by Tonya Kappes
Joel slowly nods his head for me to ‘take it all off’.
I glare at him and grit my teeth letting the nightie slide to the top of my feet. With one fling, I whip the piece of black lace in the air, smacking Joel in the face.
“Ouch!” Joel screams, holding his eye and falling to the floor.
“Medic! Call the medic!” Hugh throws the blanket around me and rushes to Joel’s side.
Beth rushes to my side and whisks me away to the dressing room.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nervously, I sit in my dressing room without knowing what happened to Joel. Either way, I feel like it serves him right for putting me through that. I have no doubt he was going to fake sick, but he was going to make me suffer first.
“You did a number on Dirk,” Beth laughs. “I guess the little pill I gave you made you a little too relaxed.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” I don’t really want to drag myself into a drug smuggling investigation, but what if Linda was into it and that is what got her killed? “What was it anyway?”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head. You just be a good girl and continue taking your clothes off as Hugh asks you to do and we will take good care of you.” She winks before putting a little pile of the pills on the coffee table in front of one of the couches.
“Do you have anything stronger?” I rub my nose, letting her know what I’m talking about. I’d seen the move several times in movies.
“Now you’re talking.” Her slanted eyes crease a little more as her smile widens. “I told Hughy that you were the real deal.”
“Hughy?” I ask.
“That’s what all the top girls call him.” She scribbles something on a piece of paper. “Show up here tonight. I’ll tell Hughy I invited you.”
Seductively she runs her finger along my shoulders and down my arm, placing the piece of paper in my hand. Ewww!
“I’m looking forward to seeing you.” She closes my hand around the paper and quickly steps back when Angela walks into the room.
I read the address and recall it’s the location of an abandoned building.
“Be here on time in the morning to shoot the scene again.” Beth straightens herself up, her shoulders back. Her voice is stiff. “Try not to hurt Dirk this time.”
Beth stomps out of the room. Obviously, she knows that Angela isn’t one of the ‘girls’.
“What was that about?” Angela’s face contorts in some sort of strange way.
“I have no idea.” I shrug it off and keep the little tidbit of information Beth had given me to myself. I could get some insider information on who killed Linda and why.
“You did a number on Joel.” She grabs a washcloth and dips it in the makeup remover. She wipes down my face.
“Ouch…too hard.” I pull away, not sure if she is trying to hurt me or not. “I didn’t mean to hurt him. What happened to him?”
“You have good aim if you were going for his cornea.” She adjusts the wig on her head. “I’m so glad we can get out of here early, though. I’m about done with this getup.” She adjusts her boobs, creating more cleavage.
I laugh.
“You know that Joel and I are over.” She stands back. There is sincerity in her tone. “He is falling hard for you. Even Jill told me.”
“Thanks. I needed that.” I smile, realizing that I pegged her wrong. She’s here to help, just like Joel. “Hey, that little pile of pills over there is from Beth. She said that if I go there tomorrow night, I can score something stronger.”
“Olivia, that’s great!” She takes the pills and puts them in a tissue. “You have come in here and gotten in much quicker than me. They haven’t even tried to give me something. I have even asked once when I pretended to have a headache but not even a Tylenol was offered.”
“Plus, I got this.” I dangle the piece of paper in front of her with the address. “Tonight there is something going on.”
She took it by the edges as if there is some sort of evidence on it. She put it in a tissue too.
“I’ll make sure that we have some people in place.” She pats my shoulder. “You might have cracked this case wide open.”
“Are you going to share the information with Joel?” I’m sure she has already talked to him.
“Yes.” Her eyes soften and her aura does the same. “Unfortunately, I think he is going to have surgery and will be in the hospital for a couple of days. He’s going to be pretty doped up, so I’m afraid it’s just you and me.”
“Like Cagney and Lacey?” I get all excited.
“Who?” She looks at me like I have two heads.
“Oh never mind.” I don’t feel like explaining who they are. I wasn’t born when the show was around, but Aunt Matilda loves watching the old episodes on the Nick at Night channel.
“Okay.” She gathers her stuff. “I’ll make sure I give this to the chief too. We have to have all the evidence packaged properly. Good job. I will see you here in the morning.” She nods before she goes out the door.
“What in the world happened out there?” Erin walks in with a file stuck under her arm.
“You wouldn’t believe it.” I slip on my sweatpants and tell her all about Joel’s big plan of getting sick to buy us more time, only he was enjoying toying with me, which made me mad.
“So you flung the nightie and tore his eyeball?”
“Yep.” I can’t help but smile. “He’s going to be fine. Now I have to stay undercover with Christy, also known as Angela.” I put Angela in finger quotes. “Really, she isn’t that bad. She did tell me that Joel really likes me.”
“Did we ever doubt that?” She questions me. “Anyway, Harold nabbed this file for us.”
She hands it to me. It’s Linda Minx’s file. My jaw drops when I thumb through it and see how much money she was making per film.
“If that isn’t a reason to kill someone, I don’t know what is.” She pulls out a piece of paper from a court docket.
Evidently, Linda was suing 4Play and Hugh because they haven’t been paying her. All of their checks have bounced.
