Not Suspicious in Hollywood: Not in Hollywood Book 5 (13 page)

Miss Betsy finished her conversation with
Ramos and came over to where Crystal and I were standing.

“She’s coming with us to the club,” she
said triumphantly.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“What club?” Crystal asked suspiciously.

Miss Betsy’s eyes twinkled. That should
have been my first clue.

“She’s grieving at a gun range. That is not
right and it is not healthy.”

I wasn’t really sure how dragging Ramos to
a club could be considered healthy either.

“And in answer to your question, Crystal,
we are going to a club that I go to with my gardening group for some drinks
after being in here. Just to finish off the day.”

Considering we were already in quite
possibly the most miserable bachelorette party ever, how much worse could it
get?

I
had to revisit that question as we stood
in the very out of the way club that Miss Betsy had brought us to. Megan, Sally
and Ramos had identical expressions on their faces. None of them wanted to be
here and they were making that very obvious to everyone around them.

“Miss Betsy,” the bartender called out her
name, waving us through.

Miss Betsy smiled and acknowledged several
greetings from staff and patrons. Why did it not surprise me that the bar where
everyone knew Miss Betsy’s name was one which had shirtless male waiters?

“I’m not sure if this is such a good idea,”
Crystal whispered in my ear.

“I think we lost the choice when you asked
Miss Betsy to organize this.”

“Lesson learned,” murmured Crystal.

“Bit late for Roxy though,” I said. “She
wanted a bonding experience with her new stepdaughters. I heard miserable
circumstances can bring people closer together.”

We looked at the four women who were now
seated around a table, studiously ignoring each other and us.

“I don’t think that’s going to work
tonight,” Crystal said.

I hoped Miss Betsy wasn’t feeling too badly
about the way the day was panning out. I don’t think she could have come up
with anything that these women would have been happy with. They seemed
determined not to enjoy themselves. I looked over to see Miss Betsy flirting
outrageously with one of the waiters. Seemed she was okay with it.

For the next hour I counted the minutes
until the world’s worst bachelorette party could finish. I kept glancing in
Ramos’s direction. After I did that for the hundredth time, she sighed heavily.

“What, Trudie?”

“I just want to make sure you’re okay,” I
said quietly.

“I’m stuck here trying to think of a polite
way to extricate myself without hurting your friend’s feelings, but other than
that I’m fine.”

I was surprised. I had assumed that Ramos
wouldn’t care that much about hurting Miss Betsy’s feelings. Obviously Miss
Betsy had endeared herself more to Ramos in a five minute conversation than I
had managed to do in the year we had known each other.

Miss Betsy came over to the group. “Well,
ladies, anyone interested in skydiving?”

That was one way to bring a bad
bachelorette party to a screeching halt. Megan and Sally almost broke a speed
record giving their excuses. Roxy smiled apologetically and followed the two
women out of the club.

“How about you three?” Miss Betsy asked
with a slightly fiendish look in her eyes.

“No,” chorused Crystal and I. Unlike Ramos
we had no compunction about saying no to Miss Betsy. We had known her too long
and been involved in too many of her schemes to blindly follow her lead.

“I think I’m going home,” announced Ramos.

“Maybe next time, dear,” Miss Betsy said
gently and I could actually see the steel exterior that Ramos presented to the
world melt at the compassion in Miss Betsy’s eyes.

“I’ll think about it,” she said. “It’s been
a while since I’ve been skydiving.”

I wasn’t surprised Ramos had already
tackled the whole jumping out of an airplane thing. In direct contrast, the
thought of doing it terrified me so much that I felt sick.

As we walked out of the bar, I noticed that
Ramos had stopped and was rummaging through her bag.

“Do you need a ride home?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No, I’m fine. I need
to go back in anyway. I think I left my phone at the bar. I must have taken it
out when I was paying for a drink.”

“I can help you look for it if you like.”

“No, Trudie,” she said firmly. “I’ll be
fine. I had it earlier so I know I only just put it down.”

“Okay,” I said awkwardly. What exactly did
you say to someone who blamed you for wrecking their life?

Ramos sighed. “I’m fine, Trudie. Really. I
just need some space to get my head back in the game.”

