In the Club (23 page)

21

A Star Is Born…Again

O
n Friday afternoon, Park reported to the set of
Short Fuse
for her first official day of filming. It was sunny and hot and busy, a typical June morning in Manhattan. As she stepped through the doors of her own personal trailer, she felt relief wash over her in the form of air-conditioning and several bouquets of red roses. The card in all of them was the same:
Love, Jeremy.

On the small counter beside the window, Park found a gift basket filled with beauty products, courtesy of Madison and Lex; they hadn’t overlooked a single item. Park laughed out loud when she saw the huge tube labeled
Facial Mud Mask.
It was a joke and a reminder of all they had been through.

Park had spent the last three days reading over the script for
Short Fuse
and recovering from her violent and unexpected duel with Emmett McQueen. Madison and Lex were recovering too, but they were looking forward to vacation and the beginning of a very restful summer. Park, on the other hand, would be working for the next six weeks: first here in Manhattan, then out in Los Angeles, where the last quarter of the film was being shot. It was an entirely nerve-wracking experience—memorizing lines, learning how to get into character, fearing that her performance on-screen wouldn’t live up to all the media hype—but Park wasn’t sweating it. And when the jitters
did
seize her, she thought back to Sunday evening and her performance in the Chamber. How exhilarated she’d felt playing that role, how she’d been able to capture all the little nuances of a character. She hadn’t merely been playing a game; she’d been acting out a scene, feeding off everyone else’s words and movements and emotions. She’d lost herself in the thrill of it.

So maybe Jeremy was right. Maybe acting really was in her blood.

A knock sounded on the trailer door.

“Come in,” Park said.

A woman wearing a headset poked her head in. “We’ll be ready for you in five minutes, Park. Hair and makeup in trailer four.”

“Thank you.” She took a deep breath and reached for the script in her purse. She flipped through it, smirking at the irony of it all. The explosions and mayhem and danger that were all central to the movie. The stunts. Hell, she’d lived this script in the past week. Maybe life really did imitate art.

She went and stood before the full-length mirror at the front of the trailer. She was pleased with her reflection: it radiated strength and confidence and a slight edginess. There was no sense in worrying about her feature film debut. Jeremy had been right all along. A lot of her life
was
about acting. But there was a huge difference between art in front of the camera and life behind it. She was ready to do both.

She opened the door of her trailer and stepped outside. Three photographers were waiting just behind the blue barricade. Park didn’t bother to shield her face as the flashes erupted. There was no point in hiding on a movie set. Several onlookers waved and called her name excitedly, and she smiled and waved back.

Jeremy was waiting for her outside the makeup trailer. “Hey, babe,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.

“Hey.” She slipped into his embrace and held her face up for his kiss.

“So,” he said. “You ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Long day ahead of us. Press conference after we finish shooting.”

She nodded. “Sounds typical. I think I can handle it.”

Jeremy stared into her eyes, then arced a finger across her cheek. “We’re
officially
a power couple now. If you really don’t want to do the press conference, we don’t have to. They wait for us, and not the other way around.”

She laughed. “It might take me a while to get used to the Hollywood stuff, but I will eventually.” She glanced over his shoulder and saw Madison, Lex, and Coco McKaid walking toward her.

“I brought you some extra moisturizer,” Lex said. She had a little trouble digging into her new magic purse—it was bigger than the last one, which had been damaged by the mud and Emmett’s dagger—but she was handling the change well. She held out the tube of moisturizer. “All these lights, and being outside in this weather—it’ll be hell on your skin.”

Park took the tube. “I know. I can already feel the dryness beginning around my eyes.”

Madison held up a file folder. “Well, it’s all here. The police and the FBI and the ATF finished their investigation.”

“Oh!” Park’s eyes widened. “So what happened?”

“Everything happened while I was away!” Coco wailed, disappointed. “I swear, I’m never going to a Zen monastery again. They even confiscated my iPod.”

“Emmett broke into Mother Margaret’s office back in March,” Madison explained. “He stole the documents and they confirmed his suspicions—it was Mother Margaret who sparked the investigation into his father’s bad business dealings. In fact, Mother Margaret had been cooperating silently with the IRS throughout the whole scandal, but she never thought Emmett would resort to this. It apparently never occurred to her that he would want to take revenge on her or St. Cecilia’s Prep.”

