George opened the back door and climbed out. “Hard to believe the whole thing is gone,” she said as Bess and I joined her on the sidewalk.
“There’s police tape,” Bess pointed out. The yellow tape was strung around what was left of the lawn.
“I’m sure the fire department considers this a possible crime scene,” I said. “If Dad and I both found the fire suspicious, it’s a good guess that Chief Cody did too.”
George squinted into the darkness. The dark shadow that had been the house was lit only by the nearby streetlamps. I pulled out the little flashlight I always keep in my purse and trained the thin beam of light onto the wreckage. I could pick out the brick chimneys of three fireplaces standing up from the ashes like lonely sentinels. The rest of the house was nothing but rubble.
Suddenly George gasped. She grabbed my hand and pointed the flashlight at a spot on the blackened grass. “There’s the laptop!” she exclaimed.
Before I knew it, she had ducked under the police tape and was heading for the computer.
“George!” Bess cried. “Get back here!”
But George ignored her. She crunched across the burned grass and picked up the laptop.
“This is a possible crime scene,” I called, trying to keep my voice low. “You can’t take that!”
George gave me a defiant look. “It’s not like the computer is worth anything,” she said. “And we know it had nothing to do with starting the blaze. You said yourself that they got the laptop from the room that was last to catch fire.”
I bit my lip. She had a point. But I wasn’t comfortable removing evidence—any evidence. “We’re still not allowed to take it,” I protested weakly.
George tucked the burned-out computer under her arm and marched back over to us. “Not many people would be able to salvage anything from this computer,” she said. “But I might be able to find something left on the hard drive. Don’t you think that would comfort Mr. Allman?”
I exchanged a look with Bess. “I guess it might make him feel a tiny bit better,” Bess said.
I sighed. “Oh, all right,” I mumbled.
With a triumphant grin George led the way back to the car.
I shook my head and followed her. I had to admit, a part of me felt better knowing that she’d be looking into the computer. I didn’t know what I expected her to find, but it was a good thing that someone was digging for details about Jeffrey Allman’s house.
Because honestly, something about that fire just didn’t sit right with me. I had a hunch that it was more than an accidental blaze. And I’m a girl who’s used to believing in her hunches.
The Long, Bad Day
Action!” Morris yelled.
I jumped, surprised. I hadn’t even realized that we were ready to start shooting. I felt a moment of panic as I realized that I’d forgotten to go to the makeup trailer this morning. My face was bare, and my hair was just lying like it usually did. Not only that, but I was still wearing my pajamas, which were flannel with pictures of teapots on them. Why had they let me on the set looking like this?
I glanced up to see Ben and Luke Alvarez staring at me, waiting for my line.
I opened my mouth, but my mind was a complete blank. I couldn’t even remember what scene we were shooting.
1 said action, Morris bellowed.
Luke rolled his eyes. “Look at her,” he said to his brother. “She’s completely unprepared.”
Ben nodded. “I knew Morris should have gotten a real actress to play this part. Nancy Drew is such an amateur.”
Harold Safer stepped onto the set. “Not only is she an amateur, but she’s utterly talentless,” he said with a sniff.
I couldn’t believe it! Harold was supposed to be my friend. I’d helped him out of a lot of jams, and I’d solved mysteries for him. I was just beginning to feel comfortable calling him by his first name occasionally. “Um, you’re an amateur too,” I pointed out.
He laughed. “Yes, I am. But I’m actually good at acting. You’re only here because Morris felt sorry for you.”
I felt the blood rush to my cheeks as I blushed. I had never been so mortified in my entire life!
“I don’t feel sorry for her anymore,” Morris called. “She’s fired! She’s ruining the whole movie!”
Everyone in the crew began clapping and cheering. Harold pursed his lips and made a strange buzzing sound. The buzzing grew louder and louder, until I finally realized that it was my alarm clock.
I sat up in bed, my cheeks still hot from embarrassment. It had only been a dream. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that it might come true.
On my way to the set later that morning, I was tempted to turn up the road to Jeffrey Allman’s house. But I forced myself to keep driving. After all, what could have changed there overnight? Besides, I had a sneaking suspicion that I was just looking for an excuse to put off going to the movie set. And I wasn’t going to give in to a little fear.
Today was going to be my busiest day on Stealing Thunder. I was involved in every single scene on the schedule. By the time I arrived, there was a constant rushing sound in my ears, and my heart was beating fast.
“This is ridiculous,” I said out loud as I parked the car. “I’ve been in plenty of dangerous situations before, and I was never afraid. There’s no reason to be afraid now. It’s just acting.”
But as I made my way to the makeup trailer, I still felt jittery. I had no idea where the fear was coming from. It just wasn’t like me to have stage fright, or any fright. Of course, this meant that whenever I tried to mention my feelings to anyone, they didn’t seem to believe I was truly afraid—it was too out of character. No one would think it was possible. But here I was!
“Here’s Esther!” Degas sang out as I entered the makeup trailer. He sat me down and got to work on my hair.
Pam came over and began making me up. “This afternoon’s scenes are going to be fun for me,” she said.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Because we get to age you,” she explained. “It’s more fun to do that than just putting on regular makeup.”
