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“And they don’t include you,” Gabriel said.

“Sorry for the confusion,” Xander said. “I didn’t come here to talk to you about who will be playing you in the film. I’m here for the dust bunny.”

Lucy stared at him. “You want Otis in your movie?”

“He’s—”

“I know,” Lucy said. “Perfect.”

“Exactly. Plus he’s already tamed.”

“You don’t tame dust bunnies,” Gabriel said. “You form friendships with them. Or not.”

“I understand they can’t be domesticated in the traditional sense, but it’s obvious that the one called Otis has formed a bond with Ms. Bell.” Xander chuckled and looked at Lucy. “You, of course, would be our dust bunny wrangler on the set. Union scale.”

“I don’t think your cunning plan is going to work,” Lucy said.

“The manager at Ollie’s told me the creature is very fond of cheese-and-olive pizza,” Xander said. “I’ll make sure the caterers have it available on the set. How about a screen test tomorrow? We can do it right after we do Veronica Star.”

“Who am I to stand in the way of Otis’s big opportunity to have his name in lights?” Lucy said. “He’d love that. Okay, I’ll bring him to the screen test tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes, but I have to warn you, I’m not optimistic.”

“Why wouldn’t it work?” Xander demanded.

“I don’t think dust bunnies grasp the concept of work as we understand it. Making a movie is hard work, right?”

“Well, sure. Long days on the set. A lot of rehearsals until the director decides the scene is right. But in the end, it’s amovie. Thousands of people will see it. Otis will be a star.”

“Fine. Whatever. Good-bye. See you in the morning.”

Otis chose that moment to appear at the end of the hall. He had a half-eaten slice of pizza in his paw. He chortled.

Xander peered past Lucy. Energy shivered in the atmosphere around him.

“Perfect,” he said. “Absolutely perfect.”

Lucy closed the door with some force, enough to cause Xander to step back quickly.

“Ten o’clock,” he called, his voice muffled by the door. “Rez-Stone Studios. Two-fifty-two Mirror Street. Emerald Zone.”

Lucy locked the door and turned to face Gabriel.

“Just when you think things couldn’t get more bizarre,” she said.

Gabriel’s eyes heated with amusement. “Look at it this way—the last unanswered question of the case has been resolved. We now know why the Roxbys were willing to go to great lengths to convince you to work for them.”

“They wanted to see Weather Wizards featured in the film.”

“Image and branding,” Gabriel said. He went down the hall, heading for the kitchen. “Well, that’s that. What do you say we open a bottle of wine and talk about our future?”

Otis chortled and vanished around the corner. Lucy and Gabriel followed.

“Wine and pizza.” Lucy smiled. “To quote Xander Attwater, it sounds perfect.”

Gabriel reached the kitchen first. He selected a bottle of red wine, set it on the counter, and went to work removing the cork.

“It’s going to be wine and no pizza,” he said.

Lucy looked at the counter. The pizza box was empty. She studied Otis. “You ate the whole thing?”