by John Marrs
He recalled the day he realised his estranged mother had been admitted to his hospital ward and, upon checking her charts, discovered she had little time left. It saddened him that her pain couldn’t be prolonged as it was no less than she deserved, not that Nicole would understand why. Eric believed coincidence or fate had reunited them, and it was pure luck and good fortune that she’d built up a rapport with Nicole. But when Mrs Baker had left vague directions of his inheritance to her, everything changed. Nicole was no longer a friend, she was a means to an end.
But with no way of knowing what his mother had planned, Eric was ready to throw in the towel and head home. Once he’d finished cleaning out the truck, he planned go online and price up a flight back to London. Nicole could do whatever the hell she liked: his adventure was over.
Eric worked his way towards the driver’s side pockets, throwing away receipts and used chewing gum wrapped in tight little newspaper balls, before digging out rubbish from the passenger’s side. When he lost his grip of a stray Tic Tac, it fell under the seat so he fumbled around to try and find it. Instead, he grasped a small piece of paper. He was ready to chuck it away, but its red handwriting caught his attention.
‘Don’t let her son find these – they’re not for Eric,’ he read out loud.
It took a moment before the significance of the words to sink in, and suddenly Eric understood he wasn’t the only one who was playing a game.
But he knew Nicole had no idea what she was about to let herself in for.
CHAPTER 44
Jake and Nicole acknowledged each other with polite but wary smiles when he entered the hostel lounge and sank into the sofa opposite her.
Peyk messily slurped miso soup from a bowl balanced on his lap and turned the television on, flicking around the stations for a news channel.
Nicole and Jake had seen each other around the hostel, but had yet to talk. Both were aware Tommy played a part in the other person’s life, but not to what extent. Nicole recalled that when she’d rebuffed Tommy’s advances, he appeared to transfer his friendship to Jake, and now she couldn’t help but feel envy at their closeness.
Meanwhile Jake recognised Nicole as the girl from the hostel party Tommy had tried – and failed – to kiss, and was slightly resentful of Tommy’s attraction to her.
And while Nicole anxiously awaited Tommy’s return from his meeting with Ron’s contact and news of her diamonds, Jake also waited for his friend to reappear so he could apologise for storming out of the bar the previous afternoon. He wanted to offer Tommy an explanation for his sudden tantrum, but the jury was still out as to whether he could trust him enough to tell him the truth about his past life and his subsequent actions.
Because Jake knew what could happen when you mistakenly trusted someone.
TWO YEARS EARLIER – LONDON
Stuart Reynolds was no stranger to loneliness.
Lasting friendships were hard to make in foster homes, and even when he joined Lightning Strikes, his feelings of isolation continued. A part-time, behind-closed-doors relationship with Zak Stanley didn’t help him to find the meaning of belonging either.
But as Stuart sat on a wall opposite Geri Garland’s four-storey mansion on the wealthy side of Notting Hill waiting for her to return, he’d never felt more alone in his life. He pulled his hood over his head to shield his hair from the drizzling rain.
He looked from side to side to make sure he wasn’t being watched by a rogue paparazzi and removed two wraps of cocaine he’d kept at his apartment for Zak’s visits, dabbed his finger inside and rubbed the powder into his gums.
Eventually he recognised Geri’s Range Rover pulling up outside her town house. Her driver opened her door and she exited, putting on her sunglasses for the five-metre walk between the vehicle and her front door. Stuart hurried towards her, the drugs already making him alert and filling him with bravado.
‘What have you done to me?’ he yelled, and Geri turned around sharply. Another man appeared from the passenger side of her car and pushed Stuart backwards as he approached her.
Geri glanced over the top of her sunglasses and offered an insincere smile. ‘It’s alright, lads, he’s harmless. Come in, Stuart, let’s get this over with.’
TODAY
‘Fuck, man!’ yelled Peyk suddenly, and spat his soup across his bare legs.
