They all toasted.
The conversation turned to the chest Vanessa had discovered—and the stolen mummified body.
“What if,” Jay said, thinking as he went, “what if…what if it was Dona Isabella? The anthropologist might have been wrong. Maybe they dressed her up in peasant garb. Maybe she broke free herself, and was going to come after everyone in…revenge for what happened to her?” he asked, wide-eyed.
“Jay!” Vanessa snapped. “That’s…ridiculous. Mummies don’t come to life, and why would Dona Isabella want revenge on anyone living? You’re talking as if you’re plotting out another horror movie, and we’re doing a documentary.”
“It would be a great and creepy premise,” Barry said.
“A sequel!” Zoe said.
Vanessa glared at her. “There isn’t going to be a sequel—there was never really a movie. Therefore, you can’t have a sequel.”
“Well, actually…” Jay said.
Vanessa felt her muscles tighten up with tension. It had been a nice night—thus far. Sipping Guinness, munching on O’Hara’s specials such as Shillelagh Sticks—rolled and baked corned beef in pastry—and Tam O Shanters—something like sliders. Such a nice night. She’d been so amazed—and pleased—about Bartholomew. She’d been so happy to be with Sean. And now…
“Jay, what are you talking about?” she demanded.
He flushed, and lifted his hands uneasily. “I’ve had a call from a rep with a national distributor. He thinks we have a surefire hit—especially with everything else that went on.”
Vanessa sat up, staring at Jay. “Jay—our lead actors were murdered.”
“Bad things have happened before and movies have still come out and been very successful—and it was really a wonderful chance for fans to say goodbye,” Jay said, defending himself.
“When the leads were murdered?” Vanessa asked icily.
“I’m sure somewhere along the line, yes…but think of the real things out there! Poor Heather O’Rourke of Poltergeist died very young—and they’ve used her scenes in tacky advertisements! When they filmed the Twilight Movie years ago, a star and two children were killed, and it aired. People said goodbye to Bruce Lee, Brandon Lee, Heath Ledger and many more actors when their movies aired after their deaths.”
Vanessa felt Sean holding her back, but she stood anyway, walking over to Jay. “That would be the height of bad taste, and I put my money into that film, too, and I won’t allow it.”
“That’s great for you—you’ve hit jobs that pay well. I need to make some money, Nessa,” Jay pleaded.
“Jay, it’s wrong.”
Sean stepped into it then. “Well, the surviving members of your crew are here, Jay. Why don’t you find out how they all feel?”
Bill spoke up first. “All right, I was more or less a lowly production assistant on the shoot. But…I liked Georgia and Travis. And they have family living now. Family—who might be hurt.”
Barry cleared his throat. “I don’t know what I feel. Georgia wanted to be a star. And she survived in the movie. She might be happy.”
“Yeah, Georgia was sweet. Dumb, but sweet,” Zoe said. “But Travis…Travis was a jerk.”
“Zoe!” Bill gasped, horrified.
“Hey, I’m sorry—it’s horrible that he died the way he did, yes. But was he a nice guy? No!”
“My money was in it, Jay,” Vanessa said. “And I say no.”
Jay inhaled and stared at her. He exhaled and took a long sip of his beer, and looked at her again. “What if we find out what happened?” he asked.
“What?” she said.
“We all came here. We heard about Sean and David and their project, and we all came here. Doesn’t that mean something? We all care, we were all horrified. Vanessa, I own the majority share—fifty-one percent.”
“You slimy basta—” she began.
“Wait, please!” Jay said. “Let’s see what we can discover on this documentary project. And then, if there’s really a story to be told about what happened to us, it would only be right to release the movie that we filmed.”
Sean leaned forward. “Jay, if you want to throw threats around, you’ll note that David and I own this particular project.”
Jay’s jaw fell. He hadn’t thought that he might get kicked off the new project.
Sean smiled pleasantly. “We didn’t draw up any contracts.”
“I’m not threatening anyone. I’m just…I’m just mentioning facts,” Jay said.
“And so am I,” Sean told him politely.
Jay looked at Vanessa pleadingly. “Will you think about it when this project is done?”
The conversation had been bouncing between them with everyone there staring at them. She didn’t want to get into a huge fight with Jay that would naturally begin to involve all the others. The whole project could become an antagonistic disaster by the morning. She didn’t want any hostility on the trip or involved with the filming.