“If she’s dead, then they don’t have to pay her.” The color drains from Erin’s face. “I just thought of that.”
“It does make sense.” I look at the address, which matches the address in Joel’s file and also the address that had popped up on Vive’s fancy tracking device.
“Let’s go home and search through all this.” Erin takes the file and puts it in my bag.
“There is one stop I have to make before I come home.” I stamp Linda’s address in my mind. “You go on and I’ll meet you there.”
“One thing,” she turns before she goes, “don’t you think it’s strange that Carl is pretending to not know anything about 4Play?”
“That is strange.” I grab my bag and walk out with Erin.
There is no time to tell her all about the stuff Joel has told me about the whole FBI thing. I don’t have time to worry about a piddly little drug scandal. I have to worry about finding the killer and keeping me out of jail.
“Where is your car?” She glances around the parking lot
Shit! With all the crazy things going on, I had totally forgotten about that one little detail.
“Over there.” I point in no specific direction. “I’ll see you at home.”
She’s not buying it, but she knows better than to question me. Relieved that she let me go, I head in the general direction of the bus stop.
A bus is waiting when I get there.
“Do you pass Cat Cove?” I ask the driver when he opens the door.
“Sure do.” He nods.
“Great.” I hop on board and pay the small fare to take me to Linda Minx’s house.
There is a little bit of a drive to get there, which gives me some needed time to put what facts I have together. Taking out a piece of paper from my bag, I scribble down what I know.
1) Linda Minx is dead.
2) Buddy was in her fan club.
3) Buddy
knew she was going to be a client at Color Me Love.
4) Buddy was on a date with her the night she died.
5) The person who killed her had to be at the hoedown because they had to see me slug her.
6) There is a drug smuggling ring going on at 4Play.
7) Hugh gives out drugs.
8) Linda was 4Play’s highest paid stripper porn star Erotica movie star.
9) 4Play’s checks to Linda bounced.
10) Linda was suing 4Play.
11) Linda wanted a man.
12) Joel and I made love.
13) Angela Christy isn’t so bad.
I stare at the list to see if anything jumps out at me. Since I know I didn’t murder Linda, then by process of elimination, I still can’t rule out Buddy. I can explain the 4Play brochures. He can say that Linda gave them to him. I can explain the phone number he had because he can say Linda gave it to him. I can’t explain how he knew Linda was going to be a client at Color Me Love.
So what’s all the fuss, Ain’t nobody that spies like us. I check my phone to see who Paul is singing about.
“Hello? Who is this?” I jump and answer as soon as I see it’s the number that has been calling me and hanging up.
14) Mysterious number is calling me. It didn’t start until Linda Minx died.
I scribble on my list with my phone pinned between my shoulder and ear. “Hello?” I try not to bring too much attention to me. The bus is full and attention is the last thing I need.
The phone line goes dead. I make a mental note to ask Joel if he had any luck finding out whose number it belongs to, but it’s going to have to be on hold until he gets better. Maybe Vive will let me use her gadget again.
“Next stop, Cat Cove,” the driver says over the bus speakers.
Quickly I gather my list and stick it in my bag with my phone set on vibrate. I’m not sure what I’m going to encounter at Linda’s house. Did she live with anyone? With the money she was making, I bet she has a housekeeper who might know something.
The bus stops shy of Linda’s sprawling mansion. I walk up to the ornamental gated home and hit the black button on the box.
“Yes?” A woman answers.
“I’m here. . .” I stammer, not sure what to say.
I’m Olivia Davis, the number one murder suspect in Linda’s death?
“Are you here for the job?” She asks.
Job?
“I am,” I proudly state. I have no idea what job. Nothing is beneath me. After all, I am a Porn Queen.
I stand back as the gates swing open and follow the blacktopped driveway to the front of the mansion. There are two marble staircases on each side of a huge pond with a large sculptured fish fountain. I decide to take the right side of the steps, and almost trip as I see the fish spit water out of its mouth.
The heavy metal ornamental doors are open when I reach the top.
“Hi, I’m Hope.” She puts her hand out.
Everything goes black.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“I told you to call me.” I hear the woman scream into the phone. “You said that if I told you where Linda was going for her dates, you would help us out. You aren’t holding up to your end of the deal.”
I blink, trying to figure out where in the hell I am and who is talking. It feels like heaven. The satin comforter feels good against my face and the mattress molds to my body.
Linda?
I pop up when I realize I passed out on Linda Minx’s front porch when the woman answered the door. The woman who is the same redheaded woman with the magenta aura that was giving Hugh the business after the whole Joel sex-scene went badly.
Lying back down, I shut my eyes to pretend to be out cold.
“No!” Her voice echoes throughout the stone walls. “You said that you would help me. Linda is dead, so now it’s time to help me!”
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Did I just hear a confession? Who is this woman? And what job is she hiring for?
Very slowly, I reach in my bag and feel around for my can of mace. I grab it and put it in the elastic of my sweatpants.
“You’re up,” She brushes her long red hair behind her shoulder. “You scared the living shit out of me. Luckily, I’ve been around diabetics and know how low blood sugar makes you pass out.”
