The Last Story Read Online Free PDF

cramped.

    Our legs touched. "How would you kill her?" I asked. "Feed her to the sharks?"

    "No. Enough of them die that way. I'd have her die another way."

    "Tell, me?"

    He shook his head. "I don't know. You're the writer. But there are a lot of ways to die—in the movies."

    "Why kill her? Haven't enough people died by that point?"

    "I think it's important that the hero and heroine are alone when they confront Bob at the end."

    "Why?"

    "It would heighten the tension."

    "It won't work. You forget, Daniel is not even in the lifeboat. He is hanging on to the side. For his plan to have even a chance of working, there must be at least two of them in the lifeboat when Bob arrives. Otherwise, there is no explanation for why only one of them is in the lifeboat."

    Roger seemed taken aback by my explanation, and I knew he couldn't argue with my logic. He acted impressed. "You understand structure very well."

    "Thank you." I checked my watch. "I have to go to a lecture tonight. Let's do the scene now, please."

    Roger suddenly sat up. And just like that, he slipped into Daniel's character. He required no transition period. He was like liquid mercury when it came to playing the silver star. He reached over and took my hand—Kathy's hand—in the lifeboat.

    The expression in his eyes changed from calm confidence to deadly seriousness.

    "We cannot go back. If we do, he'll kill us. If we stay here, he'll kill us. All along he's intended for us to die. This whole scheme of who will be the first to die, and who will be left alive is just that—a scheme. Don't ask me why, but he hates us. Besides that he can't let any of us live and get away with what he's done."

    "Then we're doomed," I said, mouthing Kathy's line from memory. His intensity was startling in its suddenness and effectiveness. I was mesmerized by his words, feeling as if I were indeed Kathy, trapped far out at sea with circling sharks and a madman in the area. Roger squeezed my hand.

    "No," he said. "I have a plan. We have to head away from the coast. He'll come after us, I know he will. But we'll be ready for him. I'll hang outside the lifeboat. He won't see me. Then I'll swim under both boats and sneak up on him from behind."

    I winced, or rather, Kathy did. "You'll die."

    He smiled faintly. "I may die. But not today." He leaned over and—wow, the nerve—he kissed me on the lips! "Not with you here."

    I sat back, stunned. "Jesus." The word was not in the script.

    He laughed. "Does that mean I have the part?"

    My blood was pounding. I had to assume he could make the blood in the veins of the girls in theaters do likewise. Yet his act had been presumptuous.

    "I didn't give you permission to kiss me," I said firmly.

    "I didn't kiss you. I kissed Kathy." He added, "It was in the script."

    "Don't do it again."

    He shrugged. "Not without your permission."

    Discreetly wiping my mouth, I slowly nodded.

    "All right, I forgive you." I hesitated for a moment. "You've got the part."

    Henry and I enjoyed telling Darren to take a hike. At first the guy thought we were kidding, then he flew into a rage, saying we would be hearing from his agent and lawyer. He spat in the pool and stormed out of the backyard, where the others were rehearsing. Jo applauded his exit. She had been wanting to feed him to the sharks since she'd met him.

    A few minutes later I wanted to do something painful to Bob, the actor who, ironically, was playing the nerdy villain Bob. The guy was much as I had written him: arrogant, overweight, rude.

    Actor Bob didn't have to stretch for the role—he'd been rehearsing for the part for twenty years. His face was pockmarked with acne, his greasy red hair a warning flag for dandruff. He was big—six-two,

    two hundred and fifty pounds easily. Had Henry found me a replacement for him, I would have fired him on the spot. But there were not too many Bobs in the world. To top it off, he wasn't chomping at the bit for the part. His parents were