Not Talented in Hollywood: Not in Hollywood Book 3

Read Not Talented in Hollywood: Not in Hollywood Book 3 Online

Authors: Leonie Gant

Not Talented in Hollywood

Leonie Gant

License
Statement

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This
book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be
redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you
enjoyed this book, please return to your favourite ebook retailer to discover
other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of
the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to
actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Chapter One

The darkness of the theater did nothing to disguise the fact
that we were sitting in a very small space. As a small community theater, it
had less than one hundred seats to be filled. Unfortunately at this moment
there was a grand total of nine people in the audience. I knew this because I
had counted them as a distraction from the show that I was being forced to
watch. Another unfortunate point was that the group I was with made up four of
those nine people. I’m not really a big theater goer. My pretensions of culture
kind of begin and end with a big budget science fiction or action movie. I’m
really one of those people who wants to be entertained. I don’t want to have to
actually think.

Spending a Saturday evening in a theater is not exactly
something that I would go out of my way to do. Tonight though, I was supporting
a friend. In fact we were all here to support a friend. Edwin lives in my
apartment complex with my friend Crystal, our landlady Miss Betsy and our
teenage project Sean. This was not the first time we had attended a play that
Edwin had performed in. He was an aspiring actor, determined to work his way up
into the movies. He was the hardest working person I knew. He kept taking temp
jobs to earn his way and he also took any part in any production no matter how
small to perfect his craft. By all rights and if the universe was fair, his big
break should be just around the corner.

Unfortunately Edwin Litchfield was also one of the worst
actors that I had ever seen and some of the theater groups I had been forced to
sit through had contained some very ordinary acting. Edwin had started off as a
model in his home country of England and that suited him. The guy was
impossibly gorgeous, tall with a defined body, blonde wavy hair and deep blue
eyes that a woman could drown in. Modeling bored him so he decided that the
next natural step was acting. I used to believe that acting was easy and that
anyone could do it. It isn’t until you see someone who is genuinely,
excruciatingly bad at it that you appreciate that there may actually be some
talent behind the ability to act. My friend Crystal works in her father’s
casting agency. She lives in fear of the day that Edwin asks her to help him
get a real acting job. I know he won’t. Edwin has a major crush on Crystal and
he knows that she is hit on by unknown actors often purely for her connections.
He has some noble idea in his head that he can make it without her help. Once he
breaks through and becomes a star he intends to seriously pursue her. I think
he’s an idiot and I have told him that it is a ridiculous plan. Male pride is a
tricky thing though and sometimes you just withdraw from the argument, as you
are just butting your head against a brick wall.

I felt an elbow hit me sharply in the ribs and glared at
Crystal. She was small but I’d learned from previous experience that she could
pack a punch when she wanted to.

“Wake up Trudie” she hissed as the curtains went down.

“I was awake” I whispered back rubbing my side.

“Are you sure? You didn’t twitch for like a full five
minutes, that’s usually a sign that you’re fast asleep.”

I glared at her. I wish I could argue the fact but she was
right. I cannot stay still for any length of time. I always need to be moving
or unconscious. I really don’t have an in between state.

“Is it finished?” I asked.

“Yes” she groaned as the curtain came up again and we
started clapping as loudly as we could to hide the fact that most of the seats
were empty.

Sean leaned over. “I am not coming to another one of these.
I don’t care what you threaten me with” he said, with all the whining petulance
that only a teenage boy can muster.

This time I had threatened to cut off his supply of homemade
cookies. I had recently taken some time off work and gone on a baking binge.
Thankfully having a teenage boy around meant I had a ready customer and nothing
went to waste. I frowned. I really should be getting back to work. I had taken
some time off on the advice of Crystal who thought I needed to relax and find
myself away from the stress of my job. I work for the very wealthy who are
lacking the ability to deal with staff on any kind of level. My job is to be
the personal assistant to people who alienate the dedicated employees who work
for them. This kind of work takes an extraordinary patience and the ability to
stop talking before you tell someone the truth. I do that well. However my last
few jobs had managed to push those stress levels through the roof.

Miss Betsy leaned over from her seat on the other side of
Crystal.

“So what are we telling him this time?” she asked as we all
looked expectantly at Crystal.

Being a casting agent, Crystal was well versed in letting
people down with as little damage to their ego as was humanly possible. In an
industry where people seemed to pride themselves on how cruelly they could
destroy someone’s dreams, Crystal was able to gently guide people to their full
potential.

