Written in Stone (A Books by the Bay Mystery)

leaping from sauté pans. This space is too, too narrow.” Throwing out his hands, he said, “It’ll be like shooting in Manhattan all over again!”
    “And look what magic you were able to create there,” Candice said in a honeyed voice.
    Noah brightened. “It was exciting, wasn’t it? Where’s my chef?”
    At last, Michel was able to present himself to the director and the pair fell into an easy conversation over the proposed menu. Meanwhile, the crewmembers had second helpings from the breakfast buffet and began to wander around the restaurant to search for outlets, test the lighting, and pile up equipment in the bar.
    Leaving them to their tasks, Olivia disappeared into her office. She walked around Haviland’s sleeping form and sat down in front of her computer. The poodle opened his eyes briefly, only to shut them again after receiving a cursory pat on the head. Accustomed to the clanging of pots and pans and the sound of Michel shouting to his underlings, he was unfazed by the additional noise created by the TV crew.
    Olivia decided to use the time before her interview researching the class ring embedded in the memory jug. Though the name of the school was hidden from view, it was still possible to see a sliver of green stone poking out of the epoxy. Last night, Olivia had studied the exposed side of the ring with a magnifying glass and had discovered a small symbol inside a shield. It looked like a bee or wasp, but she had yet to find a high school whose mascot was an insect.
    Unable to sleep, Olivia had taken her laptop to bed and had surfed until she’d found several companies who produced class rings. Since then, she’d gone through online catalogues until the bright gemstones, embossed crests, Latin mottos, and school names blurred together.
    None of the catalog samples matched the shield found on the jug’s ring, but Olivia refused to give up. Hoping the piece of jewelry came from North Carolina, she now began to systematically look up each and every high school in the state, scrolling through page after page of material before locating the school colors and mascot.
    She had just finished looking at New Bern High’s website and was about to cross its name off her list when someone knocked timidly on her door.
    “Come in,” Olivia said without turning around.
    “Ms. Limoges.” Candice spoke in a deferential whisper. “Noah’s ready to interview you now.”
    Following Candice to the bar, Olivia was amazed by the network of power cords crisscrossing the carpet and the blinding brightness of the lights directed on Gabe as he prepared a Boot Top Bellini for the camera.
    Olivia didn’t need to be a director to see that Gabe was a natural. Completely at ease in the spotlight, he smiled and spoke in the relaxed conversational tone that encouraged customers to show up at the bar well before dinner. With his all-American-surfer-boy good looks and the devotion with which he performed his job, Gabe was sure to coax droves of female
Talk of the Town
viewers into visiting the Carolina coast.
    Delighted by Gabe’s performance, Noah asked him to wrap up by serving a glass of red wine and an Oyster Bay Breeze to a well-dressed tourist couple Candice had plucked from the streets. This simple sequence was filmed at least five times before Noah was satisfied. Finally, the cameras and the powerful lights were turned off and the tourists returned to their vacation, a gift certificate for a free meal in hand.
    “We’re in the kitchen in five, people!” Noah shouted and sank into one of the bar’s leather club chairs. He held out his hand, palm up, clearly waiting for Candice to fulfill an unspoken demand.
    She was ready with a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, but when the director went to light up, Olivia grabbed his wrist. “Not in here, please. You can smoke out back. That’s where the staff goes.”
    Noah’s cigarette dangled from between pursed lips, his expression incredulous. But then he shrugged, said, “Sure thing,” and headed through the swing doors to the kitchen.
    Fifteen minutes later, Olivia grew tired of waiting for her interview and returned to her office. She clicked on the next high school on her list, searching their website until she discovered that the school’s colors were gold and white and their mascot, a wild mustang. Thus far, she’d encountered bulldogs and devils, pirates and horses, eagles and rams, warriors and cavaliers, but not a single bug.
    “No bees,” she