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Mason was starting to realize that when Claudia showed up at the office door without a tray, she rarely brought anything but trouble.

It was four days after the Palm Springs trip, and Mason found herself a little scratchy with her boss, who also had her nails out. Nothing had happened on the cases, no new information, no new clues, no nothing. Julia was clearly frustrated and Mason was getting antsy. They’d been spitting at each other on and off all morning, so when Claudia opened the door, both of them were privately relieved that something had come along to break up the slow-motion fight they were having.

“You have company,” Claudia said. “I put them in the front room. I’ll get coffee.”

“What kind of company?” asked Julia.

“Extensive.” Claudia looked vexed. Clearly, there was something in the air. “Helen Eckenridge, Jade Solomon, Christine Greenfield, Patty Menninger and Jason Reed.”

Julia’s expression struggled to land on either horror or amazement. “All of them? Like, together?”

Claudia nodded. “They came in three cars, in convoy.”

Mason stood up and shook out her jeans. “Do you want me to go and see what they want? I could just turn a hose on them.”

Julia shook her head. “No, I can handle it. Come and take notes.”

But it turned out they weren’t there to answer questions. They were there to ask one.

“No,” said Julia, firmly. “Thank you, but no.”

Jade looked the most obviously crestfallen. She frowned, blindingly pretty. “But it would be so much fun. We could both wear the silver catsuit and stand next to each other and it would be like before and after!”

Mason flinched and took her hands out of her pockets. Silence fell like a cleaver.

“Before and after?” Julia’s voice was cool. “Like, the old and the new? The traditional and the modern? The classic and the improvement?”

Jade blinked like a doe marveling at oncoming headlights. “Well, sure, but I was thinking more the peerless original and the upstart who dares to touch her hem. The Oscar winner and the amateur. The timeless beauty and the flavor of the month.” She grinned, losing some of her ingenue innocence. “The lioness and the alley cat.” She literally looked at the ground, exposing the back of her neck for the bite.

Mason had been watching Julia’s face for signs of snarling, so she had a front row seat for the internal conflict war. Amusement won the fight.

“Nicely put,” said Julia. She looked at Jade properly for the first time, a searching evaluation. “You’re very lovely, and you did excellent work in Prosecco Summer .”

Jade squeaked and went red. Genuinely red. “You saw that?”

Julia nodded. “It was not a good film. But you were good in it.”

Claudia walked in with her tray, and Patty Menninger looked it over thoughtfully.

“Fresh fruit,” she said. “Is it local?”

Claudia nodded. “Extremely. Back garden.”

“Organic?”

Another nod.

“And washed in filtered water?”

Claudia’s left eyelid trembled, ever so slightly. She was about to tell a whopper.

“Yes.” Beat. “From Iceland.”

Patty looked relieved, then concerned. “Water from Iceland? By air?” Her hand hovered above the fruit.

Claudia’s body language was giving Girl Scout energy. “No, native artisans responsibly farm ice in the fjords, then tow giant blocks behind a ship running on biodiesel. The ice is packaged in hemp, to protect it from becoming polluted on the journey, and the hemp is then recycled. Gratefully.”

“Super,” said Patty, choosing a strawberry.

Christine coughed. “They’re playing The Codex this weekend at Cinespia. The studio is covering the cost of tickets for the first five hundred attendees, sponsoring the food trucks, the DJ, everything. The remake is going to be the tentpole movie of the new Repercussion. We want to start promoting now and not stop until the movie opens.” She smiled, transforming again in front of their eyes. “You being there would be an enormous coup. It would make it really special.”

Patty chimed in, “And the museum is underwriting a set of custom picnic blankets to be handed out as souvenirs. We’re going to have a Codex exhibition timed to the release of the new movie. It’s really going to be quite a big deal, Julia. Please play well with others.”

Julia frowned at Patty and then looked at Mason. “What do you think?”

Mason was surprised. “Does it matter what I think?”

Julia nodded. “Yes.”

Mason decided to go with the truth. “I think you’re an icon for the kind of people who go to Cinespia.” The outdoor movie series ran every summer, playing classics old and new under the stars in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. “I think people will be thrilled to see you, I think the movie will sell out, I think Jade will do her best to look good alongside you, and I think it’ll be a fun night.” She paused. “Everyone will be there. The whole team can come with you.”

