“What were your mother and sister hoping to accomplish?” Andersona asked from off camera.
“I-I can’t say,” Megan answered, each word a thick cloud of breath.
“It’s okay, Megan,” Andersona prodded, “you can talk to me.”
“Well,” she said, “they wanted to buy Jackie a new phone, this time an even better one, the new Samsung Galaxy phone.” The screen showed an inducement to learn more about the phone online.
“Did they succeed?”
“No. The man at the store had seen the show and didn’t want anything to do with us. I felt sorry for my mother and sister, really.”
The interview went on for a while longer, ending with Andersona telling Megan how brave she had been to come forward.
“I’m only doing this for my father, so that he may rest in peace.”
The opening credits rolled.
Jackie reached over and squeezed her sister’s hand. Megan permitted herself a fraction of a smile.
The first commercial break was Jackie’s cue. She reached over, hugged her father, said, “I love you, Daddy,” kissed his cheek, and got up to leave the room. Her voice cracked when she told Sister Benedict, “I need to use the bathroom.”
Sister Benedict listened in her earpiece and then nodded.
Jackie, with the iPhone successfully palmed from under her father’s mattress, walked into the hall knowing she would never see her father alive again.
***
Ethan watched the show from the truck and passed out compliments and kudos to the crew like they were PEZ. It was his effort to get back in their good graces. Andersona, who had been in a foul mood all day—Probably on the rag, he thought—sat huddled in a corner reviewing dailies.
“Loosen up, Andy,” he said. “You can worry about tomorrow’s footage tomorrow. Enjoy the fruits of your labor tonight.”
Andersona didn’t answer. Instead, her jaw hung lower and lower from her face, and her cheeks were turning the red of a royal flush, all hearts. Something was wrong.
“Fuck!” she yelled. It was one curt but penetrating bark.
“What?” Ethan asked, both startled and annoyed.
Andersona paused for a moment, but she was too upset to obfuscate the truth. “That little bitch has my iPhone,” she said flatly.
“I’m sorry?” Ethan said. The temperature in the room fell twenty degrees. “What did you just say?”
“Today, after Megan’s interview, I couldn’t find my cell phone. That little bitch took it and gave it to her sister.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes!” she shrieked. “I’ve been looking at this footage until I’m blue in the face. You can’t see her actually take it, but the clues are all there. I’m pretty sure Jackie just took it from under her father’s pillow or something.”
“Okay, let’s stay calm. Phil, tell Sister Benedict to excuse herself quietly from the room and go stall Jackie until I get there. Where is she?”
“The kid just went into the bathroom near the office.”
“Just have the Sister stand outside the door and tell her not to let Jackie out. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Got it, boss.”
Ethan turned to leave the room. As he did, he looked over his shoulder. “Oh, and Andersona?”
She knew what was coming next before he said it.
“You’re fired.”
***
Deirdre watched Sister Benedict hold a finger to her ear, listen intently to someone on the other end of her earpiece, and then leave the room. Deirdre couldn’t believe her luck.
Sister Benedict was the wild card in all of this. Deirdre was going to ask for a private moment with Jared but wasn’t sure the Sister would comply. If that didn’t work, she had planned to use brute force. Deirdre had sized up the nun and was pretty sure she could take her.
Now there was no need. The Sister’s overlords—that was the word that popped into Deirdre’s head to describe Ethan and his minions—had called her away. The time to act was now.
“Meg,” Deirdre said with as gentle a tone as she could muster, “I don’t think you should stay here for this. You can take a moment if you want to tell Daddy good-bye, but it has to be quick. We probably don’t have a lot of time.”
Megan looked at her father, but she couldn’t go over to him. She started bawling. “Good-bye, Daddy.” She choked the words out.
“Okay, sweetheart,” Deirdre said, pulling her daughter into an embrace. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.” Deirdre’s nerves were rock solid. She didn’t know where her resolve was coming from. Love, she figured, can make us weak-kneed and wobbly, but when it needs to, it can make us stronger than steel.
Megan was still crying but managed to get herself under control. “You wait outside the room,” Deirdre told her. “I’m going to lock the door. I’m pretty sure they’ll try to break it down, but you do your best to stall them. Just get out of the way before they can do anything to hurt you. Okay?”
Megan nodded and hugged her mother. She left the room without looking back. Deirdre was alone.