Deception on the Set

Chapter 1   Narrow Escape

Chapter 2   Movie Magic

Chapter 3   Close Call

Chapter 4   Life Cast

Chapter 5   First Encounters

Chapter 6   Decomposing

Chapter 7   Windfall

Chapter 8   Mistaken Identity

Chapter 9   Dead Run

Chapter 10  Casting the Villain

Chapter 11  Screen Credit

Chapter 12  Burned

Chapter 13  The Big Score

Chapter 14  Shooting Script

Chapter 15  A Hardy Hello

Chapter 16  Face-Off

Chapter 17  Opening Night

About Franklin W. Dixon

I
TRUDGED FORWARD AS BAYPORT
burned around me. Draped in tattered clothing, I was part of a long line of refugees who looked beaten and hopeless shuffling through the destruction. I felt the heat from flames erupting from storefront windows. Blackened and wrecked vehicles littered the street and sidewalks. The dreary procession veered around a smoldering upturned delivery truck in the middle of the boulevard.

I couldn't believe how my once-beautiful downtown Bayport had been transformed into a postapocalyptic wasteland. Just a week ago, everything was normal. Winslow Pharmacy's huge plate-glass windows were intact instead of in shattered pieces all over the sidewalk. The Dollar Hut was full of shoppers and without flames erupting from the
front doors. Sickly sweet instrumental music filled the air in Sal's Diner rather than the buzzing of downed electrical wires. All this mayhem happened in just a short week. Right after
they
came to town.

“Unreal,” whispered my brother, Joe, as he lumbered along next to me. His blond hair was almost black, and his face was covered in soot and ash. Like everyone else, Joe wore ripped, threadbare clothing. “I never thought I'd see Bayport like this.”

“No kidding,” I murmured.

I glanced around at the long line of refugees, many of whom I knew. I spotted some of my classmates and friends, including Eric Watts, Amanda Paul, and Hector Cruz. Even my chemistry teacher, Mr. Watson, wore a torn and stained blue blazer. Mrs. Sally Gertz, owner of Sal's Diner, didn't even look up as she passed her smoking restaurant.

All of a sudden we heard a scream.

Something was happening at the back of the procession. Then, another scream. This one was closer. Everyone picked up the pace. I looked back to see a commotion in the distance. The people at the end of the line were pushing forward, running from something.

“You think we'll see them from here?” asked Joe.

“I don't know,” I replied. My stomach knotted with excitement. I knew I was supposed to be frightened, but part of me wanted to see our pursuers, couldn't wait to catch a glimpse of them.

More screams, even closer. The sounds of terror were mixed with primal grunts and growls. Everyone around me moved faster, and I found I had to jog to keep up with the pack. Yet I couldn't help glancing over my shoulder for a glimpse of the creatures terrorizing them. Terrorizing us!

This time I caught flashes of them. Not so far behind us I saw biting teeth and skeletal claws swiping at the crowd. It was a good thing I looked back.

“Oh!” cried Mrs. Gertz as she stumbled and fell to the ground.

I spun around and pushed against the charge of frightened people. All the while the screams and growls grew louder. When I reached Mrs. Gertz, I slipped behind her to shield her from the oncoming crowd. The screams surrounded us, and the rush tripled to a panicked stampede. Grabbing her arms, I helped the woman to her feet.

“Thank you, Frank,” she said with a smile. Then her eyes focused on something over my left shoulder. She shrieked and then dashed into the raging river of refugees.

Something clamped onto my left shoulder. I spun around to find myself face-to-decomposing-face with . . . a zombie!

Milky-white eyes stared back at me through pronounced eye sockets. Gray skin stretched over bony cheekbones and pulled away from grinning yellow teeth. Black liquid oozed over its bottom lip as its mouth opened wide, ready to take a bite.

I felt another one grasp my right arm. It jerked me away
just as the first undead creature lunged forward. I stumbled away from the first zombie and spun to confront the second. But luckily, it wasn't a zombie—just Joe.

“You want to be a zombie snack?” asked Joe.

“No way!” I replied.

I stumbled into a run as Joe and I followed the fleeing refugees. A glance back showed a horde of the undead in pursuit. They moved faster than I expected; a few almost kept pace with the escaping mass of Bayport citizens.

This was amazing! Despite the chaos, I couldn't help smiling with delight.

A loud burst of static filled the air. It was followed by a tinny voice amplified over an electronic megaphone.

“And . . . cut!”

I
SHOOK MY HEAD AND
chuckled. Here we were, trapped in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, and my brother was grinning like a little kid on Christmas morning.

“You're supposed to be scared for your life,” I told Frank. “They're going to kick you off the movie if you keep breaking character like that.”

“I know, but this is just so unreal,” Frank said.

I couldn't help but grin as well. I clamped a hand on his shoulder and shook him. “We're in a real Hollywood zombie movie, bro!”

