Page 5 of Romance Is Dead

Finding a dead body in a movie is easy. You wait while the extra is oh-so-carefully arranged in a gruesome manner, listen for the AD to call “Action!” and then hit your mark and scream in a way you’ve artfully practiced in the mirror until the effect is perfect. Terrified, but in a sexy way.

In real life, it’s different.

At first, it took me a few beats to register what I was seeing.

The ditch was deep and dark, shrouded in shadow.

By the time my brain registered there was a human at the bottom, I assumed they had simply fallen down and must be awfully hurt to be lying in there, completely motionless.

My stubborn brain refused to believe that what I’d simulated more than a dozen times on screen was happening in real life.

But then I saw the blood. Gallons of it, black as ink where it had sunk between the rocks and into the earth.

That’s when I screamed. And it wasn’t a pretty, moonlight-bouncing-off-my-tits scream.

It was ugly and hurt my throat, wrenched out of my lungs like the rattling buzz of a chainsaw.

I staggered back, pulling Teddy along with me.

We fell to the ground and I used my feet to push us away from the ditch.

My scream died in my throat, my chest constricting until I couldn’t catch my breath.

Teddy wrapped an arm around my shoulders, yanking me close, and my lungs finally loosened.

“Call 911!”

“Right.”

As Teddy fumbled through his pockets for his phone and hit the emergency call button, I crawled over to where the body — no, the person — was lying. Shock was rapidly being replaced by an all-encompassing dread. But I needed to get a closer look so we could relay information to the 911 operator.

I lifted my phone for light as I peered into the ditch, which ran along the road.

The bright orange temporary fencing that would typically keep someone from falling in and hitting the rocks below had fallen away, leaving a gap.

The person was curled inside, wearing jeans and a black tee-shirt, and my stomach sank when I finally made out their face.

Damn it, Trevor.

“Hang on, I’ll check.” Teddy pulled his head away from his phone. “Are there any visible injuries?”

“One second.” Bracing myself for what I might see, I scanned his body. The blood seemed to stem from a gash on his forehead, likely inflicted by the rock he’d fallen on. His clothing was dark, and the light dim, but I didn’t see any other obvious injuries.

I relayed the information to Teddy, who passed it along to the operator.

“A pulse, uh, I don’t know. Quinn, is there a pulse?”

“Um . . .”

I eased myself gently down into the ditch and tugged down the neck of his shirt. It didn’t look promising. I took a deep breath and pressed two fingers on his carotid artery. Nothing.

“No!” I yelled back up to Teddy. “Shit, no, he doesn’t.”

“No pulse,” he repeated into his phone, sounding queasy.

As I scanned Trevor’s body, looking for anything else that might be helpful to first responders, I noticed that his wrist was conspicuously bare — there was no sign of the friendship bracelet from his niece, the one he told me he never took off.

The thought that he was here, alone and without his beloved token from his niece, made me impossibly sad.

Shortly after the paramedics arrived and, grim-faced, called the coroner, the police also pulled up on the side of the road, lights flashing.

Two officers climbed out of the vehicle — a pudgy man who might have been in his fifties and a woman who looked like she could have been his twin.

After a quick word with one of the paramedics, they ambled over to where we stood, the man shining his flashlight in our faces as he approached.

“You two the folks who found the body?” His mouth worked at a toothpick and he was still wearing sunglasses, even though it was well past midnight.

I bit back a smart comment about him being able to see better if his eyes weren’t covered.

“Yes,” I said, squinting and holding up a hand to shield myself from the blinding light. “That’s us.”

“Ah, sorry ’bout that.” He lowered the flashlight and tucked it back into a holster on his belt.

“Honestly, Larry.” The woman shook her head, rolling her eyes as she turned to us. “Can you tell us what happened, sweetie?”

Teddy and I recounted what we’d seen, each helping the other remember.

Teddy hadn’t noticed the pool of blood had already been coagulating when we found him, while I completely forgot to mention the time we left my trailer until Teddy chimed in.

The two cops jotted down notes, nodding along as we told them everything, which — admittedly — wasn’t much.

“Did you see anyone else in the immediate vicinity?” the woman cop asked.

Teddy and I looked at each other. “No,” we agreed. “No one.”

“And where were you two prior to finding the body?”

“I was in my trailer, since about. . .” I wracked my brain, trying to remember. “Seven, I think it was.”

Teddy nodded. “Same. In my trailer, that is. Since eight.”

“I see.” The woman chewed on the end of her pen. “So you two were the only ones in the area where the body was found. Interesting.”

“That we saw!” I clarified. “There could have been someone else, we just didn’t see them. We only left my trailer, like, five minutes before we found him.”

“I thought you were in separate trailers?”

“I paid a late visit to her trailer,” Teddy explained. “I knew she’d be missing me and wouldn’t want to wait until tomorrow to see me.” He capped off the lie with a jaunty wink.

I bit my tongue to avoid cussing him out in front of the cops. This freakin’ guy.

Nodding, the woman police officer held out the notebook and pen. “Your contact info, please.”

Mouth dry, I jotted down my name and number before Teddy did the same.

“Thank you kindly.” The man tipped his hat to us. “I think we have what we need here. Hey, Deb? You want to start taping off the scene?”

“Sure thing, Larry.”

He flipped to a fresh page in his notebook. “Now, do either of you know how to get in touch with the person in charge of this whole show?”

I nodded bleakly, rattling off Natasha’s contact information. By the time they told us we were allowed to leave, my adrenaline had worn off and I was exhausted.

Teddy and I finished walking to the parking lot in silence.

Along the way, a swell of emotion built in my chest. I’d only known Trevor for a day, but it’d been enough to know he hadn’t deserved to die alone.

No one deserved that, and especially not someone as sweet as Trevor.

If the day had been a disaster before, it was an absolute catastrophe now.

And as we reached my car, I couldn’t shake the feeling that all of it was Teddy’s fault.

“Thanks for that, by the way,” I spat. I knew it didn’t make sense to blame Teddy for what happened to Trevor — not really — but I also couldn’t deny that the entire day had been cursed since the moment he showed up on set.

Teddy blinked as he ground to a halt. “For what?”

“That!” I motioned wildly at the field behind us.

“Hang on. You can’t seriously be blaming me for what just happened?”

“I was getting ready to leave when you showed up at my trailer! If you hadn’t slowed me down, maybe I could have helped him!” My throat was growing thick, and I swallowed hard, desperate not to get emotional.

“First of all, we already established that you were in the middle of staring at my nipples on the TV when I got there, so your story isn’t adding up.”

“Whatever.”

“Second of all, it didn’t look like he moved much after hitting his head. There’s nothing you could have done.”

“You don’t know that.” I swiped at my eyes, which were filling with tears at an alarming pace. “Just leave me the hell alone from now on.”

I yanked open the door to my car and climbed in, immediately locking it behind me. I twisted the keys in the ignition and turned on the radio, the thumping sounds of the Talking Heads filling the vehicle.

Psycho killer. . . Qu’est-ce que c’est?. . .

Gunning the gas, I peeled out of the parking lot, leaving Teddy standing alone in the dark.