Chapter 22
“Good evening, gentlemen,” Ronan said, after opening Damian’s front door. “Please, come in.”
Billy, Peter, and Ben stepped inside.
“Thanks for setting this up,” Billy said.
“Happy to do it,” Ronan said, then he crossed his fingers and dropped his voice to a whisper. “I’m hopeful it goes well.”
“As are we. You remember Peter, of course, but have you met Ben Bacchetti?”
“I have not.”
The two men shook hands.
“Mr. Bacchetti, what an honor. What you’ve done at Centurion Pictures is truly remarkable.”
“It’s Ben,” Ben said. “And I think you’re giving me far too much credit. It’s people like Peter and Billy who are the real reason for our success.”
Ronan smiled, then said, “If you’ll follow me.”
He led them past the living room and into an expansive kitchen, where Damian was standing on the other side of a long island, putting the finishing touches on a charcuterie board.
He grinned upon seeing everyone and came around the island with the energy of someone half his age.
“Welcome, gentlemen,” he said. “So good to see you again.”
He shook each of their hands.
“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us,” Peter said.
“Especially on the night after your big party,” Ben said. “I’m sure you must be exhausted.”
“Nonsense.” He nodded toward his assistant. “Ronan did all the work. All I did was show up.”
To Ronan, Billy said, “It was an excellent party.”
“Thank you,” Ronan said, looking both pleased and embarrassed. “And thanks for your help last night.”
“Ah, that’s right,” Damian said. “I forgot you took a swim with Ronan.”
“If it hadn’t been me, it would have been someone else,” Billy said.
“Please let me know how much it costs to have your clothes cleaned, I’d like to reimburse you,” Damian said.
“I should do that,” Ronan said.
“Thank you both, but it won’t be necessary. I’ll make the studio pay for it.”
“Approved!” Ben said.
“Very well,” Damian said. “Before we sit, how about a house tour, sans all the party paraphernalia?”
“That would be lovely,” Peter said.
As Damian led them through the place, he regaled them with the home’s history.
It turned out that the house had been built in the 1950s for Theo Carpenter, a prolific movie director whose career stretched from the late thirties right up until his death in 1976.
While Carpenter hadn’t been an official member of the famous Rat Pack, Sinatra and the others were known to stop by now and then.
The house was then sold by Carpenter’s heirs to a rising star by the name of Damian Leon.
“I’d come to a party here right after my first film came out and had fallen in love with it.” Damian motioned around them, beaming. “How could I not? When it came up for sale, I jumped at it, even though the price was a bit of a stretch for me at the time.”
He showed Billy, Peter, and Ben everything from the expansive bedrooms, the plush screening room, a game room filled with a pool table and various pinball machines, and a ten-person sauna that he admitted to hardly ever using.
“And this door leads out to the pool,” he said.
Ronan opened the door for them, and they filed onto the patio surrounding the pool. The sun had just set, leaving the area in shadows, so Ronan switched on the exterior light.
“Is that—”
Before Peter could even finish his sentence, Billy sprinted across the patio, dove into the pool, and swam quickly to the woman floating in the center, face down.
He turned her so that her mouth and nose were no longer covered, then hugged her to his chest and swam backstroke to the edge.
Peter, Ben, and Ronan were already leaning down to help when he got there. Ronan grabbed one of her arms and Peter the other.
“Here,” Ben said, holding a hand out to Billy.
With his help, Billy climbed out of the pool. “Thanks.”
Several feet away, Peter and Ronan laid the woman on the patio, and Ronan started giving her CPR.
Damian was on his phone nearby, talking to 911. After a few moments, he lowered his cell and said, “I’m going out front to wait for the ambulance.”
Billy didn’t stop him, but he knew there would be nothing for the EMTs to do. Having seen countless bodies in his life, he could tell the woman had been dead for quite some time before they’d found her.
Ronan kept pumping the woman’s chest, muttering, “Come on, come on, come on.”
