Betrayal (12 page)

“There is a previous history here as well,” Meg went on, looking
slightly
apologetic. She could see how shaken Tallie was, and had known she would be. This was like being brought into the doctor’s office to be told you had cancer, instead of getting a phone call to say you had a clean test. There was nothing clean about this. Hunt had been cheating on her with this woman for a year. For an entire year, he had lied to her, and been sleeping with someone else. And in the photographs he looked happy and in love. And the girl was gorgeous and thirteen years younger than Tallie.

“In the course of our investigation, we were told that he had another involvement before this, with another woman. We have a full description of her, but no photographs. We can research it further if you like, but I don’t think it’s necessary. He also met her at the Chateau Marmont and Sunset Marquis several times a week during their involvement. He’s been a regular in both places for several years. The woman before this one was mid to late thirties, blond, very beautiful, very sexy, looks like an actress. They were involved for approximately three years, and her first name is Brigitte.”

As she said it, Tallie nearly threw up on the desk. She stared at Meg in disbelief and horror, as the investigator handed her a glass of water. Tallie took a sip and set it down on the desk, and looked at Meg blindly as she went on.

“It sounds like it was your assistant, from everything we heard about her.” It also explained the credit card charges Brigitte had signed several times at the two hotels until a year ago. Either she had been careless, or maybe she’d gotten to the hotel first, and since Tallie never looked at the bills, she had never expected her to see them, until Victor’s recent audit. And it had stopped a year ago
when
Hunt got involved with the other girl. And God only knew how many others there had been. “All our sources say that their affair stopped when he got involved with Miss Morissey, and supposedly Brigitte is very angry about it. In addition, although your assistant makes a great deal of money, she has a considerable amount of debt, her credit is not flawless, and you appear to be her only source of income. All of those records are not available to us since we’re not a government agency, but we saw nothing to suggest she gets money from her family. And she spends a
lot
. And she is currently having an affair with a young man named Tommy Apple, who is a minor actor in the movie you’re filming. She spent last weekend with him, and they’ve been together since filming started. It doesn’t sound like a serious affair.” She showed her several photographs of Brigitte with Tommy, which Tallie didn’t care about. What she cared about was that Hunt and Brigitte had betrayed her. And his three years with her and one year with this new woman meant that Hunt had cheated on her for all four years they were together. For the entire time, he had been seeing someone else, and Brigitte, the person she had trusted most in the world, had had an affair with her boyfriend for three years. They had both betrayed her totally. And as hurt as she was by Hunt, she was even more so by Brigitte. He had turned out to be just another asshole who was lying to her and cheating, Brigitte had been her best and closest friend for seventeen years, since they were barely more than kids. It was a blow she hadn’t expected and it hit her like a wrecking ball as she stared at Meg in disbelief.

“Are you sure?” Tallie said in a hoarse voice.

“I believe so. Our sources seemed very sure of what they were
saying.
The evidence seems to be pretty glaring.” She looked deeply regretful to be reporting it to Tallie, and she felt sincerely sorry for her. It was a terrible shock for Tallie. And even if the report of Hunt’s affair with Brigitte was wrong, which seemed unlikely, he was clearly involved with someone else now. She was thirteen years younger than Tallie, and he seemed to be deeply committed to her and her little boy. And all Tallie could think was that he was a cheater to the core, with no integrity or decency at all. And Brigitte was no better.

“I want to pursue another subject with you,” Meg said quietly. “The disappearing cash. I think that’s a very serious issue. I’d like to see you go to law enforcement with this. I think you need to pursue it before you lose more, and possibly you already have. We don’t have the access that a law enforcement agency has to investigate bank records and financial matters. I don’t think Hunter Lloyd is involved here, but you never know. It could be that several people are ripping you off, and not just one, or it could be a clever embezzler. You need to know. I’d like to see you investigate Hunter Lloyd further, just to be sure, your assistant Brigitte Parker, and your accountant Victor Carson. You just don’t know what people are capable of. And you’ve already had a loss of close to a million dollars,” Meg reminded her. “This is no small thing, and it could be a lot bigger than you already know.” This had been a double hit, a triple. Her boyfriend had cheated on her for four years, her best friend had betrayed her with him, and someone was stealing money from her, in vast amounts. Tallie wanted to lie down on the floor and sob, but she maintained her composure and listened to what Meg had to say.

“Who would I go to?” Tallie asked her, feeling lost.

“I’ve spoken to one of my previous colleagues at the FBI, without telling him your name of course. I refer cases to him from time to time. I explained the situation to him, and he’d like to talk to you. It could be that this isn’t a federal matter, there would have to be wire fraud involved, and bank fraud of some kind, but I suspect that’s very likely with someone stealing in these amounts. Twenty-five thousand dollars a month is a lot of money. I think you should talk to the FBI, and have them investigate it, if they’re willing. If not, you can go to the district attorney and the police, but I’d much rather see you in the hands of the FBI. I think they’ll pay much closer attention and get to the bottom of it faster. If you’d like, my ex-associate said he’d be happy to meet you anytime this weekend. I strongly urge you to do that, whatever else you do about the other issues involved.” She wrote down a name and cell phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to Tallie. “His name is Jim Kingston and he’ll be expecting your call,” she said gently. She could see how hard all of this had just been for Tallie. It was the worst she could have imagined, and not in a million years had she expected Brigitte to be involved with Hunt.

“What do I do now?”

“I would talk to Jim Kingston first, before you accuse your assistant. There may be some value in discretion and even stealth. He may want to do some investigation of her bank records before you alert her that she’s been caught, or is under suspicion, if it’s her. Ask for his advice. I think the matter is less sensitive and more awkward for you with Hunter Lloyd, given the situation. But in Brigitte’s case, I would be cautious and line up all your ducks
before
you accuse her. You don’t want to warn her and have her steal an even larger amount before she goes. And I wouldn’t discuss the money issues with Hunter Lloyd either, or your accountant. I hope you call Jim.”

