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CHAPTER TWO
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The Watchtower transporters beamed Wally and Shayera directly to the soundstage at Wayne Entertainment. One of the first things Shayera noticed was how brightly lit the movie set was in comparison to the rest of the room. The second thing she noticed was all the activity around them. Policemen were interviewing people on the set. Other people were measuring and placing numbered cards on the floor. Shayera stood next to a chair marked "Millie," carefully trying to stay out of the way and hoping her wings didn't drop any down or feathers that would contaminate the crime scene.

Wally had gotten as close as they would permit him to the man bent over the form lying on the bed. She'd later learn from Wally that the bent over man was the medical examiner and the form on the bed was the body of an actor named Scott Murphy. She knew that Wally worked as a police scientist and just assumed he wanted to watch a peer at work.

After they brought in a stretcher to remove the body, Wally joined Shayera. He was clearly unhappy. He took a deep breath and exhaled sharply, then tapped Shayera on the shoulders. He walked over to a man who'd just finished speaking on a cell phone. Shayera followed.

"Mr. Hedges! How come I wasn't told about you guys filming tonight?" Wally said. His tone was terse.

Hedges seemed taken back at first and flashed a nervous smile. "Well, we had to make up the time we lost when Millie got tangled up in the wires. So we were reshooting the scene."

"Wires?" Shayera asked.

"Tell you later," Wally answered and then he turned his attention back to Hedges. "I want to see everything you shot tonight." Shayera couldn't recall hearing so much anger in Wally's voice before.

"Okay," Hedges answered meekly. "We'll have the film ready for you tomorrow."

"No!" Wally snapped. "You'll show me the video NOW!"

Hedges frowned, his eyes narrowing. "Wait here," he said as he moved to a box near one of the three cameras on the set.

"Think there's something wrong?" Shayera asked.

"Damn right there is," Wally muttered. He stood up straight and pointed toward a group of people near the lighted set. "See the woman in the bathrobe standing over there talking to the police?"

Shayera nodded. The red haired woman was wrapped in a short green robe. It was clear she'd been crying.

"That's Millie Henoc. She's playing you." Wally paused. "Look at her legs."

Shayera looked and shrugged. "Nice legs…what am I looking for?"

Wally's eyes narrowed. "She's bare-legged…and barefoot." He folded his arms across his chest. "I don't know what she's wearing under that robe," he continued. "But it's clearly not your suit. They may have been filming something here, but it wasn't the scene they busted today. This set is a bedroom and those aren't windows. They're viewports. This is supposed to be a bedroom on the Watchtower. The scene that got screwed up today was the scene where you left the League."

Hedges returned, smiling like a cat holding a mouse under its paw. "Sorry, but I can't help you, Flash." Shayera noticed that this wasn't the same nervous man who'd hurried away from them a few minutes ago. "We're shutting down production," Hedges said. "The police have confiscated all film and video so there's nothing for you to look at. In fact, there's no need to you to be here at all after today. If, and it's a big if, we ever resume production, we probably will do it without Justice League technical advice from this point on." Hedges turned to walk away.

"Looks like you win, don't you?" Shayera called out after Hedges. "The death of a lead actor on your set can't help but be a box office boon to you."

Hedges turned around and marched back to Shayera. Shayera spread her wings and raised her mace. Hedges stopped, keeping Wally between him and her. "You are either the most insensitive or stupidest person I've ever met," Hedges said. "And that's saying a lot considering this is Hollywood. In the space of 24 hours, I've lost my lead actor and my special effects supervisor, who got killed some time this morning when his car ran off the road and careened over a 100 foot embankment. And I don't have a complete film yet. I'd have to reshoot the entire movie with a new actor or rewrite the story to leave out unfilmed scenes and try to use existing footage. Not to mention I still have to do post-production special effects and editing with a new coordinator. I'm going to lose my ass on this." He looked at Shayera, then said to Flash, "I've decided – she's just plain stupid."

Shayera growled, exhaled sharply and tapped Wally on the shoulder. "We're out of here!"

"No!" Wally said staring at Hedges. "Not yet. I want to talk to Hawkgirl."

"Who?" Shayera snapped, clearly irritated.

"Her!" Wally pointed at Millie Henoc in the green robe, who had removed her red haired wig, revealing her brunette locks underneath.

"Not here, you won't!" Hedges snapped back. "Get off this lot. The movie is done. You guys aren't needed anymore."