Let me start by saying that the Hardy brothers aren't movie stars in any remote sense of the term. Sure, I played a small part in the school musical last year. I can tell you how everything
is up to date in Kansas City (even though the play was called
Oklahoma!
—go figure). But no, acting isn't our thing.

Now, solving mysteries—that's a different story. I suppose we've done a little acting during some undercover work in the past. After all, we've been working cases since we were eight (me) and nine (Frank).

Luckily, there was just made-up movie mayhem here. And even though Frank and I don't always agree, it didn't take much to talk him into spending our spring break working on a zombie movie.

“Okay, Bob, save the fire and smoke,” squawked the voice on the megaphone.

“Copy that!” shouted a voice from behind a building. Soon after, the smoke stopped pouring from the rooftops. The sparks ceased inside Sal's Diner. The flames in the other stores and wrecked cars died right down. All part of the movie magic!

The man with the megaphone was Bill Daines, the first assistant director, or first AD. The thin, bearded man aimed the megaphone toward the crowd of extras. “That looked great, everyone. We're going to make a few adjustments and then go again.”

“How many times are we going to do the same thing?” asked Hector.

“Welcome to show business,” muttered a passing crew member.

Bill pushed through to the center of the extras. “Excuse me, ma'am. Sally, is it?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Gertz answered.

“I saw you fall. Are you okay?” he asked.

Mrs. Gertz chuckled and waved him away. “Oh, sure. I just tripped over my own feet.”

“Well, it looked great,” Bill said. “And if you don't mind doing it again, Josh wants to feature it in the movie.”

We all looked over toward “video village.” That's what movie people called the group of chairs where the director and producer sat and watched the action on a bunch of video monitors. Josh Biehn, the director, sat in one of the chairs. He pulled a strand of long hair away from his eyes, grinned, and gave Mrs. Gertz a thumbs-up.

She beamed. “I can do it as many times as you want.”

Daines laughed. “Just a couple more times.” He turned to Frank. “And the way you helped her was good too. Do that again.”

“Uh, sure, Mr. Daines,” said Frank.

“No misters here, son,” he said. “Call me Bill.”

After he moved on to some other refugees, Amanda patted Mrs. Gertz on the shoulder. “You're going to be a star, Mrs. Gertz.”

“What about me?” I asked. “I saved Frank from becoming a zombie snack.”

Eric crossed his arms and stroked his brown goatee. “I
don't know, dude. I wasn't feeling it. I think you should go back to acting school.”

“I think he'd be a better zombie,” Frank said. “Less acting skill needed.”

Amanda smiled. “We'll see tomorrow.”

That's right; this movie job was going to get even sweeter! Not only were Frank and I getting paid to be extras in a crowd scene, we would also get to be zombies ourselves! Tomorrow we would report to the makeup department to have our faces cast for the masks that would complete our zombie transformation.

Being a science geek, Frank was excited to learn what chemicals they used to cast our faces and create the makeup. In the past, he had always been the one to make molds of footprints or tire tracks while we were working a case. Now he would get to see what kind of equipment the professionals used. Of course, there was another reason Frank was excited about being in the movie.

Hector glanced around. “Is Chelsea Alexander here yet?”

That
was the reason.

“I saw a call sheet,” Frank reported. “She's not scheduled to be on set until tomorrow.” The call sheet was the daily schedule given to all the crew members.

“You can trust Frank on that intel,” I said. “He's had a crush on Chelsea since
Arithme-Trek
.”

“Aw, come on,” Frank said, turning red.

“What's
Arithme-Trek
?” asked Eric.

“Only where Chelsea Alexander got her start,” Amanda replied. “Before the huge movies and even the reality show, when she was little she played a small part on a kids' educational TV show.”

“It was kind of like
Star Trek
,” I explained. “Except this starship was on a mission to explore strange new math problems.”

Eric raised an eyebrow. “You're kidding, right?”

Amanda laughed. “Totally true.”

I tapped my chin and looked up. “Now, what was her character's name again?”

“Lieutenant Fraction,” Frank mumbled.

Everyone burst into laughter. “Let me guess—she was in charge of . . . fractions?” asked Eric.

“Oh yeah,” I agreed. “And Frank nerded out over that show every day after school.”

“Hey, I was ten years old,” Frank said. “And I liked math!”

“
And
Chelsea Alexander,” I added.

A sharp feedback squawk let us know that Bill was about to speak over the megaphone again. “Okay, everyone. Back to one.” That signaled all the extras to return to the place where they had started the scene. “We're going again. Bob, let's light it up!”

“Copy that!” a voice shouted. Suddenly smoke billowed from the rooftops and fire erupted from the storefronts and wrecked cars. All the extras moved to their original positions.

We ended up doing the scene only one more time. Just as before, Mrs. Gertz fell and Frank helped her to her feet. This time the zombies didn't make it to us in time, so I didn't get to save him. That was okay with me. I was really looking forward to being a zombie myself soon.