Lex nodded sadly. “The apartment on Ninety-first Street—the clandestine chemical lab—is actually owned by Emmett’s mom. But it’s under her maiden name, so it kind of went unnoticed. Emmett had gotten used to staying there alone during the trial. He liked being there as opposed to with his parents, and his mom didn’t mind that. But she didn’t know what he was up to. He started experimenting with all the explosives back in February, when he began to suspect that St. Cecilia’s might’ve been behind the investigation. That’s why traces of it were found in Mother Margaret’s office. When he broke in, he’d had some of it on his shoes, maybe on his gloves. Clandestine laboratories, by the way, are fairly common. Criminals have them in their bathrooms and basements and bedrooms. It’s a big problem. I guess it was thoughtful of Emmett to at least spare his mother from danger.”

“But where was he getting the nitroglycerin?” Park asked.

“He was engineering it
himself,
” Madison said. “Literally. I mean, that’s how smart he is when it comes to chemistry. He did it by nitrating glycerol, and nitric and sulfuric acids.”

Park nodded. “I’m impressed, Madison. Sounds like you understand chemistry a lot more since reading that report, huh?”

Madison beamed. “I’m
so
taking physics or advanced chem next year. But getting back to what I was saying about Emmett and the clandestine laboratory…
that’s
why the FBI was brought in. In this case, they planted an undercover agent to try to find out what was going on. And that agent was Sister Brittany. Whose real name, by the way, is Special Agent Christine Resnick.”

Park sighed. “I
always
thought she was a little bit of a wack-job. She let students get away with too much. I guess she wouldn’t make a very good nun. What about everything else?”

“The night Cleopatra opened, Emmett pretty much did exactly what we thought
Julian
did,” Madison said. “He saw Concetta run out of the cage, and his chance to jumble up his own crime, and he used her stiletto to wound Damien after Damien had probably already died from the poison. And it turns out he knocked the DJs out with chloroform, which, for the record, he also made himself.” She smiled. “And remember Friday afternoon, when I saw Damien in the student lounge? Well, he had just come from Mother Margaret’s office, but he hadn’t been alone. Turns out Mary Grace Burns saw Emmett waiting for him in the hall, holding a soda can. That was when Emmett poisoned him.”

“Jesus,” Jeremy said. “That’s so cold.”

Lex took the file from Madison and flipped through the legal documents. “On Thursday night, Damien spotted Emmett coming out of the apartment building on East Ninety-first Street. Damien questioned him about it—and he also saw a book on explosives in Emmett’s backpack. Damien never really made the connection, but he was probably going to mention it to Mother Margaret. And everyone else.”

“Which would’ve exposed Emmett’s plan to seek revenge,” Madison said. “So Emmett knew he had to get rid of Damien. Damien was a threat; he was already suspicious of Emmett and things would’ve only gotten worse. Emmett confessed all of this to the police—he signed a sworn statement and pleaded guilty to avoid a maximum sentence.”

“And Julian?” Park asked.

Lex shrugged. “He’s okay, but he’s spending the summer in rehab. The day I followed him to the Bronx and saw him pay for that little plastic bag down by the construction site? Turns out it was cocaine. And remember the plant you saw in his bag when you met up with him on West Houston Street? It wasn’t jequirity. It was actually cannabis.”

Park shook her head. “Figures. And I guess Jessica is out in the Hamptons with her family, right?”

“Yes,” Madison said. “She wasn’t too nice to us when we tried to talk to her the other day. But apparently she’s giving up on her plans to study medicine. She wants to take up writing instead, so in the fall she’s going to Bennington, not Brown.”

A small commotion suddenly erupted behind them. One of the production assistants was trying to keep someone away from the trailer, but that someone shoved her way past the blue barricade with a loud grunt. Concetta Canoli wasn’t about to be restrained. She was dressed in a pink sarong and a men’s white button-down shirt. She met Park’s eyes and smiled pensively. Then she looked at Madison and Lex and waved.

“Concetta!” Park said. “We’re so glad to see you!”

