Not Suspicious in Hollywood: Not in Hollywood Book 5 (2 page)

Back at my apartment, I quickly divested
myself of the goat infested clothing and had a quick shower. This was the first
time that Griffin was taking me to one of the social events that the cops at
the station sometimes held and I really wanted to make a good impression. While
I was getting dressed I heard a key in my apartment door.

“You ready?” called out Griffin.

“Not yet,” I called back, trying to get my
hair into some style which looked like I put some effort into it.

Griffin came up behind me, wrapped his arms
around my waist and kissed my neck.

“You look ready to me,” he said.

I leaned back into him, enjoying the
moment.

“I don’t want to embarrass myself or you,”
I murmured, my eyes suddenly unable to meet his in the mirror.

I knew that pretty much all of the people
that Griffin worked with were aware of my unfortunate habit of ending up at
crime scenes. I also knew that cops being cops, he had been on the receiving
end of quite a lot of ribbing from his coworkers, some of it good-natured, some
of it not so much.

Griffin turned me around and held my
shoulders. He tipped my chin upwards until I was looking deeply into his
beautiful green eyes.

“I am proud to have you with me. I love you
and I don’t care what the others say.” He touched his lips gently against mine.

When he lifted his head I smiled back at
him.

“What are they saying about me?” I asked.

Griffin rolled his eyes and turned me back
to the mirror.

“Finish getting ready. We’re going to be
late.”

I was still not feeling comfortable when
Griffin and I arrived at the barbecue. I knew it was something that cops did, getting
together to wind down after some tough times. I just wasn’t sure why I had to
go.

“Relax.” Griffin put his hand on my knee
and squeezed. “You’ve met most of the people you are going to be seeing today.”

“At crime scenes,” I bit out.

I had no illusions about my reputation for
discovering dead bodies. Jorge was only too pleased to inform me that the main
reason he was the only security person that Monique could get to work with me
was because the others were too scared. Griffin’s partner, Detective Liza
Ramos, was also quite willing to inform me of the stories that made their way
around the station. My notoriety and Griffin’s willingness to still keep seeing
me despite the perceived increased risk of death, did only good things for his
reputation.

“You’ll be fine,” Griffin assured me.

I wished I had his confidence. Even with
Griffin standing next to me with his arm flung carelessly around my shoulder, I
still felt self-conscious.

“You remember Lieutenant Ellis, don’t you,
Trudie?” asked Griffin.

I nodded but the lieutenant had that
expression which meant that he had no idea who I was. Fortunately, Griffin saw
that too.

“Lieutenant, this is my girlfriend, Trudie.
She helped us on the Eleanor Channing case.”

Of course that was a nice way of saying it.
The truth was a little more colorful. It included me being blackmailed for my
help when Griffin threatened to have me deported after I accidentally elbowed him
in the face. If I thought about it too hard it was a rather worrying start to a
relationship.

Recognition bloomed on the lieutenant’s
face but I should have realized that it wasn’t for me.

“I remember you,” he said, smiling.
“Interesting case that one.”

He paused for a moment and I knew where he
was going next.

“Your boss,” mentioned the lieutenant with
that glazed look in his eyes that I was used to seeing when men were talking
about Monique. “Lovely woman.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “Her husband definitely
thinks so.”

And there was that crestfallen look again.
Sometimes it felt like I was kicking puppies when I broke these men’s hearts.

“She’s married?” he asked, vainly hoping he
had misheard me.

I nodded again. “Yes, to Reggie Goodman,
the lawyer that was with us in the office that day.”

“Who?”

Griffin’s lieutenant looked perplexed and
in some ways I couldn’t blame him. When Monique was in the room she seemed to
pull all the attention towards her. The rest of us mere mortals were ignored. I
was used to it.

Lieutenant Ellis wandered off, his
shoulders slumped as if the light had been sucked out of his life.

“You had to break his heart, didn’t you?”
murmured Griffin.

I snorted. “Monique would have chewed him
up and spit him out. The only man alive who can handle her is the one she is
married to.”

“True,” said Griffin.

“So, Griffin, you finally decided to bring
her,” said a voice from behind us.

Aah, I knew those dulcet tones.

“Detective Ramos,” I said as I turned
around. “Always a pleasure.”

“More so for you than me,” said Ramos,
smiling.

How I enjoyed these moments. I was
surprised to see that Ramos was holding hands with a beautiful woman.

