In Good Hands: Book 5 Georgie B. Goode Gypsy Caravan Cozy Mystery (7 page)

Layla nodded, suddenly feeling nervous—partly because she was completely on her own, and part because she really wanted to do this properly, with Seth on the other end of the camera. She took a deep breath and began.

"My name is Layla Blue, and I've been traveling in a vintage trailer for some years. Mostly, it was because it was fun, and because I enjoyed the lifestyle and the people I met. Then I met Georgie Goode. That was really a turning point, because I found out something I hadn't known before – that I was actually good at selling as well as living in one of these trailers." She swallowed and glanced at Seth.

"Cut." He straightened up behind the camera, frowning slightly. "I'm getting this clicking sound. I think the mic could be rubbing against something?" He walked over to her, unpinned the microphone, and repositioned it. His finger flicked her necklace, a collection of charms threaded onto a silver cord. “This is the problem. You were gesturing while you spoke, and this was rattling against the mic.”

Layla looked up into his eyes, smiling into hers, and swallowed. It was nerve-wracking enough sitting in front of the camera, but it was even more distracting talking to Seth when his face was inches from her own. "Sorry. I’ll take it off."

He patted on the shoulder. “No need for that. I've fixed it. But that was great, Layla – can you do it again, exactly the same thing? After that keep talking about the popularity of vintage trailers and how sales are growing.”

He returned to his position behind the camera and they started again.

Layla talked about her position with the Johnny B. Goode RV Empire for the next 20 minutes, stopping and starting as Seth ran with what she said and fed her further questions to answer. Dom was crouched at her feet, angling the reflector up so that it caught the light from the slight cloud cover and illuminated her face. Layla hadn't realized that making a film could be so complicated, with stops and starts because of clouds moving across the sun and changing the light, or noise from the workshop interrupting a take. It was a bit off-putting, too, to see the interested crowd in the background, stopping at the barrier and watching while the filming was taking place.

Seth made a winding up motion with his finger and grinned at her. "Aaaand – that's it! It's a wrap."

Relieved, Layla immediately reached for the power pack and switched it off. She disconnected the mic, unthreaded it from under her shirt, and handed it all to Dom.

“Thanks.” Dom took it from her and wound the cord around the battery pack, expertly securing it before he put it in a small carry bag in front of him. "Here, Seth. Give me the camera and I'll take it back to the truck. How about if I go and set things up and start the download while you finish up here?" He flashed Layla a knowing look as he suggested it, and she didn't miss the grin that Seth shot across to him, either.

Layla pushed both hands into the back pockets of her pedal pushers and watched him while he efficiently collapsed the tripod, and wound up cables. "Is there anything that I can do to help?"

"Thanks, but no thanks. As you can imagine, Dom and I have done this a thousand times. But after we’re done, how about going out for a meal?" He glanced at his watch. “It will take us about an hour and a half – couple of hours, maybe – to get this all downloaded and backed up, and then we’ll be free. Say, about 6. 30?"

Layla didn't need to be asked twice. "Sounds great. You're in one of the Platinum Care suites?”

"Yes, we’re in Unit Five, next to Ella, Jaxx’s hairdresser.”

Belatedly, Layla remembered that she was supposed to be finding out more about Georgie’s visions regarding Jaxx. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Shoot."

“How long have you been with Jaxx?”

"Pretty much since the beginning of the show—say about a year and a half, maybe 20 months now.” He pulled a wry face. “How time flies when you're having fun."

For a moment, Layla was diverted. "Tell me if it's none of my business, but when you and the others talk about working with Jaxx, nobody seems to be particularly happy about. So why do you keep doing it?"

Seth finished packing away cables and power packs into the case at his feet and zipped it shut. “She can be difficult, that's true. But people in the industry know what she's like to work for, and I figure if I put in a couple of years with Jaxx, and let the results speak for themselves, then it's a springboard to other things. As for Ella –" he stopped and shook his head. "No, I really can't speak freely. It's her business whether she tells you or not.”

"I didn't mean for you to betray confidences." Layla forced her mind back to the issue at hand. "Tell me, when you’ve filmed with Jaxx, did you ever film a house up on a hill overlooking the sea? Or stay in it?”

Seth looked at her in surprise. "Well, yeah, we did. When we were doing the one on the toys. How did you know that?”

