Hollywood Confessions (28 page)

Tina raised an eyebrow. “Expecting someone?”

I wasn’t. But for a fleeting second I had a vision of Felix standing on my doorstep, tail between his legs to apologize and beg me back to the paper.

A very fleeting second, as I looked through the peephole to find the top of Gary’s head staring back at me.

“
Hey,” he said as I opened the door, not waiting for an invitation before pushing in. “I just came by to—” he stopped when he saw Tina. “Whoa. Who’s the new chick?”

Tina narrowed her eyes at him. “Who’s the little guy?”

Oh, boy.

“
This is Tina. She’s…helping me.”

“
Wait, helping you? I thought I was your assistant?”

Tina shot me a questioning look. “You have an assistant?”

“
Sorta. Tina, this is Gary.”

“
I know who he is. He was on
Little Love
,” she said. Then added, “What happened to your ‘stache?”

Gary shot me a death look. “I told you it was my thing!”

“
You’ll grow a new thing. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re kind busy here, Gary,” I said, pointing to the door.

Unfortuntely, he didn’t take the hint. “So, what’s with the outfits?” he asked instead, gesturing to our all-black motif.

Knowing I wasn’t going to get rid of him until I did, I quickly filled him in on the wine bottle and the plan to prove it was Don that killed Barker with it.

When I was done he looked from me to Tina.

“
So, you guys are going all ‘bad girl’ on his place?”

I bit my lip. “Kinda.”

His face broke into a grin just this side of a leer. “Haaaaaaaawt.”

I rolled my eyes. “Exactly what are you doing here, Gary?” I asked.

“
I came by to give you the results of the fingerprint analysis Tandy did for us.”

Tina leaned in. “Fingerprint?”

“
Of whoever trashed my place,” I explained. “So, who was it?”

Gary shrugged. “The prints weren’t in the database. The person doesn’t have a record.”

“
Great,” I sighed. “That doesn’t help much.”

“
Oh, it might,” Gary continued, a glimmer in his eye. “The prints aren’t in the database because they belong to a child.”

“
Wait, a child did this?” I asked, looking around.

Gary nodded. “Tandy said the print came back as consistent with the size of a seven- to ten-year-old kid.”

My mind immediately went to the dozen seemingly innocent little divas living with Don. “That’s it, it’s got to be Don.”

“
How sick that he had his kids trash your place,” Tina said, wrinkling her nose as she looked around.

Very sick. Which just made me that much more determined to prove he was Barker’s killer.

“
So when do we hit Barker’s place?” Gary asked, rubbing his hands together.

I paused. “We?”

“
Come on, no way am I letting you go without me,” Gary said. “Dude, I’m totally helpful. I can be a great lookout.”

Considering he couldn’t see over my steering wheel, I wasn’t convinced of that. But at this point, it was clear we weren’t getting away without him.

“
Fine. Let’s go break and enter.”

* * *

It was nearing eleven before we were standing in front of the gate to Don and Deb’s estate in Beverly Hills. All the windows were dark, the dozen darlings having been put to bed long ago. I’d parked my Bug around the corner, the three of us hoofing it in so as not to attract attention (well, as little attention as a dwarf, a girl with purple hair and I could attract). We paused, crouching in the bushes to the right of the main gate.

“
Okay, boss, how do we get in?” Gary asked.

I glanced up at the huge iron fence running the perimeter of the property. A security camera sat every ten feet, sweeping the area for signs of intruders. Or overly curious tabloid reporters.

“
There,” I said, spying a section of fence a few feet to our left. A large oak tree stood just inside the gate, its branches hanging low over the fence. Providing just enough cover from any security cameras. “That’s where we go up and over.”

“
Awesome,” Tina said, breaking into a grin that showed off a mouthful of white teeth in the dark. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was enjoying this.

“
Whoa,” Gary said. “You mean climb over the fence?”

“
You have a better idea?” I asked.

Gary looked up at the fence. He looked down. “Fine. But I’m gonna need a boost.”

The three of us scuttled to the oak tree. Then Tina and I acted as one, lifting Gary—who was surprisingly heavy for someone so short—until his hands grasped onto the top of the fence, and he hauled himself over. He paused a moment at the top then fell forward, tumbling down the other side. I cringed as he belly-flopped into a bougainvillea plant on the other side.

“
You okay?” I whispered.

“
Peachy,” came his muffled sarcastic reply.

“
I’m coming over,” I answered, quickly hoisting myself up, landing thankfully on my feet on the other side. Tina hopped over in a second, making me wonder if this was her first breaking and entering attempt.

The three of us (with Gary still wearing a couple of flowers stuck in his hair) ran up the expanse of lawn between the fence and the main house, thankful for our dark clothes to keep us in shadow. Instead of going to the front, we took a chance and circled around the back of the house, hoping for a less conspicuous point of entry.

We found one just behind the kitchen window: a back door leading into what looked like a laundry room. Predictably it was locked tight, but the lock was a far less sophisticated one than they’d employ in the front of the house. I quickly pulled my kit from my pocket, selected a pick and went to work.

“
You carry a set of lock picks?” Tina asked.

I nodded. “Don’t you?”

“
I will now,” she answered, and I couldn’t help feeling just a little pleased at the note of respect in her voice.

“
How long will this take?” Gary whined, looking over my shoulder.

“
Shh. I’m almost there.”

Which was true. Three short minutes later I felt a tell-tale click and the knob turned in my hand.

But before I could step through, Tina rushed past me into the house. “We have sixty seconds,” she said, charging through the laundry room.

