Lois had finished the scene. Millie was not as thrilled with her performance as yesterday, but after a few retakes, she was satisfied. Melissa still had another scene to film today.
Lois joined Clark. "Did you see anything suspicious?"
"Everything looked fine to me," he answered, "and the lights are safely hung this time, but we probably shouldn't leave."
"I agree completely."
Melissa and another actress, Donna, began their scene. Donna was playing the jealous wife of one of Judith's boyfriend, who would take out a knife and actually use it on Melissa's character.
Lois was mildly interested in the scene. She had learned how it was to be done from Melissa. Melissa was going to wear a piece of hard plastic in the place where the prop knife would go, which was her side; it wasn't that it was a dangerous stunt, but it was so that she wouldn't be bruised with enthusiastic thrusts. The woman had already shown herself to be too enthusiastic and had missed the target a time or two, for which she apologized profusely and Melissa accepted the apology. The only difference from rehearsal was that it would also bust a bag of fake blood under Melissa's blouse. This was the only part that hadn't been rehearsed, so as not to ruin a lot of shirts.
The scene went off exactly as rehearsed. Judith laughed at the woman's threats. Lois had suffered under the illusion that soap actors were substandard, but they were really quite talented. The jealous wife character went from anger to surprise at being mocked to plain enragement as she reacted to the laughing. It looked as if the actress had actually landed the blow in the proper spot. Melissa was to fall down and lay there for a few moments, which she did wonderfully. She looked shocked and in pain just as the script called for. Lois again marveled at her acting skills.
When Melissa stayed on the ground longer than she was supposed to, everyone slowly came to the realization that someone must have changed the prop knife for a real knife. There was too much blood coming from Melissa to be all fake blood.
"Someone call 911!" shouted Millie. She didn't have to. The assistant director already had his cell phone out and was telling them the situation. Someone else was applying pressure to the wound.
The security guard had heard the commotion and had come in. When he saw the bleeding and the bloody knife in Donna's hand, he immediately went over to take the knife and restrain the woman.
"I didn't know," she cried loudly as the security guard held onto her, even though she didn't look as if she were going to make a break for it. "I didn't know," she muttered repeatedly but more softly.
It didn't take too long for the paramedics to arrive. They lifted Melissa onto a stretcher and rolled her toward the ambulance. Clark and Lois followed them out along with a few other people. She was still conscious, but she was ashen white by now, not far from matching the white sheet on her stretcher. The paramedics began lifting her onto the ambulance. "Kristin, will you ride with me?" she asked in a shaky voice.
Lois hesitated for just a moment.
"I'll follow you to the hospital," Clark said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.
One of the paramedics, a tall blonde guy, looked as if he recognized Lois. He probably did. She'd had one too many rides in the back of an ambulance. Fortunately, he didn't say anything to her. Lois hated riding in the back of ambulances. It was so sterile and confining.
"Are you pregnant?" the blonde paramedic asked Melissa.
Melissa shook her head.
"Your age?"
"28," she replied.
They were monitoring her breathing, her pulse and blood pressure, all the while keeping pressure on her wound. The other paramedic, a shorter, chunkier man, pulled out his walkie talkie. "Patient is 28 year old female, blood pressure 96/72, pulse 107, respiratory 18 per minute. Patient is suffering from a knife wound on her right side."
Things got quiet after the questioning; they simply monitored her condition.
Lois should have been planning how to write the article, but she had a feeling that the culprit still had not been caught. Someone had switched that knife. She did not think that Donna would be so stupid as to kill Melissa with witnesses around, especially when the letter writer had hid his or her identity with anonymous notes, but then she couldn't completely be ruled out either. Whoever did it was not sane. It could be Kevin, Millie, or any number of people that had been milling around during rehearsal.
She took a deep breath. She had been watching the rehearsal closely, but obviously not close enough, and she was sure that Clark had observed enough to know the same. She remembered 5 people who had been near the knife prop. One was the actress who had wielded the knife. The others were Millie, one of the extras, the prop mistress, and Kevin. She would compare notes with Clark, but unless the perpetrator had managed to make their self invisible, there was no doubt that it had to be one of them.
TBC
