Star Struck

by Goss, Shelia

  Where is Garrett? Hailey asked herself as the questioning came to an end.

  One of the officers handed her a card. “If you can think of anything else, let us know.”

  Trevon’s phone rang so he was conversing on the phone, when the interview ended.

  Hailey walked the officers to the door. She wrapped her arms around herself as she stood in the doorway and watched the officers drive away. She stood there until the gate closed behind them. She jumped when she felt Trevon tap her on her shoulder. “You’re a little jumpy aren’t you?” he asked. “Told you, you have nothing to worry about. That was Garrett. He’s still stuck in traffic and wanted me to stay with you until he gets here.” Trevon smiled, Hailey didn’t.

  Hailey started coughing and pretending like her throat was dry. “You want something to drink? For some reason I’m rather thirsty.”

  Trevon was fast on her heels. Hailey wished he would have stayed behind so she could have called Garrett without him being in her presence. She dialed Parris’ number. He wouldn’t do anything to her if she was on the phone. At least she hoped he wouldn’t.

  “Parris, how are you?” Hailey asked, as soon as she got Parris on the line.

  Parris responded, “This morning sickness is about to kill me, but I wouldn’t trade it for nothing in the world.”

  “How’s my boy doing?”

  “Girl, still going shopping crazy. I told him he needed to at least wait until I get out of my first trimester.”

  “CJ is something else. Well tell him I called.”

  Parris asked, “Is there something wrong?”

  Hailey looked at the kitchen doorway to see if Trevon was around. Just when she was about to open up her mouth to tell Parris her suspicions, Trevon appeared. Hailey’s face went pale.

  ~ 37 ~

  Garrett got off on the first exit he could. Traffic was not going to move. It was bad on and off the freeway because others had the same idea he had. His cell phone battery died on him and he couldn’t locate his car charger. As long as Trevon was there with Hailey he wouldn’t worry too much.

  He entered in the code at the gate outside of Hailey’s yard and parked behind Trevon’s vehicle. Before he could ring the doorbell, Hailey threw the door open and rushed into his arms. “Calm down baby, I’m here,” Garrett said.

  “I think Tre,” she cut herself off when Trevon spoke out.

  “Man, I was beginning to think something happened to you,” Trevon said.

  “My phone died so I couldn’t call.” Garrett noticed Hailey was shaking a little. He said, “Tre, thanks for staying, but I got it from here.”

  “No problem. We’ve had our differences, but I won’t let anything happen to our Hailey. You take good care of her now,” he said, as he leaned down and kissed Hailey on the cheek.

  Hailey jumped back. Once he was gone, Garrett blurted, “Okay what happened here?”

  With her arms folded around her, Hailey responded, “I think Trevon was the one I saw on the camera.”

  “Hailey, I’ve told you, you’re probably seeing things. Come on, let’s go look at the footage.”

  She moved away from him. “I don’t need to. I say it was Trevon and I don’t know why you don’t believe me. Look at him. He’s a little too calm.”

  “The threats started long before Trevon found out you and I were interested in one another,” Garrett reminded her.

  “Maybe he’s gotten over the fact that I’ve moved on with you, but something just isn’t right. He was upset before. Now he acts like we’re all just the best of buds. I don’t trust him.”

  Garrett rubbed his forehead. “If it’ll make you feel any better, I’ll check into it. But I know Tre. I know you’re wrong about him.”

  “Then who is it? You can’t show that it’s Shareeka. You don’t believe that’s it Tre. Then whoever it is must still be out there.”

  Garrett stood and held Hailey in his arms. A few minutes later, he went to her upstairs room and reviewed the footage. The person did appear to be wearing the same thing as Trevon. Unfortunately, it was hard to tell if the culprit was male or female. Garrett was at a crossroads. He had known Trevon for years and this was so out of character. Things between the two friends hadn’t been solid recently so you never know what a person will do when put under pressure. Trevon had been under a lot of pressure lately. Maybe Hailey and Shareeka were right. Maybe Trevon was behind this. For now, he would try to comfort Hailey and not feed into her vivid imagination.