She was thoughtful for a second. “I’ve got nothing” she said
grimacing.

I could understand what she was talking about. Edwin was our
friend but watching him act was a truly painful experience. It would be better
if we could see some improvement, any improvement. In the year we had been
coming to these plays there had been no progress and it was becoming harder to
watch. We would of course, if Edwin wanted to continue with this dream then we
would support him. It was just difficult knowing that he was never going to
achieve it.

“I’m going to take this one home” Miss Betsy interrupted,
looking pointedly at Sean.

“Why did I have to sit through that torture and now I have
to miss out on the party?” Sean complained.

“Because you’ve got homework and you’ve been having trouble
with your algebra lately” Miss Betsy said sternly.

Sean looked at me pleadingly.

“Not going to work on me” I said airily. He pouted in that
way that sixteen year old boys have, before following meekly behind Miss Betsy.

“He’s been getting a little bit harder to deal with lately,
especially while you were gone” Crystal said.

I snorted. If Crystal thought Sean was hard to deal with she
really didn’t have a clue. I had just come back from a three month placement
with an eighteen year old pop star on tour. On my first day he tried to get me
to carry his drugs through an airport. When I refused he threw a temper tantrum
that would have made a two year old proud. When that didn’t change my mind he
decided to get his father and mother to deal with me. Doing his best to
disprove Darwin’s theory that only the fittest survive to propagate the species,
the teenager’s father threw his own temper tantrum which worsened the calmer I
was. Fortunately for me I had been hired by the record company and not the
client. I was being paid very well to do my job and to try to limit the
excesses of this particular pop star and his massive entourage. I had signed on
for three months and I completed that three months despite the entire entourage
doing their best to get rid of me. People who live their lives on the coat
tails of a spoiled brat do not react well when you are trying to pull back on
the gravy train. At the end of the tour the record company tried to get me to
extend the contract and work permanently in that role. I would have preferred
to have my eyes poked out than spend any more time with that particular client.
He was just as happy as I was when that placement had come to an end. I was now
taking a well-earned break before taking on another client.

“Oh, of course” said Crystal, “your runaway job.”

“I did not run away” I said, annoyed at the change in
conversation.

“Please, you ran so fast and so far because you didn’t want
to face him.”

“We’re not talking about this” I said gathering up my purse.

“He came by your apartment” Crystal said.

“Please can we not talk about this?” I pleaded. I really did
not want to talk about what may or may not have been the biggest mistake I have
ever made.

Crystal looked at me knowingly, but wisely held her tongue.
I had been a coward. Three months ago I had walked away from Detective Jake
Griffin and grabbed the first out of town job that I was offered. At the time I
had been convinced of the rightness of my actions. He was a dedicated officer
who was single minded in his approach to his job. Nothing came between him and
being a cop, not even the tentative thing that we had started. I had not wanted
to come in second to his career, so thought the best thing for me to do was
walk away and make a clean break before I got too involved. Three months later
and I might not be happy with my decision but I had made peace with it. That
didn’t mean that I was particularly proud of my actions and Crystal knew that.

“Thank you.” I was relieved when she stopped talking. “Now
it’s time to put on your game face so we can get down there and tell Edwin how
proud we are of him.”

“Proud of what?” she asked skeptically, obviously
remembering the hour and a half of fairly ordinary acting we had just sat
through.

“That he has the courage to go after his dream no matter
what” I said.

“Right, that.” Crystal plastered on a smile at the same time
I did.

Chapter Two

Getting backstage wasn’t difficult. Hearing the vitriol
coming from behind the door however was. The director obviously had decided
that the performance was not up to her expected standard and was letting the
cast know in quite loud and explicit language. Hesitating to open the door I
looked at Crystal.

“That’s Catarina Badal.” Crystal must have noticed my
confusion. “She’s kind of fallen pretty far.”

That was an understatement. Ten years ago Catarina Badal was
the artistic prodigy of directing in Hollywood. Her debut low budget movie had
come from nowhere and had been a critical and box office smash. Her second
movie had won her a host of awards including an Oscar. Since then though her
movies had become more and more bizarre. I hadn’t heard anything about her for
a couple of years. I had to say that finding her directing in a community
theater was a bit of a surprise.