This afternoon we were shooting a bunch of scenes of Esther writing in her diary. Luther and Althea, the screenwriter, had convinced Morris that it was absolutely vital to include Esther’s diary in the movie. Althea had written it so that the camera would film Esther writing at different points in the story, and there would be a voiceover of what she was writing. Today we would shoot me just sitting and scribbling in the diary. Later, after all the filming was done, I would go into a sound studio and record the voiceover. Basically I would just read the script of Esther’s diary entries. Then, when the editors put the movie together, my voice would be dubbed in to the scenes of me writing in the diary. It would seem as if Esther’s thoughts were being said aloud as she wrote.
“Esther doesn’t age too much during this movie, though, does she?” I asked Pam.
“Well, your first diary scene will take place at the beginning of the film,” Pam said. “So we’ll make you look younger—like a girl of fourteen or fifteen. That way, the audience will realize that Esther has kept a diary for a long time.”
“You can do that?” I asked, surprised. “Make me look younger?”
“You’d be surprised what a little makeup can do,” Degas said. “To make you look young, we’ll make your lips look plumper and put more of a rosy glow in your cheeks. And we’ll leave your hair down so you don’t look as matronly as you do when Esther grows up.”
I wrinkled my nose. No one had ever described me as looking matronly before.
“Then, in the later diary scenes, Esther grows a bit older, so we’ll use the makeup to make your face look thinner,” Pam went on. “People are more gaunt when they’re older.”
“And we’ll change your hair a little for every different scene,” Degas said. “And you’ll wear different costumes.”
“We all know it’s just one day of your life sitting here and filming,” Pam put in. “But when you
look different in each shot, the audience will believe that all these diary-writing scenes took place days or even years apart.”
“It’s the magic of moviemaking!” Degas added, his eyes sparkling.
I forced a smile. Everyone else on the set was here because they loved what they were doing. They had a great time creating a whole make-believe world that people would watch and enjoy in the finished film. But I just felt sick to my stomach. Why couldn’t I get into the fun of it?
After makeup and wardrobe, I went back to the trailer I shared with the Alvarez brothers and Harold Safer. Ben and Luke were already there. When I saw them, I had a quick memory of my bad dream. But their friendly smiles immediately put me at ease.
“Ready for our first scene?” Ben asked. In the morning we were shooting a scene between Esther and her brothers. I was glad that the Alvarez boys would be there to ease me into the day. I was dreading the afternoon diary scenes, when I would need to be all alone in front of the camera.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “I don’t feel ready for any of this.”
“Do you want to run lines?” Luke asked helpfully.
I shook my head. “I know the lines,” I told him. “That’s not the problem.”
“Then what is?” he asked.
“I’m nervous,” I said. “I don’t know how you guys do it. I always thought acting would be easy, but it’s not. Every time I think about the camera, I feel self-conscious.”
“Just pretend you’re a little kid playing a game,” Ben suggested. “All you have to do is make believe you’re Esther.”
I bit my lip. “It’s hard to do that when there’s a big camera pointed at me and twenty people standing around watching,” I said. “Ever since I started working on Stealing Thunder, I’ve learned a lot about how expensive it is to make a movie. I keep thinking that if I mess up, it will cost everyone time and money.”
Luke gave me a sympathetic smile. “There is a lot of pressure,” he agreed. “But you have to try to forget about that when you’re acting. As soon as Morris calls for action, you have to forget everything except what Esther is thinking.”
“I’ll try,” I said. And I would. But I had a feeling it wouldn’t be easy.
The morning’s scene went off better than I expected, though. We were at the Rackhams’ cabin on the soundstage. Mary Lupiani had dressed the set so that it looked like a cheerful family home, with a teapot on the stove and Esther’s half-finished knitting on the couch. The lighting director had set up giant lamps outside the fake windows of the cabin so that it appeared as though sunlight was streaming through the glass. Luther Eldridge was there, explaining to Mary just how to position the tea service that I would use in the scene.
Looking around at the cheery “house”—and knowing that it was all historically accurate, thanks to Luther—made me feel better. Maybe I would be able to pretend I was Esther. As long as I blocked out the director, the cinematographer, the camera operators, and the rest of the crew, I could make believe I was a real frontier girl in a real nineteenth-century frontier cabin.
Having Luke and Ben there helped. They’d already filmed a bunch of scenes in this cabin—all the scenes of the Rackham boys planning their heist. So they were very comfortable on the set. They treated the place as if it really was their home. And as soon as they stepped into the cabin, they began acting like their characters, John and Ross Rackham. Their whole personalities changed. Instead of the sweet, fun-loving Alvarez brothers, they became the cocky, dangerous Rackham Gang.
The scene we were going to film was one in which Esther has finally discovered that her brothers are planning to do something illegal. She doesn’t know exactly what their scheme is, and she doesn’t know that it involves the Mahoney Anvil office. But she knows they’re up to no good. In the scene Esther begs her brothers not to commit a crime. She’s supposed to be terrified by their plans, and pleads passionately against them doing anything illegal.