Wally stepped back, turned to Shayera and said, "Let's go." Without waiting for an acknowledgement, Wally zipped out of the sound stage. Shayera growled at Hedges and then spread her wings, being certain to smack Hedges in his face with them. She flew off leaving a stunned Hedges pulling feathers out of his mouth.

Millie Henoc had been home about forty-five minutes. The studio had provided a car and a driver to take her home. Her assistant had offered to stay with her for the night, but Millie had said no. She didn't want any female company tonight. Right now, more than ever, she wanted to drown in the arms of the men she knew well: Jack Daniels, Johnny Walker and Jim Beam. She needed their company tonight because life was too hard right now to face without them.

She looked at the photograph on her fireplace mantelpiece, recalling the day it was taken. It was a photograph of her and Scott together at a horse race track. Scott had his arm around her shoulder and was laughing. She loved the sound of his laugh. She started sobbing at the thought and now made no attempt to hold back her tears.

She opened her liquor cabinet, took out a bottle with a red label and poured herself a drink in a tall glass. She looked at the glass, then at the bottle. She left the glass on top of the liquor cabinet, took the bottle and sat down on the only overstuffed chair she had in her front room. She took a drink from the bottle and cried.

About five minutes later, the doorbell rang. "Go away," Millie screamed at the door. The doorbell rang again.

Damn newspaper people. "I said go away!" she yelled rising from the chair. She took the filled glass off the liquor cabinet, setting her bottle down. She walked to the door, opened it and flung the contents of the glass at the hapless souls who stood there. "I said leave me the hell alone."

The contents of the glass missed the Flash, but caught Hawkgirl in the face.

It was a moment before Millie recognized who was standing in front of her, in the midst of the sea of faces and chorus of voices clambering for her attention.

"Sorry," Millie said slowly. There were flash bulbs going off and the flashing light hurt her eyes. "I thought you were one of those damn paparazzi. Come in and I'll get you a towel." She stepped aside and allowed the two to enter her home. She closed the door as more flash bulbs went off in her face.

She leaned against the closed door for a moment, looking at the Flash and the dripping wet Hawkgirl. She set the empty glass down on a table and walked past Hawkgirl muttering, "I'm really sorry." Millie went to her bathroom, snatched the larger of the two towels off the towel rack, returned, and offered it to Hawkgirl.

Hawkgirl took the towel and blotted her face, hair and the front of her costume with it, before handing it back to Millie. Millie took the towel, looked at it for a moment and then dropped it on the floor beside her feet. She walked over to her liquor cabinet, retrieved her bottle, took a swig and then turned to the Flash and said, "What do you want?"

"I want you to tell me what happened tonight."

Millie sat down in her chair, took another swig from the bottle and snorted. "Scott died. That's what happened. The door is behind you - get out!"

"Not without better answers than that," Hawkgirl snapped. "What were you filming?"

Millie glanced up at Hawkgirl, her eyes narrowing into slits as she took another swallow from the bottle. She couldn't keep the quivering out of her voice as she pointed her finger at Hawkgirl and said, "Honey, I played you in the movie. I studied you for weeks. I became you and you don't have anything that scares me. So cut the damn attitude 'cause it ain't working here." She took another swallow of her drink, noticing the Flash glancing at her now half empty Scotch Whisky bottle and said, "Now get out!"

"That bottle won't help, you know," Flash said quietly.

"I don't think it will hurt either," Millie said looking at the bottle. "But I'll tell you what. I'll give you my verdict when I finish it off."

Hawkgirl continued to frown and growl, but made no noise that Millie was going to take seriously. Suddenly, Hawkgirl glanced down at the towel on the floor and became quiet. Her expression became one of sadness as she said softly, "Oh my stars, you and Scott Murphy were more than just co-workers, weren't you?"

Millie was taken aback for moment, but recovered long enough to say, "What Scott and I were doesn't matter now, does it? Get out! Both of you, before I call the police."

"Hedges said you guys were shooting the scene you busted this afternoon," the Flash said. "When I saw you talking to police, it didn't look like you were dressed the same. In fact, it didn't look like you were wearing anything under that robe, and the set was a bedroom, not the Watchtower crater. I haven't been in Hollywood as long as you, but even I know a bedroom love scene when I see it. You weren't shooting a makeup scene, you were shooting a make-out scene." He paused like he was smiling to himself about his little pun. "You want to tell us about it."

Hawkgirl looked at the Flash, then back to Millie. "You know, Miss Henoc, it's all going to come out sooner or later. The director got close-mouthed with us, but I think you really want to tell us what happened." She paused, then said softly, "I know I would. Don't you?"

