I think about Vincent’s rewrite of the movie. How he framed Matt.
He told me that all he needed was me. That he had everything ready.
I know we’re missing something.
What am I missing?
I try to clear my head by focusing on the waves.
I think about the new ending to movie. How it was exactly like his grandmother’s old movie, Vince and Lacey passionately kissing in the sand.
I remember Vincent telling me about it when his . . .
A word suddenly pops into my head.
One single word.
Ashes.
Ohmigawd!
That’s it!
I get up and run into the house yelling. “Cooper! Damian! Garrett! I know where he is!”
Cooper and Damian are sitting at the kitchen table scouring over the property lists for the millionth time.
“Let me see the list again!”
Damian hands it to me and I quickly scan it.
“Is this list current?”
“Yes,” Garrett says.
“What about the house he bought down the beach?”
“There’s no beach house on here. Let alone a property down the street.”
“The old man, Damian. The one who gets up early and watches ladies jog down the beach. Vincent had coffee with him. I don’t think he made it up. Come on!”
“There’s an old guy about seven houses down I used to see on his deck sometimes when we were out surfing,” Damian says, and follows me to the beach.
We take off running.
I count the houses as we run by.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
I run up to the deck and bang on the glass door. A startled woman answers in her robe. “Can I help you?”
“This is the wrong house,” Damian says, stating the obvious.
“An old man. Gets up early in the morning and has coffee on his deck. Have you seen him? Do you know where he lives?”
“Mr. Richards lives next door,” she says. “Although, come to think of it, I haven’t seen him in a few days.”
I tear down the stairs, back through the sand to the next house, and then take the stairs up to the deck.
When I bang on this door, a dog barks loudly and comes to the glass.
“Kiki!” Damian and I both yell.
“This is it! They’re here!” I scream.
I pick up a ceramic pot from the deck, yell at Kiki to move, and then throw it through the window.
The living room is large and open, cluttered with cameras, sound booms, lighting.
A movie set waiting for me.
“Where’s B?” I ask Kiki.
She runs to a bookcase in the living room and spins in a circle. Almost like she’s chasing her tail.
“Search all the rooms,” Garrett commands, coming in behind us.
Kiki barks and follows him down a hall.
I follow Kiki.
I round the corner to a bedroom and see a man lying on the floor, Garrett bent down next to him.
“This must be the old man who owns the house,” Garrett says. “He’s dead.”
I close my eyes and pray that B’s still alive.
Cooper and Damian meet us back in the hall.
“We’ve been through all the bedrooms down this hall. No one in them,” Cooper says.
“Upstairs,” Damian suggests, taking off running.
I go back to into the living room and start yelling, “Brooklyn! Brooklyn! Brooklyn!”
Kiki jumps on me, her big paws hitting my thighs and almost knocking me down.
“What is it girl? Do you know where he is?”
She runs back to the first place she took me. The bookshelf.
Only this time, she starts digging and barking.
“B!!” I yell again as I try to figure out what’s behind the bookshelf.
A secret room, maybe?
I look for a latch. A button.
And the whole time, I’m yelling for B.
Finally, I put my fingers under the edge of the trim and pull, causing the whole bookcase to swing out toward me and revealing a steel door.
I pull the big handle, but it’s locked and won’t budge.
I bang on the door as Kiki starts digging and barking.
“B!” I scream, still pounding.
“Garrett, Cooper, Damian! I found a secret door!”
They are rushing back into the living room from different locations when I hear B’s faint voice.
“Keats?”
“B! Ohmigawd! Are you okay?”
“Am I in heaven?” he asks.
“What? No. Vincent kidnapped you. He’s dead. We’ve been trying to find you!”
“What about the bomb?”
“What bomb?”
“He said that if he didn’t make it back with you, I’d burn.”
Garrett goes, “Holy shit. We have to get out of here! Now!”
I turn around to see him staring down in disbelief at what appears to be a briefcase.
“This is a bomb. It’s going off in twenty-seven seconds! We’ve got to get out of here!”
“We have to get B, first!” I yell.
“There’s not time,” Cooper says, pulling me toward the door. “If we don’t leave now, we’re all going to die.”
The scene is surreal.
Looking like a movie set, but feeling way too real.
Damian and I share a look.
“You go. I’ll stay with Brook,” he says bravely. “Maybe it won’t go off.”
“No!” I yell as both Garrett and Cooper try to drag me out the front door.