by Leonie Gant
“Do we know where the setting is?” Dominic’s voice was pitched low and the threatening tone made me take an involuntary step back.
I was obviously not the only one who felt the threat because the lawyer who was already nervous was sending off panic vibes that could be felt through the room.
“Now that we know the necklace is no longer whole we will go through all her belongings and see if we can find the setting.”
Dominic pinned him with a look that emphasized the point that he better not fail.
The lawyer cleared his throat nervously. “Can we continue?”
Dominic nodded and sat down again. I dropped down in the seat next to Peter, still a bit concerned that his wheezing had not stopped.
“Do you have something to help?” I whispered.
Peter sneezed. “No, I’m getting anti-allergy shots but they don’t seem to be working yet.”
“If you’re finished” the lawyer pinned both of us with a look. I felt like a kid in school being reprimanded by the teacher.
“Sorry” I said weakly. Peter just sneezed again.
“As to the rest of the estate, my instructions are that it is to be liquidated and put into a trust. This trust is to be administered solely for the maintenance of Catarina’s cat, Cleopatra. Cleopatra is to remain in the care of Peter Nolan and he will be paid a stipend of $5000 a year out of the trust to care for the cat. Other than that the trust will only allow money for certain expenses. Upon the death of Cleopatra, she is to be interred with Catarina’s body and the trust will be dissolved and donated to a variety of animal shelters.
I looked around. Evan didn’t look like he cared at all that he had been left out of the will, but then for him the main benefit was that he no longer had Catarina in his life. Dominic had a bored expression on his face that morphed into anger every time he saw that stupid cat collar. Peter looked like he was in massive amounts of pain but there was a disbelief to his features as he shakily stood up.
“What about the royalties for the movies?” he asked.
“They are part of the estate so they go into the trust” the lawyer barely looked up at Peter.
“But I wrote them, she promised that I would get the royalties and credit if she died.”
Everyone looked at him surprised.
“What do you mean Peter?” I asked gently trying to calm him down.
“I wrote the screenplays, but nobody was going to give me the time of day. Catarina had the contacts, she had the look, so we agreed that she would present them as hers but once they were made she would help me get ahead, so I could make my own movies.”
“She never did that did she?” I’d learned enough about Catarina Badal that I knew she never did anything for anyone except for that cat of hers.
“I wrote two movies for her and they got all those awards, and all that money and I never saw any of it.”
“Why did you stay with her?” I put my hand on his shoulder.
“She said she loved me. She said she used all the other men in her life, that I was the only one for her, that we were perfect for each other. She said if I was her assistant, no one would ask questions and I could be with her always.”
Peter looked completely lost. Evan was watching the situation with a complete lack of concern. In that moment I knew that he couldn’t have killed Catarina. She meant nothing to him. From the look of it the murder had seemed a crime of passion and there was no passion there whatsoever. Dominic was angry but his problem was more pride than anything else. It started to dawn on me that the one person who had the most passion when it came to Catarina, was the one I was standing a little too close to. I took a small step backwards and from the look in Peter’s eyes I could tell that he knew what I had just worked out.
“I’m so sorry” I said just as the doors sprung open and Griffin strode into the room with Ramos right behind him. Griffin stopped and his jaw dropped at seeing me there.
Ramos was not quite so stunned.
“I don’t believe it” she exclaimed when her eyes landed on me.
Griffin recovered quickly. “Peter Nolan, we would like to speak to you regarding the murder of Catarina Badal.”
Peter froze momentarily and then he snapped into action. He grabbed me around the waist and hauled me towards him. Griffin stepped forward as Ramos pulled her gun.
“Step back” Peter said and I felt something sharp pressed against my throat.
Griffin froze. “This is a really bad idea” he growled but stepped back anyway.
“What are you doing Peter?” I could feel a small trickle of blood going down my throat.
“It isn’t fair” he said. “She was supposed to give me the money, she was supposed to tell everyone that I was the one who wrote those screenplays. Instead I get the cat that makes me sick all the time. Why would she do that to me? I was the one she loved.”
“She didn’t love anyone except herself.” Dominic sounded like he was bored with the entire situation. “If you believed she loved you, you’re a bigger idiot than the rest of us.”
I glared at Dominic, I should have known that sooner or later he was going to get me killed.
“Peter, if you don’t let me go, you are going to get hurt.”
“You’re going out with the cop. Tomas told me at the funeral. He won’t do anything that will risk you getting killed.”
I conceded on that point. Unfortunately Griffin wasn’t the only one in the room with a gun. “See his partner, she doesn’t like me very much right now. Griffin might hold off but she is likely to shoot me in the leg just to see me suffer.”
I wish I had been lying, but I could see the look in Ramos’s eyes and frankly I could tell that my being here was just another in the long list of grievances she held against me.
“I loved her” he whispered, “and I hated her. She laughed at me, I wanted to stop her laughing at me.”
“Did you kill her?” I kept my eyes on Griffin because it was the only thing keeping me going at the moment.
“Yes” whispered Peter.
“Are you going to kill me?” I said my voice seizing up with fear.
“No” said Peter.
