He stopped short.
“Excuse me,” Wilde said, throwing on his biggest smile and flaring his eyes, “but aren’t you Marnie Cassidy?”
Marnie Cassidy could not have looked more pleased if he had handed her a giant check. “Why yes, I am!”
“Oh man, I’m so sorry to bother you. People must pester you on the street all the time.”
“Oh,” Marnie said, waving it away, “that’s okay.”
“It’s just that I’m a huge fan.”
“Really?”
When it came to stroking a celebrity ego, there was no such thing as too much or too heavy a pet. “My sister and I watch you all the time on…” The name of the show slipped Wilde’s mind, so he just kept going. “Anyway, we both think you’re hilarious.”
“That’s so kind of you!”
“Would I be able to trouble you for an autograph and maybe a selfie? Jane—that’s my sister—Jane will freak when she sees it.”
Jane. So okay, Wilde wasn’t great at coming up with names under pressure.
Marnie beamed. “Of course! How would you like it made out?”
“Oh, let’s do it, ‘To Jane, my biggest fan,’ something like that. She’s going to positively freak out!” Wilde fumbled as though searching for a writing instrument. “Oh, shoot. I don’t think I have a pen.”
“No worries!” Marnie said. Every sentence with Marnie seemed to end in an exclamation mark. “I have one!”
Now that Marnie had come to a full stop and started rummaging through her purse, Wilde shifted his body so that he faced her head-on and subtly blocked her path forward. He wouldn’t stop her if she wanted to get by. It was all about body language.
“Can I ask you one other thing?” Wilde asked.
“Of course!”
“Why did you lie about Peter Bennett?”
Boom. Just like that.
The smile stayed locked on Marnie’s lips, but it fled her eyes and dimmed that inner beam. He didn’t wait, didn’t give her time to recover from the blow or take an eight count. He pressed on.
“I work for CRAW Securities. We know everything, Marnie. You have a choice. You can talk to me now and keep yourself out of it—or we can destroy you in every way possible. The choice is yours.”
Marnie kept blinking. This was the calculated risk Wilde had decided to take. If he approached her in any reasonable manner, Marnie Cassidy would stick to the story she had told on the Reality Ralph podcast. The only way that talking to Marnie could be useful was if he threw her off her game and she changed her story in some way. Then Wilde might have something to work with. There was no downside to this direct approach. If he interviewed her in a straightforward manner, he would gain nothing. If she stormed off now, he also would gain nothing—same boat.
But if she reacted now in some way that hinted at deception, then he had a chance at learning something.
Marnie tried to stand up a little straighter. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You know exactly what I mean,” Wilde said with no hint of give in his tone. “Let me put this plainly. We are talking alone. No one is listening. It’s just you and me. This is my promise. If you tell me the truth now, it goes no further. No one will ever know you said a word to me. It’s a secret just between us. You continue on your way to hair and makeup at the studio, and you remain a star. And I wasn’t kidding before. I have seen you, Marnie. You’ve got talent. You’ve got that intangible it. People love you. Your star is rising. I’d put money on that. And if you help me now, your star will continue to soar like we never met, except, well, you’ll have me as an ally for life. You want that, Marnie. You want me on your side.”
Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Wilde pushed on, shifting from carrot back to stick. “But if you walk away from me now, I’ll make sure you get canceled so harshly you’ll wish you were Peter Bennett. I won’t be your friend, Marnie. I’ll make it my mission to ruin you.”
A tear ran down Marnie’s cheek. “Why are you being so mean?”
“I’m not being mean. I’m being honest.”
“Why do you think I’m lying?”
Wilde held up a flash drive. There was nothing on it. It was just a prop, part of this charade. “I know, Marnie.”
And then Marnie said it: “If you know, why do you need me?”
There it was. The admission. A person telling the truth has no need to say this or worry. She hadn’t been totally honest on that podcast. Wilde was sure of it now.