going to be hard for her to sneak off the lot at this point.”
“Normally I’d say yes. But what if there are still people on those soundstages? We don’t know what weapons she has and what she’s willing to do with them. She’s in a pretty desperate state of mind.”
“Good point. I guess we’re splitting up then,” he replied. “You have a preference?”
“Not really. I guess 32 since I’m at least slightly familiar with it.”
“Fine by me,” Trembley said. “Stay in contact, okay?”
Jessie nodded and headed for the door to Soundstage 32. After a deep breath she yanked it open and stepped inside. The shock of cold after running in the muggy night air was bracing.
She moved quickly around the outer edge of the stage, peeking onto the set, which looked to be recreating the locker-walled hallway of a high school. There weren’t many places to hide there so she kept moving.
She came to the stage door that led to the production offices, wardrobe and prop departments, green rooms, and more. This area included the office where they’d conducted the interviews with the cast and crew. Down the hall was the prop room where Corinne’s body had been found and dozens of headless, limbless torsos still rested.
Something told her that if Callie Hemphill was on Stage 32, that was the best place to start. She rushed down the hall, keeping alert as she passed open doorways until she got to the prop department entrance. It was open too. She didn’t know if that was normal or not.
Before stepping inside, she reached in and turned on the light. The room flickered to life, revealing an endless line of latex body parts and torsos. If Callie simply stood among them, unmoving, it might be hard to pick her out.
Jessie closed the door so Callie couldn’t sneak out and began walking down the long middle row, careful to keep some space between herself and the grotesque mannequins on either side of her. She listened closely for rustling or heavy breathing, anything that might reveal Hemphill’s location. But the room was silent. She stopped moving.
I’m at a disadvantage here. There has to be a better way to do this, to change the dynamic.
“Callie,” she called out into the cavernous room. “My name is Jessie Hunt. I’m not a regular cop. I’m a profiler. It’s my job to get into the minds of people who commit crimes and try to understand why they did it. And I have to tell you, in your case, I get it.”
She stopped speaking, hoping for some kind of response. When none came, she continued, trying to sound as conversational as possible.
“I don’t know exactly what happened to you all those years ago, but I can guess. You had the lead role in a major movie. It was yours. And then it was taken away from you and given to someone else. I have an idea why. Maybe you weren’t willing to make personal compromises to keep the role and someone else was. Then you had to watch her become a star, facing no consequences for her lack of scruples. You watched the producer who hired her live high on the hog, never getting called out for abusing his power.”
She stopped talking again. Still no reaction. She went on.
“And then, when you finally get to a solid place in your professional life, it all gets thrown back at you again. The woman who got your role works one stage over from you. You risk constantly running into the man who yanked your dream job away from you. After everything you’ve done to climb back up near the top, you have to face the indignity of them looking down on you all over again. It’s not fair. And you’d had enough. Am I right?”
There was still silence but somehow it felt softer, as if some tension had been released from the room. Jessie wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or if she could trust that instinct. She decided to take a chance.
“Callie, as a show of goodwill, I’m going to put my gun away,” she said, lifting it high in the air and then holstering it. “You’re a smart woman. You have to know the situation you’re in. You murdered one person and tried to kill another. You’ve been identified. Police are converging on our location. There’s no way you get out of this unscathed.”
Jessie felt naked as she continued to walk, her hands empty, completely exposed. She tried to