“Then please let me go. If you don’t, things are going to get worse than they are already.”
I felt the knife drop away from my throat and Peter stepped back. Griffin and Ramos raced forward and Peter was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. Ramos still had her knee in Peter’s back when Griffin grabbed hold of my arms.
“Are you okay, how deep is the cut?”
“Barely a scratch” I said quietly, my mind still trying to process what had happened.
He pulled me close and I wrapped my arms around his waist.
“You can’t keep doing this to me” he said.
“Not like I mean to” I mumbled into his chest.
“If you’ve finished babying her, we need to take this one down town” Ramos broke through the moment.
“Can you get home?” Griffin asked.
“Not a problem.” I smiled at him, hoping it filled him with more confidence than it did me, especially as I don’t think he realized that ride was probably going to be with Dominic Caldwell.
“I’ll meet you at your place when I’ve finished up” he whispered and gave me a brief kiss on the cheek.
Ramos puffed out her breath in disgust and dragged Peter towards the doorway. Griffin followed her.
“You do bring the excitement don’t you?” said Dominic coming up behind me holding out a tissue.
“Maybe you should stop kidnapping me then” I said as I mopped at the small cut on my neck. “I need a ride home, and seeing as how I wouldn’t be in this mess if it hadn’t been for you, I think you owe me.”
“Believe me” said Dominic, “from what I’ve learned about you in the last couple of days, sooner or later you would have been in the middle of this anyway.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sitting in the limo Dominic grimaced as he looked at the cat colla
r.
“I can’t believe she did this, do you have any idea what this necklace was worth?”
“To you maybe, Catarina obviously had a whole different set of priorities.”
“You’re judging me for being with her aren’t you?” Dominic put the cat collar in his pocket.
“Like you would not believe” I said. “Don’t get me wrong, I understand why Catarina was popular with men, she was gorgeous and vivacious. I met her, I know that every eye in the room went to her. What I don’t understand is you men were with her for far longer than a moment. Didn’t you even bother to look at what was below the surface? I mean seriously, everything about this woman, except for the way she treated her cat, was selfish and narcissistic.”
“I wasn’t looking for anything deeper.” Dominic defended himself. “Frankly I didn’t spend much time talking to her.”
“Then you got out of the situation what you put in. You should be just as mad at yourself that she stole the necklace, because you let it happen.”
Dominic nodded. I don’t think what I said made any difference so I just shrugged. Once we got to my apartment block I got out of the car.
“I would say it was nice meeting you, but it really wasn’t. The best I can do is hope that I never see you again” I said as I slammed the door. I heard him laugh but by that point I was so annoyed I just headed up the stairs. Crystal and Edwin were outside the door of Crystal’s apartment and they looked at me and took in the scratch on my neck and the blood that had dripped down onto my shirt.
I put my hand up. “Not a word, Peter is being charged with Catarina’s murder. I’m okay and I just want to be left alone for twenty four hours. No more emergency entries using my keys.”
The two of them nodded, looking a little stunned and I went into my apartment. Standing under a hot shower I felt all the worries and fear washing away from me.
When Griffin knocked I had finally calmed down. Opening the door I felt a little hesitant and hugged my arms around myself. Griffin looked concerned as he went past me into the living room and sat down on the couch.
“Do you want a drink or something?” I asked.
He shook his head and held a hand out to me. “Just let me hold you for a minute” he said, “I just need to know you’re safe.”
I felt tears in my eyes as I sat next to him and let him pull me into his arms.
“Gotta say sweetheart, seeing you with a knife against your throat does not count as one of my better days” he muttered.
“Not one of mine either” I agreed. “So what happened with Peter?”
“Despite the fact I felt the need to toss him out of a moving car, he’s been booked on Catarina’s murder.”
“How did you know?” I asked.
“We had a fingerprint off the knife he killed her with. Nothing special, just that and a healthy lot of suspicion. It wasn’t until he grabbed you that we knew for sure that he had done it. Speaking of which, why were you at the will reading?”
I grimaced. “Would you believe that the reason Dominic Caldwell was after Catarina was because she stole a necklace from him while they were sleeping together? It belonged to his mother so he was not going to let it go. Unfortunately when we were talking today I remembered seeing the necklace, or what was left of it. Catarina pulled it apart and used the gems on a cat collar.”
“You are kidding me aren’t you?” said Griffin.
“I wish I was.”
“Caldwell got the necklace back?”
“Parts of it, hopefully the lawyer can find the rest.”
Griffin grunted as he stroked his fingers down my arm. We sat there quietly for a few minutes.
“So my dad said you were looking at condoms.” I could tell he was smiling.
“There’s a sentence I never wanted to hear.” I could feel myself blushing again.
“Did you buy some?”
I nodded.
“I need you to say it sweetheart” he said gently before he lowered his lips to mine. I reveled in the feeling
He raised his head and I looked into his eyes and I found some courage.
“Yes” I whispered.
###
Thank you for reading Not Talented in Hollywood. If you enjoyed it, please take a moment to leave a review at your favorite retailer.