“I will,” Tallie promised her, and meant it as she put the piece of paper in her purse, and then she just sat and stared at Meg for a minute. “Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say as she stood up. She felt completely disoriented and as though she were drowning.

“I’m sorry to give you such bad news.” It was what she hated most about her job. Finding the puzzle pieces and fitting them together was fascinating, but doing what she had just done to Tallie and seeing the look in her eyes made her heart ache, and Tallie looked like a nice woman. Greg Thomas, her attorney, had said she was. Meg stood up to walk Tallie out of her office then, and told her to call if she could be of any further help. Tallie nodded, barely able to say anything as Meg handed her the file. “We have copies of all of this. You might want this for your records.” Tallie clutched it to her with tears in her eyes. In it were the photographs of Hunt with the other woman, and the reports of their investigation and surveillance on him and Brigitte. Just having it was depressing. She wished she could throw it away and turn back the clock.

“Thank you very much,” Tallie said softly. “I’ll call the FBI man tonight.”

“I hope you do,” Meg encouraged her. “You really need to investigate this further.” Tallie nodded again, and left the office. She almost stumbled as she walked back to the car. All she could think
of
were the things that Meg had said to her, about Hunt, about Brigitte, about the young woman with the little boy. She couldn’t stop thinking of the photograph of him kissing her. She threw the file on the seat next to her, started the car, and drove away as she began to sob.

Chapter 8

TALLIE WAS PLANNING
to call the FBI agent when she got back to her house, but she was crying too hard. Hunt was out, the house was dark, and she just sat in the living room, clutching the investigation folder to her chest, and cried. She hated everything in it, and everything Meg had told her. But she couldn’t run away from it now. She opened the folder after a few minutes and looked at the photographs again as she continued to cry. She looked at the one of him kissing Angela Morissey and holding her little boy’s hand at the zoo, only six days before. She felt as though her whole life had come down like a house of cards.

She was still sitting in the dark, when Hunt came home an hour later. He had a bag of groceries in his arms, and walked into the kitchen without noticing Tallie in the dark. She stood up and followed him into the kitchen like a ghost, and he gave a start when he saw her. She looked ravaged as she stood watching him. She still had the folder in her arms.

“Are you still sick? Poor baby, you look awful. You should be in
bed.
I’ll make you some soup,” he said. He was in good spirits, and she didn’t even want to try to imagine why. God only knew what he’d been doing before he came home. She wondered why he even bothered if Angela was telling people they were getting married and he was spending every free night with her. She realized now that all the times he had told her he had been with their Japanese investor, it probably wasn’t true. Their whole life together was a lie. He probably hadn’t stolen her money, but he had broken her heart. “Are you okay?” The look on her face scared him. She looked as though she had drifted in from another world, like a ghost. She looked transparent she was so pale.

Without saying a word, she took one of the photographs out of the folder and held it up to him. He glanced at it, wondering what it was, and then his eyes widened, and he stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her. He looked as though he was about to faint, which was how Tallie felt too.

“Nice tennis game you had last weekend,” she said softly, as his eyes met hers.

“Why did you do that?” he asked her, visibly near tears himself as she started to cry again. “You didn’t have to do that. I would have told you if you’d asked me.”

“I didn’t know until I saw this. I had to have you followed to find out. She says you’re getting married. Are you?” He didn’t answer for a long moment.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing. I never meant for it to happen. I felt sorry for her. I tried to help her. She wound up in the hospital when her husband beat her up. And then somehow I got involved … Tallie, I love you both. I love everything about our
life
together, and our work … but she’s a sweet girl and she needs me.” He sounded pathetic as she listened, and weak, as he made excuses for what he’d done. It was all so predictable, and so sad.

“I need you too,” she said as she cried.

He took a breath then and decided to say it all. He had been putting the groceries away and the refrigerator was still standing open as Hunt and Tallie looked at each other.

“She just found out she’s pregnant. That complicates things even more.” It was so ridiculous, like a bad soap opera, but it still didn’t explain what he’d done before with Brigitte.

“What about Brigitte? Did she need you too?” Tallie’s eyes grew hard as they bored into his, and he gave a groan.

“Oh my God. Did she tell you?”

“No. She lied too. You both did. For three years.”

“You were on location. She was helping me get organized a few months after we started, before I moved in, when I was staying here one weekend. I thought it was very nice of her to help. We drank a lot of wine one night, and don’t ask me how, but I wound up in bed with her, which was the dumbest thing I ever did. I talked to her about it the next day, and she wouldn’t let me off the hook. She blackmailed me and said that if I tried to get out of it, she would tell you. I was in love with you, and I didn’t want to lose you. For three miserable years I let her threaten me into meeting her twice a week. They were the worst three years of my life. I never loved her. I just didn’t know how to get out of it without blowing my life apart. She kept threatening me that she’d tell you if I stopped. And then Angela came along, and somehow I got out of it with Brigitte, and I called her bluff. But I fell in love with
Angela,
and now I love you both. I don’t blame you if you hate me, but honestly, Tallie, I love you and I don’t know what to do.” She had never seen anyone unravel as quickly as he did. But there was no excuse for what he’d done with Angela or Brigitte, even if what he said about her assistant was true. After all that she had learned that afternoon, anything was possible now. But if what he said was correct, he’d slept with Brigitte almost right from the beginning of his affair with Tallie.

“Will you give Angela up?” Tallie asked him in a strong, clear voice that surprised them both, and he stood there staring at her with a devastated expression, unable to answer.