Dead Famous

by Kate Allenton

  I grinned. “You pulled a Calinda and Durand on them.”

  Charlie rubbed his hands together. “I figured that was the best way to get on Dr. Temple’s roster, and it worked.”

  “You’re a genius,” I announced, popping up from the couch. I glanced at the frown on West’s face. “I understand if you’d rather not go. I’m sure Butler can take your place.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m looking forward to matching wits with the actor.” West rose. “Can I talk to you for a minute, privately?”

  “Sure,” I answered and took his hand, leading him to the bedroom. Did he want to thank me properly? Was he telling me he was leaving? All kinds of thoughts swarmed in my head.

  I closed the door behind us. West stood with his back to me. I cleared the distance between us and rested my hand on his arm. “What’s the matter?”

  “Katherine wants you to stop looking for Calinda’s killer.” He turned to face me. His brows furrowed.

  “Is that what you want?” I asked, unsure I wanted to hear his answer.

  “It’s gotten more complicated.”

  “You’re afraid it was him?” I searched West’s gaze for the answers he wasn’t giving me. “West…”

  “If it was him, then he’ll send someone to silence you.”

  “What do you want?”

  “The truth, no matter how hard it is to swallow, but I also need to keep you safe. If it hadn’t been for me bringing you into this mess, your life wouldn’t be on the line. I won’t be responsible for your death too.”

  “You’re asking me to stop searching, aren’t you?”

  “No. I’m just telling you what will happen after you find the answers if it was him. They’ll come for us.”

  “Us?”

  “Us.” He cupped my cheek. His gaze turned soft. “Calinda was wrong. You found the diamond, and I have no intention of leaving.”

  He was right; Calinda had been wrong. I just hoped she was wrong about her other prediction of me being the one to die. I took his hand and sat him on the bed, plopping down by his side. “I have a solution, but you aren’t going to like it.”

  His gaze turned serious. “I’m listening.”

  “We leave, say I’m done. No one is the wiser, but instead, we go back and use Insight to see who killed her. If it was him, then you handle it. If it was anyone else, then we’ll move forward with trying to find some evidence.”

  “You’d do that for me?”

  I nodded. “You want to know, right? It’s the only way we can throw off suspicion that we’ve given up the search.”

  He leaned forward and pressed a tender kiss to my lips. “I was right you know.”

  “About….”

  “The fed made a huge mistake letting you go. I don’t plan to follow in his footsteps.”

  “You may lose your country.”

  He kissed me again. “You can be my new home.”

  “I’m not nearly as interesting as your life as a super-secret-spy wannabe-prince. You’d be bored in a week.”

  “One day at a time.” He rose and gestured to the suitcase. “Pack your bags, and I’ll go pack mine. We’re going back to the Lady Blue.”

  “I should tell the others and thank them for putting up with you.”

  “Putting up with me?”

  I grinned. “Us.”

  “I’ll go to the hotel and make the arrangements. You can tell them goodbye.”

  West and I both walked out of the room, and I walked him to the door where he gave me a proper kiss goodbye.

  Charlie was the first to speak when I shut the door. “Tell me that was I’m going back to my own country kind of kiss and not an I’ll see you later kiss.”

  I walked back into the living room, where Butler was lounging with a cup of coffee and Charlie was seated on the oversized couch. “It’s over.”

  Charlie rubbed his hands together. “Great. Let me take you out on a date. I promise you’ll love it.”

  I tsked. “Not him and me, but trying to find the killer. You’ll have to cancel our therapy session. I’m going back home.”

  Butler lowered his coffee mug. “Did I miss something? Did bunhead scare you away? Because I have bodyguards you can use. You don’t have to leave.”

  “Thanks, Butler, but I really do need to go home.”

  “So that’s it? You’re just going to give up?” Charlie asked, rising from his chair. He shook his head. “I know you. You aren’t a quitter. Was it the Lord? Did he talk you into leaving?”

  “West didn’t talk me into anything.” I cleared my throat. If I told these guys the truth, then that might put them both in danger. “After being held at gunpoint, I just need a break.” Or a million. Those words were actually true. A vacation was sounding like a brilliant plan right now, not that I’d be able to get away when I actually did solve this case, considering Faraday still needed my help.

  Charlie looked like I’d kicked his puppy. Butler walked over to me and pulled me in for a hug. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do. I’m always here for you, and you can come visit anytime.”

  I put my arms around his waist and squeezed him back. “Thanks for your hospitality.” I glanced up at him and grinned. “And the dinner. It was amazing.”