She sits on the bed and looks around.
“I hope you don’t mind the housekeeping quarters.” She stands up. Walking over to the mini-bar, she opens the refrigerator and takes out a small bottle of orange juice. “My sister, Felicia, was diabetic.”
I’ll go with the whole diabetic angle. It’s much better than telling her that I’m a psychic that reads auras and think she’s a murderess with an alias.
“Was?” I question. I eye her phone sitting on the bedside table. If I can only get a look at the call log. “Is she recovered?”
“No. She died.” There is sadness in her eyes. “We don’t need to talk about that.” She stands up and looks me up and down. “I see you dressed for the interview.”
“Interview?”
“The cleaning job.”
“Yes, the cleaning job,” I repeat. Her phone is practically calling my name.
“You can start with Felicia’s room. The bathroom is a mess.” She reaches for her phone.
“Wait!” I gasp as if I am about to pass out. “Do you have a cookie? The orange juice is great, but I think I need a little more sugar.”
“I’ll be right back.” She heads to the door, and says, “I expect a really good job out of you.”
I grab her phone off the side table when she is out of sight. I have no idea how to use the fancy new phone, but finding the call log shouldn’t be that difficult.
“How can I help you?” A voice booms from the phone, scaring the shit out of me.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t understand you. How can I help you?” The voice asks again.
I have to get a new phone. My poor BlackBerry is really not the new gadget of the moment.
“Can you tell me who I called last?” I talk to the phone as if it’s a person. “Thank you.”
She rattles off a number that I had memorized a few short weeks ago. A phone number that I want to forget.
Buddy. I gasp and put the phone back on the stand. I recall the words she had said to him while I was pretending to be unconscious.
Why did she say, “You said that you would help me? Linda is dead, so now it’s time to help me!”
I reach in my bag and pull out my list and pen. I don’t want to forget a thing.
15) Hope is Linda’s sister, and conversation with Buddy.
I jot down a few notes of the conversation and slip my paper back in my bag when I hear Hope’s footsteps walking down the hall toward the room.
“Here you go.” She has a stack of sugar cookies in her hand.
“No thanks.” I wave her hand away. I don’t want to pack on any pounds for the camera. “I’m feeling much better.”
Her face squishes up. “Whatever. Follow me.”
Silently, I follow her and look around as I go. The walls are covered in pictures of Felicia, from her early days to her film days.
“Is your sister Linda Minx?” I act surprised.
“Yes.” Hope’s shoulders slump, but she keeps walking. Her aura turns a shade of red. Sadness fills the space around her. There is pain in her soul. “Sadly she was killed a few nights ago.”
“I heard that.” I do my best-shocked impression. “Who did it? An angry fan? A stalker?”
“They don’t know.” She doesn’t turn around, but her aura is stronger than ever. I can feel the emptiness she is feeling in her heart. I have to look away in fear I might pass out again. “She was surrounded by a lot of bad people.”
I want to blurt out Buddy’s name to see her reaction, but I don’t have to.
“Hope? Are you here?” Buddy’s voice rings out in the mansion, and then a door slams.
“Where is the bathroom?” I frantically ask. There is no way I wan
t Buddy to see me. Not only would he tell her who I really am, but also I’m afraid they will knock me off.
“Right through there.” She points to the opposite end of the hallway. “Just come find me when you are done. I will inspect and tell you if you have a job or not. I’m looking to fill it very soon.”
She heads the other way and I pull out my sheet of paper.
16) Hope is in desperate need to hire a new housekeeper. Is she trying to get evidence cleaned up?
With my body against the wall, I slither my way back to where Hope went. If I can get any of their conversation taped on my phone, I might be in good shape.
“I told you that I would help you if you helped me, but she didn’t want me.” Buddy’s orange aura darkens to a deep burnt orange. He is getting angrier by the minute. “She said that she couldn’t be seen with a big fat loser like me. We had a fight. So I told her that I wasn’t going to help her.”
“You are a fool! She was so upset when she left there!” Hope smacks his face.
“You better watch it or you will end up like her!” He pumps his fist in the air.
I try to steady my shaking hand, but drop the phone. It echoes throughout the mansion.
“What was that?” Buddy jumps around. “Who else is here?”
They both look in my general direction. I don’t wait around to see if they come looking for the noise. I tiptoe my way back to Linda’s room.
Her room is larger than my entire cottage. And her closest…
My mouth drops open when I push the double doors open to reveal the spinning tables of shoes, purses and wigs.
Wigs?
I pick up the wig that is lying on the floor and put it on the bald manikin. I’ve seen this before. I search my memory to try to remember if I saw it on a photo of Linda or if. . .
Oh, crap! Hope!
I picture Hope’s face in the long dark wig. Everything adds up. Hope needs something from Buddy, so she tells him how to get a date with Linda. When it doesn’t work out, Buddy and Linda get into a fight. He runs her over. Hope puts on one of Linda’s wigs to confront him at the mixer. Hope knows about the drug scandal and tells Hugh she is going to go to the tabloids.
But what does Hope need from Buddy?