He turned up the volume of the television, as a ‘breaking news’ graphic filled the television screen, along with a photograph of Zak Stanley and the word ‘murdered!’ emblazoned across it.
‘This just in,’ began the female newscaster, ‘Police sources have confirmed that actor Zak Stanley has been found dead outside his Hollywood home after an apparent attack.’
‘Oh my God,’ began Nicole, watching as cameras broadcast live from the street she and Jake had followed Ruth to days earlier. Black and yellow police tape had been attached to trees on opposite sides of the road to cordon off the area, while forensic investigators wrapped in blue plastic suits placed numbered markers on the road.
Neither Jake’s body nor his face moved as he processed what he was watching.
‘According to sources, it appears Mr Stanley was stabbed to death by a stalker,’ continued the newscaster. ‘His body was taken to UCLA Medical Center where he was pronounced dead on arrival.’
A small crowd of hostellers began to gather in the room, all stunned and some sobbing at what was being shown. Nicole suddenly lifted her hands to cover her mouth at the next image to flash across the screen.
‘And we have just received this footage taken by a passenger on a Hollywood Hills tour bus. It has yet to be confirmed, but it appears to be an ailing Mr Stanley with his attacker.’
As the HD footage focused in on the figure with her head on Zak’s chest, Nicole instantly recognised Ruth.
‘No,’ she gasped, ‘Oh no, no, no.’
Instinctively she wanted to find Eric to tell him the news until she remembered why that part of their relationship was as dead and buried as Mrs Baker.
She turned her head to look at Jake, but he had already disappeared.
CHAPTER 45
The sweat trickled down Eric’s face as he furiously rummaged around the truck searching every nook and cranny of the vehicle. He didn’t know what he was looking for but he knew from the note it was important enough for him not to be made aware of it.
He hunted under the floor mats, down the back of the seats, through the boot, under the bonnet, and even rattled empty soda cans until he suddenly thought of the one obvious place he’d yet to examine. Remembering the air vent he’d kicked at Buffalo Springs Lake and Nicole had later fiddled with, he yanked out the plastic covering, put his fingers inside and rummaged around, until he found what felt like a small, sharp stone.
He pulled it out and dropped it in the palm of his hand. Instantly he knew it was part of his mother’s legacy – a modest but perfectly formed, polished diamond.
‘Gotcha,’ he muttered, then sat back in the seat and began to consider where Nicole might have hidden the rest.
He promised himself only one thing – this would not end well for Nicole.
CHAPTER 46
‘I’m trying, but I’m just not getting it.’
‘No, darling, neither do I. Give me Constable or Renoir over this experimental twaddle any day of the week.’
Jane and Savannah’s heads tilted at right angles as they stood staring at a 15 foot by 15 foot painting in a plush art galley on Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Dubbed the ‘coolest block in America’ by GQ magazine, everywhere – from the boutiques to the salons, restaurants and bars – was beyond Savannah and Jane’s budgets, but at least the galleries were free to browse. Although quite what they were peering at, neither could be sure.
‘It looks like a dwarf playing tennis with an ostrich in a bonnet,’ continued Jane.
‘It says on the plaque that it’s a portrait of a post-apocalyptic snowman.’
‘Well, who am I to argue with art? I can barely dra
w a stick man. What do you say to admitting defeat and grabbing an iced-tea in the café upstairs?’
Savannah followed Jane up two flights of clear Perspex stairs, where they sat on stools sculptured to resemble opened-palmed hands. Roseanna’s warning that there was someone in Savannah’s life she shouldn’t trust weighed heavily on her mind. Despite trying to be more trustful of people, she’d several times caught herself questioning Jane about her life back in England to see if her story altered, but there were no discrepancies. A day earlier Savannah had allowed herself to feel safe and now, so soon, she worried she was heading back to square one. She didn’t want to doubt Jane’s motives in befriending her or begin pushing her away, but it would be foolish to ignore the obvious.
