Chapter 29
Luke
If there was something Luke should have learned after a decade as a private investigator, it was to look at the evidence in front of him and go where that would take him.
Yet, he’d looked at the evidence and decided he needed to listen to his gut as well.
And this time it was telling him that even if it looked as if Leonardo had chosen to take a few days off without telling anyone, there was still something nefarious behind his disappearance.
For starters, there were the two notes, seemingly planted so that they didn’t realize about the missing stuff in Leonardo’s dressing room and his hotel, and so that they assumed Leonardo had been kidnapped.
That could have been a trick by the actor to ensure no one noticed he’d taken his toiletries and clothes with him.
But would he have chosen such ominous messages if he wasn’t in danger?
At some point he’d have to come back and explain what’d happened.
No, Luke was more and more convinced that Leonardo’s disappearing act hadn’t been a voluntary one. A quick chat with Divya had revealed she agreed with him. The two detectives were worried about the actor’s fate and were still scrambling to find him.
That was when they got an unexpected call.
“Hello,” Divya answered.
She and Luke had moved to her hotel room to keep working on the case and to get out of Sol’s way—as she’d said she wanted to write for a bit.
Sol had expressed her belief in Leonardo’s disappearance being voluntary.
Divya and he didn’t share her views. Could Sol perhaps be annoyed because of that, and that was why she’d said she wanted to write?
Or was he just thinking too much and Sol had been truthful?
He preferred to put those thoughts aside as Divya placed her mobile on speaker on top of the desk in her room.
“Hello, my assistant told me you wanted to talk to me?” an American-sounding man said.
Both Divya and Luke reached for their notebooks.
“Sure, and you are?” Divya asked.
“Of course, where’s my head! I’m Bobby—” the American said, then added. “The full name is Robert Lancaster, but everyone just calls me Bobby.”
“Of course, Bobby,” Divya said to Leonardo Pascual’s manager. “Me and my colleague have been trying to reach you. We’re investigating Leonardo Pascual’s disappearance.”
“I gather the boy is still missing?” The worry in his voice was real. “I’ve read something about him not showing up for his last performance of a play in Guadalajara—” Bobby hesitated, as if thinking.
“Barcelona,” Divya supplied.
“Barcelona, that’s right. And then I tried calling him. But he isn’t picking up. That’s when I talked to Peggy or was it Pippa—”
Luke glanced up, with contempt.
Divya looked at him, eyes wide. “Do you mean Penny Carr? Leonardo’s publicist?”
“Ah, that’s the name, yes!” Bobby lit up.
“She gave me a lot of PR gibberish nonsense. I still have no clue what it was that she told me. I literally couldn’t make out whether Leonardo was missing or not.
He hasn’t called me in more than a week and that’s very weird.
He loves our chats… And now I’m starting to be worried—”
“Of course,” Divya said. Both detectives looked at each other yet again. None of them knew what to make of Bobby Lancaster.
“And then I was talking to my assistant and he’s all: ‘Pops, I told you some detectives called the office trying to reach you a few days ago.’ So don’t blame Pete, that’s my assistant, I just completely forgot he’d told me about your call.
Anyway, what can you tell me? Have you found him sunbathing on some beach yet?
” Bobby’s tone lightened for that last question.
“I’m afraid we haven’t, Bobby.”
Silence hung for a few seconds. “Something has to have happened to him. It’s completely out of character for him to just disappear—especially when he had work commitments.”
“Have you known him for long?” Divya asked.
“Huh,” Bobby stammered. “Don’t make me do the math but lots and lots of years… Since he was a young, hungry guy wanting to make it big in Hollywood and I was a middle-aged manager on the brink of bankruptcy. He saved my career.”
Divya and Luke’s eyes met again. He cocked his head. Bobby didn’t sound like the ambitious and cold-hearted manager he’d pictured him to be.
“How was the relationship between you two lately?” Divya asked.
“As great as ever,” Bobby didn’t vacillate. Luke was about to intervene and ask him about Leonardo wanting to fire him, but it wasn’t necessary. “To be honest, I don’t know how the boy still puts up with me. He’s on the brink of becoming even a bigger star, and I’m losing my marbles.”
