On the other end of the line, Sofia heard rustling followed by a howl of laughter. The howl stopped, and then Aidan said, “Hey, sweetie, could you get me another drink, too? This might take longer than I thought. But I’ll catch you up after. It’s pretty funny.”
Sofia hated to think how that conversation with the Other Sofia was going to go.
Janet leaned over to whisper to Tim. “Second date and he’s already calling her sweetie.” She shot a look at Sofia and said in a slightly sing-song voice. “This is what happens when you dawdle. The bee loses interest, gets impatient, and flits over to the next flower. In this town, if you snooze, you lose.”
Flowers and bees? Really? With any luck, Aidan hadn’t overheard that part.
“Sofia is a flower?” said Aidan.
Sofia wasn’t going to catch any breaks here.
“Which Sofia?” said Janet pointedly.
“Hey, Janet,” said Aidan.
“Hello, darling,” said Janet.
“I was talking to Half Pint Detective Sofia,” said Aidan. “You there, Half Pint?”
“I called you. Of course I’m here,” Sofia said.
“Can I ask you a question?” Aidan didn’t wait for her to answer. “Is your family by any chance staging an intervention?”
Lance leaned in toward Sofia’s cell phone, which she had set down on the coffee table so that everyone could hear. “We prefer to use the term pro-active spiritual re-connection. Intervention can sound overly aggressive.”
“Wait. Who’s that?” said Aidan. “Tim?”
“This is Lance Sterling, Aidan. I’m a licensed psychotherapist assisting Sofia and her family.”
There was another howl of laughter from Aidan. This one went on longer. He seemed to be laughing so hard that he was struggling for air. Sofia hoped he choked on it. “Oh, man. It is. This is too good.”
“Aidan, could you please tell everyone what actually happened? That I’d had too much iced tea, I needed to pee. You were a jerk off, and I ended up having to go in the street,” Sofia snapped.
“Hey, no leading the witness, Half Pint,” said Aidan.
“This is not funny,” said Sofia.
“Oh, thanks, sweetie,” said Aidan. It sounded like he took another sip from his drink.
“Again with the sweetie,” Janet whispered to Tim. “Her name is Sofia. Can you believe that?”
Tim looked at his watch. “Is this going to take much longer? The Golf channel has—”
Janet glared at him, and he shut right up.
“Just tell them.” Sofia practically spat the words out.
“Okay, okay,” said Aidan. “Sofia drank too much iced tea and didn’t have a plan as to what she’d do on a long stakeout if she had to pee. I wouldn’t relieve her, so she relieved herself on the street. The TMZ guys happened to be there for the same reason we were. To see if a particular actor had skipped out of rehab to go score. Sofia doesn’t have any kind of addiction problem that I know of. Seeing as how I’m a private investigator and spend more time with her than is healthy, I’m pretty sure I would have picked up on it if she had. Plus we had to take pee tests a couple weeks ago because some paranoid client demanded it. I can send you a copy of the results if you need it. Sofia is as pure as the driven snow. Or at least as far as drugs are concerned.”
The living room fell silent. Thank God Aidan had finally put her out of her misery, and too bad she hadn’t remembered that pee test earlier. Then she wouldn’t have had to call Aidan.
Emily was the first to recover. She mumbled an apology.
“Yeah, me, too,” said Ray, nodding like a bobblehead doll.
Tim shot Janet an exasperated ‘I told you so’ look.
“I’m sorry too, Sofia,” Tim said. “This was probably the last thing you needed right now. What with the new job and everything.” He gave Sofia’s mom another look. “But your mom only asked Lance over here to help because she cares about you.”
Lance, who had sunk back into the club chair at Aidan’s words, suddenly perked up, leaning forward and placing his leather-patched elbows on his knees as he affected a professorial posture. “As I’m here already, if any of you wish to discuss any communication problems you’re having, I’d be happy to help facilitate that discussion. No extra charge.”
Everyone in the room except for Janet answered at the same time. “No!”
