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about losing a plum role. But we still don’t know who she had been meeting. And did this person kill her?” 
    “Contrary to what Chris said, I agree with you that there is potential that someone on our set would kill Nicole,” Sophie said. “It’s a competitive industry. Do you know how many other French actresses and models wanted my little cameo in this film? When I got it, some of these girls wouldn’t talk to me at parties. Imagine that on a bigger scale, when you’re one of the biggest stars in the world.” 
    “That’s true,” Clémence agreed. “What’s going on with Chris’s wife? Is she always that rude?”
    “I don’t know what her problem is. I met her on set once when I was shooting a scene with Sarah Briar. Between takes, she came on set, and Chris introduced her to everyone. She seemed pleasant enough with most people, but when Chris introduced her to Sarah, Cynthia looked like she wanted to kill her. Same with me.” 
    “So, what, she hates actresses?” 
    “I suppose she’s not too happy about her husband working with attractive women all day long. She used to be a beauty back in the day, and she did some modeling, although she was never tall enough to gain supermodel status.” 
    The bartender gave them their cocktails, and they both took a sip. 
    “I’ll add Cynthia to the suspect list,” Clémence said. “What does she do for a living now?” 
    “Not much,” Sophie said. “She’s a housewife, but she came from money. Her family owns Harper Studios. She met Chris because he was working for the studio.”
    “Wow, her family owns Harper Studios? Rich would be an understatement then.” 
    “She was given a few opportunities to act when she was younger,” Sophie said, “but she was a horrible actress. Had no charisma on screen. I’ve seen clips of one of the films on YouTube, and she was a laughingstock for a while. She even quit modeling because she was an embarrassment to the Harper name.” 
    “Hmm. So she failed as a movie star, and now she’s resentful of other young starlets. There’s definitely some motive here. But it does sound like quite a few people had hated Nicole.” 
    “Did Rachel ever respond to you?” 
    “I’ve been so distracted that I forgot I was supposed to meet her.” Clémence took out her phone from her purse and turned on the screen. “No. She didn’t reply at all.” 
    She tried calling her again, but it only went to voicemail.
    “You know what?” Sophie said. “I can call Sarah. I’m friends with her. They’re not shooting scenes with the actors right now anyway.”
    She took out her phone and made the call. “Hey, Sarah?” After some small talk, she asked where Rachel was. “Really?…I’m sure that’s not it, Sarah…well let me know if you see her.” 
    When Sophie hung up, she had a strange look on her face.  
    “So where is Rachel?” Clémence asked.
    “It’s really odd. Rachel was supposed to meet Sarah this morning to go over some lines then help Sarah run some errands, but she never showed up. Sarah checked with the crew, and nobody knows where she is. Now Sarah thinks that Rachel’s unhappy about being her assistant because she was so loyal to Nicole. She’s pretty hurt because she thinks this is Rachel’s way of saying she didn’t want to work for her.” 
    “I don’t think that’s the case,” Clémence said, “considering that Rachel stood me up.” 
    “I’ve met Rachel a few times, but she doesn’t seem like the type to stand people up. She’s very organized and diligent, definitely not the type to rebel, even if she was secretly unhappy about the Sarah situation.” 
    “What if she’s still in her hotel room?” Clémence said slowly. “Where else could she possibly be?” 
    “Why would she be there?” Sophie asked.
    “I don’t know, but I just think we should check just in case.” 
    “Maybe she’s still asleep. Or do you think she had an accident?” 
    “Come on, let’s go