Divya raised an eyebrow in warning. She’d be the one to take care of the interview.
“What do you mean losing your marbles, Bobby?” the Mancunian asked. Her tone was delicate.
“I keep forgetting everything! Yesterday I couldn’t find my car. It was parked on the driveway in front of my house—as always! Of course, Pete thinks I should probably not be driving. I’m seeing a doctor next week. See if they can really take my right to drive!”
Luke almost grunted. Great, one of the people they’d been waiting to talk to for days had admitted to having serious memory problems. Talk about unreliable witnesses.
“Is it all right if I ask you about something we were told about Leonardo?” Divya was still walking on eggshells around Bobby and giving Luke the evil stare.
“Sure, anything you need if it helps you find Leonardo. I love the boy.”
Luke rolled his eyes. Americans and their penchant for sentimentality.
Divya just ignored him and continued the interview with Bobby. “Do you remember anything about a meeting he was supposed to have with Supreme Video a couple of years ago, but that he didn’t attend?”
“A couple of years ago, you said? Uh, to be young and bright again!” Bobby breathed laboriously. “Let me get Pete. If there was a meeting he’ll know. He has one of those digital watchamacallit thingies where he puts all my appointments and my clients’ appointments.”
“A calendar?” Divya asked, patiently.
“No, but like an app for the computer,” Bobby specified and Luke doubted the man knew how a computer or an app really worked. “Pete,” the manager called, in a measured tone, “would you help us with something?”
There was some shuffling on the line. Luke and Divya couldn’t hear exactly what was being said but it sounded as if Bobby was talking to Pete.
“Hi, this is Pete,” a younger male voice finally said. “I’m Bobby’s assistant. We’re both on speaker at his home office. He’s instructed me to answer any of your questions. What do you want to know?”
“We’re trying to verify a story about Leonardo possibly missing a meeting with some executives at Supreme Video…” Divya explained.
“Ah, the infamous Supreme-Video-will-never-work-with-Leonardo-Pascual tale,” Pete said. “I don’t know who told you what but that never happened that way.”
“So what happened?”
“You sure you want me to tell them everything, Pops?” Pete asked the manager.
“Whatever helps them find Leonardo,” Bobby said.
Pete sighed. “So a couple of years ago Supreme Video was working on a super-secret project with Theo Summers.”
Theo Summers, where had Luke heard that name again? Divya was ahead of him. She pointed to some scrawling on her notepad:
Theo Summers, showrunner Bibliophilia (show LP exited)
“Some executives at Supreme Video called Bobby,” Pete continued. “Told him Theo liked Leonardo for the role but that they needed to vet him at the streamer first. Would he mind setting up a meeting so that they could talk to Leonardo and see what he was made of?”
Luke glared at Divya. This was yet another account about some events that had happened a couple of years before and were now told by someone who wasn’t even there but supposedly remembered things because he had a digital calendar for all of Bobby’s clients’ appointments?
Divya ignored Luke.
“What else happened?”
“Bobby talked to Leonardo, told him he didn’t like how the whole thing was being set up.
Leonardo agreed. At the time he’d just finished doing a play and wanted to take some time off before doing another play.
In hindsight, Bobby realized that he could have managed things a little bit better. But please don’t blame him.”
“Of course.” Divya was being way more reasonable than either Bobby or Pete deserved, in Luke’s opinion.
“You have to understand that Bobby is a very experienced manager. And he doesn’t approve of executives messing around with his clients,” Pete was pushing for empathy—for Bobby.
“In the end, there was some miscommunication. The executives thought Leonardo was going to meet them, while that promise had never been made. Leonardo called them afterward and apologized. There were no hard feelings. But of course there’s nothing Hollywood likes more than gossip… ”
“So the story about Bobby giving Supreme Video the wrong mobile phone number for Leonardo while he was tanning on a beach—”
“Did Jasper Fairbanks talk to you?” Pete interrupted her in a much harsher way than the polite and nice tone he’d been using until that moment.
Luke and Divya exchanged a look again. He shook his head. Let’s not tell Pete or Bobby anything, regardless of how innocent they sound.
