Chapter 14 Cracking the Ice Crew
Cracking the Ice Crew
“Okay, everybody!” Bex said this in her dance rehearsal voice, a five-foot-tall woman who could project as much volume as an air-raid siren. “Come sit at the table and listen to me!”
They’d already packed several hours’ worth of catching up into thirty minutes, all of them crowded around in Bex’s kitchen with Vic opening and closing the refrigerator door to fortify them with drinks and the fancy fruit Bex liked to buy and forget to eat.
Vic had been in on Frankie’s plan to fly home early.
It was why she’d gone to so much trouble to get Sam and Fergus over to the house in time for her sister’s arrival.
Now, they arranged themselves around the table, Sam seizing the chair next to Bex and shoving it sideways until their knees touched.
Bex flipped through several notebook pages densely filled with the spikes and whorls of her distinctive handwriting.
She stopped on one that said SUSPECT LIST at the top.
She’d underlined the words three times.
It made Sam uneasy. “Suspects” inarguably suggested that someone had harmed Ramona, not just that she was missing.
“I’ve got too many people on this list,” Bex said.
“Today is going to have to be about crossing out and narrowing down.” She raised a finger.
“First, Sloan. We don’t know how Ramona got to work on Friday, but we know she was on location and then rode back to the studio parking garage with everyone else.
Then she got a ride home from Sloan. If we discount the Star Spy item and the pictures from the Maldives, that makes Sloan’s car her last known location.
I’d like to talk to him. We should figure that out soon, because if he was the last person to see Ramona, the police will go to him first after Ramona’s parents file their missing person report. After that, we’ll never get at him.”
Sam agreed. “We’ll have to ask Macie if they have a number for him.”
Frankie leaned across the table to peer closely at Bex’s list. “You should keep Ramona on the suspects list. I don’t think we can discount the Maldives or Star Spy yet.”
“Why?” Bex held her notebook out of Frankie’s reach so she wouldn’t grab it and add her own notes.
“Because Ramona could have posted the Maldives pictures. I know your PI nemesis said that a man planted the Star Spy piece, but she could have had someone do that for her. As cover. Haris doesn’t think she would.
He’s never known her to do anything like that, and I know everyone you talk to keeps vouching for her integrity.
Plus, he’s been watching her location tracking like a hawk, and it hasn’t so much as flickered on for even a minute. ”
“But you don’t agree with Haris?” Sam asked.
“Haris is cute, but he’s as naive as a dog in a stroller when it comes to the human condition.
It’s actually shocking when you consider how long he’s worked in Hollywood.
I think Ramona could’ve used another phone or disabled cellular data.
She might not be herself. We should plan for the worst while we hope for the best.”
Bex reluctantly made a note on her list.
Outside, thunder rumbled. A streak of lightning lit the sky behind the hills. Sam sent her hundredth hope into the universe that Ramona was okay.
Bex placed the tip of her pen on the page of her notebook.
“Second, Archie Blasingame. We haven’t dug up any information about Ramona having a partner, lover, or special someone.
But we did find out last night that Ramona’s been seen several times with Archie on the set of The Howling.
Macie says Ramona and Archie are old friends.
Colin says Ramona was doing something with the documentary recently. So we need to talk to Archie today.”
“Another contact that Macie may have,” Vic said.
“Yes.” Bex moved her pen down. “Third, Chad, with an asterisk that connects him to Juliette. We’ve been told by Macie that Ramona felt responsible for what happened to Juliette. Sam, did Chad ever mention Juliette to you?”
“Chad only talked about himself. And even if he had been interested in talking to me, I was hiding in my trailer as much as I could to avoid him.”
Sam had meant for this comment to be lighthearted and diverting, but now her brother was frowning, and Bex’s eyes had gotten sad.
When Theomina wrapped in Vancouver, Sam had thought she was exhilarated.
But she hadn’t acted like an exhilarated woman.
She’d slept ten or more hours a night for days afterward.
What she’d really been was exhausted. For weeks on end, she’d had to protect herself and the actors around her, slipping into the kind of codependency that a little sister who wanted everyone to get along was good at.
When she received the call for the reshoot, her internal reaction was so panicked that it had felt like getting bad news in the middle of the night.
