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Two hours later, Archie, Will, Mason and Julia were sitting on a bench in the police station, waiting to be told to go home. The cops had shown up to deal with the assault on Julia, and had taken everyone to the station for statements. Now they were presumably typing up their reports, one tired finger at a time.

Mason had missed the actual assault of course, but she’d heard all about it. Hoodie Guy had pushed Julia to the ground and yelled, “The Codex Curse will get you. You’re doomed,” in a highly dramatic fashion. She’d even seen the video, because someone had been filming something else and captured the moment for posterity. The press was enjoying yet another paragraph for their already active Codex Curse stories, and Julia was vexed as hell.

“Bad lighting, unflattering angle; honestly, it’s not fair.” Now she shifted on the bench, tugging irritably at the tear in her dress. “He ambushed me. I didn’t even have a chance to take a wider stance. Asshole.”

Archie shrugged. “Well, he narrowly avoided getting creamed by a bus, so it was apparently his lucky night.”

Julia nodded, and yawned.

The cop who’d interviewed them appeared around the corner holding a sheaf of printouts. He limped a little. He was tired. But he was the pointy end of law enforcement at two a.m. on a Tuesday morning, and he was doing his best.

“If you can sign your statements and remain available for follow-up questions, you can go home now.”

They all signed and handed the papers back to him. “It’s possible the detectives will have follow-up questions, especially for you, Mrs. Mann. While it’s highly likely this was just a random crazy, they’ll let you know if they think it’s connected to the homicide you’re already”—the cop paused, realizing he had dug himself a little hole—“connected to.”

Julia was gracious. “Thank you, Officer. If they need me, they know where to find me.”

There was a small crowd of reporters outside, and Julia took a minute to give them a better shot than the one they’d been running all night. This improved her mood somewhat.

Archie turned to Mason and lowered his voice. “Are you OK to drive?”

Mason nodded. “I got my second wind an hour into sitting on the bench back there. I’m good.” She was actually exhausted, but she’d reached that wired stage of exhaustion that feels a lot like wakefulness. “Thanks.”

“I’m sorry I busted your balls about not going into the bar. You know, back then.”

Mason shrugged. “It’s all good. I go into bars sometimes if I have to, and you could argue that was a time that I should have, but for some reason I balked.”

“It worked out.”

Archie paused. “I was worried about you. I thought you’d gone under the bus for a second.”

“Actually, it was Will who got hit by the bus. I got hit by Will.” She smiled up at him. “He’s much softer than a bus.”

Julia was done with the photographers, and called out, “Mason, Will, let’s go. Archie, you with us?”

Archie shook his head. “No, I’m toast. I’m going home. I’ll see you in the morning.” He laughed. “Later this morning.” He looked at Mason. “I’m glad you’re OK. Good night, Mason.”

“Good night, Archie.”

She watched him walk away down the street, pulling out his phone to call an Uber. Watched the way his body moved, thought about the way he’d blown past her during the chase, his smile.

“Pull it together, dreamy,” said Julia, suddenly right next to her. “Head in the game. Go get the car. We’ve still got work to do.”

Once the Citro?n was underway, Julia turned to Will. “You were in the middle of reporting earlier, when Casper arrived. I realize it’s been a busy night, but did you have anything else? Now is as good a time as any. I’m wide awake and I’m going to be sore and cranky later.”

Will nodded, although he was presumably going to be the sorest of them all in the morning. “You asked me to look at Jason Reed, the director who was squabbling with Tony.”

Julia nodded, shaking back her hair and leaning her jaw on an elegant hand. “Yeah…there was an implication that Tony was thwarting Mr. Reed’s hopes and dreams.”

“He was.” Will looked at his notes. “Jason Reed wanted Jade Solomon to appear in his feature about a small dog who assisted in the American War of Independence.”

“I beg your pardon?” Julia looked skeptical.

Will nodded, entirely serious. “It’s called The Shih Tzu Heard Around the World. ”

Mason looked at him in the driver’s mirror. “You’re kidding.”

He shook his head. “Not at all. Don’t forget, someone green-lit a rom-com with tiny talking dogs and it turned into Beverly Hills Chihuahua . $150 million gross. Two sequels.” He turned up his palms. “I’m not responsible for the moviegoing public, and numbers don’t lie.”

Mason frowned. “How would a shih tzu even become involved in the War of Independence?”

“Interestingly,” said Will, his expression brightening, “it couldn’t. Although the breed has been around for a very long time, they weren’t known in the United States until the mid-twentieth century.”

“So…how…” Mason was frowning harder. “I don’t get…”

“Mason,” said Julia, “are you forgetting he just compared it to a movie with a talking Chihuahua?”

“More than one in the sequels,” added Will, conscientiously. “Anyway, he wanted Jade for it, but Tony wouldn’t release her because she was still working on a movie for him.”

“Which happened to also be about a dog who took part in the War of Independence, called Yankee Poodle Came to Town ?” Mason started giggling and realized she was very, very overtired.

“No…” Will looked confused.

Mason kept going. “Or a Vietnam War remake called Full Metal Jack Russell ?”

Will shook his head briefly and continued. “I’m ignoring you. So this was going on when Tony was killed, which means it’s no longer a problem. The project Tony had Jade on is on hold now.” He looked up. “What’s strange is they worked together—Tony and Jason that is—on several things before, and everyone says they were friends.”

Julia shrugged. “So the bottom line is that Jason and Tony had beef that was settled by Tony dying, but not really very significant beef.”

“No, not really. I mean, it was money, but it was not huge money and it was only money.” He hesitated. “Jade Solomon is a kind of theme I noticed running through several beefs, actually. She wants to play the lead in the Codex remake, Helen doesn’t want her, Christine does, then she was in that accident.” He paused. “She had a bird on her hat at the funeral. I saw a picture.”

Mason sympathized. She’d found it hard to get over, too.

Julia nodded. “Mason, go talk to her. Anything on Christine?”

“Wait, why do I…” Mason was frowning, but Will rolled right over her.

“Christine seems about as clean as a Hollywood studio executive can be, bearing in mind what faint praise that is. UCLA, USC film school, assistant, development executive…the traditional path up through the system for a smart, driven person who lives to make movies on the studio side. She’s got an eye for the new thing, for the coming attraction, you know. She has very good taste. Several majors have tried to tempt her away, but she had her eye on Tony’s job and nothing was going to shift her from that. Not that she didn’t have plenty of power as his second-in-command, but she wanted sole control.”

“And she and Tony were tight? No issues there?”

Will shrugged. “None that I could find in a day. Give me time and maybe I can dig something up. She’s been with him for over a decade.”

Mason turned into the driveway and pulled up in front of the house. “Final stop. All out who are getting out. You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.” She had a sudden thought. “Will, I’m sorry, I didn’t ask if you wanted to be dropped somewhere else.”

“Why would I?” he asked, surprised. “I live here, in one of the guesthouses. There are three of them.” He climbed out of the car. “See you in the morning, Julia. I’m on bank records, more Helen, more Christine, more everyone…”

“Yes, and Becky Sharp’s background. Let’s not drop the ball on that case because we’re too busy juggling balls on this one. Good night.”

He came over, and Mason watched in mild surprise as they hugged each other. Julia was so prickly, and yet Claudia and Will—and Casper—all seemed so fond of her. She wondered if she’d ever get there.

“You,” said Julia, turning to her, “park the car and be back in the morning. If you took my suggestion and moved into the other guesthouse you’d already be home.” Then she frowned at Mason and went inside.

Mason sighed and turned the car around. She wouldn’t hold her breath.