Not Talented in Hollywood: Not in Hollywood Book 3 (2 page)

As the small theater filled up with paramedics and police
the three of us sat to the side, Crystal and I on either side of Edwin trying
to talk him through it.

“Who would want to kill her?” asked Edwin shaking his head.

Crystal looked at me and I winced, her threat to kill the
woman only an hour ago was still going through my head.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

I looked up to see what Crystal was looking at, only to see
Detective Jake Griffin and his partner Detective Liza Ramos studying us from
across the room.

“This can’t be good” mumbled Edwin.

“Seriously” said Crystal. “Are there no other cops in this
city?”

I felt an overwhelming need to escape. Seeing the two of
them talking to the uniformed officers who had arrived previously, I could feel
the anxiety rising in me. Crystal looked at me worriedly.

“I’m fine” I said.

“Honey, you are so far from fine it isn’t funny” she said.

“No really, I’m the one who decided it wouldn’t work. My
decision, I’m not second guessing myself now.”

“Well, it looks like he’s not willing to face you yet
either” Edwin said.

I looked up to see Griffin’s back as he went into the room
where Catarina’s body was still lying. Ramos headed towards us and I gave her a
small smile of recognition. Stopping before us she looked directly at me.

“You know, seeing you here is really not the best way for me
to end a bad day.”

“I’m sorry” I ventured, my voice rising in a question, not
sure why but thinking that the sooner I finished with her the sooner I could go
home. I really needed to work on those reasons that I had walked away from
Griffin three months earlier.

“You found the body?” said Ramos.

“Yes we did” piped in Crystal. “We knocked on her office
door. When we didn’t hear anything we walked in and found her like that.”

“Why were you down here? Wasn’t the party upstairs?”

Crystal and I looked worriedly at Edwin.

“They were looking for me” he said.

“Why down here?” Ramos asked.

“I came to tell Catarina that I was quitting.”

“Was this before or after she called you a no talent
disaster who would never be able to get anywhere in this business unless the
casting couch was still in force.”

I winced. I hadn’t heard that part of the tirade.

Edwin’s face flushed a deep red. “After.”

“So it would be fair to say you were angry with Miss Badal”
Ramos continued questioning in that bored voice of hers.

“I wasn’t angry, just a little upset.”

“Upset enough to put a knife into her back?”

“Hey, wait a minute” said Crystal.

“You can’t possibly be thinking that Edwin did this” I burst
out.

“That’s ridiculous, Edwin is the gentlest, kindest…” Crystal
said indignantly.

“I’m sure he is” said Ramos. “However he is also the last
person to see her alive and she had just torn strips off of him in front of
everyone. Makes him a viable suspect and he needs to come down to the station
with us to answer some questions.”

Holding up her hand she pointed at Crystal and me.

“You two are just going to make things harder for him if you
get in the way.”

“It’s okay” said Edwin as he stood up.

Crystal gripped his hand.

“I’ll be fine, I didn’t do it. I just need to sort this
out.”

Crystal and I stood up and gave him a hug. The uniform
officer came and took him away and Crystal started organizing a lawyer on her
phone for him. Ramos pulled me aside.

“I need you to do something” she said.

“What?” I asked unused to Ramos speaking to me without an
interrogation room being involved.

“Whatever is going on between you and Griffin, I need you to
fix it.”

“I’m pretty sure that is none of your business, and I’m
absolutely sure it has nothing to do with this case, or the fact that you have
just taken my friend into custody for something there is no way that he did,” I
said feeling a bit annoyed.

“Actually, it is my business. This thing the two of you have
going on was fun to watch when it started. I’ll admit that I enjoyed the way
you shook him up, but whatever you did is not funny anymore. It’s messing with my
days.”

“So, it’s all about you is it?” I said gritting my teeth.

“When it makes my life difficult it is, now fix it” she
said.

“There is nothing to fix” I said, “and I would really
appreciate you keeping out of it.”

Turning around I stalked towards Crystal.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. I raised an eyebrow at her.

“I mean other than the fact we found a dead body and Edwin
is up to his neck in it” she amended.