Julia looked at her. “Well, that makes it slightly less fun.”

Helen spoke up. “Hard to show a streaming series under the stars, huh, Jason?”

Jason made a face, but kept his tone neutral. “I guess that would depend on how many episodes we sold, Helen.”

Julia raised an eyebrow, but carried on. “Do I have to say anything?”

Christine shook her head. “Not unless you want to.”

“I want to say something about Bella.”

If Christine was surprised, she didn’t show it. “Of course.”

“Won’t that be a bit of a bummer?” asked Helen. “Tony always said it was just an accident.”

The door opened again and a young woman came in. Christine looked over. “I thought you were waiting outside?”

“It got very hot,” said the young woman. She looked like every other young female executive assistant in Hollywood—overqualified. She shook back her sleeves and consulted her phone. “You have a four p.m. at the Chateau.”

Christine nodded. “Everyone, this is Chelsea, my new assistant. She’ll be helping Helen coordinate the Cinespia evening.” She looked at the young woman. “We’re very close to the Chateau here,” she said, “but we should get going.” She looked at Julia. “So…will you do it?”

Julia nodded. “I will. Not sure why I will, because I’ve been determined not to, but I will. It’s probably crazy, but why not.” She laughed. “Larry will be insufferable.”

Jade jumped up and down and squealed. She was alone in this, but she didn’t care. “Oh, this is thrilling. I remember watching your movies when I got home from middle school.”

“Do you?” said Julia, dryly.

“Alright,” said Jason, getting up and herding his leading lady toward the door. “Let’s get going. I have a meeting.”

Everyone was on their feet and moving. Mason was watching the assistant, Chelsea, who was eyeing Jade Solomon as if she’d never seen a movie star that close before—and maybe she hadn’t—so she missed seeing exactly what happened, but suddenly Helen’s voice was raised.

“It’s not as simple as that, Jason. You’re welcome to bring on whatever writers you need, but Tony’s will makes it very clear: I get adaptation and original story credit regardless.”

“I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t. I merely said I thought a new set of eyes might liven up the action a bit…”

Christine kept the group moving, though, and just as Mason realized Helen and Jason were both genuinely angry and spoiling for a fight, they were through the door and gone. She looked back at Julia and realized she’d left the room. She tracked her down in the office, where she was standing by her desk, looking uncharacteristically aimless.

Mason closed the office door. “I cannot believe you said yes to Cinespia.”

Julia shrugged. “You and me both. To start with, I thought it would be useful to see all the suspects together in one place…then that little actress surprised me.”

“Yeah…Jason said she was no rocket scientist but put her in a role and she really shines.”

“Then he probably wrote that speech for her. Or Helen did. Some actresses bring their own brains to work; others borrow other people’s. Both ways work.”

“Do you think Tony’s death is related to The Codex ?”

Julia shrugged. “Maybe. I find it hard to believe anyone would kill over an old movie, but everything points to it being connected to the studio.”

Mason saw her lift the packet of letters from Tony to Jack Simon and hesitate. Flip through one or two, nearly pull them out of the envelopes, then put them back in the pile.

“Do you think those are important?”

There was a long silence, then Julia sighed. “I don’t know. They span many years, and it’s clear the two of them were good friends. The last letter, which was sent a few weeks before he died, mentions that he’s sorry B and Jack were fighting about Jack coming back to LA. I guess for the movie? That’s all he says, and we don’t have Jack’s letters back, so I have no idea who B is or why she was upset or what Jack decided to do. We need to find B. I think we need to go back to Palm Springs.” She put the packet of letters in a drawer, and closed it. “I’ve said it before: Tony had this way of making everyone feel special. It was only once you realized he did it to everyone that you realized it didn’t mean very much.”

Then she turned to Mason and frowned. “I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but I think I need a meeting. I’m cross, and it’s everyone’s fault but mine.”

“A meeting’s always a good idea,” said Mason, opening the meeting app on her phone to find the next available time. She flicked the screen. “There’s one on Sunset in forty minutes. You can get your court card signed.” She glanced over at Julia, who was still looking at the drawer she had just closed. “You OK?”

Julia nodded and turned to grab a jacket. “Yes. I’m fine. Just old thoughts in an old head. It’ll pass.” She tugged on the jacket and headed to the door. “I’m letting ghosts get in my way. Let’s go.”