“About that.” Vic dipped an enormous piece of dragon fruit into yogurt she had spooned into a mug. “We have to understand the dynamics better.”
“Of what?”
“The Ice Crew.” She took a bite of her fruit.
Frankie sighed. When Sam wasn’t looking, she’d yoinked Bex’s notebook and was scanning rapidly through the pages. “I’m not sure we have the time for one of your little meta-analyses of other people and their friends that you and your crew like to do.”
“Ugh! Maybe we should analyze the dynamics of us, huh?” Vic made a circling motion between herself, Frankie, and Bex.
“Should we get into why neither of you takes me seriously? Which one of you got an A on your Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology final? Or knows how to do calculus? Or walked Celine’s runway for their spring preview?
You know, my friends and I aren’t just about getting smoothies at Erewhon wearing bikinis as tops.
We see things. We protect each other and play the game against the system.
It’s not easy, and it’s a delicate balance because of how difficult this town and fame are. ”
Sam felt guilty. Vic had mostly grown up in Hollywood as the sister of a popular TV actor, and she’d always been good at building alliances to other young people in her social circle—some of them working artists, others behind the scenes, many related to established Hollywood talent.
From the outside, they could look a little aimless or irresponsible, but Sam had spoken to enough of Vic’s friends to know they were passionate, bright people who’d witnessed what Hollywood did to their parents and grandparents, and wanted to call their own shots.
“Sorry,” Frankie said.
“You looked so pretty on the runway.” Bex patted Vic’s hand.
“How could knowing the dynamics of the Ice Crew help us find Ramona?” Sam asked.
“Not this group. Not now. But the dynamics back then, and why—exactly why—it all fell apart. On the outside, it looks like they fell apart because of Juliette’s death, but that’s the kind of thing that could make a group of people tighter, too.
My guess is there was something else going on.
Something in addition to Juliette’s death, or something that ricocheted through the group after her death that was always going to come back to haunt them. ”
“Yikes,” Fergus said.
Vic pointed at him. “Exactly. When I say you need to understand the dynamics better, I mean that understanding the dynamics could show you that none of those people should be on your list, or that someone you don’t know about yet should. Sam, you don’t like Chad.”
“I do not.”
“You can’t even stand to be near his aura, but he has the most successful career out of all six of the Ice Crew. Why? We know it’s not the outcome of his talent.”
Frankie was nodding. “Or there’s Sloan. The general impression people have is that he left the crush of Hollywood behind for a more artistic lifestyle,” she said. “How come? He was considered a talented actor back then. Did he even want to do The Howling episode?”
“What about Christian?” Sam asked.
“He should have been bigger than Chad,” Vic said. “He’s better looking and had more range. But he didn’t successfully navigate his queerness, and Hollywood, and inheriting money when he was in his twenties, and now he’s fried and hates them all.”
“Except Ramona,” Bex piped up.
“Except Ramona,” Vic agreed, “who he was close to until she friend-dumped him for his treatment of Colin. And Macie comes across like Switzerland. They’ve done projects with Chad.
I was able to find pictures of them at a few arty events with Sloan as recently as a few years ago.
They’re besties with Ramona. I’ve seen pictures of Ramona, Macie, and Christian together.
I wonder if Macie has something on all of them, or are they just that easy to get along with, or does everyone have something on Macie? ”
“This is what you and your friends like to do?” Bex shook her head. “This is unsettling.”
Vic dipped her fruit again. “There is nothing in this town more fascinating than interpersonal dynamics. You’ve been to the awards-show after-parties.
How many times has someone whispered something in your ear as another person approaches to give you a five-second rundown of why you shouldn’t mention that person’s husband? ”
“So many times.”
“Dynamics.” Vic crossed her arms. “Your lists aren’t complete until you have them.”
“If that’s true,” Sam said, “then our next action is to go back to Macie. They’re the only person we have access to who can fill in what we don’t know about dynamics.”
“And who can maybe connect us to Archie and Sloan.” Bex grabbed her notebook back from Frankie and flipped it closed as she rose to her feet. “Sam, you drive, and I’ll call Macie on the way. Vic and Frankie, why don’t you and Fergus—”
“I read your notes,” Frankie interrupted. “I just completed an internship on Broadway. I was a PA on a highly rated hour-long family drama that included golden retrievers and copious use of wind machines. I can handle home base.”