“This is Jolena, my girlfriend,” said Ramos
proudly and I could see why she was. Between Jolena’s blonde angelic features
and Ramos’s striking darker coloring, the two of them looked incredibly
compelling and drew attention from everybody at the party.

“Jolena, this is my partner, Jake Griffin,
and his girlfriend, Trudie,” Ramos said.

“Pleased to meet you finally,” said
Griffin. “Believe me, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“All good things I hope,” said Jolena,
smiling as she gazed adoringly up at Ramos.

“How long have you been together?” I asked,
hoping my voice was holding steady.

“A couple of months,” said Ramos, looking
happier than I had ever seen her.

I went quiet, hoping nobody would notice.
While Griffin, Jolena and Ramos kept talking, I stayed silent, hoping to be as
unobtrusive as possible. I lowered my eyes as I pressed into Griffin’s side,
smiling when required but other than that using my ability to blend into the
background to as good effect as I could. As soon as I was able to discreetly
withdraw I wandered away from the group and found other people to talk to.

At the end of the night I sat quietly in
the car as Griffin drove us back to my apartment. I could feel Griffin looking
at me curiously but he didn’t push. I knew he would. I didn’t think my behavior
had gone unnoticed and Griffin knew me too well to let it go. To give him
credit he waited until we were back at my apartment.

“What’s wrong with you?” Griffin asked.
“You’ve been acting strange ever since the barbecue.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me Ramos was
gay?” I asked quietly.

Griffin shrugged. “It didn’t matter I
guess. I’m more interested in the fact the woman can shoot on target every
single time. What she does in her personal life is really none of my business.”
He paused for a moment. “Do you have a problem with her being gay?”

“No,” I said, turning around and busying
myself with some cups. “Do you want a coffee?”

“Stop,” growled Griffin. “Something is
going on here and I need to know about it.”

“It’s nothing,” I said. “I just thought… No,
actually, you’re right. Ramos’s relationship is completely none of our
business.”

Griffin stood up, put his hands gently on
my shoulders and turned me around. “Something is bothering you. I can’t fix it
if you don’t tell me what the problem is.”

“You can’t fix this anyway,” I said
quietly. “If you know, it is going to cause problems and I don’t want to do
that to you.”

“Just tell me,” said Griffin patiently as
he stroked strands of hair away from my face.

“I’ve met Ramos’s girlfriend before,” I
said guardedly, watching his eyes.

“Go on.”

“To be perfectly honest I’ve had security
pull her out of the bed of one of the guys in the band when a threesome went a
little too wild.” I said it quickly, hoping the impact would be lessened.

“Hell,” said Griffin.

I nodded in total agreement.

“Do you think she recognized you?” he
asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “She was pretty out
of it and hysterical. I stayed back because some of these women have done so
much to end up with these guys that they can get violent if they are denied.
It’s one of the reasons that Monique insisted that Jorge do this job with me.
She knows that he would quite happily throw the clients under the bus to
protect me. I know Jolena fought Jorge so hard that he had difficulty
restraining her without hurting her.”

“Did you call the cops?” Griffin asked.

“Of course we didn’t call the cops,” I
said. “You’ve met the people I work with. Unless there was the threat of
imminent death, there is no way that they would call the cops for anything.”

“How long ago was this?” asked Griffin.

“Three days,” I said. “The way Ramos was
talking, she seems to think they are exclusive.”

Griffin wiped his hand over his face. “How
the hell am I supposed to deal with this?” he asked. “Ramos and I have very
definite boundaries. We do not talk about private stuff. Work, sports, current
affairs, and how much of an idiot the lieutenant is, pretty much covers our
daily conversations. That and what other harebrained situation you’ve got
yourself into. If I tell her about this it could affect our work.”

I realized he was under some pressure so
for the moment I was going to ignore the harebrained comment.

“If it was me cheating on you and Ramos
found out, would you want her to tell you?” I asked.

I saw Griffin’s features tighten and
wondered if that was the best question I could have brought to his attention.

He nodded slowly. “I would hate that she
knew and I would be angry at her for telling me, but I would never want to be
made to feel like a fool. I would be mad if she told me but if I found out
later that she knew and didn’t tell me, I would be furious.”

“Then I guess you need to work out what is
best for Ramos,” I said. I looped my arms around him. “I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for?” asked Griffin.
“You aren’t the one who cheated on Ramos and put me in this lousy position.”