  “Anytime.” He kissed my forehead. “Just leave the key in the house when you lock up and leave. I have a spare. I’m heading back to the studio. Don’t worry about her stuff downstairs. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Thanks, Butler.”

  “What about me?” Charlie asked, pulling me from Butler’s arms. “Everything he said but more.”

  I chuckled and hugged him back. “This isn’t a goodbye hug. It’s more of a see you later, keep in touch hug.”

  He lifted me off my feet and twirled me around. “My favorite psychic.”

  “My favorite actor,” I whispered back.

  He lowered me to the ground. “When he screws up, promise you’ll call me.”

  “No can do, buddy. I’m not a Hollywood girl, and I kind of doubt you’re a bayou kind of guy anymore.” I smacked his shoulder. “Don’t let anyone else steal your horse or your girl.”

  “Fine.” He sighed. “I’ll call William and tell him to cancel our appointment.”

  “He set the appointment?”

  “He called in a favor to get us bumped up the list.”

  “Thank him for me.”

  “Will do.” Charlie lifted my hand and kissed my palm. “Until next time, Cree Blue.”

  “Until next time,” I answered and walked him to the door.

  Chapter 19

  Thirty minutes since the guys left and I was just zipping up my suitcase when the phone rang. I glanced at the caller ID before answering. I smiled. West.

  “Are you all packed?” I asked. Grabbing my suitcase, I wheeled it into the living room.

  “Yep. I’m just finishing up. Did you convince the guys that we were giving up?”

  “It was my best acting job to date.” It was my only acting job. I stood where the picture had hung on the wall and the open door leading down into the basement and Calinda’s things. “I’m going back down in the basement for one last look around. If I don’t answer, just come in. I’ll leave the door unlocked.”

  “Perfect. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  “Be safe.”

  “You too.”

  I was about to ask how much trouble I could get into in the basement and then thought better. The last time I’d been down there, I had a gun pointed at me.

  I slipped the phone into my pocket and jogged down the stairs one last time. If I could just pick up on her energy, we might solve the case before we even left.

  I rooted around in some of her boxes, looking, searching for anything that might give me answers. Nothing.

  I plopped down on one of the boxes and opened another. A jewelry box sat on top. I slid it open, and music filled the stuffy room. A sonogram sat on top. I frowned. Poor woman. She’d almost had that kind of lo
ve that I’d only read about. The unconditional kind felt between a mom and a child.

  “I wonder if you were a boy or a girl.” I flipped the sonogram over and found writing at the bottom. “William Durand Jr.”

  “Charlie told me you found Calinda’s things,” William said from behind me.

  I jumped at his voice, knocking the jewelry box to the ground. It broke. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to get the sonogram,” he said, lifting the gun in his hand.

  “The baby was yours? Did you tell your wife?”

  “God no. She would have divorced me and taken half of everything I owned. I thought she could pawn it off on the prince, but he dumped her the day she died.”

  “You talked to her the day she died. I’m so stupid. You mentioned in your office that you knew they’d broken up. You couldn’t have known that unless you spoke to her after it happened. I just didn’t put the pieces together until now. You were here. It was you who killed her?”

  “She told me she was going to take me to court to prove paternity. She wanted me, and she wouldn’t let me go. I told her I didn’t love her, that I already had a family. She just didn’t know when to stop. She would have ruined everything.” His voice became more irritated with each syllable.

  “She loved you,” I whispered. “She told me that she loved you.”

  He shook his head and grabbed my arm, pulling me up the stairs. “I couldn’t make her stop. I thought the prince would make her forget. One mistake, one night after our therapy session, and she was going to ruin my life. I couldn’t let that happen.” He glanced at me as he yanked me into the foyer. “You should have never come here. It could have all stayed buried. I made a mistake leaving her body after cleaning up the mess. I won’t make that mistake a second time.”

  I tried to pull my arm free from his grasp. The angle of his hold on me didn’t help. His beefy fingers dug into my skin.

  He threw open the front door and pulled me off the porch. “You won’t get away with this. People will miss me. They’ll trace my last steps.”

  “I’m an actor, and you were easy to convince. So were those stupid cops.”

  He was right. I’d been easy to convince. I hadn’t had any warning signs. No out of place goosebumps. Nothing to suggest that he was bad news. Was my psychic vibe meter broken?

  “Let her go,” West yelled from the drive with a gun pointed in our direction.

  Durand swung me in front of him and pressed the gun barrel to my head.

  “He killed her,” I screamed. “He killed Calinda. It was his baby.”

