back. The truth was that Miller Boatwright had “rehearsed” scenes with so many actresses in his apartment over the years that they all started to blend together. He had a vague recollection of Calliope being among them, but nothing stuck out. He decided not to mention that. Instead he focused on her second comment.
“Corinne Weatherly didn’t sleep with me to get the role,” he told her.
Calliope’s face went red.
“You expect me to believe that?” she spat.
“It’s true,” he said, praying that convincing her might save him. “I won’t deny that once she got the part and the movie started shooting, we got together.