Lance looked deflated. Here he was all ready to get his therapist teeth into a nice juicy addiction problem and medically all it boiled down to was Sofia’s weak bladder.
“Are you sure? Because I definitely sense some deep-seated issues here. It’s pretty much the norm for most families that there are tensions. I’d be happy to help facilitate…”
Tim cut him off, raising a hand, and saying, “We really appreciate the offer, don’t we, Janet?”
“Yes, absolutely,” said Sofia’s mom. Her face had flushed, but Sofia couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or from the wine she’d been slugging down like a thirsty longshoreman while preparing dinner. She must have been working herself up for the intervention.
From the cell phone on the coffee table, Aidan’s voice piped up. “Can I go back to my date now? You don’t need to cross-examine me or anything?”
Sofia had all but forgotten that Aidan was still on the line and listening to everything being said. She was already dreading facing him in the office tomorrow. Lustrous jewels and an intervention all in the same day. He had fuel for weeks of jokes now. “Yes, thanks, Aidan. You’re all done.”
She hung up and tried not to think of how he was going to spin these events for the Other Sofia.
Tim got up from his seat. “Lance, I’ll show you out, and again, we really appreciate you coming out here.”
Lance looked crestfallen as he got up to a chorus of mumbled thanks and followed Tim out of the room and to the front door. Everyone else in the room sat in silence. They mostly seemed to be waiting for Sofia’s reaction.
More than anything, she felt embarrassed. She also felt angry that her mom had thought she was capable of having a drug problem. At least she presumed that was what she’d thought. And she was angry that everyone else in the family had gone along with it. Though, to be fair to them, Janet was a force of nature when she got an idea in her head.
If their mom hadn’t been a force of nature, they would still be back in Indiana rather than out here in California. Not that there was anything inherently wrong with Indiana. The people were a lot nicer and way less fake than people in LA. But no one could argue that there wasn’t something to be said for living somewhere the sun shone pretty much year round and where the temperature, at least out on the coast, remained at a pretty steady seventy-five degrees. Plus, there was Fred.
When Emily, not Sofia, had expressed an interest in acting that went beyond the lead in the school play, it had been Janet who had packed her two girls into their ten-year-old station wagon and driven them out to LA. They’d set up camp, like so many aspiring families, at the Oakwood Apartments in Hollywood while Emily did the round of agents and auditions. It had been a sheer quirk of fate that Sofia had been home sick on the day that Emily had gone to the audition for a new kids TV show called Half Pint Detective, and somehow got cast instead of her older sister.
Now that would have been rich territory for Lance the therapist. Older sister wants to be an actress and younger sister quite literally stumbles into her sister’s dream. Sofia was still amazed with how well Emily had dealt with it. It probably helped that Sofia’s fame had allowed Emily to see what it was really like and realize that it wasn’t what she’d dreamed of. In the end, Emily hadn’t been any more impressed with the world behind the film industry than Sofia had been. But still, it had been Emily’s dream and Sofia, the one who hadn’t been that interested in any of it, had been the one who ended up going to the ball and dancing the night away.
It had been to Emily’s eternal credit that not only had she not made an issue of it, she had been super supp
ortive from the very beginning, helping Sofia run lines, working as a stand-in when they needed someone there to help light scenes, and generally just being awesome. At the same time, Sofia and their mom had gone out of the way to try to include Emily as much as they could and for Sofia not to be seen as the special or chosen daughter.
They were always a team, and Sofia figured their closeness came down to the fact that there had pretty much always just been the three of them. They’d had to stick together in order to get by. There hadn’t been room for any major fall outs. Sofia wasn’t about to change that now.
She stood up as Tim walked back into the living room. Apart from when someone had written them for her, Sofia didn’t think she was very big on speeches. Especially not heartfelt ones, but the occasion seemed to call for her to say something.
“Guys, I really do appreciate that you were worried about me enough to organize this. Okay, it was a little weird.” She paused. “Okay, a lot weird, but it came from a good place, so no hard feelings.”