“True,” I said. “I’m sorry because this is
a messed up situation to be in. Nobody ever wants to have this information
about a friend. There are usually no winners when you tell someone their
partner is cheating on them.”

“Out of curiosity, which of the guys was
Jolena sleeping with?” asked Griffin.

“Ash,” I said.

Griffin nodded and from what I had already
told him about Ash, I didn’t think he was surprised. Ash Weston was the lead
singer of Crispy Spider. While I had grown fond of the other members of the
band, I usually kept my distance from Ash. He had an edge to him which gave me
a bad feeling and I was a great believer in listening to those instincts. I
might not always follow them but at least I gave them a good hearing.

The next morning, as I pulled up to the
mansion, I wondered how Griffin was going to deal with Ramos and Jolena. When
he had left my apartment earlier, he had seemed preoccupied, unsure as to what
his next step should be. I did not envy him. Walking around the side of the
house, I pulled up short when I found Ash leaning against a pillar, looking
intently into an empty goat pen.

“Morning, Ash. Where’s Buddy?”

Ash looked me over and put a cigarette he
had been smoking to his mouth. Unlike most musicians that I dealt with, Ash
didn’t mind the damage that smoking did to his vocal cords. In fact he thought
they gave his voice a raspy quality which improved his music.

“Who’s Buddy?” he asked, those piercing
blue eyes of his now focusing straight on me.

“The goat,” I said. “Vale named the goat,
Buddy. You know, after Buddy Rich.”

Ash laughed humorlessly. “Everything has to
mean something to Vale, doesn’t it?” he said.

I didn’t say anything. I actually found
that to be one of Vale’s more endearing qualities. He looked deeper than other
people into situations.

“Do you know where he is?” I asked.

Ash shrugged. “Don’t know, haven’t seen it
this morning. I don’t really care. We’ll be going back on tour again soon. Vale
is an idiot for getting something permanent. Our life doesn’t need attachments.
They just bring us down.”

I stood there silently, just looking at
him. His opinion wasn’t new to me. He was in his twenties and part of a rock
band. He was living every guy’s dream. I wasn’t going to disagree with him.

“I’d better go looking for him,” I
ventured.

Ash smiled at me. “You do that, Trudie.”

I turned around and started walking away,
feeling Ash’s gaze between my shoulder blades until I got out of sight. The
property that this particular mansion sat on was huge. That had been one of the
benefits to it. It was owned by the recording company and used by various bands
and singers as a retreat where they could write songs and record, while not
being hassled by any of the issues that affected normal life. I knew the goat
could not have got off the property because there was a large brick wall which
surrounded the whole place. Despite most goats’ legendary ability to escape, I
was hoping an eight foot brick wall was going to be one step too far. I was also
hoping it had stayed outside because if Buddy had managed to make it inside,
there was going to be a big bill for the band to pay when they finally got
their latest album out. Regardless, I had to find the goat. Most of the band
would still be in bed, sleeping off whatever excesses they had got involved
with last night. If I could get the goat back in its pen before Vale woke up,
then as long as there had not been too much damage, it would be like the escape
never happened. I had a feeling that I was going to need to start looking to
see if there was someone who held the job title of goat whisperer. I had a
feeling that it would take a miracle for Buddy and me to overcome our initial
feelings for each other.

Half an hour later my patience with this
particular goat had reached its end. After thinking about the possible damage
it could cause, I had done a quick look through the house. There had been no
sign of the goat but there had been signs that the goat had at some stage made
it inside. I winced as I mentally added up the costs of this particular escape.
Once outside again, I headed towards a small lake that I had seen at the back
of the property. I knew eventually that most animals found their way to water
so I figured that if anything was going to attract our wandering goat, that
would be it.

As my phone rang I grabbed it and held it
to my ear.

“Hello,” I said shortly.

“Hi, Trudie, it’s Crystal. Are you busy
right now?”

“No,” I said. “I’m looking for a goat.”

There was silence. “Is that some kind of
rock star euphemism that I don’t know?” queried Crystal.

I sighed. “No it isn’t. I am looking for a
goat, an actual goat that one of the band has decided would make for an awesome
pet. This thing has been here less than twenty-four hours and it has cut a path
of destruction through this house that even these guys would be struggling to
replicate. It got out of its yard and now I’m having to look for it on the
grounds.” I stopped talking for a moment. “Are you laughing at me, Crystal?
Because if you’re laughing at me I’m hanging up.”

“No,” Crystal choked out. “I am not
laughing at you at all.”