“It was just something Georgie saw when she was doing that reading for Jaxx,” Layla said, trying to sound offhand. “She didn’t think much of it at the time, because there was a lot coming through – but she mentioned it to me, and I was curious.”

“Right.” Seth looked at her as though he didn’t quite believe that was all there was to it, but continued anyway. “That was a difficult shoot, because she fired three people in a row. Talk about make things challenging.”

Layla felt her pulse quicken. Jaxx had fired three people? If they were looking for a motive for revenge, that could be it.

“Must have been a fun shoot,” she said casually. “Yet you stuck it out? You deserve to move ahead in your career.” So he couldn’t see her face, she busied herself folding a couple of the director’s chairs and stacked them inside the trailer for the night. “Who’d she fire? She must have been pretty mad.”

“Doesn’t take much to make Jaxx mad. Here, let me give you a hand with these.” He nodded at half-dozen different outdoor displays. “Do you have to pack all this away?”

“No, Georgie’s dad has staff to do it, but we give them a hand when we can.”

Seth folded another chair. “Who did she fire… one was the liaison person back at her father's office, because he was supposed to book accommodation and talent for the next show, and didn't get it right. That one was fair enough, I think. He had a job to do, and he didn't do it. Number two: she fired her personal assistant, Courtney Glover. That was ridiculous, because she was very efficient, but the girl should have known better. There’s only allowed to be one popular redhead around, and that’s Jaxx. No competition allowed.” He rolled his eyes. “As you could see by her reaction to Tammy’s performance today.
Not
a good idea to be talented, a crowd-pleaser and a Jaxx clone.”

“She must be really insecure,” Layla said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, well, she regretted firing Courtney, because the whole shoot almost imploded. Lilli had to produce the show
and
try to organize Jaxx, and Ella couldn’t start for a week.”

“And the third?”

“Mel, the girl doing promotion and advertising. Apparently she sent out publicity shots of Jaxx that didn’t show her in a good light – according to Jaxx, anyway. And you know, I think Jaxx was right about that; I always had a feeling that Mel did it to get back at Jaxx for going over her head about other promos. But with this company, most of their people don’t last long anyway.” He went to the next trailer with her and put some of the props inside for the night before casting her a sidelong glance. "Anything else you'd like to know?"

Layla turned to him and said straightforwardly, "Yes. Before I agree to go out to dinner with you, tell me you’re not in a relationship and playing away from home.”

A slow smile grew on Seth’s face. “That's easy to answer. No. Until I meet the person that makes me want to stay monogamous, then I'm going to stay free."

"Good enough." She grinned at him, hearing the honesty in his voice. "Shall I call for you, or will you pick me up from my trailer? It’s about seven places down from Jaxx’s motorhome, past Scott’s camper.”

"I’ll pick you up. Six thirty unless we run into problems, and if we do I’ll let you know."

"Done."

Layla gave him a cheery wave, and then hurried off to find Georgie. She'd better tell her what she had found out, before she forgot it all.

Chapter 10

When Georgie walked back to Scott’s camper, she could see him sitting in his comfortable old chair with his head tipped back and eyes closed, enjoying the little patch of sunshine outside his door. On his lap was a small mound of white fur, topped with a pink ribbon—Jaxx’s dog, Trixxi. She slowed down as she approached the pair, enjoying the sight: Scott with his broad shoulders and jeans and his booted feet propped up on a footstool; his hand lazily stroking a fluffy white designer dog. She felt a rush of affection. Scott was so confident in his own skin, he wouldn’t care what sort of picture he painted.

“So this is what you do when you’re supposed to be on guard duty,” she said when she reached them, standing with her hands on her hips. “A dozen people could break into Jaxx’s motorhome and you wouldn’t see them.”

“First of all,” he said, without opening his eyes, “they wouldn’t have to break in, because nobody ever seems to bother to lock it. Second of all, I have supersonic hearing so no bad guys have a chance of getting by me.”

Trixxi opened an eye, gave Georgie a long-suffering look, then closed it again and snuggled in more closely.