As she took a breath, an almighty bang came from the den. While everyone else froze, Ray jumped to his feet. He took off running toward the den. He really did have the reflexes of a panther.
“Van? Violet? You guys okay?” Ray shouted.
Sofia, who had completely forgotten what she had planned on saying next, was close behind as Ray pushed opened the door into the den. Smoke and dust floated into the hall. First Van and then Violet emerged. Van’s hair was standing straight up, and they both looked pale. Other than that they didn’t appear to be injured.
Behind the two kids, the flat-screen TV that had been mounted on the far wall lay face-down on the floor. Pieces of screen lay in a mosaic pattern across the carpet. Two chunks of missing plaster indicated where the TV had been fixed to the wall by brackets, and a butter knife showed what had been used to pry it away.
Van looked around at the assembled adults. “Sorry!”
“What happened?” Emily asked the kids. “Are either of you hurt?”
“It was my fault,” said Van. “Violet was helping me take it off the wall, and it got too heavy.”
Before anyone could reprimand him or his sister, Van turned to Sofia. “Hey, Auntie Sofia, are you a drug addict anymore?”
35
With the day she’d had, Sofia decided not to take Malibu Canyon Road back to Nirvana Cove. Instead she took the 10 freeway to PCH, figuring that the heavier the traffic, the less likely someone was to try to run her off the road or otherwise stage a mysterious accident.
She got back to the Cove around eleven in the evening and parked the remarkably unscathed Roadster in the upper parking lot. She patted its fender to thank it for its splendid performance that day, then walked down the path toward her blue trailer.
The path was pretty quiet. She stayed alert to any sudden movements from the shadows, or anyone following her. If someone was happy enough to try to force her off the road, it was fair to say that they wouldn’t stop at more conventional means. Not that she had any idea why someone would want to harm her. After all, if it was connected to the investigation into Nigel’s death, they’d still have Brendan and Aidan to deal with. Maybe they figured she was the one who would be most easily scared. Or it was completely unrelated. Probably that.
No matter the reason, she planned on letting Brendan know about it when she went to work the next morning. He’d know how to handle it. She hoped that he wouldn’t over-react and take her off the case.
As she turned into the narrow lane where her trailer was, she froze. There was a light on inside. She was pretty certain she hadn’t left any lights on before she left.
Ducking into the shadows, she crept toward her trailer. As she got closer she saw a figure on the porch. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears. She swallowed hard and didn’t move.
Narrowing her eyes, she tried to get a better look at the figure on the porch. It was a man. He was tall. Definitely over six feet. And really well built.
She started as his hand reached up and out. He held his palm open. Something moved next to him. Fred the seagull inched along the railing to the man’s outstretched hand.
Sofia walked from the shadows. “You scared the crap out of me, Gray.”
The man turned to her. “Hey, Sofia. Didn’t see you there.”
She walked up the stairs and onto the porch. Gray leaned in and gave her a hug. “Sorry, Adrianna’s at my place, and she’s refusing to leave. I can’t afford to make a scene so I came down here. You weren’t around so I thought I’d hang with Fred until you got back, give him something to eat.”
Gray Cole was a full-blown, one hundred percent A-list Hollywood movie star. He was lusted after by women around the world. He was also Sofia’s neighbor. He’d been one of the first people she met when she’d moved into Nirvana Cove and they’d become firm friends.
Gray was one of the few people who completely understood her decision to turn her back on showbiz. Part of the reason he understood was because Gray had, over the years, become adept at presenting one face to the public and media, while his private life was very different. Unlike Sofia, Gray had already reached the global level of fame that ruled out the kind of major life change that she had chosen. Gray was trapped by celebrity, his every move reported and dissected. As he’d told her on more than one occasion, “a gilded cage is still a cage,” or in his case a gilded closet.