  “I’m going to investigate further. If Trevon is behind this, he will have to deal with me first and the authorities later,” Garrett said.

  “This has been a long night,” Hailey said, as she laid across the bed waiting for him to join her.

  Garrett removed his shoes and clothes and laid next to her. He rolled Hailey on top of him. He used his right hand and moved her hair from her forehead. “Stop worrying. I’m going to make sure whoever it is, is caught.”

  Without waiting for her to respond, he placed his hand on the back of her neck and brought her mouth on top of his. Their tongues entwined. Garrett gently removed her clothes and took his time making love to her body with his tongue, not allowing her to touch him. Hearing her moan his name in pleasure turned him on. After he pleasured her, he held her tight and as their heart beats synced, they fell asleep. They slept in each other’s arms the entire night.

  Garrett hadn’t slept that sound in a long time. He felt Hailey shaking him. “Brenda’s on the phone,” Hailey said, gently waking him up.

  Garrett grabbed Hailey’s phone. “Brenda, good to hear from you.”

  Brenda said, “My father’s doing better. They are letting him go home, but he’ll need rehabilitation.”

  “I’m glad he’s doing better.”

  “I’m thinking about extending my stay to help him out.”

  Garrett said, “Like I mentioned earlier, take as much time as you need. We got it covered here.”

  “Are you sure, because I love my job and I…” Brenda said.

  Garrett interrupted her and said, “I’m positive. Making sure your dad gets back on his feet is your top priority. In fact, make it your only priority.”

  Garrett reassured Brenda that her job was secure and hung up the phone.

  Hailey got on her knees and got behind him. She rubbed his shoulders and said, “You’re a great boss. That was nice of you.”

  “Did you call her or did she call you?” Garrett asked.

  “She called to check on me. She had been seeing news reports and just wanted to see how I was doing. I thought that was sweet of her.”

  “Brenda’s one of the best. She really hated the fact that she had to leave.”

  “I like Brenda. We’ve vowed to keep in contact even once this case is over.”

  “Good,” Garrett said. He felt good that he was instrumental in introducing Hailey to a new friend.

  “I sure wished I would have cancelled today’s show,” Hailey said.

  “If you’re not fit to go in, call John and let him know.”

  Hailey looked at the clock. “No, it’s too late to reschedule our guests. I’ll do it.”

  Two hours later, Garrett dropped Hailey off at the studio. Garrett had come up with a plan. He called to confirm Trevon’s whereabouts. It was confirmed Trevon was at the office. Garrett made a detour towards Trevon residence. As best friends, they each gave one another keys and passwords in case of emergency. Garrett never thought he would need to use them—especially in this type of situation. To erase any doubt he had, Garrett had no choice but to do what Trevon would probably see as an invasion of privacy—he accessed his place without Trevon having a clue he was going to be there.

  Garrett hoped Trevon’s nosy neighbors were too busy to see him enter. The last thing he needed was for one of them to report back to Trevon; but even so, he had been over enough times to be familiar with most. Garret was careful as he went through the house. He made it a point to put things back in place so it would
n’t alert Trevon that someone else had been inside. He found similar clippings of Hailey that he had found in Shareeka’s box. He found Trevon’s laptop under the bed. Garrett’s first thought, “What an unusual place to keep your laptop.”

  Garrett placed the laptop on top of the bed and turned it on. Surprisingly there wasn’t a password required to access it. As many times as he tried to impose on Trevon the importance of a password, he didn’t listen. Fortunately for Garrett, Trevon didn’t heed his advice. It made his job so much easier.

  Garrett inserted his zip drive into the external port. With a few keystrokes, he copied the files on Trevon’s laptop to his zip drive so he could view from his own laptop later. He chose not to view the items there because he would have been tense on edge, worrying whether Trevon would make a surprise visit home. After copying the files, he dusted his fingerprints off the laptop and placed it back under the bed in its original location. He placed the zip drive in his pocket and did one final swoop of the room.