She was laughing at me. To be fair, if I
called her and she was hunting for a goat, I’d be laughing too.

“What do you want, Crystal?” I asked,
choosing at this point to ignore the fact that I was once again the subject of
hilarity amongst my friends.

“I need your help,” said Crystal.

“Why?” I asked, half paying attention while
I was scanning for my lost goat.

“My mother is getting married again.”

There was silence as I digested this
information. Crystal’s mother was a former Las Vegas showgirl who had married
Crystal’s father long enough to guarantee herself a healthy payday in the form
of a child support check.

“How exactly does this affect anyone other
than your mother and her soon to be ex-husband?” I asked.

Admittedly that statement had been a little
harsh. In my defense, from what I understood this was going to be the woman’s
eleventh marriage. Of course, that number was fluid as there was some suspicion
that Crystal may have missed some of her stepfathers at the point where she
simply lost the will to care.

“Roxy has decided she wants me to be
involved in this wedding.”

“Why?” I asked bluntly. “Have you ever been
at any of her other weddings?”

“No,” Crystal said. “Most of the men Roxy
marries have a distinct allergy to children or even the mention of children so
she has always been very careful to keep me away from them.”

Like I seemed to do every time I spoke to
Crystal about her mother, I thanked whatever forces in the universe that had
conspired to give me my mother.

“Roxy’s coming to see me to organize
details. She wants me to be central to this extravaganza which is going to be
held here in LA. I have not told her yet that I am married so that is going to
add an entirely new level of pain to this situation, because of course, it is
all about her.”

I could tell Crystal was starting to get
annoyed at the situation her mother had put her into.

“Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do,” I
said.

“Thanks.”

I couldn’t quite tell if Crystal was
grateful that I had agreed to help or irritated that she had to ask for my
help. As I came up to the lake I almost dropped to my knees in gratitude.

“I’ve found my goat,” I yelled out
excitedly.

“Still not a euphemism?” asked Crystal.

“No,” I said. “I’ll talk to you when I get
home and you can fill me in on what this whole situation is about.”

I turned off the phone and slowed down my
approach.

“Okay, Buddy,” I said soothingly. “Now, I
know you’ve had a bit of excitement today and from the way you’re drinking that
water I’m sure you’ve had plenty of exercise. Why don’t we go back to the pen
and I will personally get you something to eat that you are going to find delicious.”

I held out a hand as I tentatively walked
up to the goat. He fixed me with a baleful stare and started bleating at me.

I stopped and glared back at him. “What do
you want from me, Buddy? I wish you were currently on a farm, running around
wherever you wanted but unfortunately that hasn’t happened. What you need to do
is recognize the circumstances you are in, suck it up and deal as best you can.
That’s what the rest of us have to do all the time.”

He kept bleating. Obviously the tough love
speech was not going to work. I raked my hand through my hair in frustration.
There was no way I was going to be able to get this goat back to the pen without
its direct cooperation. I put my hands on my hips and looked out across the
lake. Now that I wasn’t focused on the goat, I realized that there was a pile
of fabric floating in the middle of the lake. My heart clenched as a sudden
thought hit me. Throwing my phone to the ground I pulled off my shoes and ran
into the water. When the water got too deep I started swimming. When I got to
the middle of the lake my hand reached the fabric. I grabbed for it and felt an
arm. I pulled the fabric back to find a body, face down in the lake. I grabbed
hold of the person and, using skills learned in childhood swimming lessons, I
towed the body back to the shore. Spluttering, I dragged it up the shoreline
and began checking for any signs of life. I started screaming for help, hoping
that someone was close enough to hear me. Despite the fact one look told me
that it was useless, I started first aid. Sometimes miracles happen, but they
usually don’t happen without some help.

“Trudie.” I looked up when I heard Jorge
yelling.

“Over here,” I called back, panting from
the exertion. I continued with the CPR, hoping for some sign that I wasn’t
wasting my time.

Jorge came running up to me and dropped to
his knees beside me.

“Trudie, stop,” he said, holding me back by
the shoulders. “She’s dead, looks like she has been for a while. You can’t help
her.”

By this time I had tears streaming down my
face. “You don’t understand, she can’t be dead. You don’t know who she is.”

Jorge looked down again. “Isn’t that the
woman I had to toss out of Ash’s bed the other day?”

I slumped back and nodded. “Her name was
Jolena and she was Ramos’s girlfriend.”

“Oh hell,” said Jorge.

I completely agreed with him.