Chapter 15 When We See Ramona Watts #2
“Because I have information you need that you can’t get from anybody else.
And because if you report me to the police, it will cause a detonation on every media platform within an hour.
That would mean you had to step aside while other people try to find Ramona.
People who don’t know any of the things you know.
People who might fail to take Ramona’s absence seriously enough to get to her in time. ”
Bex pointed emphatically at the PI, jostling the umbrella and sending an ice-cold rivulet of rainwater down the back of Sam’s neck. “I do not like you.”
“You don’t have to like me to find out what I know. But at this moment I am bound by my existing contract.”
Cold water had begun soaking through the leather soles of Sam’s boots.
“Even if we buy out your contract, we have no guarantee you wouldn’t share everything about us with your client,” she said.
“Or that you even have this other client and aren’t just in this for yourself.
Or that you would tell us anything useful! ”
“True. You don’t know. You can’t.” Ashleigh inspected her manicure, a bright red that matched both her lips and her umbrella.
“How much?” Bex asked.
Sam turned to her in surprise. “For real?”
“Believe me, I know,” Bex said. “I don’t like this any more than you do.
But we’re on a critical timeline, and I only care about Ramona at the moment.
Ashleigh gave us useful information about Star Spy before.
Maybe she’ll tell us something that helps.
Even if she doesn’t and it turns out we’re paying her to go away, as long as we get a receipt, we have a case for a restraining order if she pops up again. ”
Sam sighed. She turned back to Ashleigh. “How much.”
Ashleigh cheerfully named her number.
“Fuck me!” Sam shouted. “There is no way anyone is paying you that much to follow people around.”
“A reductive description of what I do.”
Bex already had her phone out. “Venmo? CashApp? Some kind of creepy gray web app that only traitors use?”
“Bank transfer. I’ll text you the invoice and my paperwork that makes it clear what I can and cannot do, should you need it for the judge.”
Sam held the umbrella while Ashleigh and Bex manipulated their phones.
Finally, Ashleigh got a notification that Bex’s payment had gone through.
The PI made a phone call. “Good morning!” she said cheerfully.
“I regret to inform you that we’re done.
My final invoice and contract cancellation are already in your inbox. ”
She hung up, interrupting indistinct male shouting coming from the other end.
“Now, then,” she said. “You’re welcome to record what I’m about to tell you. I’ll follow up with a written report.”
She waited for Bex to open a voice note and begin recording. “Okay, go ahead,” Bex said. Sam held the umbrella, feeling useless.
“Sloan Lennox left his loft in Koreatown at seven fifteen this morning. He made his way straight to Leading Edge Artists Agency, didn’t pass go, not even for a coffee, didn’t seem to be on his phone, smoked out his window the whole time.”
“Is he represented by Leading Edge?” Sam asked.
“He is,” Ashleigh confirmed. “One of the staffers in the pool that assists Sloan’s agent happens to be one of my paid informants.”
“For real?” Bex asked. “You have a mole.”
Sam had to admit that was impressive. She admitted it to herself. Not to Ashleigh.
“I do, and so I can share with you what I learned from this person,” Ashleigh said.
“For a while now, Sloan has been positioning himself for a career reboot. He’s got new representation.
His agent took a risk and reached out to Chad’s people with the idea that Sloan would gain maximum visibility by cashing in on old associations. ”
Not a surprising plan and also not a bad one.
The association between Chad and Sloan had been enough to arrest Sam’s attention in the studio parking garage, had captivated Bex when Sam told her about it, and had then become the subject of their reunion dinner conversation with Vic. Audiences would be similarly engrossed.
“Chad was interested, but he had conditions,” Ashleigh said.
“He’s in a good position right now. Theomina’s got an unproblematic dream cast, including you, Sam.
Huge budget. Being in a dragon-riding fantasy is good for his brand.
It’s going to introduce his face to a new audience.
With that in his pocket, does Chad want to be reconnected to Sloan and the Ice Crew again?
After Juliette died, it was a bad deal for Chad to be associated.
On the other hand, now it’s retro. He gets points for knowing the beautiful dead girl. ”
“That is revolting,” Bex said.