Georgie looked around, spotted a couple of garden chairs in the landscaped lot behind the camper and went to fetch one. “Don’t get up. I’ll join you.” She positioned it next to his and reached across to stroke Trixxi’s head, her hand brushing Scott’s as she did so. He turned his hand over, linked his fingers with hers and squeezed. “How’s Tammy? Jerry was over here chatting when he got the news. He was out of here like a bat out of hell.”

“She’s okay; Seth is pretty sure it’s just a sprain - she can put weight on it. We’ll know more when they get back.”

“Jaxx driven you to distraction yet?”

“I swear, I’m going to kill her. She just went screeching out of the gate as though she were competing at Le Mans. After making a lot of noise about the dangerous steps we have here, she practically ran over a kid.”

He finally opened his eyes and looked at her. “Are you sure it was her? I thought she came back to her motorhome a while back.”

The dog whined, and Scott released Georgie’s hand to tug at the ends of the pink ribbon. “You like it here, don’t you, Trix? Getting sick of all that girly stuff in there with your mistress.” The ribbon slid undone, and Trixxi snuffled. “I should take her back to Australia with me, let her run wild with my sisters’ dogs. Roll in a bit of sheep poo. See what Jaxx thinks of that.”

“
Nobody
is happy when a dog comes home after rolling in sheep poo,” Georgie pointed out, “not even you. And it
was
Jaxx I saw; my eyes aren’t that bad. Red hair; red car – she’s hard to miss.” She looked at the dog, feeling sympathy. “Do you hear her whining during the day? Does she get lonely?”

“Not a sound. She’s a good little thing – but she seems to enjoy a bit of company.” Scott scratched her tummy. “I don’t mind hers either.”

“So what, did you just go over and get her? Or did you ask Jaxx?”

“Asked Ella, before she went off to do some task for Jaxx. I don’t just invite myself into other people’s homes.”

“And Jaxx doesn’t object to your having her?”

“Jaxx is too self-obsessed to notice what’s going on. If Trixxi wasn’t there, she’d just assume that Ella has her. I’m tempted to keep her, just to see how long it takes her to realize that she’s missing.”

Georgie leaned a head against his shoulder, gazing out at the extensive RV Empire complex. Her father really had done an amazing job, building all of this up from nothing. Brought up by his gypsy grandmother, part of a family of gypsy horse-traders, he had moved from horses to buggies to trailers and kept going, all the way up to motorhomes worth over a million dollars. It was something to be proud of. No wonder Jaxx had chosen him as a candidate for her show. If ever there was anyone who had built up something from small beginnings, it was Johnny B. Goode.

“Jerry was the original contact, you know,” she said, thinking about how it had all come about. “Jaxx made an appointment to see him personally to commission her flashy big motorhome, and met up with him a couple of times while it was being built to ensure it was all going to plan. That was before Tammy came into his life, of course. I think Jaxx thought he was a good catch – the heir to all this.”

“You’re not going to inherit a share of the business?”

“Oh yes. Dad would be entirely fair. But you’ve seen Jerry; he loves the whole scene. A born wheeler-dealer, like Dad. I just want to drift around in my gypsy caravan, kind of telling fortunes and kind of selling trailers, but really being part of the scene.” She stretched, enjoying the last rays of the sun.

“Nothing wrong with living it instead of just talking about it.” Scott reached up and smoothed a tendril of hair back from her face. “It’s a philosophy that’s always worked for me. And it’s how I met you, so how can I complain?”

“Schmoozer.” She turned her face up for a kiss. “Anyway, when Jaxx lined all of this up with Dad, I think she thought it was going to give her an excuse to work her wiles on Jerry. Now Tammy’s in the way, but she’s turned her attention to me. Did you know I could be the next John Edward?”

“Who’s he?”

“This psychic guy who makes contact with the dead. He has a show called
Crossing Over
. Jaxx wants me to do the same. Only with fortune-telling.”

She could hear the rumble deep inside Scott’s chest as he laughed. “And you jumped at the chance, of course.”

“I’m running out of excuses to avoid her. Tomorrow we’re doing the final wrap on the vintage section of the show. Tammy’s arranged for around sixteen vintage trailer owners to bring their trailers to the new RV park just outside of town, and she’s lined up a fifties rock band to play. She’s going to perform some popular number, but what, we don’t know. It’s all a big secret.” Georgie laughed. “She’s up to no good, I can tell by the glint in her eye.”