Hollywood might have moved on from the days when the studios went to great lengths to make sure no one knew certain leading men were gay. But it hadn’t moved on that much. While no one was going to have their career ended by coming out, if they’d cultivated the image that Gray had, their brand would certainly take a hit, as would the type of roles they’d be offered and what they’d be paid. Gray Cole could have come out, but he chose not to torpedo his career.
Part of his cover was a string of drop-dead gorgeous girlfriends that he got close to, but never quite managed to walk down the aisle with. Most were aware of his sexual preferences before they hooked up. They were happy to play along. Even though he always made it plain they couldn’t be more than friends, that didn’t stop more than a few of them from falling head over heels in love and then attempting to seduce him straight.
Adrianna, a stunningly beautiful Victoria’s Secret model from Italy, was the latest of his companions to try for the conversion. No matter how much Gray told her this man wasn’t for turning, Adrianna simply refused to give up. Her insistence and his refusal were leading to increasingly explosive fights.
“You can sleep here if you like,” Sofia said to Gray as he followed her into her little blue trailer. “I could use the company.”
“Oh?” said Gray.
She grabbed two glasses and the rest of the wine from the fridge. Gray was already on the couch. Sofia poured them each a glass of wine and sat down next to him. She wasn’t sure why, but she found herself telling him about her near-death experiences first on the canyon road and later on the freeway.
Gray was a great listener. He leaned in, completely intent, deep blue eyes never leaving her face. She kind of understood why women, even when they knew that he batted for the other team, tended to forget after a while. She wasn’t sure what the difference was between a great actor and a movie star, but she figured it had something to do with presence. It was like a light they could switch on and off. A great actor walked into a room and people looked, but when a movie star walked in, people stopped talking and stared. Gray was a movie star.
“You’ve called the cops, right?” Gray asked when she got to the end. She had already planned to tell him the story of her mom’s intervention another time.
Sofia shook her head. “No, and I don’t plan on calling them either. I’m going to tell Brendan. He’ll know whether I should tell them or not.”
“But what if it was some crazy stalker?” Gray said, his deep movie star baritone falling away to reveal his higher-pitched real voice. Sometimes Sofia thought that Gray really deserved a lifetime achievement Oscar
for his public persona and not his on screen work. Not that he was a screaming queen or anything, but he definitely wasn’t the chocolate-smooth, Alpha male ‘no female safe’ seducer the world thought he was.
“I think it might be connected to this case we’re working on,” said Sofia.
Now she really had Gray’s interest. As much as he had a team of agents, and more crucially, attorneys, to keep his private life just that, he was a major gossip. If you needed to know who in Hollywood was screwing, or screwing over, someone else, Gray was your man.
“What case is this?” Gray asked breathlessly.
“Can’t discuss it,” Sofia said.
“You’re such a tease,” said Gray. He put his empty wine glass down on table. “Guess I should head back.”
“Will you be okay?” Sofia asked. Adrianna’s tantrums seemed to be getting more melodramatic. She’d gone from crying and screaming to throwing plates and threatening self-harm. Sofia worried that Adrianna would eventually take her anger and heartbreak out on Gray.
“She’ll probably be asleep,” said Gray.
“She did know what the deal was before you started seeing her?” Sofia asked.
“Like that makes a difference,” said Gray.
“But she knew you were gay?” pressed Sofia.
“I sure hope so. I mean, I met her when she walked in on me and her brother naked in his apartment in New York,” said Gray.
“That’s kinda creepy,” said Sofia. “Brother and sister.”
“Except it’s not brother and sister. It’s just brother. I have no interest in the sister.”
“Shame she doesn’t agree,” said Sofia.
Gray shrugged. “People want what they can’t have. If I was straight and had been trying to get into her pants all this time, she wouldn’t have given me the time of day.”
Sofia looked at him in the half light as he opened the door. With his chiseled jaw, piercing blue eyes, and broad shoulders, somehow she doubted that. Most women on Earth would have given Gray the time of day, plus a lot more, if he asked.
A is for Actress (Malibu Mystery Book 1) Page 16