I felt Crystal stiffen beside me. Catarina had just started
giving a rather blistering critique of Edwin’s performance. I put my arm out to
stop Crystal from storming in there. She looked at me fiercely. Crystal is my
best friend. She is tiny. When not walking around in her favored four inch high
stilettos, she doesn’t quite make five feet. Despite her lack of size, when it
comes to the people she cares about, she is like a vicious little Pomeranian
who has no fear when it comes to taking on a Rottweiler. I always worry that
one day that Rottweiler is going to bite back.

“Don’t” I whispered. “If Edwin thinks you heard that he will
be humiliated.”

Crystal stopped as my words got through to her and nodded
her head. We stepped back, away from the door waiting for the tirade to be
over. The door swung open and Catarina Badal charged through with barely a look
in our direction.

“What are you doing here?” she snarled as she saw me first.
I stumbled as I tried to find something to say but it was too late. Her gaze
had swung to Crystal and just like magic her attitude changed. She held her
hand out to Crystal and oozed friendliness.

“Crystal Bronstein, it is so good to see you. You’re working
with your father now aren’t you?”

Crystal had put on her work face. That one that looks polite
and interested, but because I know her so well, I know that it means she is
fully aware of how fake the person talking to her really is and she’s not
falling for it at all. Crystal’s father ran the biggest casting agency in town.
He is considered one of those powerful people in Hollywood who can make or
break careers. As his only child Crystal had learned very early that most
people were only nice to her based on what her father could do for them.

Catarina Badal grabbed Crystal’s hand as if they were the
oldest of friends. “I would love to catch up with you” she said as she started
dragging Crystal along.

“Actually” said Crystal extricating herself, “I’m here to
see Edwin Litchfield.”

Catarina stopped as if she’d been struck. “Well I guess
that’s one way for him to get a job. God knows he wouldn’t based on his
acting.” With a derisive look at Crystal she stalked off.

Stepping up I grabbed hold of Crystal around the waist as
she went to take off after the director.

“Don’t do it” I warned. You’d think I’d have a lot more
trouble holding on to a squirming woman but surprisingly enough over the last
year of knowing Crystal my technique had been honed well. I just needed to
remember if she started kicking, those stilettos hurt badly.

“I’m going to kill her” hissed Crystal.

“No you’re not” I said.

“Okay, maybe I won’t kill her but I’m going to destroy her
career.”

I pointedly looked around the theater we were standing in.

“You may be a bit late for that. Looks like she did a good
enough job herself.”

Crystal stopped squirming and looked back at me, a short
bark of laughter coming from her.

“So is this my opening night gift?” drawled Edwin from the
doorway.

We both looked over to him and our faces must have shown our
confusion. He waved his hand at us and at the same time we realized exactly how
we must look. I had my arm around Crystal’s waist as her back was plastered to
my chest. As she’d been trying to get away my taller body was slightly bent
over hers and at that moment we both blushed.

“I’m not saying I don’t like it” said Edwin. “I mean I know
that flowers are traditional but if this is how you were planning to go, you
could at least have waited until I got here.”

I quickly let go of Crystal and stepped back. Crystal
stumbled on her heels and Edwin pushed forward to hold her up.

“That wasn’t what it looked like” she said as Edwin
straightened her.

“Oh I prefer to think that it was exactly what it looked
like.” Edwin smiled down at her. Crystal blushed and Edwin grinned wider. “So
were you going to tell me what that was about?” Edwin asked.

“No, I don’t think so” Crystal said slowly.

“Well then I will go back to my version” he said. Crystal
balled up her fist and hit him in the stomach.

“Oh” he gasped. “I think you wounded me with your tiny, tiny
fist.”

“You are such an idiot” she said smiling, as she swept past
him into the backstage area.

“After you” Edwin said to me as he waved his hand in front
of him.

The party was small but the cast and crew seemed to be
having a lot of fun, especially since Catarina had left. Of course, the second Crystal
walked into the room everyone wanted to be her new best friend. No one is quite
as popular at a community theater event as a famous Hollywood casting agent.
Throughout the night I slowly got pushed further and further away from the
center of the action.

“How are you doing?” Edwin asked handing me a drink as we
watched Crystal hold court.

“Not too bad” I said, “Crystal seems to be having fun.

“Nothing like a group of unemployed actors who want to make
it big” Edwin said with a little bitterness.

“You okay?” I asked putting down the drink and really
looking at him.

I had been away for three months with my pop brat job and
had only been back for a few days. With Edwin in rehearsals I hadn’t seen him
much, but there was a tension in him that I’d never seen before. He pushed his
hand through his hair.