I nodded sharply. “I’ll see you later.”

I walked over to where Miss Betsy was
waiting for me. My eye was caught by a car that looked slightly familiar in the
darkened corner of the parking lot.

Miss Betsy looked over to me. “Do you
recognize that car?”

I should have known that she would be the
one to pick up on my concerns.

“I think I remember seeing it at the gun
range,” I said thoughtfully.

“And now it’s sitting outside a bar which
isn’t overly well known. It seems to be a bit of a coincidence, doesn’t it?”

I nodded, glancing back to where Crystal
had cornered Ramos who looked as if she was desperately trying to make her
getaway.

“Is there a reason for any of us to be
followed?” Miss Betsy lowered her voice as her brow furrowed.

“I have no idea,” I replied.

“One way to find out.”

I watched in horrified shock as Miss Betsy
strode purposefully over to the car. The engine started up and the car sped off
down the street. But not before I caught a glimpse of Marty Fletchall behind
the wheel.

Miss Betsy stood resolutely in the middle
of the parking lot, studying the fleeing car.

“Did you see him?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Any idea who it was.”

“He’s a cop who is working the murder of
Ramos’s girlfriend.”

“Do they think that poor, sweet girl had
something to do with her girlfriend’s death?”

I nodded. “There is a slight possibility
that they are following up on.”

Miss Betsy sighed. “People are so dumb
sometimes. Anyone could tell that she would never do anything like that.”

Miss Betsy had obviously decided to include
Ramos in her circle of protectees.

“I’ll talk to Griffin about it when I get
home tonight. He might be able to follow up and see what the hell is going on.”

I was beginning to feel annoyed and
protective on Ramos’s behalf. An emotion I was sure that she would be keen to
discourage.

Crystal, having finally released Ramos from
her social torture, walked up to us. “I’ve missed something, haven’t I?”

“We don’t know,” said Miss Betsy. “Maybe.
We need to check with Griffin first.”

“Like that doesn’t sound ominous,” said
Crystal.

The ride home was quiet as the three of us
were lost in our thoughts.

Miss Betsy broke the silence. “Well, that
was a truly unpleasant day.”

“That it was,” I agreed.

“It wasn’t anything you did,” Crystal was
quick to assure her. “I didn’t realize the level of animosity towards my mother
from John’s family.”

Miss Betsy shrugged. “I’m not worried about
it, sugar. Some people are just determined to be miserable. Wouldn’t want to be
in the groom’s shoes at the moment though. I think they will be having some
serious words before the wedding.”

“You want to come and see the fireworks?”
asked Crystal.

“Isn’t it a little late for an invitation?”
asked Miss Betsy.

“Unfortunately, it seems that a large
proportion of the groom’s side has decided to boycott the wedding. There are
seats available for the show. You can bring one of the guys from the club as a
date if you like.”

I hated to hear the defeat in Crystal’s
voice.

“What’s going on?” I asked gently.

Crystal turned to me. “I shouldn’t care how
this wedding goes. Roxy has completely ignored me my entire life and I’m caring
about the fact that some guy’s family is assuming that the ten time married
ex-showgirl is a bad bet in the marriage stakes. I want to defend her even
though I know that it is pretty much an impossible task. Why do I want to do that?”

“Because, despite many reasons not to be,
you are a good, forgiving person.”

Crystal slumped back in her seat. “That’s
just great.”

When I walked into my apartment I found
Griffin in the living room.

He turned off the television. “You’re home
a lot earlier than I was expecting.”

“It wasn’t really the raucous night that
most bachelorette parties are. We were a bit concerned that the stepdaughters-to-be
would do some serious damage to Roxy if we kept it going until everyone got too
drunk and started saying what they really thought about the situation.

“That good, huh?” Griffin said with a
grimace as I sat next to him on the couch.

“I think they are just being protective of
their dad. Roxy doesn’t exactly inspire confidence when it comes to marital
devotion. I’m guessing there have been many family discussions between those
two women and their father regarding his choice of bride.”

“But other than that, it was good?”

I frowned thoughtfully. “Good might be
overstating it. Tense and uncomfortable might be more accurate. And it didn’t
improve when Ramos joined us at the gun range.”

