Only a Hollywood Detective Could #3
Bex’s eyebrows rose nearly to her hairline. “Where she talked about it in the sense of her feelings, or more in the sense of what happened?”
“More in the sense of whose fault it was, ethically, morally, and legally. She wanted to put pressure on the authorities to reopen Juliette’s case.”
It was an elegant plan. All that valuable old footage resurrected from the archives?
Recut, released with the power of Tom Kessler behind it?
With Ramona’s new interview as the headline-grabbing bombshell?
The effect would be powerful. Even if it didn’t put Chad and Sloan behind bars, it would have destroyed their reputations and ended their careers.
That was motive.
“We didn’t tell a soul,” Archie said. “I didn’t even tell Jasmine.
Only Ramona and I knew what we’d planned.
We had the interview set up for this week.
My first thought when I got that phone call Friday morning was that if Chad had decided to pay a lawyer a pile of money to sink what Ramona had to say, it was because Ramona must have told him she was finally going to say it.
I sure as hell hadn’t. And goddamn her, I’m not surprised, because she has integrity.
It would have been important to her to give those two at least a general idea of what she planned on doing.
Her empathy is limitless.” He frowned. “But the courier didn’t show up, did he?
Instead, Sloan took a gun to work. I’d say he and Chad were scared shitless. Is that motive enough for you?”
The coffee maker had stopped. Jasmine went into the kitchen and poured coffee into mugs. She set them down in front of all three of them, and one for her, along with a carton of cream and a sugar bowl.
Sam fixed her coffee light and sweet while Jasmine retrieved a plate of pecan rolls and moved into a seat next to Archie.
She put her arm around him and pressed a cheek to his temple.
“Will you give us the information for the hospital that’s taking care of Ramona?
” she asked. “I’m sure we’ll want to head over there as soon as we can get someone here for the kids. ”
“Of course.” Sam took a roll. None of them spoke while they ate the early breakfast.
It made Sam think about how her father’s main strategy, when Sam felt bad and he didn’t know what to do, had been to bring her something sweet.
A popsicle, the baklava he loved, a cold soda.
Because his whole job was fixing the teeth that sugar ruined, it was a concession of such a high order, Sam had understood what it meant even when she was little.
I recognize your feelings are huge and valid and hard, even if this is all I have to offer. I hope you feel better soon.
Sam hoped they would all feel better soon.
But this long night was far from over.
Bex and Sam stood on a granite-tiled patio, arranged with teak furniture, toward the back of the Swan’s property. They’d texted back and forth with Vic on the drive from Encino. She and Piper had everything under control. Christian had come through for them. Both Chad and Sloan were in the house.
The trap was baited and set.
But now that Sam had good food in her system and coffee lighting up the corners of her brain with something other than adrenaline, she had a serious case of stage fright.
“We’ve been all over this town in the last couple of days.” Bex was looking out at the lights of Los Angeles below them, pulsing and glittering gold. The weather had been clearing by the minute, and the early-hour view was breathtaking, the moonset making racing clouds glow.
“From here, the 101 doesn’t look so bad,” Sam admitted.
“From Beverly Hills, there isn’t anything about Los Angeles that looks bad. Such a vibrant, creative town, and yet a handful of people keep trying to ruin it.”
“But that just means even more people keep trying to make it work. I know it’s hard to remember sometimes, but it’s true.” Sam slid her arm around Bex, remembering that standing close to her had always been the best stage-fright remedy.
Her favorite actor. Her favorite person.
There was no one she’d rather solve a crime with.
“You’re all right, Samantha Farmer.” Bex tipped her face up and smiled. The blond wig suited her, but then again, Sam couldn’t imagine anything that wouldn’t. It would be lovely to see how gray hair made this woman beautiful someday.
Sam leaned down, meaning only to kiss her forehead, but Bex rose on her toes, offering her mouth, so Sam really kissed her. It made her warm all over. It made her glad. It made her a little horny, also, but mostly it made her realize she could do this.
She had her Bex.
Bex eased away and kissed Sam’s nose. “Are you ready to hear the plan?”
“Lay it out, Bexley.”
“We’re ready to hear it, too.” Sam and Bex jumped at the sound of Fergus’s voice. When they turned, Sam saw her brother on the patio with Frankie, Vic, and Piper beside him.
Their support team. Their family.
“We got Logan handed off to the LAPD. It’s up to him now.” Fergus rolled his shoulders. “We came out to make sure we had our orders.”
