Smoke and Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page A

full-length mirror, a row of hooks, and a shelf. The whole thing looked not unlike the “private rooms” in some of the sleazier bathhouses. The only thing missing: a dented condom dispenser.
    Gesturing for Veronica to remain quiet, Tony scratched lightly on the door marked with Catherine scrawled across a strip of duct tape.
    The door opened.
    Darkness spilled out.
    Tony leaped back and, heart pounding, found himself pinned under the questioning eyes of two confused women.
    Catherine’s shadow stretched from her feet to his.
    Dredging up a smile, he flashed a fifteen minute sign, nodded as she did, and watched as she closed her shadow back in with her. Wondering if he should say something. Do something.
    About what?
    Shadows?
    I’ve got to start getting more sleep. He waved Veronica in front of him, pulled her back as she nearly stepped on the edge of a new hardwood floor—where the hardwood was paint and the actual floor was plywood. The art director, faking slightly salacious delft tiles by the fireplace, turned and flashed him an emphatic thumbs-up.
    Life had been a variation on that theme all morning.
    By the time he’d hit the craft services truck at seven, the genny op had been embellishing the story of him pulling Daniel from the burning car for almost an hour. No one had made a huge fuss—well, no one except Everett although that was pretty much a given regardless—but most of the crew had taken a moment to say something.
    â€œJaysus, Tony, you couldn’t of let the bugger fry? I’m after owing him fifty bucks.”
    Under other circumstances he wouldn’t have minded being the center of attention, but he hadn’t actually done much. Since he couldn’t explain that Henry had yanked the car door open, all he could do was hope that something else provided a new focus for people with long stretches of too much time on their hands—and provide it sooner rather than later.
    Just as they reached the exit, the red light went off and as he waved Veronica through, the voices started up in his ear again.
    â€œ. . . redress, reload, redo . . . let’s go, people, we haven’t got all day.”
    Unhooking his radio’s microphone from the neck of his T-shirt, he waited for a break in the tumbling current of voices. “Adam, it’s Tony. CB wants to see me, but I gave Catherine her heads-up on the way. Over.”
    His head murmured soon at him.
    Soon?
    â€œYeah, great.” The first assistant director turned his head from the microphone and carried on a low-voiced conversation as Tony followed Veronica along the hall, envying the way she could move through the costumes without actually touching them. She was what? Ninety pounds soaking wet? “Listen, Tony, while you’re passing, tell Everett that Lee’s got that cowlick thing happening again and we need him in here.”
    â€œRoger, that.” He holstered and peeled off into makeup to deliver his message, emerging to find Veronica waiting for him practically quivering.
    â€œAmy said Mr. Bane wanted to see you right away!”
    Tony frowned and shook his head. What was her damage? He’d been moving toward the office since she’d given him the message. “You’re going to give yourself an ulcer if you don’t calm down.”
    Wide eyes widened impossibly further. “It’s my first day!”
    â€œAnd all I’m saying is that you need to pace yourself.”
    As they emerged out into the pandemonium of the office, Amy stood, leaned out around Rachel, and beckoned them over to her desk without pausing her conversation. “. . . that’s right, two hundred gallons of #556. Well, it might be battleship gray on your side of the border but ours are more a morning-after green. Yeah, great. Thanks. New supplier in Seattle,” she said, hanging up. “Charlie knew someone who’d cut us a deal.”
    â€œWho’s . . . ?” Veronica