Carter made his way through the rain toward the wardrobe trailer. Inside, he slipped behind a privacy screen and began removing his costume. Along with those which had garbed the rest of the cast it would be carefully packed and returned to Los Angeles, preserved and numbered in case reshooting or sequels were required.
After dressing in jeans, sweatshirt, and sneakers, he stepped out and passed the Union uniform one piece at a time to the diminutive woman waiting behind a narrow counter. She chatted as she checked each piece against the readout on her laptop.
“Bet y’all are glad this shoot is over.” Her consonants twanged against her palate as if someone were using the letters for guitar picks. Texas, Carter thought. He’d never asked her but the accent was pretty easy to slot.
He shrugged. “The usual disagreements over artistic interpretation.”
She let out a derisive snort. “Artistic copulation, you mean. But you stayed clear of what was flyin’, didn’t you? That’s the best thing you got goin’ for you in this business, cuddles. Not your looks, not your voice. You got equilibrium. Always say that no matter what his profession, a body’s got to maintain its equilibrium.” She tucked his officer’s hat into a plastic bag that had his name scrawled on it.
“Gonna keep everybody around for another week, I hear. Try and get some close-ups and two-shots with backgrounds, make the editors happy. Then we’re outta here.” She smiled up at him. She was in her fifties, he suspected. Country-pretty, not Hollywood. Marjorie Ashwood was part flirt, part grandma, all professional. She could whip up a new costume on the computer laser cutter in the back of the trailer faster than most seamstresses could alter a hem.
His reciprocal smile turned to a wince when she added, “Goin’ to do a pic in South America, I hear.”
“Possibly,” he mumbled.
“Some kind of river epic?”
“I’d rather not discuss it. It’s still in the talking stage.”
“You don’t have to explain.” She was buttoning the officer’s jacket she’d hung on a plastic hanger. “This is ol’ Marj you’re talking to, remember?” When the jacket was ready she pushed a button that revolved the wardrobe rack, hung the jacket alongside its identical twins. The rack was crammed full. Period pictures demanded extensive wardrobes and experienced wardrobe masters to look after them.
As she clipped the pants to a second hanger something slipped from a front pocket. Catching it before it hit the floor, she held it up to the light.
“What’s this?”
“Oh, I forgot about that.” He pulled his rain poncho from his carry pack. “Found it in the grass today. Asked around but nobody claimed it.” He looked thoughtful. “There were a bunch of gawkers around earlier. Some studio flunky was escorting them. Maybe one of them lost it. There’s no label.”
“I can see that.” Light refracted from the argent slice as she turned it over in her fingers. “This size, it’s probably a storage disc. Funny there’s no label. Maybe it peeled off.” Her eyebrows lifted. “Want to see what’s on it?”
Her eyes were blue but paler than his. “That’s private property. I don’t know if we should do that.”
“Hell, it’s probably a bootleg copy of some concert. Illegal on the face of it. We might find some identification. Then you could have the pleasure of returning it to its rightful owner.”
“Why me?”
“Because it wouldn’t mean anything coming from me. You, on the other hand, might make a lifelong fan.” She turned and sat down at her tiny workstation. “Here, let’s see.”
The laptop whined as she powered it up and slid the disc into the two-inch slot. A couple of keys got her out of her cadcam costume program and into a search utility. Carter waited patiently.
“That oriental gal was in earlier looking for you.” Ashwood spoke as she teased keys. “The reporter?”
“Trang Ho. The term ‘reporter’ doesn’t apply to her. She’s a professional snoop.”
“That a fact? I’d almost think she had a thing for you.”
“She’s like that with everybody. Not that she wouldn’t sleep with me, but it’d be to get a story, not sex.”
“I know the type. She gets her orgasms from gossip.” The comment did not surprise Carter. Despite her grandmotherly attributes, Ashwood had an earthy sense of humor. And she’d worked in film for thirty years.
“She tried pumping me a few times, too.”
“You didn’t give her any material?”
“Me?” Ashwood glanced up at him. “I got a pension comin’ someday soon, good-lookin’. I’m not about to jeopardize that by whisperin’ rumors somebody might trace back to me.” She leaned toward the screen, squinting over her half-bifocals. “This is interestin’.”
“What?” He tried to see around her.
“Come look for yourself.”
He raised the divider and peered over her shoulder, frowning. “You know I don’t know anything about computers, Marjorie. I’m not one of these actors who want to direct, produce, light the set, and run the camera. I’m about as technically oriented as a geranium. I don’t see anything.”
“That’s because there’s nothin’ to see. The contents of this disc are protected. System’s too elaborate for this to be a cheap bootleg copy of a concert. What we got here is some serious information storage.” She fiddled with the keys. Words and images flashed across the screen.
“What are you doing?”
“Just hackin’ around. Ah, here we go. The codes ain’t real complicated. Just enough to discourage the casual prober. I never was the casual type.”
“Isn’t this invasion of privacy or something?” Carter was uneasy.
“Naw. If this was major stuff, government or internat, I wouldn’t have been able to get in so easy. Not with a commercial search program. See?” She pointed triumphantly. “Owner’s name and address. We done a good thing, good-lookin’. Says there’s a reward for safe return, too.” Her fingers hovered above the keyboard. “Now let’s see what he’s so anxious to have back.”
Carter put a hand on her shoulder. “We don’t have to do that, Marjorie. It might be personal. Family records, tax information … We don’t know.”
“Aren’t you even a little curious?”
“Not really.”
“Reward’s a thousand bucks.” She tapped the screen. “It’s a Georgia address. Can’t be that far. I don’t know where Brunswick is but we can find it on a map. Why don’t you come with me? I’ll split the reward with you.”