Millie was silent for a long moment before answering. She took another drink from her bottle and lowered her head. "We were shooting a love scene."

"A sex scene, you mean," Hawkgirl said. Millie's head snapped up in time to see the Flash nudge Hawkgirl on the shoulder.

"No!" Millie said sharply. She stood. "We were shooting a love scene." Her voice trailed off. "A love scene…it would have been on the director's cut when it went to DVD release."

"So what happened?" the Flash asked softly.

Millie put the half empty bottle on top of her liquor cabinet. She picked up the towel she'd dropped on the floor earlier and held it close to her chest. If either the Flash or Hawkgirl noticed the monogrammed word 'His' on the towel, they didn't say anything.

Millie wet her lips. "We were on the set. Scott had just opened the bottle with his ring."

"With his ring?" Hawkgirl frowned.

Millie gently shook her head at Hawkgirl. "There was a special stopper in the bottle attached to a wire. On cue, they pull the wire and the stopper pops out of the bottle and flies off screen. They'd clean up the shot in post-production and digitally replace the stopper with a cork, erase the wire, add sound effects and make the champagne bubble over, you know, stuff like that. The only purpose of that stopper was to give Scott and me a visual reference in the shot. You know, so we'd be looking at same thing at the same time."

She paused. "We'd just toasted each other with champagne. Scott drank his drink and I set mine down. He was supposed to put his hand on my face to stroke it like the script said, instead he clutched at his throat and then he collapsed. He started having spasms. I yelled for help. Everyone ran on the set. Someone knocked over the table where the glasses were and the glasses broke. I was lucky I didn't cut my foot. Matt yelled for someone to get the glass and clean up the floor. The set medic started CPR, but my Scotty was dead before help arrived."

Hawkgirl looked at the Flash. "A heart attack?"

The Flash didn't answer, but Millie said, "I don't know. It's not fair. God, I'll never get the sound of that death rattle out of my head." Millie sniffled, trying to prevent herself from crying.

"Did you drink the champagne?"

Millie shook her head. "No. There was a mutual toast, but my drinking was deleted in a rewrite." She paused and her eyes narrowed. She put the cap back on the bottle, put the bottle on top of the liquor cabinet and then looked the Flash in the eyes. "Was it something in the champagne? Do you think he was poisoned?"

"Do we?" Hawkgirl whispered to the Flash.

"We need to wait for the autopsy report," the Flash answered. "It could be natural causes." There was something in the way the Flash said 'natural causes' that made Millie think that he didn't think the cause was natural at all.

The room was silent again. Millie tried to manage her breathing in what was becoming a vain attempt to fight off tears. Finally, the Flash broke the silence. "Had you guys been shooting others scenes before you shot the one tonight?"

Millie chuckled. "Hate to be the one to break the joke to you, but yeah, every night for the last four weeks. Scott and Jonas would wait for you to leave the set before they'd hand out that night's shooting script."

"Jonas?"

"He is, or was, Scott's assistant," Millie answered, suddenly realizing that she did hate telling the Flash that Scott laughed every night after Flash left the set, reminding everyone how much better the film was going to be or how much more money they'd all make in the director's cut version without the Justice League oversight. "I really am sorry, but I doubt that you ever saw the full script. I think you only saw what Matt and Scotty wanted you to see."

Flash's expression ranged from quizzical to angry to calm in the space of five seconds. He shrugged. "I don't recall meeting him," he said flatly.

"You've seen him on the set. He was the guy always handing Scott a drink of cola before we'd start shooting. He was Scott's errand boy. Always had his nose stuck so far up Scott's butt that…." She didn't finish the sentence.

Flash stared at her in silence. Millie glanced back and forth between the Flash and the capped bottle of whisky. Finally, Hawkgirl said, "We'll be in touch," and she tapped the Flash gently on the arm. They both walked toward the door.

"Look," Millie said walking to the door, her voice trembling. "I don't know how you superhero types get paid, but I'll double it. Triple it. Just tell me you'll find out what happened to Scotty. Please." Her voice broke.

Flash nodded. "Reporters are still outside." He put his finger to his ear and said, "Watchtower, two to beam up." Within seconds, both Hawkgirl and the Flash disappeared in front of her.

Millie started crying again; murmuring the word, "Please" over and over again. She collapsed in the overstuffed chair and sobbed uncontrollably.

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