Not Suspicious in Hollywood: Not in Hollywood Book 5 Read online

  “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.

  Chapter Three

  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 bene
fits 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.

  Chapter Four

  Sitting on the ground, covered in a blanket and surrounded by Jorge, sympathetic musicians and staff, I was obscured from the arriving police. However, I could make out Griffin when he arrived with a panic stricken look of fear on his face. I scrambled to get up as he raced to the body.

  “I’m over h
ere,” I yelled.

  Griffin stopped, turned in my direction and strode towards me.

  “I’m okay, but you need to stop…” I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence as I was crushed against his chest.

  Griffin held me and for a moment I was terrified that I wasn’t going to be able to breathe.

  “They told me a woman was dead. I thought it was you. I thought I’d lost you.” He buried his head in my shoulder and I wrapped my arms around him.

  “It isn’t me, it was never close to being me. You need to calm down,” I soothed.

  The problem with a man who faces life as coldly and calmly as Griffin did is that when they truly care about someone, they have a tendency to lose it completely when there is a threat to that person.

  “You need to stop Ramos,” I said, pulling away. “The dead woman is her girlfriend.”

  That got through to Griffin the way nothing else could.

  “Watch her,” he growled at Jorge and headed straight for his partner.

  I watched Griffin stop Ramos before she reached the body. I saw her flick her eyes in my direction and I saw the moment that Griffin told Ramos that her girlfriend had drowned. She stiffened perceptibly but in no other way did she betray what she was feeling. I admired her that self-control and I had expected it. Griffin walked her over to where the body was now lying and she looked down. In that moment I saw nothing on Ramos’s face. She was blank as if she was somewhere else. Jorge put an arm around my shoulder and it was only then that I realized that I had tears rolling down my face again.

  “It’ll be okay,” Jorge said as he pulled me closer and started rubbing my back.

  Pressing my face into his chest I shook my head. There was no way that things were going to be okay.

  When Griffin walked back over to me he looked as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. I could see he was torn. He badly wanted to take me as far away from this situation as possible but he couldn’t leave Ramos. I wrapped the blanket further around my shoulders.

  “You had better stay with her,” I said.