A Script for Danger (Nancy Drew Diaries #10)(28)

That night as I lay in bed, I mulled over Ronan Beale. He truly did seem to feel remorseful about destroying his friendship with Alex, but Alex insisted he couldn’t be trusted. Had this mystery project brought Ronan back to River Heights, and did it have anything to do with the case we were investigating?

I also wasn’t quite sure if I believed Lali’s conclusion about Roberta Ely. I had no reason not to, but something about this mystery just wasn’t coming together, and I couldn’t let go of a suspect so easily.

The questions kept swirling in my mind, until the effects of the early morning started to take hold. Soon I was fast asleep.



The following afternoon I met George and Bess in front of the Lightning Post, the postproduction facility where Alex’s team was working. Alex waited for us just inside the front lobby with his editor, Krish, who had a tan complexion and a giant spray of untamed black curls bursting from his head.

“I didn’t know you were bringing guests,” Krish said nervously after Alex had introduced us. “The edit isn’t as far along as I’d like it to be. I’m not ready for an audience.”

“Oh, it’s fine, Krish! You’re always too hard on yourself,” Alex assured him. “I just want to see how it looks so far so I can wrap my head around this carnival thing.”

“Carnival?” Krish looked horrified. “I don’t remember that from the script!”

“It’s a new development,” Alex explained. “Don’t worry, buddy. I’ll fill you in. Come on, let’s go inside.”

“Hey, Krish,” came Cora’s voice from behind us. She’d just come into the building. “Lali wanted me to copy some of the behind-the-scenes footage to one of your drives,” she continued, adding sarcastically, “You know, whatever I was able to get.”

She made a point of ignoring her brother and didn’t bother to say hello to us, either.

“What’s her problem?” Bess whispered under her breath.

“I think she’s still angry about Alex kicking her off the set yesterday,” I replied.

“That’s not our fault,” Bess said, looking hurt.

We all followed Krish through a set of sliding glass doors, which required a pass code for entry. After that, Krish had to say his name aloud into a small security system with a camera and microphone before someone buzzed him into the main floor of Lightning Post. Once inside, Krish treated us to the world’s briefest and most awkward tour around the facility.

“That’s, uh, the kitchen. The coffee is good, sometimes. And these are edit suites. I’m working over there. Let me get the key to unlock it. Back there is the mixing stage. For, uh, sound. And then we have some visual effects artists, too, in those rooms. They aren’t here yet, I don’t think.”

He shuffled to the front desk for the key to the editing room, the place where he had been assembling footage for The Hamilton Inn.

“Why are we here again?” George was getting impatient. “To look at closed office doors?”

“Don’t mind her, Alex.” Bess elbowed her cousin in the side, hard. “She’s just mad she couldn’t sleep all day.”

Alex smiled. “I promise we’ll make it worth your while, George,” he said as we followed Krish inside one of the tiny rooms. Two screens were set up on a desk, with two additional screens mounted on the wall above them. On one wall was a corkboard with index cards arranged on it. Every card seemed to correspond to a scene of the film.

“Krish is an amazing editor,” Alex whispered to me. “He takes some time to warm up to new people, but you should see what he can do with just a—”

“Alex!” Krish turned around, agape. “The drives . . . they were right here when I locked up last night!”

“What do you mean, Krish?” Alex sounded confused.

“I—I mean, they’re not here!” Krish pointed helplessly to the desk.

“What is he talking about?” I asked.

“So you’re telling me the footage,” Alex mumbled, thunderstruck, “everything we’ve been shooting . . .”

Cora blurted out, “It’s gone!”





CHAPTER ELEVEN





The Full Story


“HOW CAN IT JUST BE gone?” Lali asked incredulously. “How does that even happen?”

A half hour after we’d discovered that the footage had disappeared, Lali met us in the parking lot of the postproduction facility. The chaos was distracting everyone else at Lightning Post, so only Krish had remained inside and was going door-to-door to make sure that the drives hadn’t somehow been misplaced. Alex was on the verge of a meltdown.

“They can’t have gone far,” Lali consoled him, even though it was clear that she was just as panicked. “It has to be a misunderstanding.”

“I give up,” Alex said, his voice beginning to crack. “If someone wants to ruin this movie so badly, let them!”

“No!” Cora cried in a surprising display of sisterly support. “Alex, you know how hard it was to get this movie made. You can’t let this jerk win.”

Alex looked at his sister skeptically. “So now what?”

“Go to the set and start walking the crew through the carnival scene,” Lali told him. “Nancy and I will stay here until Krish has scoured the place.”