“Nothing else important. Have you managed to get a lawyer
for Edwin?”

She nodded. “My dad’s criminal lawyer is going to meet Edwin
at the station. He’ll make sure he doesn’t do or say anything that’s going to
get him in any more trouble than he is already.”

I could see the tension in her as she held herself stiffly.
Crystal is one of the strongest people I have ever met and I know her well. In
that moment I could tell she was barely hanging on. If there is anything that
frustrates her, it is being unable to help someone she cares about. As much as
she would deny it to anyone, I knew that she cared about Edwin very much.

“Do you want to go down to the station and wait for him?” I
asked gently.

“No, I know that would be hard for you, what with Griffin
there and everything” she said but I could see that she wanted to.

“It doesn’t matter. This mess with Griffin is my fault, not
yours and not Edwin’s. I’ll deal with it, but if you need to be there I’ll take
you.”

Crystal flung her arms around me, and I knew that it was
just as much to hide the tears in her eyes as it was a gesture of gratitude.

“Please, I need to be there. I don’t ever want him to think
that he’s alone.”

“He’s not alone” I said hugging her back. “He’s got us, he
could never be alone.”

Sitting in the police station waiting area, I was glad we
had come. Crystal sat there gnawing impatiently on her lip. I had never seen
her like this. Crystal was the product of a marriage between a big time
Hollywood casting agent and a Las Vegas showgirl who hung around long enough to
get pregnant and guarantee herself a big payday. Crystal’s mother had used her
as a bargaining chip for ever increasing payments from her father in exchange
for custody, all the time ignoring her daughter in favor of a fast moving line
of husbands. At last count Crystal had seen her way through nine stepfathers.
As a result Crystal had every right to be a bitter person twisted by the
mercenary nature of her mother. Instead she had ended up a warm, loving person
who adored her father and was fiercely loyal to her friends. On the flip side
of that, she did not cope well when anything threatened those she cared about.
Of course, in reality, not many of us do. When Crystal’s lawyer came out with
an exhausted looking Edwin, Crystal jumped up and I could see that she was
desperate to hug him, but she stood back and made me do it first. Just so she
could fool herself and everyone else into believing that she only did it as a
friend. The only person she was fooling was Edwin.

The lawyer cleared his throat. “Mr Litchfield is free to go
at this stage. The police are still treating him as a suspect.”

I peered over Edwin’s shoulder to see Griffin leaning
against a wall, studying me with an unwavering stare. For an instant I was
caught in those green eyes and memories washed through me of how it had felt to
be held in his strong arms and to feel his lips on mine. Wrenching my eyes away
I directed my question to the lawyer.

“Is there anything that we can do to help him?”

“At this moment, just keep his head down. Don’t do anything
stupid like let him bolt. The fact that he’s a British citizen and can go home
at a moment’s notice has a tendency to make cops a bit twitchy. Do something
stupid that looks like he is heading out of the country and they might arrest
him, even if they don’t have enough evidence. Just keep calm and don’t do
anything stupid.”

At that both Edwin and Crystal looked in my direction.
Unfairly I might add. My previous history may have suggested that I did stupid
things but that was untrue. I just sometimes found myself in stupid situations.

“Got it, no stupid” I mumbled.

The lawyer roughly clapped Edwin on the shoulder. “Remember,
keep your head down and don’t speak to the cops unless I’m there.”

Picking up his briefcase he left the three of us standing
there.

“Ready to get out of here” I said to Edwin with a forced
cheeriness.

Edwin switched his attention between me and the detective
who was still watching us intently.

“I think that might be a really good idea” he said.

Driving home the car was filled with a tense silence. Edwin
obviously didn’t want to talk about his experience and Crystal and I weren’t
going to push him. As the three of us separated into our own homes at the
complex I noticed that Crystal was following me.

“We need to talk” she whispered as she hustled me into my apartment.

“What are you doing?” I asked pulling my arm away from her
vise like grip.

“I’m going to ask you for a favor and I want you to think
about it before dismissing it out of hand” Crystal said calmly.

Her mild tone was in direct contrast to the panic that I
could see growing in her eyes.