“Christian has a handle on things inside,” Piper said. “He’s ready when you are.”
“What did you get from Archie?” Vic asked.
“Motive,” Bex declared. “Archie believes Ramona must have told Chad and Sloan that she planned to film a new part of the documentary. She was going to let the world know what they did to Juliette. She hoped it would reopen the investigation.”
“They were worried about going to prison, so they decided to kill Ramona?” Vic rolled her eyes. “I’m not impressed with the logic.”
“Not quite,” Sam said. “I think it’s more that when people do something that works, that’s the way they keep doing it until it stops working. It’s the reason why, when Chad needs to cry on camera, he always thinks about his dog dying. Because it works.”
“Or why Bradley Wilhite makes people come to his ridiculous ranch in Colorado before he starts a project,” Bex suggested with a wry smile. “He’s successful. He thinks the way he does things is what made him successful. That’s why he makes people follow the same script he always follows.”
“Right.” Sam smiled at Bex as she made a mental note to figure out what to do about Theomina, Bradley Wilhite, and Colorado as soon as they got to the bottom of this murder attempt.
The to-do list really got long when you were on a case.
“Chad and Sloan’s script is to isolate and attack.
They invited Juliette, and Juliette only, onto that boat.
But Ramona came. To carry on with whatever their plan was, they had to get rid of Ramona.
They incapacitated her so Juliette would be isolated with them. ”
“Wait, do you think they planned on killing Juliette?” Frankie asked.
“I’m not sure, but they wanted something. Whether that was Juliette alone in a location hard to leave with drugs in her system, or murder to satisfy some other end, we may never know. But my point is, it worked, at least in the sense that they never got caught.”
“So they stuck to the script,” Bex said. “Isolate and attack.”
“Yes. We can assume they had a plan to isolate Ramona on location. As for what happened when the three of them were alone, that’s what we want to find out next.”
“They’ll lie,” Bex warned. “They did last time. They said Ramona was drunk. They told her she slipped and hit her head, and passed out. We can expect them to blame Ramona the same way they blamed Juliette.”
“Yeah, and I don’t love that Chad knows Macie talked to us and that we’ve been asking questions. But they don’t know Ramona’s been found, probably. All we can do is try to use what we know to discover if either one of them or both had an opportunity to isolate Ramona for long enough to shoot her.”
“And there’s Christian,” Bex said. “They don’t know his allegiance, which could be a big help. They still want his money. But it is a gamble. We could be walking into a trap that Christian turned our trap into.”
“I don’t think so,” Piper offered. “I’ve been watching him. Chad and Sloan treat him like a dumb younger brother, but he’s got the upper hand. I’m starting to think he might be a good actor.”
“Let’s not be hasty,” Bex said. “His hair does most of the acting.”
“Yeah, but his hair is fucking amazing,” Fergus said. “It’s aging like a diva.”
“Oh! That reminds me,” Piper said. “I told Vic that Ramona was being a diva when Chad and Sloan were on the set. I take it back. It’s true she didn’t go out of her way to be nice to them.
If one of them made a joke, she would be the only one who didn’t laugh.
She didn’t even come out of her dressing room except for when she had to.
But now that I know they killed her friend, I would say she was being incredibly restrained.
When this is over, I’m going to make sure every last one of the cast, crew, puppeteers, catering, everyone, makes statements about what they saw and heard.
This isn’t going down like with the Craven’s Daughter stuff. That was olden times.”
“It was six years ago,” Sam said, amused.
“Well, this is now. Now, these studios know we stick up for each other. If they don’t know, they’re about to find out.”
Vic gave Piper a giant hug.
Piper squeezed Vic, then looked at Fergus.
“I told my security guy what’s up. He screened Chad and Sloan when they arrived, all official, so we know nobody has a weapon.
He also got the detective’s contact information from Macie, and he has other people he’s reached out to in order to give them the heads up.
He promised me he can get the sirens here when and if we need them. ”
“Good to know,” Sam said.
“Oh! And Christian’s phone is clean,” Piper added.
“Well, not clean, but clean in the sense he hasn’t been threatening Ramona or anyone else.
There are a lot of half-written apology texts to his ex in the Notes app and about a thousand soppy animal videos.
The man needs professional help. I’m going to give him the name of my therapist.”
“Are we ready for the final battle?” Fergus asked.
Sam grabbed Bex’s hand. “We are ready for absolutely anything that comes next.”