‘I might not understand art, or even the people in Venice some of the time, but I am drawn to Los Angeles,’ continued Jane. ‘Not all that show business gubbins of course, but areas like Venice, Santa Monica and West Hollywood. How about you? Can you see yourself raising your baby here?’
‘I guess so. I don’t think I really have much of a choice for now. Once I save up some more money, I’ll rent a little apartment and, when he’s born, I’ll get a part-time job that doesn’t involve taking my clothes off or sliding down a pole.’
‘So you know it’s a boy, then?’
‘Oh, no, I haven’t asked about the sex. I just have a feeling.’
‘Will you miss the hostel when you leave?’
‘Yeah, I’ve made some friends and I have someone who’s been there for me when I needed him the most.’
FIVE MONTHS EARLIER – SUNSET BOULEVARD
A blown socket in the air conditioning unit meant conditions in the Flesh For Fantasy strip bar in downtown LA were unbearable.
Savannah put the handful of $5 and $10 bills she’d scooped from the stage into her bag, then grabbed a towel from her locker and patted herself down. She drank two thirds of a bottle of sparkling water she’d left by her mirror, and once she’d showered, she finished off her drink and put on her civilian wardrobe.
On her arrival in LA a month earlier, work had been much harder to find than Savannah expected. The cash she’d taken from her father’s wallet and the money she’d withdrawn using his ATM card in Alabama would, she calculated, last her ten days at most once she found herself a cheap motel to book into. And then she would need to find a job. But her only experience in the working world had been to volunteer at a charity for the elderly with friends from the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority house. And without any experience, restaurants and shops weren’t willing to take a punt on an inexperienced girl from the south-west.
‘You should use that body to make yourself some money,’ suggested one waitress at a diner Savannah frequented.
‘I’m not a hooker,’ Savannah replied, indignantly.
‘That’s not what I meant,’ laughed the waitress. ‘If you can shake your ass and don’t mind being leered at by horny guys, you could make a bunch of Benjamins dancing at one of the clubs on Sunset. Just an idea.’
It was an idea that didn’t appeal to Savannah, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, and right now she was a beggar. She was also a beggar who’d spent her youth participating in beauty and teen pageants thanks to a pushy mother with more interest in showing her off than asking if that’s what she wanted to do. Now all those years of modern dance classes and cheerleading might have been worth it.
Two days and one audition later, and Savannah had a trial at Flesh For Fantasy, not the classiest of joints, but by no means the worst of the clubs in LA. And although the cheap motel she had made home was a dive, she couldn’t wait to get back there as the humidity in the club was making her tired and dizzy.
*
The driver slammed on his brakes when the girl stumbled across the sidewalk and fell into the road.
He leapt out of his car ready to yell at her for being drunk, but once he reached for her limp body, he knew alcohol was not the cause of her intoxication.
‘Help me, please,’ she mumbled, her eyes darting across his face, looking for kindness. ‘Drugged . . . been drugged . . . my water . . .’ Savannah’s head lolled to one side, so the man picked her up and carried her to his car, laying her across the rear seats.
‘I’ll take you to the hospital,’ he said, closing the door.
‘No . . .’ she continued, ‘he’ll find me . . .’
The driver was at a loss as to what to do, so he rummaged through her handbag to find an address or a cell phone with a name he could call. He found it peculiar that for a girl her age, she had no phone but around $400 in cash.
Thirty-five minutes after finding a key for the Marigold Motel, Savannah was safely lying on her bed in her room and fast asleep as Peyk made himself at home in an armchair.
CHAPTER 47
TODAY
Eric rushed back to the hostel from the multi-storey car park and managed to slip past the lounge while Nicole and a group of others were preoccupied by something on the television screen.
He didn’t have the time or the inclination to discover what had them so silently engrossed, and instead, bolted up the stairs and along the corridor into their dormitory, where he began to rummage through Nicole’s suitcase. But as each pocket only yielded socks, underwear, fridge magnets and postcards Nicole had purchased on their travels, Eric became more and more frustrated.