“I don’t think I’m going to make it Trudie” he said softly.

“Why not?”

“I’m not very good” Edwin stared intently at his drink. “I
know that. I thought I’d get better but I just don’t feel it.”

“Maybe it isn’t for you, maybe your heart isn’t in it” I
said sympathetically.

“I notice you didn’t say that I was getting better
regardless of what I think.”

I winced. Edwin put his hand on mine.

“No Trudie, don’t feel bad. I value your honesty.”

I leaned into him and put my head on his shoulder.

“I think you’re amazing for going after it the way you have.
I would never tell you to stop or that you weren’t good enough.”

“I know Trudie, but I think I need to get a dose of
reality.”

I straightened up. “Maybe you need to look at what you
really want, what are you passionate about?”

I followed Edwin’s eyes as they turned towards Crystal, the
longing in them almost painful to watch. I nudged him in the side.

“Ask her out, tell her how you feel” I urged.

“I can’t” he said. “Not until I’ve sorted myself out.” He
took another drink from his bottle. “What I can do first is to realize I am
never going to make it as an actor.”

He stood up suddenly.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m going to tell Catarina that she’s right. I’m never
going to make it so I’m quitting.”

Putting down his bottle he strode purposefully out of the
room. I saw Crystal watch him as he left. Taking another mouthful of my drink
my attention was quickly taken by one of the other actors, who finding that he
couldn’t get close to Crystal had decided her friend was an acceptable second
choice. Tiring quickly of my monosyllabic answers to his questions about
Crystal, he wandered off and Crystal left her adoring court to sit with me. I
eyed her over my drink.

“So exactly how privileged am I that you’ve decided to grace
me with your presence?”

Crystal elbowed me in the side.

“Ouch” I groaned, “what was that for?”

“For being an idiot” she said. “Where did Edwin go?”

“To tell Catarina that he was quitting, as he wasn’t a good
enough actor and he never would be.”

Crystal gaped at me. “What are we doing sitting here then?”
she said grabbing my hand.

“We’re letting him be an adult and make his own way in life”
I said.

“Of all the stupid ideas. He’s making a massive life change.
He needs us with him.”

Not having any choice in the matter I let myself get dragged
off in search of Edwin. Crystal, having virtually lived in these kinds of
theaters all her life, unerringly found the director’s office. The door was
closed. She went to grab the door handle and I grabbed hold of her wrist.

“We can’t just go in there” I said. “What if they’re still
talking?”

Crystal pressed her ear to the door. “I don’t hear anything”
she said as she grabbed the door handle again, rolling her eyes as I reached
over and knocked on the door.

“Catarina” she called out. “We’re just looking for…”

Crystal stopped and over her head I saw the reason why.
Catarina Badal was slumped over her desk and in the middle of her back was a
knife that looked disturbingly like the prop knife that had earlier in the
night been used to kill Edwin in his painful death scene. Crystal gaped as I
raced over to check the pulse. I would like to say that my abilities in an
emergency carried me through the shocking scene. However this wasn’t the first
body that I had seen, and I think that I had become a little desensitized. That
was a disturbing thought. I couldn’t find a pulse and I pulled out my phone to
call emergency when Crystal found her voice.

“Stop”.

I froze.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“If we walk out right now, nobody needs to know we were in
here” she said. I must have looked at her strangely. “I don’t want you
involved.” she said concern all over her face.

It may sound callous but in the last six months I had found
a total of two dead bodies. I had also been shot once, threatened several times
and almost killed in a fire. Crystal did not have the greatest family life and
for whatever reason Edwin and I were as close to family for her as her father
was. I knew she was just trying to protect me.

“We’re already involved” I said quietly. “We were looking
for Edwin, your fingerprints are on the door. We found the body, we have to
call the cops.”

Crystal looked as if she was going to start arguing, but
then we heard a scream behind her and a thud. One of the actresses was out cold
on the floor.

“No going back now.” I punched in the familiar number. “I
really should put this on speed dial” I muttered grimly.

Voices reached us as people who had heard the scream came
running, including Edwin. Looking in he saw the body and grabbed Crystal and
held her.

“What’s going on?” he asked quietly.

“We came looking for you and found Catarina like this”
Crystal mumbled in his shirt.

“She was fine ten minutes ago” he said, “I was just talking
to her.”

“Great” I said, “you were probably the last person to see
her alive.”

“That’s not a good thing is it” said Edwin.

“No” I said, with the voice of experience, “it isn’t.”