Wish Her Well by Meg Silver

day of auditions.”
    Tunnel man did not agree. “Wrong. You and I have met before. A bunch of times, actually. Remember your first night on duty? I was in the makeup chair. Kara was turning me into an actor.”
    Amanda frowned, and searched his features. She remembered that night. She could have sworn the guy was an A-list actor. “No way. Kara said you were a dead ringer to begin with.”
    “Maybe fifteen years ago. Not so much anymore. I did the knighting ceremony with you as well, though you wouldn’t have recognized me that night. Different face entirely. I’m Phillip Irving. Custom fantasy team lead.”
    That made sense, especially when she remembered that thing he’d done with her belt that made her want to melt.
    He looked to Thomas. “I trust there’s a good reason she’s down here?”
    Thomas held his hands up. “She’s the least of our worries. The prints matched. The Arizona girl is Nicole, no question. And I know sorry doesn’t cover it, but… I’m sorry.”
    Tunnel-man, Phillip, looked ill. “Does Derek know?”
    “No. Not yet. Jerod’s supposed to be picking him up.”
    Thomas had to explain how Derek and Brent’s interrogation fantasy hadn’t been a fantasy at all. Derek knew more than they did, and he had been trying to get the security questions and passwords out of Brent on his own. “I’ll tell him we found Nicole, soon as Jerod brings him in.”
    “But what’s her condition?” Phillip demanded. “What makes you think they used Janos?”
    “Come on, Phillip. She’s got amnesia. The doctors out in Arizona did an MRI, and guess what they found? Localized brain-tissue damage, and they can’t even identify half the chemical compounds on her tox screen. And there’s more. According to Scott, there were three distinct users signing into DriveRate’s servers from Fantasy Heights. They’ve had three people operating here for at least a year. Any one of them could have gotten to Nicole.”
    Phillip sat forward, rubbing his eyes and then, suddenly, he was on his feet. He picked up a coffee mug, and side-armed it at the wall.
    Amanda reared back, out of the path of hot liquid and flying ceramic.
    Thomas never even flinched.
    “God damn that woman!” Phillip yelled. “God damn Kay Taylor to hell ! What the fuck am I supposed to do? What the fuck am I supposed to tell Derek? And how the hell am I supposed to break this to Josh? After everything, I have to tell him his worst nightmare has come true. This will kill him. Kill him.”
    “Phillip, calm down,” Thomas told him. “You’re not responsible for this. I’ll inform Derek and Josh. It’s my job.”
    “No, this is not your job. It shouldn’t be anybody’s job. Why the hell did she have to resurrect Janos?”
    Amanda couldn’t keep up. She was still stuck at the beginning of the conversation where Nicole had been found, but couldn’t remember anything.
    The doctors in Arizona, Thomas had said. The officer at the FBI desk had said a detective calling from Arizona. It was clearly not their first phonecall about ‘the Arizona girl.’ Thomas had suspected Nicole’s whereabouts and condition for quite some time without telling anyone.
    Instead of feeling a surge of anger or suspicion, she just felt crushed. No wonder Thomas wanted her to leave Fantasy Heights.
    Watching Thomas and Phillip have a silent conversation conducted via body language and raw nerve endings, she knew the two men would never rest until they’d caught whoever had harmed Nicole. And her questions about amnesia and Janos and Kay Taylor could wait. For now, it was enough to be inside of this room instead of cemented out.
    Wordlessly, Amanda began to pick up shards of mug. Both men tracked her with their eyes, as if they couldn’t quite understand why she would bother.
    Eventually it was Phillip who broke the strained standoff, coming to join her.
    Thomas said, “Amanda, I need to deal with Josh. Don’t go home tonight. Stay in your cabin.”
    “I’ll