Fool Me Twice

35

Ryan pored over the production schedule. It was day seven that caught his eye, the first day of the second week of the shoot.

Weather permitting, the unit was scheduled to set up shop along the west coast of Paradise Inlet.

A number of small cottages dotted the coastline. Most were rudimentary, built years ago as summer places for vacationers. Many of them were without heat or insulation.

When the long summer days shortened into early fall, many of the occupants closed up their cottages for the season. A Taste of Arsenic was scheduled to shoot in one of them for two successive nights.

—

Ryan drove slowly, checking out the landscape. He spotted the movie people almost immediately.

A handful of cars and a couple of oversized trucks were parked in front of a two-story cottage. A paint crew was sprucing it up while the art department staff was off-loading furniture. Landscapers were installing squares of new grass on the front lawn.

Scaffolding was being constructed in front of the cottage to hold the large lighting units that would illuminate the night, as well as the generators required to power them.

Ryan continued his drive along the inlet. He could see that many of the cottages had been closed down. There was very little activity in most of them. Few if any cars were parked in the driveways.

He doubled back and spotted an empty cottage two doors away from the shooting location.

“That’s the one,” he said to himself.

—

Later that night, Ryan returned to Fisherman’s Road. The crew had all left.

Driving with his lights off, Ryan pulled his Prius into the driveway of the cottage he had spotted earlier. He parked in back.

The night sky was cloudless, and the sliver of moon provided just enough light.

He paced the exterior of the house, looking for a way in. He saw no security system. He stepped onto the back porch and tried to open the kitchen window. It was locked.

He picked up a rock and smashed one of the window’s six glass panes. He lifted out the jagged ends, reached inside, and unlocked the window. Then he raised it and climbed through to the kitchen.

The adjacent dining room was furnished with an old wooden table and four chairs, as well as a serving hutch and a crockery-filled cabinet.

The living room was larger. A worn sofa and love seat were its main furnishings, along with a pair of wicker chairs and a couple of mismatched side tables.

Ryan wandered down the hall to the bedrooms. The larger of the two had a queen-size bed with a night table on each side. The smaller had a pair of single beds separated by a dresser. There was one bathroom with a sink and a combination bathtub/shower.

For Ryan’s purposes, it was perfect.