She nodded and rushed forward, her head held high, her voluptuous body swaying in typical Concetta fashion. She hugged Park. She air-kissed Madison and Lex. “I know I’m not supposed to be on the set bothering you,” she said, clearing her throat nervously, “but I never really got the chance to thank you for saving me. For saving everyone.”

“You’re not bothering us,” Park assured her. “And I’m glad you came. You’re looking fabulous.”

“I think you look
great
in pink,” Lex told her.

“Truly beautiful,” Madison said.

“Thank you.” Concetta smiled again. Then she turned around and stared up at Jeremy. Her cheeks flushed. She started twirling a strand of her hair. “Hi,” she said breathlessly. “I’m such a big fan of yours.”

Jeremy smiled politely. Then he glanced down at Concetta’s feet. No stilettos. Relief flooded him.

“Well, I guess that leaves only me to talk about.”

They all spun around.

Special Agent Christine Resnick—a.k.a. Sister Brittany—pushed past the security guards as she flashed them her badge. She was dressed in jeans and a black blazer, and her short hair was spiky and actually quite flattering.

“Oh my God!” Lex said. “Sister Brittany!”

Special Agent Resnick laughed. “Not anymore. I’m done with wearing veils.”

“Thank you for saving us, by the way,” Madison said. “
We
never got a chance to say that to
you.
”

“Hey, I never got a chance to thank
you
girls for doing such a great job on this case,” Special Agent Resnick replied. “If you hadn’t found the jequirity plants or created that time line or invaded Emmett McQueen’s secret lab…well, we might not all be here today.”

The reality of the situation prompted a moment of stunned silence. Madison, Park, and Lex stared down at the ground. So did Coco. Concetta made the sign of the cross without ever taking her eyes off Jeremy.

Special Agent Resnick said, “But the good news is that it all worked out. I hear that because of you girls, the prime minister’s wife has begun wearing Triple Threat everywhere in London.”

Lex gave a thumbs-up. “It’s the only way to dress. And because of that roll in the mud in Central Park, I’ve decided to start a new line of cosmetics. My skin’s been amazing after that.”

“Mine too.” Madison nodded. “And the other amazing news is that Cleopatra is reopening next week!”

Special Agent Resnick pulled a miniature bottle of champagne out of her purse and handed it to Park. “I just wanted to say break a leg. I think you’re going to be great in this movie.”

“
Totally
great,” Lex echoed.

Jeremy slipped his arm around Park. “Babe, we’ve got to get ready. Shooting starts in ten minutes.”

“Oh, wait,” Special Agent Resnick said. She took a small envelope out of her side pocket and handed it to Madison. “This is actually for you, Park, and Lex. It’s some information on a new internship program the FBI is developing for teenagers who are interested in forensics and crime-fighting. The Bureau thinks you girls would be a perfect fit.”

Lex gasped. “Give me that envelope!”

“We’ll think about it,” Madison said with a smile.

“You should.” Special Agent Resnick nodded. “Because fashion and forensics
can
go hand in hand.”

Madison held out her hand. “We’ll be in touch, Agent Resnick.” She couldn’t help but smile as she watched the ex-nun cross through the barricade and disappear into the thickening crowds.

“You think we’ll ever see her again?” Lex asked hopefully.

Madison smirked. “Ya know, for some strange reason, I totally think we will.” She turned around suddenly, catching a glimpse of Theo out of the corner of her eye.

He strode toward her carrying a bouquet of red roses, a bottle of champagne, and a quart of milk. He didn’t bother to muffle his laughter as he handed the gifts over to her.

“Very funny,” Madison snapped.

“Well, I figured you’d need something to keep you calm.” He plucked a puffy strand of baby’s breath from the bouquet and slipped it into her hair. “Now,
that
looks a lot better than the jequirity plant you had on your head last Friday night.”

Madison sighed, then smiled. “
What
am I going to do with you, Theo West?”

Lex didn’t say anything as she watched Theo and Madison poke each other and laugh. They really did look happy. She suddenly felt guilty for being so lame about him. When Theo turned to look at her, she frowned and gave his shoulder a slug.

He got the hint. “Thanks,” he said quietly.

A minute later, Park came out of the makeup trailer, dressed and primped for filming. She was wearing torn jeans and a bloodstained T-shirt. Dirt matted her face and a fake cut ran across her forehead in an ugly red line.