Free Smoke and Shadows by Tanya Huff Page B

he’d stayed at his worktable, the prop man shook his head. “I’m five eleven.”
    â€œSo think tall. You’re not doing anything, get over there. Tony! Go get Lee!”
    As Dalal reluctantly crossed the set, Tony headed off the soundstage. Technically, the part of the warm body should have been played by a stand-in, and whether or not they had one on set was generally a fairly good indication of the company’s current financial standing. Given the hurry-up-and-wait nature of shooting television, there were always people standing around with nothing to do until someone else did their job. Given the people CB tended to hire, no one was likely to report him for screwing with union rules. Those who might didn’t last long.
    So far, Tony had managed to stay on the move and out from under the lights. The thought of being in front of the camera, even without the camera actually being on, made him sweat.
    â€œLee?” He took a deep breath, reminded himself that geeky was not a good look, and rapped on the dressing room door. “They’re ready for you.”
    The door opened almost before he moved his hand away. Frowning, Lee peered out at him as though he wasn’t entirely certain he understood what he was seeing. “For me?”
    â€œYeah. Scene 22B.” The room behind the actor seemed unusually dark. “You discover the body.”
    â€œThe body?”
    â€œCatherine’s body.” With the wig and the blood—and according to bar talk Darkest Night used more blood than any other program currently shooting in the Vancouver area—fans of the show would never know it wasn’t Nikki.
    Stepping back, Tony indicated that Lee should precede him down the hall. He’d learned early on that expecting actors to follow was like expecting cats to follow and after the whole “quickie in the broom closet” incident with Mason and the previous wardrobe assistant, he never let them out of his sight. When Lee continued to merely stand and stare, he stepped forward again, suddenly concerned. “Hey, are you all right?”
    â€œI’m fine.”
    Tony wasn’t so sure. “You look . . .”
    â€œI’m fine.” Lee gave himself a little shake and slowly moved out into the hall. It seemed that rather a lot of the shadows moved with him. The dressing room visibly lightened as he left.
    And that’s just wrong. Tony stood where he was for a moment, eyes narrowed. Not to mention, well, wrong! He’d have asked himself if he were imagining things except that he had no idea what he thought he might be imagining. Finally, when it became obvious that nothing was out of place, he hurried after Lee, careful not to step on the actor’s shadow.

    â€œOh, for Christ’s sake, it’s one goddamned line and I’ve already said it seventeen fucking times!”
    The crew suddenly became very busy, looking anywhere but at Lee and Peter.
    â€œIt’s not about your performance, Lee,” the director said calmly, “it’s a technical glitch. There’s a shadow . . .”
    â€œSo get rid of it!”
    â€œThat’s what we’ve been trying to do.” Peter’s genial voice picked up an edge. “We’ve been trying to do it all afternoon.” As one, they turned toward the lighting crew clustered around the director of photography, who continued describing his latest concept in an exasperated mix of English and French.
    Although over the course of the afternoon the lighting layout had practically been rebuilt, the shadow continued to reappear in take after take. Scene 22B, take one: it had covered Lee entirely as he’d leaned forward and flipped over the body. Scene 22B, take seventeen: it was a dark bar across his eyes.
    Watching from the sidelines, Tony found himself wondering where the shadow was going. And then wondering when he’d started thinking in cheap horror clichés. Actually, he