“You know I’d do anything for you” I said gently, hoping to
head off the meltdown I could see coming.

Crystal smiled tightly. “I need you to sleep with Griffin”
she said.

Admittedly not what I was expecting. Even for Crystal, that
was a strange request. I waited for her to tell me she was joking.
Unfortunately she looked deadly serious.

“Why on earth do you want me to sleep with Griffin?” I asked
incredulously.

“Come on” Crystal said. “We all saw the way he was looking
at you Trudie. He still wants you, and if you’d just give it up I think you can
convince him that Edwin is innocent and he’ll leave him alone.” She looked
hopeful as only someone with the most insane of plans can.

I really couldn’t think what to say. Sure Crystal was a
little nutty at times but this one easily topped any of the other schemes she
had tried to talk me into. I put my hands on her shoulders, maneuvered her to
the couch and sat her down.

“Crystal, think for a moment” I said with more patience than
that suggestion deserved. “I stopped seeing Griffin because I don’t believe he
could ever put me before his work. He is completely dedicated to being a cop. I
really don’t think that one roll in the hay with me is going to cause a
complete change in his personality.”

“You could be underestimating yourself” Crystal said
desperately.

“No, I’m not and I think you know it too.”

Crystal put her head in her hands and quietly started
crying. I put an arm around her shoulder and hugged her, letting her cry it out
while murmuring all the nonsensical things you’re supposed to say at a moment
like this.

“I can’t lose him Trudie. I…I think I’m in love with him.”

“Of course you are you idiot” I said gently.

Crystal looked up. “What do you mean?”

“Anyone with eyes can see you’re in love with him.”

Crystal stiffened. “Does Edwin know?”

“No” I said. “I’m pretty sure that Edwin doesn’t know.”

“I just, I love him and I would do anything to help him,”
Crystal sniffed.

“So glad that you doing anything to help him includes
pimping me out” I said dryly.

Crystal clapped a hand over her mouth and a small giggle
came out.

“I’m so sorry, but we were at the station and the way he was
looking at you. I just started thinking that if his feelings for you were so
strong, maybe we could use it to Edwin’s advantage.”

“You know Crystal, there are moments when your thinking
truly concerns me” I said.

“I blame my mother” Crystal said. “Only lesson she ever
taught me was when you’re backed into a corner, sex can always get you out.”

“My mom said to go for the eyes, throat and groin” I said as
I got up to get a coffee.

“I think I prefer your mom” Crystal said.

“Of course you do.”

My mom had stayed with me for a while about five months ago
after I had been shot in the case where I first met Griffin. With my mother’s
instinct for finding and fixing broken people, she had latched onto Crystal and
smothered her with all the maternal devotion that was normally reserved for her
three children. Crystal had lapped up the attention and was now a fervent
follower of my mother’s words of questionable wisdom.

“What are we going to do?” Crystal said in that small voice
of hers.

“Why don’t we let the police handle it?” I said gently,
handing her a cup of coffee.

“But what if they get it wrong? What if they start to really
think that Edwin did it?”

“And what if, while you’re worrying here they find out who
did it? Let them do their job Crystal. Just be here for him, talk to him. Let
him know that you’re with him the whole way.”

“You could be right” said Crystal doubtfully. “I’m so sorry,
I don’t know what I was thinking, trying to get you to sleep with Griffin. He
was pretty intense at the station. I thought he was going to come over and
throw you over a shoulder and take you away.”

I grimaced at the image Crystal presented, but couldn’t deny
the flutter in the pit of my stomach at the thought.

“I think you may be overstating things” I said.

“I don’t think so” said Crystal. “While you were trying very
hard to avoid looking at him, I was watching. He did not look like a man ready
to give up on what he wants and I hate to be the one to tell you, but he wants
you.”

“I can’t do it” I whispered looking intently at my coffee
cup.

“Then don’t” said Crystal. “You’ve avoided him for the last
three months. Tonight was one of those situations. With any luck you won’t see
him again.”

I nodded, hoping that luck would be on my side for once.

“Although” Crystal smirked, “we’ll keep the sleeping with
him plan in reserve for now. You know, just in case.”