“Let me give you a break,” Ben said.
Ronan shook his head. “I’ve got it.” To the body, he said, “Breathe, dammit!”
Peter stepped next to Billy and whispered, “Does she look familiar to you?”
In the pool, Billy hadn’t had time to look at the woman’s face, but now, he realized that he had indeed seen her before.
“The party last night,” he whispered back. “The one who knocked Ronan’s friend into the water.”
Peter looked at the woman again. “You’re right.” He paused, then added, “She looks…”
“She is.”
Ronan kept up his efforts until the EMTs arrived.
When they finished their assessment and did not continue CPR, Ronan said, “What are you doing? You need to save her.”
“She’s been gone for a while,” one of the EMTs said. “There’s nothing we can do.”
“That can’t be true.”
Ronan knelt beside her, like he was going to start the compressions again.
Billy crouched beside him and gently pulled him back to his feet. On some level, Ronan seemed to understand the situation, because while he looked like he didn’t want to give up, his body didn’t resist Billy’s efforts.
“Let’s find someplace to sit,” Billy said.
Ronan let Billy guide him beyond the hedge and to a marble bench away from the activity.
“Stay here,” Billy said, sitting him down. “I’ll be right back.”
Billy reentered the house and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator.
When he returned, he took off the cap and held the bottle out to Ronan. “Here.”
Ronan blinked, then took it from him. “Thank you.”
Billy waited until Ronan had taken a sip before saying, “She was the woman who knocked your friend into the pool last night, wasn’t she?”
Ronan nodded. “Katy.”
“You knew her well?”
“Not nearly as well as I thought I did when I first met her. But yes, she’s my ex-girlfriend.”
“Ah. And the other woman is your current one?”
“Emma?” Ronan laughed humorlessly. “No. She’s my best friend.”
Billy sensed there was more to it, but he didn’t press.
“Last night was the last time you saw Katy?”
Ronan nodded. “When I had her kicked out.”
“Any idea why she would have come back?”
Ronan thought for a moment, then shrugged. “To talk to me, I suppose. But I don’t know for sure. I’ve given up trying to understand her.”
“And you’re sure none of the staff saw her come back?”
“If they had, they would have let me know. I’m guessing she sneaked into the backyard and somehow fell in the pool and hit her head.”
“She didn’t hit her head,” Billy said.
Ronan’s brow furrowed in confusion. “How do you know that?”
“No head wound.”
“Oh. Then what do you think happened?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say she was dead long before she entered the water.”
“How does that even make sense?”
Instead of answering the question, Billy asked, “When was the last time someone was near the pool?”
“Earlier this evening. Damian swims laps every day at five p.m.”
“And no one since then?”
“I can ask the staff, but I doubt it.”
“So it would be safe to say she wasn’t there until sometime after, what…five-thirty?”
“Five-forty-five.”
“I’m going to ask you something that might upset you. But the police will ask, so it’s best if you’re prepared.”
Ronan looked at him warily. “What?”
“Do you think Emma could have something to do with this?”
Ronan’s brow creased in confusion. “Emma? Why Emma?”
“The pool incident last night. The police would see that as potential motivation.”
“Impossible. She would never do something like this.”
“I’m glad to hear it. But they will eventually want to talk to her.”
“Then I just won’t mention what happened.”
“I’m not sure that would be a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Because a lot of people saw Katy and Emma fighting. And word will eventually get out.”
“They weren’t fighting. Emma was trying—”
“To the people who were watching, it’ll have looked like they were fighting.”
Ronan looked defeated. “I need to let Emma know.”
He pulled his phone out, but before he could make the call, Ben stepped around the hedges from the pool area and said, “The police are here. You two should probably come back.”
Ronan looked lost as to what to do.
“Talk to the police first,” Billy said. “You’ll have a better idea of what’s going on when you speak to Emma.”
Ronan hesitated before sliding his phone back into his pocket. He took a deep breath, then stood and said, “Let’s get this over with.”