Not Famous in Hollywood (Not in Hollywood Book 1) (11 page)

I wondered if that was before or after Adam
got her naked. Not my problem. I just had to get her into the car
and away from here before she decided to kick on through the night
and things really got out of control. I put my arm around her waist
and indicated to her entourage that they were finished for the
night. Grumbling ensued and I quirked my eyebrow at them. Hey look
it worked. Maybe I had learned something good from Griffin.
Speaking of which the detective was beside me.

“Is there something you need me to do?” he
asked as Eleanor listed against my side.

“Just clear the way for us and try to make
sure no one is taping this.” I swear the person who thought it was
a good idea to put cameras on phones is an idiot and every day I
hate them just that little bit more. These days everyone thinks
they can be a photojournalist and are just waiting for the shot
that is going to make them millions. At that moment Jorge
materialized on the other side of Eleanor and took some of the
weight from me. I smiled at him gratefully and he winked at me.

“
I’ll get her
home safe” he said as I pushed her into the back of the
limo.

“Thanks Jorge” I said as he got in.

“
She’
s going to the funeral
tomorrow” I let him know.

“
That’s not
good” Jorge said frowning.

“
Tell me
about it” I said. “I’ll contact her manager and tell him what’s
going on. Maybe he can talk her out of it.”

“Hope so” said Jorge getting into the car
while throwing a scowl in Griffin’s direction.

“
He really
doesn’t like me does he?” said Griffin as the car drove
off.

“
Doesn’
t look like it” I
said.

“You two dated?” Griffin asked.

“No, just worked together” I said.

As we settled in the car I remembered to ask.
“Where did you disappear to tonight?”

“Just went looking to find anything that
might be interesting” he said.

“
Did you find
what you were looking for?” I asked.

“
Not really”
he replied. “I saw some things that might interest the drug squad.
Found a lot of people in various stages of undress, but other than
that it seemed kind of tame.”

“Have you given any thought to the fact that
there might not be a new drug out there, that it just may be one of
those things?” I asked.

“
Look that
is
always a possibility” Griffin said.
“I’ve just got this gut feeling that Ryan Hendricks didn’t die from
natural causes. I really think this is the best way to find out
what actually killed him.”

“Okay” I said.

“Just okay” he said. “No ‘you’re a
blackmailing jerk who is trying to ruin my life’.”

“
Oh you are
that, but I have to agree with you. I think there is something
strange going on here. Ryan Hendricks was a health nut and he
treated his body like a temple. He trained hard, didn’t do drugs or
smoke. I don’t even think he drank alcohol. He was always spouting
that organic was the way to go. He seemed to be determined to live
forever.”

“See this is why I need you” Griffin said.
“This kind of information is something that nobody else has been
telling us.”

I looked at
him as he drove. He was a strong looking man, his hands on the
steering wheel controlled the truck with assuredness. He looked
good tonight. I’d been so mad at him I hadn’t even noticed but he’d
made an effort. He’d also made an effort with me. I hadn’t been in
the mood to appreciate that he’d been polite with me and opened
doors for me.

Quietly I said “look I understand why we are
doing this. You need to know that threatening me the way you did
scared me a lot. I’m in a place here where I’m happy. I have people
around me who I care about a lot. You threatened to rip me away
from that. I know my job may not seem important to you but I’m
proud of what I do. I’m having trouble getting past what you
did.”

By this stage
we’d pulled into the parking area of my apartment
complex.

Griffin turned around and looked at me. “I
understand and I am sorry that what I did scared you” he said.

He got out of
the truck and came around and opened the door for me. Silently he
walked me to the door of my apartment.

As I unlocked the door he said, “I’ll be at
the funeral tomorrow in my official capacity so I won’t be able to
take you.”

“That’s okay” I said. “I’ll be going with
Eleanor anyway. Just remember if there is a fight and I’m trying to
pull her off, please just leave me be, or tell me before you grab
me. I can’t afford another assault charge.”

He smiled as I ducked inside and closed the
door. Leaning against it I realized that I was no longer afraid of
Detective Griffin, but that smile and the way it made my stomach
flip. That smile was dangerous.

The next
morning the first thing I did was to contact Eleanor’s management
and try to put forward my case, in the strongest form possible,
that Eleanor attending Ryan Hendricks’s funeral was a disaster
waiting to happen. As usual though, Eleanor had made her decision
and there was nothing that anyone could do or say that would change
her mind. That was why I was standing at the church in black pants
and flat shoes, because if things went to hell I was prepared for
it. Eleanor, of course, was dressed in a wildly inappropriate deep
red dress which had a thigh split leaving very little to the
imagination.

“
It was
Ryan’s favorite dress on me” she would impart in a breathy whisper
to anyone who looked at her strangely. Today Eleanor’s manager and
publicist had also chosen to accompany her, in the hopes of
averting a repeat of the Bliss incident. In my opinion, considering
the dress she was wearing, I wasn’t holding my breath. Adam
Hendricks was dressed in a black suit, his face appropriately
somber. He was at the front of the church and appeared to be
consoling Emily Saunders who was leaning heavily on her sister
Jennifer. Jennifer looked drawn and seemed to be holding up Emily.
The tears streaming down Emily’s face seemed to have a devastating
effect on her sister and I could see Jennifer was whispering into
her ear throughout the service.

Adam
Hendricks gave a eulogy which leaned a little too heavily on how
much he had sacrificed so that his brother could shine. A little
self-serving for my tastes but in a town where even a funeral was
considered a networking event, it was pretty much standard. Keeping
Eleanor and Emily apart at the funeral was a lot easier than I
thought it was going to be and everyone made their way to Ryan
Hendricks’s house for the wake. Of course this was not the house he
had died in. No, that would have been tacky. This was Ryan’s main
house, the one used by tourist buses to point out the glamorous
lives that actors led. Adam was at the door greeting people as they
came in. It seemed he was running the show as Emily was nowhere to
be seen.

