Stalking the Puzzle Lady by Parnell Hall

Author:Parnell Hall [Hall, Parnell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths
ISBN: 9780553587630
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2006-08-28T23:00:00+00:00

Freddy Fosterfield stayed for the filming. With Ginger Perkins’s death deemed accidental, there were no grounds to exclude him. Unless Cora wanted to bring up the fact he’d been in Stamford without telling anybody. But he hadn’t done anything in Stamford. Just been in the store. Which was creepy, but not illegal.

Neither was hanging around the filming. Not as long as he was doing it openly and making no attempt to harass Cora. Which he wasn’t. Freddy kept his distance, never talked to her except in the presence of others. He was, to all intents and purposes, a model citizen. With a more than average interest in breakfast cereal.

Aaron and Becky had left. Aaron clearly hadn’t wanted to, but his editor wasn’t going to let him stick around and cover an accident. And with Fosterfield out in the open, there was no real need to keep an eye on him. Plus, someone had to feed the dog.

While Sherry wasn’t happy sending Aaron off with Becky Baldwin, she had to be somewhat mollified by his obvious reluctance to go.

Cora wasn’t mollified by anything. As far as Cora was concerned, this was the worst of all possible worlds. She was stuck with Freddy Fosterfield, and she was stuck selling breakfast cereal.

She was also stuck in the motel, which, it turned out, was THE GRANVILLE GRAINS NEW AND IMPROVED CORN TOASTIES PUZZLE LADY PERSONAL APPEARANCE TOUR home base for the first week of the shoot. Apparently—and Cora’s eyes glazed over when Daphne tried to explain it to her—the union rules required only that the primary location be a certain distance from New York City, so by maintaining a home base in Mystic, the production company could get away with carrying the minimum skeleton crew, even when shooting at locations that were actually closer to Manhattan than Mystic.

It was all Greek to Cora, who had always considered a union to be a sacred bond between a man and a woman, until such time as the philandering lowlife revealed his true character in actions that could be documented in court.

Production resumed that afternoon at a mall on Route 95. Lance and Ginger were not missed. People noted their absence, they just weren’t needed. As far as production was concerned, they were about as essential as the non-bus-driving teamster.

Filming was uneventful. If anyone had heard about the accident, no one alluded to it. Cora did her best to whip up enthusiasm from children who didn’t care, for the benefit of parents who did.

On the plus side, it was sunny and bright, they could shoot outdoors, and there was little equipment to schlep. For Cora, who had to wait to go home until the crew had packed up the equipment truck, this was a major consideration. Freddy Fosterfield offered her a ride, which she refused. She might have accepted one from the producer, who, in addition to staying at a better motel, had seen fit to rent himself a car. But Quentin was driving Daphne and Jennifer, there was only room for one more, and Cora wouldn’t go without Sherry.

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