“You were at a gun range?” I could see
Griffin smiling.

“Yes, I was.”

“How did you do?”

“We established that shooting a handgun is
not one of my talents but, fortunately, I will always have my winning
personality to fall back on,” I said dryly.

Griffin laughed.

“And after the gun range we went to the bar
where Miss Betsy goes with her gardening club.”

Griffin quirked an eyebrow. “I know how you
work, Trudie. You said it that way because you are hoping that I will get the
impression that it was a tame night out but you forget that I know Miss Betsy.
Exactly what kind of bar was it?”

Foiled again.

“There were no strippers as such,” I said
in a rush.

“Oh, because that’s a great way to explain
a situation.”

“It was just a bar where the waiters were
shirtless. There was no touching or grinding or anything that could possibly be
construed as inappropriate.”

“Oh, well, that’s good to know,” Griffin
said with just a touch less sarcasm than I was expecting. “Wait a minute. Are
you saying that Ramos joined you?”

I nodded.

“Why on Earth would Ramos join Roxy’s
bachelorette party?”

“Miss Betsy saw her at the gun range and
felt that wasn’t a healthy way to deal with her grief.”

“I agree with her there but I wouldn’t have
thought that joining you lot would have been a much better way to deal with her
grief,” Griffin said.

“Quite possibly true,” I agreed. “But Miss
Betsy was pretty determined and you know how that usually goes.”

Ramos probably never stood a chance.

“How was she?” Griffin asked quietly.

“Surly, pissed off with the world.”

“So, normal?”

“Pretty much,” I agreed.

“Did she enjoy herself at all?”

I shook my head. “But in all fairness, I
don’t think anyone really enjoyed themselves today. I’m not really sure how the
wedding is going to be tomorrow, or whether it even goes ahead. John’s
daughters really do not want him marrying Roxy.”

“Guess we’ll see tomorrow,” Griffin said
thoughtfully.

We sat quietly for a moment.

“Can you give me a good reason for
Detective Fletchall sitting outside both the gun range and the club we went
to?”

I could feel Griffin tensing beside me. “He
may be following Ramos if he suspects she killed Jolena.”

“He wasn’t being very subtle about it. Both
Miss Betsy and I spotted him. He drove off when Miss Betsy went to confront
him.”

Griffin groaned. “Why would she do that?
Approaching a strange car that may be following you is not one of the smartest
moves a person can make. She does know that, doesn’t she?”

“Probably, but this is Miss Betsy we are
talking about. I wouldn’t put it past her to try to drag the guy out of his car
if he hadn’t driven off.”

My phone rang and I reached over to grab
it.

“Hello,” I said, frowning at the unfamiliar
number.

“Is this Trudie Eyre?” I tried to place the
slightly familiar voice.

“Yes. Who is this?”

“It’s Detective Desmond Pickett. I was
wondering if you could come down to the precinct.

“Why?” I asked suspiciously.

Pickett sighed. I could tell he was one of
those people who preferred it if you just accepted what they said blindly and
didn’t ask any questions. If that was the case, today was not going to be one
of his lucky days.

“I would appreciate your assistance with
some issues that have come to light regarding Jolena Aaron’s death.”

“Really?” I couldn’t help the suspicion in
my voice.

“Yes, a new line of inquiry has presented
itself and I just wanted to go over your evidence again. Make sure we haven’t
missed anything.”

“Now?”

“Yes, I would really appreciate it.”

I could tell that had been painful for him.
If I listened hard enough, I could hear him grinding his teeth. My experience
with Detective Pickett gave the indication that he wasn’t someone who would
easily ask for help, especially not from a civilian.

“I’ll come straight in,” I said before
turning off the phone.

“What’s going on?” Griffin asked, instantly
on alert.

“According to Detective Pickett they have a
new lead and he wants me to come in and go over my evidence again.

Griffin frowned. “That sounds strange. Did
he say why he wanted to see you in particular?”

I shook my head. “He didn’t give any
details. Just that he wanted to talk to me.”

Griffin grabbed his keys. “I’ll drive you
in.”

I hadn’t expected anything else.