“
Until?” I asked, as Gary and I jogged after her.

She shot me a look over her shoulder. “Before the alarm system goes off and wakes the entire house.”

Right. Alarm system. I hadn’t thought of that.

But apparently Tina had, as she made a beeline through the laundry room, down the hall and straight toward the front foyer. A white panel hung just inside the doorway, and she quickly flipped it open, punching a series of numbers into a keypad. A moment later a green light flashed, giving us the all clear.

“
Okay, I give up. How did you know the code?” I asked.

Tina grinned. “I watched the raw footage from the night Barker died. Don had to punch in the code when he got home.”

I blinked at her. “Wait—how did you get the footage?”

She shrugged. “I hacked your computer after you left today.”

If I wasn’t so impressed, I’d have been livid. As it was, I was totally glad Tina was on my team that night.

“
Hey girls,” Gary said, hailing us from down the hall. “I think I found the wine cellar.” He pointed to a doorway under the stairs. Sure enough, as we looked through, a second set of stairs lead downward toward a basement area beneath the house.

I led the way, slowly descending the dark stairway until it opened up into a small room containing a maze of wooden shelves, lined floor to ceiling with wine racks. I looked around, feeling my spirits sink. There must have been hundreds of bottles. It was going to take us forever to look through them all.

Gary took the fork to the right, I took the one on the left, and Tina snaked down the aisle in the center. We worked in silence, each isolated in our own section of the maze, checking the labels of each bottle for so long that my back started to ache from being crouched at the lower shelves. I was just about to concede that Felix was right about the harebrained quality of this plan when I spied a label on a bottle of white wine with the same grapevine logo as the Fleurie Vineyards website.

I quickly grabbed it, reading the label. Bingo. It was the chardonnay Don had purchased. I put it back, checking the next bottle. A Fleurie merlot. I quickly pulled the next few bottles out, counting off two chardonnay and three merlot. There was one bottle missing.

The one that had poisoned Barker.

I moved to go tell Gary and Tina we’d hit pay dirt.

But I never got the chance.

As I spun to my left, I caught only the slightest glimpse of a wine bottle flying toward my head before pain exploded at my temple, my vision blurring, and the polished hardwood floor of the cellar rushed up to meet me.

Chapter Nineteen

A heavy metal drummer had taken up residence in my head. Or at least that’s what it felt like when I finally came to. I had no idea how long I was out, but it was long enough for a whopper of headache to gain a foothold between my ears. I lay as still as I could, concentrating on not throwing up as I felt that drummer bang against my temples from the inside. After a few moments it subsided to a dull roar, and I braved opening my eyes. I blinked slowly, trying to get my bearings.

I was on the floor, somewhere cold and hard. It was dark and, if you didn’t count the pounding in my own head, silent. As my eyes slowly adjusted to the lack of light, I saw a mirror along one side of the room, my own reflection staring back at me beside a line of wooden props and judgmental dolls. The divas’ practice room. Don must have knocked me over the head and dragged me here. I wondered how long ago that might have been. Or, more importantly, how long until he came back to finish me off.

That thought spurred me to try moving, starting with my fingers. They worked, but I didn’t get further than a small wiggle because I quickly realized my hands were tied together behind my back with some sort of rope. I looked down, just barely making out the shape of my own feet in the dark. Yep, they were bound too.

Fabulous.

“
Allie?” I heard a low whisper from somewhere to my right.

I squinted in the dark. “Gary?”

“
Oh, thank God, you’re alive!”

“
Where’s Tina?” I croaked out.

“
Here,” another voice answered, just beyond Gary.

“
What happened?” I asked, wiggling into a sitting position as I blinked through the blackness. I could just make out her form a few feet away.

“
I don’t know. One minute I’m looking at cabernets, the next I’m on the floor.”

“
Ditto,” Gary said, and I could hear him rubbing the back of his head. “Where are we?”

“
The Davenport’s basement,” I answered. “Don must have dragged us all down here.”

“
Or Deb,” Tina said.

I turned to her. “Deb?”

“
Yeah, you know, I’ve been thinking. Why not Deb? She had access to the bottle, access to the kids to trash your place.”

“
No way,” Gary chimed in. “Hot chicks don’t kill people.”

Tina shot me look. “Where did you find this guy?”

“
Hey. I’m right here!”

“
Do you really think Deb is strong enough to carry all three of us down here?” I asked, ignoring Gary.

Tina shrugged. “Why not? I’m not that heavy. What are you, a size ten?”

“
Six
,” I shot back under my breath.

Tina’s snort said she didn’t totally believe that, but she let it go. “So, neither of us is that big, and Gary’s kid-sized—”

“
Hey! I’m short, not deaf. I can hear you, you know!”

“—
so it’s totally possible she could drag us down here one by one.”

“
Possible, I guess. But my money’s still on Don,” I countered. “He had way more motive to want Barker dead than Deb. Besides, he lied to me about not knowing who his wife was sleeping with.”

“
News flash, New Girl: lots of people lie to tabloid reporters. That doesn’t mean they’re killers.”

I bit my lip. “You know, I really hate it when you call me New Girl.”

“
Oh yeah? Well, you know what I really hate?” Tina asked, inching closer to me. “Being knocked over the head and tied up!”

“
Don’t tell me you’re trying to blame me for this?” I shot back, scooting toward her.

“
Um…duh! This whole thing was your idea.”

“
Well, at least I
had
an idea. At least I had a lead to follow.”

“
I have plenty of leads of my own!” Tina shouted back, getting right up in my face now.

“
Yeah, ones you stole from my computer.”