It was. But to Sam’s mind, it tracked. Chad liked to talk about how easy it was to lose a good reputation.
He’d made Sam’s agent do a sit-down with his agent before Theomina so that he could be reassured that the press around Bex and Sam’s solving Jen Arnot’s murder was positive and wouldn’t “curdle” on him.
“Chad wants to build on Theomina to fully produce and star in a project from his new company. It’s a sci-fi picture.
Eight novels, and he has an exclusive license to the IP.
The story centers around two rival space pirates who are forced to buddy up to fight some greater evil.
Chad’s costar isn’t cast yet. If Sloan landed such a big studio project, it would be a coup for him. ”
A gust of wind blew up from the canyon. Sam shivered. “You’re telling us The Howling guest spot was a soft launch of Chad and Sloan working together. To see how it landed.”
“Yes. If it lands well, Sloan’s casting in Chad’s movie will be greenlit.”
“That makes Sloan dependent on Chad’s career decisions,” Bex said. “Not a good position to be in.”
Ashleigh leaned closer. “Right now is a moment made of the thinnest glass for Sloan, and of outsized power for Chad. Sloan can’t do anything that would remove him from Chad’s good graces.
But if Sloan pulls it off, we could be watching the two of them pilot a space pirate ship alongside a revolving cast of female costars for years to come. ”
Sam reached back and gathered her wet hair, squeezing it out in her fists as she tried to prevent her thoughts from flying off in a million different directions. “Sloan is a lot more interested in a comeback than we’ve been led to believe.”
“Honey, in this town, everybody’s either at the top of their game or trying to come back.
If Sloan didn’t still want to be famous, he wouldn’t be in L.A.
He wants a blockbuster. He wants the excited whispers to break out when he enters a room, the cameras following him wherever he goes, the endless media takes.
All eyes on him. Why do you think he wore a fedora and sunglasses?
He wants Sloan Lennox to be a brand that no one can say no to.
The problem is, he’s never been blockbuster material. According to my former client—”
“Chad,” Sam interrupted.
Ashleigh finally acknowledged the relationship with an incline of her head and a conspiratorial smile.
“According to Chad, Sloan feels that age is on his side. He’s no longer an idiosyncratic-looking youth best suited for playing the wry outcast the girl doesn’t pick.
The camera transforms all the crow’s feet and snowy temples into a sly silver fox. ”
“Imagine age being on your side.” Bex snorted. “I was recently told I was too old to play a thirty-eight-year-old. I am a thirty-eight-year-old.”
“And Sloan’s an egomaniac whose only shot at fame rests in Chad’s hands,” Sam said. “Fine. But how does all of this help us find Ramona?”
“Oh, sweet summer children, you will learn this trade in time. Chad hired me after you clocked him and Sloan in the studio lot. He needed to know how much you knew and what you would do with it.”
“What does that mean?”
Ashleigh slowed down her words as if she were speaking to a small child. “You saw them together. No one had seen them together in the wild for many years.”
“We were on the top deck of a secure studio parking lot.”
“In Chad’s head, this was a momentous breach in security.
What would you do with this information?
How would it ruin everything for him? This is how Chad thinks.
By that time, Macie had likely called him to ask if he’d seen Ramona—or if she hadn’t, Sloan had.
Did you know anything about that? Chad was aware you’d worked with Macie before.
Would you leak something or, God forbid, ‘go all fucking Harriet the Spy’ on him—direct quote.
These were the thoughts in his head when he hired me to follow you.
Macie went to your house, and from there to Bexley’s.
Chad blew at least three gaskets. He felt the situation was getting out of his control. ”
That made sense to Sam. She’d witnessed Chad overreacting to any number of situations he believed were getting out of his control.
“Men with overwrought reactions make me curious,” Ashleigh continued.
“So I let you see me while giving him reports on your movements that suggest, yes, the two of you are going all Harriet the Spy. From this moment on, he knows nothing more, but he certainly is aware that you’re on a road that leads to, among many other places, Encino. ”
“Does he care?” Sam asked. “Does he want us to find Ramona?”