“How are you holding up Elly” he asked
solicitously as he hugged Eleanor for just a few moments too long
to be entirely appropriate.

“I’m trying to be strong” she sniffed
delicately, “but it’s so hard.”

She was also trying very hard not to slap
him. Calling Eleanor Channing, Elly, was considered a mortal sin
right up there with providing her with the wrong coffee.

“I know” Adam shook his head sorrowfully. “I
still keep expecting him to walk through the door and tell me it
was all simply a hoax.”

For a second
I stopped. Could it have been? I’d heard worse, but then I stopped
and realized, no, it wasn’t possible for it to be a hoax. I was
there. There was no way that Ryan Hendricks was still alive. I
hadn’t been that freaked out that day. Once I had managed to ensure
that Eleanor was sequestered in a corner with her manager and
publicist, I decided to look around and see what information I
could glean from the people attending the wake.

The best part
of my job is that I can wander around a party and no one realizes
that I’m even there. Some would call it slightly unethical. I just
call it being aware of my environment. Wallflowers get the best
information and sometimes that information could help me do my job.
Today though, most of the gossip was centered on the fact that Ryan
had been with Eleanor when he died. Cheating on your fiancée was
not necessarily considered to be a great sin. Dying while with the
other woman was considered to be a bit of a social faux
pas.

“
You look as
bored as I am” said Jennifer Saunders as she sidled up to
me.

“I’m here for work” I said.

“
I know the
feeling” she replied
.

I looked at her strangely.

“
Ryan was
Emily’
s fiancée” she said as if in
explanation. “I’m here as support for her.”

“Oh of course” I said. “I would have thought
your parents would be here too.”

“
No, Mom and
Dad weren’
t too keen on Ryan. They
thought he had a bit of a wild reputation and they didn’t really
think he was the right man for Emily.”

That was news. The media had been playing up
the whole blissful love story angle. I had just naturally assumed
the whole family was behind the marriage. I could understand their
concern though. Ryan was a bit of a wild man when it came to women.
There were movie sets where he had pretty much gone through the
entire female cast and some of the crew by the end of the shoot. If
I had a daughter I would slap her in a chastity belt before I let
her anywhere near Ryan Hendricks.

“
How’
s she holding up?” I
asked.

“
Pretty
devastated” Jennifer sighed. “I think she still can’t believe it. I
was hoping that if she threw herself into her work that might
help.”

I drew a
blank. I honestly didn’
t know what work
Emily Saunders did. I’d always thought she was some vacuous
socialite who lived off her trust fund but then look at Jennifer. I
probably assumed the same about her as well. I would never have
guessed in a million years that she had opened up a spa or wellness
center. Maybe I should look a little closer at my preconceptions.
Maybe I’d been working too long with these people and was getting
bitter. I mean look at Crystal. Before I became friends with her I
would have lumped her into the exact same category as Emily and
Jennifer. I looked at Jennifer with new found respect.

“
Anyway” she
said, “I should get going. Adam has told me he’ll take care of
Emily and I left my husband at home today. Josh has a tendency to
get so involved in his work that he forgets basic things, like
eating and showering.”

I smiled. That was nice and normal.

She gripped my hand. “Thank you, it was nice
talking to you.”

“It was good seeing you too” I said.

After
Jennifer left I found myself wandering through the house again.
Walking down one of the hallways I saw a door that looked
interesting and opened it. I froze. In that moment I did not know
where to look because I saw Emily Saunders backed up against the
wall, her legs wrapped around the hips of Adam Hendricks. Her head
was arched back and his pants were around his ankles. Sadly enough
this is not a new situation for me. My mother always said that I
have a curiosity gene that leads me to trouble, and a deficiency in
me that makes me follow that curiosity. In this town it meant that
I had come across quite a few people in this position before. I
heard people coming down the hallway and panicked. Trying to close
the door as quietly as possible I went to flee before getting
caught when a strong arm grabbed me around the waist. Before I knew
it I was pinned against the hallway wall and somebody’s mouth was
fastened to mine. My first instinct was to struggle but the lips
left my mouth and I heard Griffin whisper.

“It’s me. Just go with it.”

He returned to my lips and despite my shock I
started to realize that the man may be a jerk, but he could kiss. I
was feeling this kiss right down to my toes. Part of me put that
down to my very long dry spell since the last time that a man
kissed me. Griffin’s hands stroked up and down my side and then
settled on my hips. His lips left mine again and I tried to chase
them. He chuckled darkly as he started placing butterfly kisses
down my neck. I’m not proud of this fact but in that moment if he
had pulled me into a dark room I would have done whatever he asked
of me. Once again I am putting that moment of insanity down to my
long dry spell. The people in the hallway passed by and when they
were out of sight Griffin lifted his head.

“
They’
re gone” he said
softly.

“What” I said still dazed and looking at that
beautiful mouth which had just lit some major fires in me.

“
Sweetheart”
he said, “you gotta stop looking at me like that or I’m not going
to be responsible for what happens next.”

That snapped me out of it. The last thing I
needed was to complicate this situation even more than it already
was. I wrenched myself away and slapped a hand on his chest.

“What the hell was that for?” I asked
indignantly.

“
That was to
stop you from getting caught for the snooping you were doing.
Didn’t your mother ever tell you it was rude to go through people’s
houses, especially during a wake” he said.

“My mom kind of gave up on my manners when
she found out how curious I was and that I never listened” I
said.