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Barney had arranged for Odelia to finally meet the three stars ofHearts& Roses. Amalia Pulpweed, Natalie Skinner and Penney Langner had agreed to talk to her on set, during one of their breaks, and this time Chase was joining her, to lend some weight to her investigation. He was only due at his conference around eleven, so he could squeeze in this interview before, and make sure that the three divas answered all of his wife’s questions dutifully and without prevarication.

We met the three stars outside Amalia’s trailer, which was huge and hulking, and just that little bit bigger than the respective trailers of her two costars that stood parked nearby. Obviously there was a certain hierarchy on set, and you could judge by the size of the trailer who was the bigger star.

“Oh, Ophelia, sweetie,” said Amalia when she saw us homing in on her. “So glad you could finally make it! Here, take a seat.” She looked at Chase with unveiled interest. “And who are you, handsome?”

“My husband,” said Odelia curtly. “And the name is Odelia, not Ophelia.” Clearly she wasn’t as big a fan of Miss Pulpweed as she used to be.

Then again, as I understood, Amalia had given Odelia quite the runaround so far.

The two other ladies also joined us, cups of coffee in hand, and soon the interview was well underway.

A small table had been set up, with an umbrella to provide the required shade, and from time to time a member of the production showed up, to make sure the stars’ makeup was still in place.

“Do you think they’re going to powder our noses, too, Max?” asked Dooley, surprised by all this fuss.

“I doubt it, Dooley,” I said. “We’re not expected to appear in this particular show.”

“Okay, so are the rumors true that you and Astra used to fight a lot on set?” asked Odelia, determined to make the most of the time she had with these three.

“Poppycock,” said Amalia, taking the lead. “Astra and I were dear, dear friends. In fact she was one of my best friends in all the world, and I miss her terribly.” She sniffed, to show us just how much she was going to miss her.

“Same here,” said Natalie curtly. “I’m not saying Astra was my best friend, but I respected her for her talent and what she brought to the show, and I like to think she respected me for the same reason.”

“We were a symbiotic unity,” Penney purred. “The four of us shared a spiritual bond and together we were stronger than our individual parts.” She sighed sadly. “She was such a vital part of the us that made us the us that we were and the us that we still are, but most of all I’ll miss her gentle soul. The only comfort I have is knowing that she’s in a better place now and is looking down on us from above.”

“Has she been recast?” asked Chase.

“Oh, but of course,” said Amalia. “The moment she turned us down we talked about how to handle such a momentous change in the dynamic.”

“We wondered if we should proceed at all,” Penney confessed. “Because it’s always been the four of us, and we weren’t sure if ‘we’ would work.” She gestured between the three of them.

“Also, we weren’t sure if the fans would accept this new iteration,” said Amalia.

“We still don’t,” said Natalie as she took a sip from her drink, then grimaced. She held up the cup. “Hey, THING!” she bellowed to the first person with a clipboard she saw. “I thought I said hot! This coffee is cold! FIX IT!”

The person immediately took the cup from her and disappeared again, uttering a million apologies.

“Be nice, Nat,” said Amalia.

“I am being nice. I could have had her fired.”

“Must be wonderful to be a star,” said Dooley. “People at your beck and call all the time. You just shout and someone brings you what you want.”

“Which is basically the arrangement we have,” I pointed out. “Minus the attitude.”

“Oh, right,” he said. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. Though I’d never shout at Odelia like that. I don’t think she would like to be called ‘thing.’”

“No, I’m sure she wouldn’t.”

“Okay, so who’s the replacement?” asked Odelia, taking copious notes of the conversation.

“Sukey Gumieniak,” said Amalia. “An up-and-coming star.”

“Up-and-coming nobody, you mean,” Natalie scoffed, then wisely shut up when Amalia shot her a look of warning.

“Sukey is so great,” said Penney. “I just love her energy. And the way she stepped in and became part of this magical circle. I admire her, I really do.”

“I’d like her a lot better if she didn’t keep flubbing her lines,” said Natalie.

“She doesn’t flub her lines,” said Penney. “Does she?”

“Oh, absolutely. Twice yesterday and three times the day before. And that’s only in my scenes. She needs to get her act together before Oscar fires her ass.”

“I think she’s doing just fine,” said Amalia. “It’s not easy to step into shoes as big as Astra’s. Not that she’s trying to take over the same part,” she hastened to say. “It’s a completely new part, written especially for her.

“So this Sukey person will be part of your… squad?” asked Odelia.

“We’ll have to see about that,” said Natalie, making a face.

“Eventually, yes,” said Amalia.