  Garrett surveyed the room one last time and didn’t see anything else out of the ordinary. He made sure everything was in tact and headed down the hallway. When he got near the door, he thought he heard a noise. Garrett rubbed the back of his head. He was now laid across the floor in front of the front door. It took awhile to gather his senses. He wasn’t sure how long he had been laying there. Someone had knocked him out but were now gone. Garrett stumbled some as he got on his feet.

  None of his personal belongings had been taken so he wondered who else had been in the house. He checked his pocket for the external drive and it was still there. He couldn’t tell Trevon about the incident because he wasn’t supposed to be there. What if it was Trevon? He dialed Trevon’s office number. He picked up. Garrett said, “Hey man, I just wanted to let you know that I was on my way to the office.”

  If it was Trevon, he never indicated to Garrett that he knew his whereabouts. As far as Garrett knew, Trevon was at the office, so the question was, who hit him? Garrett hung up the phone and with his mind and body on full alert, he went through Trevon’s house to see if he could find any evidence of the intruder. The intruder had not taken anything as far as he could tell.

  Garrett peaked out the window to see if any neighbors were outside. None were, so he took the opportunity to go to his car. When he got to his car, there was a note on his company stationery with the words written – STAY OUT OF IT, written across it.

  Garrett got in his car. His mind was on overload as he tried to process the events that led up to this particular moment. Trevon was still not out of the clear. He could have had his office number transferred to his cell number. He dialed the employee he had watching Shareeka. “So she’s been there the entire time? Are you sure?”

  After they confirmed Shareeka’s whereabouts, Garrett scratched Shareeka off the list. His cell phone rang, it was Caroline. Garrett said, “Yes, I’m still coming in.” He paused, before saying, “Okay. Call Hailey back and tell her I’m on my way.”

  Garrett hung up with Caroline. His phone indicator alerted him to several missed calls. He clicked and noticed most were from Hailey. Garrett knew he should call Hailey back but until he could get the pounding in his head to subside, he would just wait until he got to the studio. He clipped on his Bluetooth and listened to all of his messages as he drove towards the studio. He called Trevon to let him know of his change of plans. Trevon didn’t seem too surprised.

  ~ 38 ~

  “This must be from your new man,” Jackie said, as she walked in Hailey’s office with a bouquet of red roses and a box of candy.

  “They are beautiful,” Hailey said, anxious to read the card.

  Jackie handed both to her. Hailey looked but didn’t see a card. “Where’s the card?” Hailey asked.

  Jackie responded, “There wasn’t any.”

  Disappointed, Hailey said, “You can eat some of the candy. Just save me a piece for later.”

  “You sure. This is the expensive chocolate.”

  “And that means what to me?” Hailey asked.

  Jackie said, “Well, you don’t have to tell me twice.” Jackie removed a round thick piece of chocolate that looked like turtles and ate it. In between bites, “It’s good but it has a funny taste to it.”

  “Let me taste one,” Hailey said.

  Jackie reached out to hand her the box of candy but before Hailey could take it, Jackie started panting hard and fell to the floor barely missing the edge of the desk.

  Hailey screamed, “Oh my God. Somebody help me please.” She rushed from around her desk. Bach happened to be walking down the hall and heard her. “What’s going on?” he asked as soon as he entered the room.

  “Hurry, call 9-1-1,” Hailey yelled.

  Bach retrieved his phone and made the call. “I’m not sure what happened.”

  Hailey said, “She was eating candy and then she passed out. Oh my God, the candy could be poisoned.”

  Bach attempted CPR on Jackie, but she remained passed out. It didn’t take long for the paramedics to arrive. She moved out of the way as she listened to Bach explain to them what happened. One of the paramedics said, “She could have had an allergic reaction, but we won’t know that for sure until we get her to the hospital.”

  Hailey rocked back and forth as the paramedics tried to revive Jackie. Bach and John tried to calm her. “Where’s Garrett?” she asked.

  Bach responded, “His secretary said he was on his way.”

  The paramedic said, “She’s coming around.”