Regards,
Leonie Gant
About The Author
Leonie Gant started her writing career at the age of ten when she stuffed notes in her pencil case full of ideas for mysteries that Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys should really have been solving. After years of watching mysteries play out in her head, in full, sometimes gory color, she decided that writing them down was the best way to deal with them.
In her life away from writing, she is a voracious reader with not nearly enough time to make her way through all the books that she wants to read. She enjoys bushwalking, sewing and chocolate, possibly not in that order. She also believes in the value of trying new things, walking in the rain and enjoying every moment.
To find out more about Leonie Gant and to be notified regarding upcoming books and promotions please register for newsletter subscription on her website.
www.leoniegant.com
Discover other titles by Leonie Gant
Not Famous in Hollywood
Not Happily Married in Hollywood
Not Wanted in Hollywood
Upcoming Book
Not Wanted in Hollywood
I felt the bed dip as I was in that pleasant dreamlike state and felt lips brush against my forehead. I smiled and heard an answering groan.
“I’ve got to go Trudie.”
I opened my eyes and looked into my idea of heaven. Detective Jake Griffin and I had been together for four blissful months, seeing each other whenever our busy careers allowed us.
“I’ll see you tonight,” he said hopefully.
I shook my head regretfully. “I’ve got a late one tonight. Alistair is still shooting and he wants me there.”
Griffin looked annoyed. He didn’t like my latest client. I work for an agency which specializes in placing staff with difficult employers. You know, the kind of employers who rant at their staff because their latte is not quite the right temperature. These people do not keep staff for very long, because most people have a level at which they won’t handle that kind of abuse. My specialty is keeping my clients from self-destructing in front of the world.
My latest client was Alistair Hopkins, a pretentious documentary filmmaker who was considered impossible to work with. A former employee had actually created a website which documented the number of staff he went through and the reasons they had quit. Reasons for quitting had included the cameraman who had got himself lost in the African desert for three days. When he was finally found after an exhaustive search, barely clinging to life, Alistair screamed at him for not taking any footage of his fight for survival. Then there was the personal assistant who had fainted during one shoot from exhaustion after working for forty hours straight with very little food. She had taken out a restraining order against him. I had been called in by his manager, as a temporary measure when disgruntled former employees started targeting him both online and in real life. So far I’d worked for him for a month and managed not to get damaged in any way. Alistair said that I was the most efficient employee he had ever had. Of course the fact he hadn’t almost killed me helped me to stay on his good side.
“Be careful, and don’t let him talk you into doing anything too crazy.”
“I won’t,” I smiled as I came up on my knees on the side of the bed. I, of course, was neglecting to tell him that Alistair’s latest documentary had been taking me into the seedy side of strip clubs for the last two weeks, which is where I would be spending this evening instead of with him.
He leaned down and kissed me gently. I put my hands on his upper arms and pulled him towards me as I took the kiss deeper. Griffin pulled away with a groan.
“Do you know how unfair it is that you do th
at to me just before I go to work?”
“Just want you to remember what’s waiting for you,” I grinned.
“Believe me I know and I think about it far too much at work already, call me if you get home early and I’ll come around.”
“I will,” I settled back in the bed. “Take care, I’ll see you later.”
A look of hurt flashed through Griffin’s green eyes but was covered up so fast I couldn’t swear I’d seen it.
“Bye,” he clipped out and headed for the door.
I let out the breath I’d been holding when I heard the front door close.
There was the one dark spot in our relationship. A couple of months ago, in a moment of high emotion I had told Griffin that I loved him. What can I say? I did love him. He was everything that I had ever wanted and I had fallen hard. I’m not one to hide my feelings and in my defense he had just made me very happy, twice. Unfortunately he didn’t exactly reply in a way that showed he reciprocated those feelings. I understood. Despite my thinking he was pretty much perfect, emotionally the man was a little stunted. His mother had abandoned him and his dad when Griffin was just a baby. His father, Lee, had brought him up. Their relationship was interesting. When I was alone with him, Griffin could talk about anything. I would spend time with his father, Lee, and you could not shut the guy up. I put both of them in the same room and you could hear the crickets chirping. They weren’t exactly an emotionally available family. Understanding that and realizing the cat was out of the bag, I continued for a while in the same vein. I didn’t say it all the time, but I didn’t choke it back either, especially when he was going to work. He was in the LAPD, and that was a dangerous job. My parents had brought me up to live life well and always tell the people you love that you love them, because you never know what the future could bring. After about a month of this though, I realized that I was throwing it out there and he hadn’t once sent it back. My pride started taking a battering and I started wondering if maybe I was in this alone. I stopped saying it, not because I wanted to hurt him, just because I got tired of showing my heart and having it ignored. Whenever I felt it now I choked it off and that had created a little distance in the relationship. I didn’t know how to deal with it. I’d kind of made a mess of things and I didn’t know how to fix it. Every now and again I’d see a little hurt expression flash over Griffin’s face and I felt terrible, but I was stuck. Despite wanting to be with him I was taking back to back jobs with long hours, trying to avoid the emotional quagmire I seemed to have got myself into the middle of. I sighed as I got ready for the day.
