Judy said, waving her hands like her fingernails were wet and she was trying to dry them. Everyone in this town spoke with bold bodily gestures. “Whatever works best for you.”Kendra smiled and nodded for him to come over. He stood and figured what the hell. He was familiar with the parts by now.Judy handed them one five page scene. It was the one where the hitter catches up to the woman on the run and she tries to seduce him. Kendra seemed to already know this was the scene she was supposed to have rehearsed for, but if she did she’d never mentioned that to him.Grey didn’t go overboard and didn’t underplay the role. He started off in a chair, but when Kendra began to really get into the part she touched him on the throat and he lunged to his feet, and they played out the seduction leaning up against a wall. He pressed against her and she wrapped her legs around him. The script dropped from his hand. He didn’t know the piece line by line but he remembered the context and improvised. Kendra wound up saying her lines into the side of his neck, where she nipped at his jugular. The hitter was supposed to shove her away and stick the gun in her face one last time before he realizes she’s already got a hold on him. Except nobody had given Grey a prop gun.He pulled out the .32 and stuck it under her chin. He thought of Ellie. He thought of his one chance to sleep with her passing him by and he was filled with regret, guilt, and self-loathing over it. His breathing grew more and more shallow until he was panting. Kendra glared at him, the terror alive in her eyes knowing it was a real gun but still playing into the role. She grunted. He mashed his lips against hers and she bit his tongue hard enough to make him bleed. He drew his knuckles across his mouth and backhanded her. It made the entire scene perfect.Grey stepped away, returned the .32 to his pocket, and walked out of the room exactly like the hitter would in the movie.Ten minutes later Kendra got into the Chevelle. He knew he had to apologize but didn’t know how to go about it. He waited for her to smack him. He waited for her to rail and rage against him. He looked out the window at the palm trees lining the parking lot and thought this town probably made everyone at least a little crazy.He turned to look at her and she said, “Best audition I ever had. Let’s go home.”That afternoon Monty called her to congratulate her on acing the audition. They’d offered her the part. They’d looked at sixty women and had given several of them three call-backs each, but Judy wanted Kendra.Beaming and doing a little rabbit hop of joy, Kendra repeated everything he said. “A six-week shoot. Twenty K a week and a cut off the back end. Start on the 1st in New York.” Kendra smiled but there was something else clouding her eyes. “What? What’s wrong, Monty?” She listened for a moment and let out a gasp. “What? No. No. You did what? You didn’t, Monty. You couldn’t have.”She met Grey’s eyes and he got a seriously bad feeling. She almost let the phone fall from her hand but he grabbed it, heard Monty crying on the other end. He looked at Kendra and she said, “He told me he killed his wife. He said he bashed her head in with a 3-iron.”Grey turned his face from her, focused on Monty on the other side of the phone. Could imagine him there in the fish bowl, sobbing. Major celebrities walking by in the halls peering in at him. The cops would be there soon.“Monty, listen to me—”“If only you’d done it.”“Have you ever heard of a man named John Raymond?”“You told me to do it! You said I should do it myself!”Christ, Monty was right. Grey had said it. But who the fuck would’ve expected him to go through with it? Here, everybody he came across looked at him like he was a murderer, and some slick little shit without a plan winds up grabbing a golf club and taking out his wife.“John Raymond. He called himself a manager. You ever heard of him? He the real thing?”“You think a brain is solid,”
