We all arrived back at the main complex in time for lunch, in the absence of both Jane and myself, Dominique had taken on the catering mantle and had six or seven loaves, a bucket of salad, literally, because there were so many of us she'd got bought two buckets from LeClerc, the big DIY store, and filled them with lettuce and chicory, pouring olive oil and red wine vinegar over them. To go with it she had several ripe soft cheeses and, in case there were any squeamish people that didn't like soft cheese, a couple of slabs of Emmental. Six bottles of Sancerre were chilling nicely next to a pile of cantaloupe melons and a couple of big bowls of cherries. She'd clearly been shopping at the farmshops we'd passed on the way to the dance studio.
Jane was telling everyone to keep lunch light as we had the dance scenes in the afternoon. I couldn't see a sign of Chris, and no one seemed to know where he was, I tried calling him, but his phone rang until it switched to voicemail. Carl was the only person with any idea,
"He had to go out an hour or so back, said something about meeting the FBI guy from the embassy. He shouldn't be long."
OK, that explained where he'd gone. A note might have been useful, and it would be nice if he could answer his phone. I told myself he was probably in a meeting and couldn't talk, he does get pretty focussed. I expected he would reappear sooner or later unaware how long he'd been gone, and when he did, I would make a show of being annoyed that he'd gone without leaving a message before forgiving him.
With everyone in one place Sandy pulled a suitcase into the dining room and flipped it open to reveal a mix of colourful outfits.
"First up is Bollywood style, everyone please. Mona, Paul can you be camera people, Chris? Sound?" she looked around quizzically. "Chris?"
Carl told us all Chris had been called to a meeting with the local FBI representative and should be back later. He added pointlessly that it was probably to do with the Ransomware attack. Well Der.
Darren said he could set the sound up if someone else could hold the microphones, looking at me, which of course, I could. Jane was tasked with holding a sunlight reflector and that was about it..
Sandy, Darren and Carol changed into their swimming costumes and carried their dance outfits in a shopping bag, which confused me a bit, but I ignored it on the grounds that someone probably had a plan. Which they did, it all became clear when we got to the pool, Darren was filmed falling headfirst into the water and floating face down for a moment, Carol rolled half in and half out and Sandy staggered off to collapse onto the grass.
"OK, great folks, if the three swimmers can get into Bollywood dress, we'll go live in ten." He snapped his fingers to emphasise the point.
Darren, Sandy and Carol stood together on the edge of the pool in their bright primary-coloured outfits, Carl counted them down and fired up some Bhangra music from his phone over a Bluetooth speaker, they did a short routine poolside then skipped across to the grass where in dribs and drabs everyone else joined them until there were ten of them dancing in five pairs. To be honest, it looked fabulous, and I was jealous I couldn't be part of the scene.
The dance scene took an hour or more to complete for a three-minute sequence, with cameras moving among the dancers to get different viewpoints and re-shooting the same scene from several angles. Once Carl was satisfied, he had all the dance footage he'd need, he got Sandy to collapse onto the grass, then Carol to roll into the edge of the pool and finally Darren took another dive.
Carl called "Cut" and let everyone know we'd be Line Dancing when it got dark later and next up was a scene with Luc, Dominique, Mona and Paul in thirty minutes. People scurried in all directions, sometimes I had to be reminded this was actually a production line and seeing the professionalism and dedication on display brought it home.
We'd been in full view of the main gate and Chris hadn't come back, I tried his number again and still no answer, checking the time I thought he was going to be starving when he got back unless the FBI were kind enough to buy him lunch. I was still more miffed than worried. That came later.
I got Jane to cover the couples scene and borrowed her car to go back and check the villa, no sign of him there but slightly more ominously his passport and laptop were gone, I'd already checked the main complex and hadn't seen the computer anywhere. I drove back to catch up with Darren to see if he knew where it might be.
I tracked him down in the shower, banged on the door and shouted "You decent in there? I need a quick word."
A cheery "Come on in, I'm good" came back so I walked in. Darren wiped water out of his eyes and apologised. "Sorry Nix, I thought it was Jane. I just heard a British accent. Any chance you could check my back anyway, that mud got everywhere."
"Turn around, I'll look from here." I told him.
With mock sorrow he slumped his shoulders, pushed out his lower lip and turned around. Bugger. Despite splashing around in the pool, twice, there was a big smear of dirt between his shoulder blades. Getting him to bend down and turn off the shower so I wasn't soaked I took the sponge from him and scrubbed it away. Once he was clean, he rinsed, shut the shower down again, actually wiped the interior down with a squeegee which put him up many rungs in my estimation, and stepped out. I passed him a towel and enjoyed the sight of the tall tightly muscled young man drying himself.
He could see the enjoyment I was getting from the view and paused, in a carefully selected pose showing off his muscles and his magnificent cock, asking "Would you be interested in erm, maybe not for work but one evening maybe erm the two of us..."
Ooh. Interesting.
"Only if Chris is there too, we are a package, err" I struggled for the right word and lamely settled on "socially." That didn't seem to concern Darren, he nodded, "Yeah, that would be cool. We'll see what happens then."
I was flustered, I'd been distracted from my purpose, I dragged my mind back to my immediate concern. "Darren, Chris is nowhere to be seen, Last time I saw him was with you before we went out to do the shoot around seven or eight hours ago, no note, no text message, no voicemail. His laptop and passport are missing as well. I've tried calling a million times but no answer. Nothing. I'm not worried, well yes, I am worried. Can you do that thing with my phone to see where his phone is? "
Darren was instantly out of trying it on mode and into concern for his mate mode, he took the outstretched iPhone and swiped, clicked and tapped it for a minute or two, then held the screen up to me. "He's in Bordox"
I took the phone back, checked the screen and revised the location "Bordeaux. What the fuck's he doing there?"
I felt a strong hand grip my shoulder and a concerned voice told me "He's fine, I'm sure. Let's go see if I can get out of this evening's shoot and we'll see if we can't work it out."
Then added
"After I get dressed."
He could, Jane said she'd make up the numbers despite not being a man, Sandy made ominous sounding suggestions about a strap on and how it might bring a dark vibe to the scene. I left before it got too scary, pleased to see I still had a comfort zone that could be pushed.
We relocated to the admin office where Darren grabbed his own laptop and plugged my iPhone into it via a connection lead, did some rapid bashing on the keyboard and brought up a mapping program. He peered at the screen, zooming in to maximum resolution and muttering to himself "Well, it makes sense that's where he is, why won't he answer his phone though?"
I leaned over his shoulder; a blue map pin was marked on the screen with the words 'Consulat des Etats Unis D'Amerique' next to it.
I pointed, "That's the US Consulate, right? So, he's still there? He's been gone nearly seven hours, even if it took him two hours to drive there why's he been silent all that time?"
Darren shook his head to tell me he had no more of a clue than I did. He tapped the table a couple of times, then picked up his phone, dialled a number and spoke into it. "Jamie, can you come over to the Admin room, I need your advice."
A couple of minutes later Jamie was there, looking worried as Darren and I filled him in on the situation. Straight away Jamie had his phone in his hand and initiated a facetime conversation. The now familiar face of Lou Carpenter appeared on the screen, Jamie gave her the update and said he'd wait. Lou left the conversation open and picked up her desk phone.