I figured it would be easy enough to act like that. If someone I loved was planning to commit a crime, I’d be passionately against it too. I thought back over some of the mysteries I had solved. One thing I’d discovered was that not everyone felt the way I did about crime—or about family. I’d seen cases in which sisters and brothers had plotted against each other. It made me wonder how much the real Esther had known about her brothers’ crime. Her diary showed that she knew something. But those missing diary pages still nagged at my mind. Luther had told me that people assumed Esther tore the pages out herself, to protect her brothers. But I couldn’t help wondering if maybe the Rackham boys had taken their sister’s diary and ripped out the pages that might incriminate them. They were true criminals—they would probably rather protect themselves than respect their sister’s property.
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts of the old mystery. I didn’t have time to think about solving it right now. I had to solve the mystery of how to conquer my own fear!
Morris gave us about ten minutes to rehearse the scene. I found that I wasn’t so nervous when it was just practice. It was easy to pretend I was Esther Rackham, that this was my cabin, and that these were my brothers. But then Morris called for take one, and my heart began to pound again.
“Action!” Morris called.
Ben immediately began to pace around the cabin. Luke just stood still and glared at me. I gazed back at him, frozen. I couldn’t remember what to do. All I could think about was the camera trained on me, and all the people watching.
Luke raised his eyebrows, waiting for me to say my line. I had remembered the line perfectly in rehearsal, but now my mind was a complete blank.
“Cut!” Morris called. “Nancy, what’s wrong?”
“Sorry,” I said, embarrassed. “I … I guess I forgot the line.”
“The line is, ‘I know what you’re up to, and I want it stopped,’” called Jenny Kane, the script coordinator. She was always on set with the latest copy of the script to make sure the actors got the lines right.
I nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Jenny.”
“Good. Take two,” Morris called. Ben went back to his first mark—the exact place he’s supposed to be standing when the scene starts. The camera pulled back to its starting position, and everyone got ready for the next take.
Meanwhile, I could barely breathe. What if I forgot the line again? It would be just like my dream from this morning. Everyone would make fun of me!
“Hey, Nance,” Luke whispered. “Just ignore the camera and all that.”
“How?” I whispered back.
“Keep looking at me,” he said. “And keep thinking about how much you don’t want me to commit a crime.”
“I’ll try” I said.
Morris called “Action!” one more time. I took a deep breath and stared at Luke. Ben was pacing up and down behind the couch, annoyed, but Luke just glared at me with a challenging look. His expression seemed to say that he was planning his heist and there was nothing I could do to stop him. I felt a surge of anger toward him for wanting to do something so stupid, and mixed in with the anger was fear for his welfare if he got caught.
“I know what you’re up to, and I want it stopped,” I said angrily. I turned to Ben, who was still pacing. “You two boys are going to get in over your heads!”
“Told you we shouldn’t have let her know about it,” Ben, as Ross Rackham, growled.
“She don’t know a thing,” Luke, as John Rackham, replied. “What are you fretting about, Esther?”
“You’re planning a crime,” I cried. I felt indignant—did he really think I couldn’t tell when my own brothers were plotting something? “I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s against the law.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “You’re imagining things, Sissy,” he said soothingly. “Ross and I would never go against the law.”
I dropped my knitting needles onto my lap in frustration. “Don’t treat me like a child” I snapped. “I want you to promise me that I have nothing to worry about.
”
Ben and Luke exchanged a charged glance. “You have nothing to worry about,” Ben mumbled guiltily. Then he turned and ran out of the cabin.
“And … cut!” Morris called. “That was terrific!”
I blinked, surprised to hear Morris’s voice. For a few minutes there I had forgotten I was on a movie set at all! I had been completely focused on watching Luke and Ben, and on feeling what I thought Esther would be feeling. I had been able to ignore the cameras and all the people.
“See, Nance?” Luke said. “If you pay attention to the other actors, you forget to be nervous.”
I grinned at him. “You’re right,” I replied. “That was actually kind of fun.”
The rest of the takes for that scene went well. Every time I started to feel nervous, I simply forced myself to watch the Alvarez brothers. They were such seasoned actors that they always seemed to know what they were doing. Even if I felt self-conscious, I just paid attention to Ben and Luke. I didn’t even try to act like Esther—I just tried to react to whatever “Ross” and “John” said and did.
By lunchtime I was exhausted. Bess joined me at the table in the mess hall.
“The whole set is buzzing about you,” she said. “How you’re a total pro.”
I shook my head. “I’m not a pro,” I told her. “I was terrified the whole time. The only reason I even got through it was because the Alvarez boys helped me.”
Bess took a bite of her sandwich. “I doubt that,” she said. “Some of the lighting crew came over to help us with the new Mahoney house set. They said watching you was just like watching Esther Rackham herself!” She leaned in closer. “Even Luther thinks your character is totally authentic.”
“Well, I was lucky in the scene we filmed this morning,” I said. “I could easily imagine what Esther was thinking. She didn’t want her brothers to commit a crime. She tried to talk them out of it.”
Bess’s blue eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute,” she said. “I thought Esther didn’t know what her brothers planned to do. That’s what we learned in school, isn’t it?”