‘Looking for something?’ came Nicole’s voice from the doorway.
Eric stopped his search, switched on a smile and turned around. ‘Oh hi, Nicole,’ he replied chirpily. ‘Where’ve you hidden the Paracetamol?’
‘Unzip the top of the backpack and they’re in there with the plasters.’
‘Cool.’
By the time Eric found them and turned around to thank her, Nicole had disappeared as quietly as she’d arrived.
CHAPTER 48
Peyk didn’t question Tommy when a taxi pulled up outside the hostel and he darted out, grabbing Peyk’s arm and leading him up the stairs and into Room 23.
‘How safe is this room?’ Tommy asked breathlessly.
‘Three deadbolt locks and a reinforced steel door, I fitted them myself.’
‘Well your DIY skills don’t inspire me with confidence, what with the number of times you fell through the ceiling or electrocuted yourself.’
‘Do you see anyone else creating a cannabis farm under the noses of 150 unsuspecting people?’
Peyk glanced down and noticed two large, bulging holdalls with the name and logo of a dry cleaners emblazoned across their sides. ’Don’t ask,’ Tommy muttered, his eyes darting around the room.
Peyk’s ability to keep secrets was something Tommy appreciated, and even though he’d yet to discover what made Peyk tick, his gut instinct was that the wiry-haired clown had a serious side and could be trusted.
‘The room at the back, under the ceiling tiles, store them there,’ Peyk replied.
Tommy made his way towards the storeroom and used a stool to reach and remove one of the polystyrene ceiling tiles, where he placed the bags containing Nicole’s cash out of view. As he stepped down, his eyes were drawn to a bathroom beyond the storeroom, separated only by a pane of clear glass. He walked towards it, then took a startled step backwards when he saw Savannah enter. She pulled down her shorts and underwear and sat on the toilet. Tommy remained perfectly still so he wouldn’t be spotted, before realising he was on the other side of a two-way mirror.
‘You okay in there, Tommy-boy?’ yelled Peyk, and Tommy joined him back inside the room.
‘I’ll keep your business private if you do the same with mine,’ Peyk added, and Tommy nodded his agreement.
CHAPTER 49
‘He called me Nicole. In three years he has never called me by my full name, so don’t ask me how, but I’m sure Eric’s found out I know who he is.’
Nicole waited nervously for Tommy to finish serving a customer at the hotdog stand.
‘You could always admit what Mrs Baker left you?’ Tommy asked. ‘You’d get
him off your back by splitting the cash.’ Nicole pondered his suggestion for a moment before politely dismissing it.
‘I’m not being greedy, but clearly his mum didn’t want him to have it. And if he’s gone to all this trouble to hide who he is, what else is he capable of doing?’
‘Well that might be a good enough reason to pay him off, if he frightens you. Keep yourself safe.’
Nicole had left Eric in their dormitory searching for headache tablets and gone straight to meet Tommy at their prearranged destination. He’d explained that while he could have likely got more money if he’d sold the diamonds legitimately, he’d done what she’d asked and made a decision he thought was right.
‘This has been a messed up few days,’ Nicole continued. ‘First I discover my best friend has been lying to me about who he is, then I find his secret mum has left me half a million dollars worth of diamonds and, to top it all, the naive girl I shared a room with goes and murders Hollywood’s biggest star.’
‘You haven’t heard the update, then?’ asked Tommy tentatively, unsure whether Nicole was ready to hear more bad news. ‘According to the radio in the taxi, police in Australia reckon she killed her mum and little brother before she came over here.’
‘You’re not serious! Am I just the worst judge of character in the world?’
‘It’s looking that way,’ Tommy joked, but Nicole didn’t laugh. ‘No,’ he added, ‘you’ve just been bang out of luck.’
Nicole let out a long breath and brushed her fingers through her hair. ‘What the hell is going on, Tommy? I thought this trip was going to be a new start for me, and it’s turned out to be worst thing I’ve ever done.’