“Why do you ask?” Divya avoided Pete’s direct question.
“I’m so sorry I came out a bit strong before,” Pete apologized. “Pops is staring at me with disappointment in his eyes. We take politeness extremely seriously at Lancaster and Associates.”
Luke clenched his jaw. Who the bloody hell were these people?
“And of course it’s none of my business who you talked to,” Pete continued. His voice stumbled. “But Jasper Fairbanks has been trashing Bobby all over town with fake tales about him, and it makes me angry.”
“I gather you don’t like Fairbanks?” Divya pried.
“I mean, Jasper is a total nepo baby but he still has lots of talent, I guess. Whatever, it would be ironic of me to criticize Jasper for being born into the business,” Pete continued.
The conversation was completely off the rails by that point. What was it that Divya had asked him last? Why was it that Sol wasn’t there with them again? The talk was turning into pure Hollywood lingo and she sure could have helped them with the translation.
“Pete, mate, I don’t think I follow you.” The Mancunian was getting tired.
“Well, you see. I’m Bobby’s grandkid.”
“Of course.” Divya breathed deeply. “Couple of questions and I promise I’ll get out of yours and your grandad’s hair. Do you know if Leonardo wanted to—pause his work relationship with Bobby?”
“Like fire him?” Temper edged Pete’s voice again. He was practically screaming. “Was that flipping Jasper Fairbanks as well? OMG I hate his guts!”
Divya’s eyes widened. Luke wasn’t sure whether he was about to start laughing or simply tell Pete to calm the bloody fuck down.
“I’m sorry again, Bobby is a bit disappointed with my attitude at the moment.
We don’t get upset at Lancaster and Associates.
” Pete breathed deeply a couple of times.
“But no, Leonardo is not going to fire Bobby. He’s always been clear he’ll stay at Lancaster and Associates.
He’s going to be one of my first clients when Bobby feels I’m ready to take the leap from assistant to manager. ”
It was Luke’s eyes widening now, his head cocking again. There was no way Leonardo wanted to stay at Lancaster and Associates with Pete as his manager.
“I see.” There was only the slightest pinch of hesitancy in Divya’s tone. “I assume what we were told about Bobby not wanting Leonardo to do The Single Dad Situation is also false?”
“No, I think that’s actually true,” Pete said. “You told him to skip the show, right, Pops?”
If that wasn’t leading the scatterbrained witness, Luke wasn’t sure what it was. Could they trust anything they were being told?
“I think I did,” Bobby hesitated. “I knew he’d be tired after all the theater plays. I think I told him to skip this show. He had a lot of other offers anyway. Could choose so many other things with a less tight starting date…”
“Are you disappointed he didn’t, Bobby?” Divya asked.
There was no hesitation this time. “Nonsense, from the beginning of our collaboration, Leonardo has been very single-minded. He’s proved me wrong on many occasions.”
Yet Leonardo stayed with Bobby until now? With a manager who couldn’t give good advice but took a percentage of everything Leonardo was getting paid for? These Hollywood people were either crazy or there was something else here that Luke and Divya weren’t seeing.
“Last question,” Divya said, seemingly also ready to finish the interview and start discussing its content with Luke. “This is something we’re asking everyone we’ve been talking to, do you have any idea of where Leonardo could be?”
There was some crackling on the line again and muted voices, as if Pete and Bobby were physically covering the phone while they talked among themselves.
It was Bobby’s voice to finally come over the phone: “I know I probably don’t sound like the most reliable of character witnesses, with my lost marbles and everything, but I fear something bad must have happened to the boy. ”
“Why do you think so?”
Bobby chuckled. “I know he sounds like a clichéd TV star: famous, rich, and entitled. But Leonardo is none of those things. And he’s had to work so hard to get where he is right now.
He’s only started to be able to pick and choose what he really wants to do after that pirates show at Meshflixx he did a couple years ago—and then he goes and voluntarily disappears when things are about to get even better?
It was me who told him not to do The Single Dad Situation so that he could have time off.
He told me no. But then he decides to take some vacation anyway? It just doesn’t make sense.”
Nothing in that bloody case did.