  “Thank God,” Hailey said.

  One of the officers walked up to her. “Has her next of kin been notified?”

  John responded, “I’ve contacted her parents. They will be meeting us at the hospital.”

  Hailey by now was standing by Jackie’s side. She said, as Jackie’s eyes flittered open and close. “You got to get better. Who else can put up with my mood swings?”

  She thought she saw a slight smile on Jackie’s face, but wasn’t sure. The paramedic said, “Ma’am, we got to get her in the ambulance now.”

  Hailey released Jackie’s hand so they could do their job. Mo wrapped his arms around her. “I’ll ride in the ambulance with her. You don’t need to be there. The media is going to be all over this.”

  “I don’t care. Jackie has to be okay.”

  Mo said to John. “Take care of her. Let me go before they leave me.”

  He placed Hailey’s hand in John’s and left to enter the back of the ambulance. “Hailey, I got here as soon as I could,” Garrett said, making his way through the small crowd that had gathered from other parts of the studio.

  She ran into Garrett’s arms not caring what anyone said. “Someone tried to kill me, but instead they almost got her. I had received a bouquet of flowers and candy. I thought they were from you. She asked for a piece of candy so I was like sure—take the whole box.”

  “Where’s the package now?” Garrett asked.

  “You’ll have to ask one of them,” Hailey said, pointing in the direction of the police officers.

  “John, stay with her.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Hailey protested.

  “Fine.” Garrett made his way through the small crowd.

  Hailey followed behind Garrett and listened in as he asked the detective questions about the contents of the box.

  Detective Thomas said, “Until we get our lab to confirm, I can’t say for sure what was in the candy. Ms. Barnes here says after she ate the candy, she started heaving and passed out. It’ll be two days before we learn of anything.”

  “I have connections that can get it back sooner,” Garrett stated.

  “Sir, that might be the case, but this is my investigation.”

  Garrett pulled out his card. “I’ve been working with Special Agent Morrison and he has assured me that…”

  Detective Thomas interrupted him. “Why didn’t you say so?” He got the attention of another detective. “Have this rushed. We need to know what was in the
candy no later than this time tomorrow.”

  Hailey was impressed with how Garrett handled the situation. She stood in the background and continued to listen as they exchanged information. Garrett said, “We would appreciate it if you wouldn’t speak with the press about any of this.”

  After Garrett finished talking with the officers, Hailey made it known that she wanted to go to Cedars to check on Jackie. “It might be best not to,” Garrett said.

  Special Agent Morrison walked up to them. After their initial greeting, he said, “Good, I caught you both before you left. I overheard you say you were going to Cedars. I’ll take you there myself. I know a secret entrance.”

  Garrett said, “But we’re trying to avoid any media attention.”

  “I have an idea. Media attention is exactly what we need.”

  Hailey looked between Garrett and Morrison. “I just want to check on Jackie.”

  “Ms. Barnes. In order for what I have planned to work. I will need your full cooperation.”

  Hailey retrieved her purse from her office. Thirty minutes later, Morrison had snuck Hailey in. Only she didn’t walk in, she was wheeled in on a stretcher. As they went down the hallway, she noticed the surprised look on several people’s face, when they recognized her. Garrett was on one side of the stretcher and the detective and some paramedic who she didn’t remember his name, was on the other.

  “We need a nurse,” the paramedic said.

  Hailey was officially admitted into the hospital. Morrison had it set up where she was in a room right next door to Jackie with an adjourning door. “I’m not sure if this was a good idea,” Garrett said.

  “I’ll do anything if this will end this madness,” Hailey said, as she slipped into the room to check on Jackie.

  Mo put his fingers up to his hand to hush her. Jackie had several IVs in her and was resting. Mo whispered, “They pumped her stomach. The nurse said she’ll be in and out. I was going to stay until her parents get here.”

  Hailey let Mo in on their plans. Mo’s facial expression changed dramatically as if he was watching a thriller. Hailey said, “This is a time where I don’t care if you talk to the media.”