  “Shut up,” Durand yelled. “Drop your weapon, or she dies here and now.”

  “You shoot her, and I’ll kill you.”

  “I said drop your weapon.” Durand cocked the trigger. “Now!”

  West’s gaze fell to mine. “I’ll get you out of this.” He released his grip and dangled the weapon in his fingers.

  “No, you won’t.” Durand laughed.

  West held up his other hand. “Please don’t hurt her. You want the diamond? I’ll get it for you. You want money? It’s yours. Whatever you want, just don’t hurt her.”

  Durand aimed the gun at West and pulled the trigger just as I tried to grab it. West fell to the ground, and the gun dropped from his hand.

  “No,” I screamed while crumpling to my knees. Tears clouded my eyes.

  West lay unmoving. Blood coated his white dress shirt and pooled beneath his body. I struggled to get to him, but Durand pulled me to my feet and dragged me to the car. He opened the passenger door, holding the gun to my head. “Get in.”

  He shoved me into the seat and told me to move over, that I was driving. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. All I could see was West lying in the blood.

  Durand shoved the barrel of the gun at my temple, and more tears streamed down my face.

  “Mo—” Durrand jerked and fell to his knees. A punch came seconds later to his temple before I could even see my savior’s face.

  Daniel Splint, the celebrity stalker, leaned into the car. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded and scooted out, running for West, and dropped to my knees.

  “Durand killed her,” I said to Daniel through my tears as I rested my fingers on West’s pulse, thankful that he had one. “Call an ambulance.”

  “I already called the police and an ambulance when you told Archer that Durand guy killed Calinda. No way was I letting him get away with her death and killing the one person who knows the truth. They should be here any minute.”

  The sirens followed minutes later. Several deputies entered the property with their guns drawn, pointing them at Daniel. “On your knees. On your knees.”

  “He saved me,” I yelled, leaving West to stand between Daniel and the bullets. I held up my hand. “He saved me. Don’t shoot.”

  “Ms. Blue?” Detective Tinder stepped around one of the cops. “I should have known you’d be involved.”

  I pointed at West. “He needs help. Durand is the killer.”

  “You’re trying to tell me that William Durand, the famous actor, killed Calinda?”

  The gurney was pushed through the cops, and Daniel dropped to his knees and laced his hands on his head. A cop was cuffing him just as West was being put on the gurney and his shirt cut open.

  I shoved the sonogram into Detective Tinder’s chest. “She was pregnant with his kid, so he killed her. He confessed to me.”

  I stepped around him when Tinder grabbed my arm, stopping me. “We need your statement.”

  “You can get it at the hospital.” I glanced back at Splint. “He saved me. He shouldn’t be in handcuffs; Durand should.”

  Tinder walked me to the ambulance and helped me inside with the medics. “She stays with him.”

  They nodded but kept working on West.

  “Peters, you follow. This woman is our only witness to what Durand did to Calinda. Do not let her out of your sight.”

  Chapter 20

  I paced the room they assigned to West after firing off a text to Charlie. I wanted him to hear it from me since Durand was a family friend. I also texted Butler to let him know his house was now a crime scene.

  West had been in surgery for half an hour with no sign of doctors or nurses or anyone else to give me an update. The phone vibrated in my hand as I glanced at the Caller ID. I breathed a sigh of relief. My best friend was on the other end.

  “When does your flight get in?”

  “I’m not coming back today. I’m not sure when I’ll be back.”

  “But I thought you said—”

  “Well, here’s the thing,” I said, moving to look out the window down to the parking lot. “I found the killer, and he tried to kidnap me, and he shot West.”

  “Oh…my…God…”

  “Calinda’s stalker saved me.”

  “Oh…my…God…Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, but I’m at the hospital waiting for West to get out of surgery.”

  “I’ll be on the next flight out,” Charlotte said before calling out to Freddie in the background.

  “Char,” I said, trying to get her attention as she was barking out orders to those around her.

  “Charlotte,” I said louder.

  “What? I’m making plans.”

  “Stay there. Don’t make plans. I’m coming home just as soon as they release him. I promise, if I have to rent a car and drive him out of here myself, we’re coming home.”

  “You need to keep me posted. If I don’t hear back from you tonight, I’m on the first flight out, and I’m bringing reinforcements.”

  I sighed. She was my best friend, and I’d probably be the same way. West’s phone in the plastic bag full of his belongings started to ring. “I’ll call back later. His phone is ringing.”

  I ended the call and hurried to get West’s out of the bag, surprisingly I didn’t need a code to answer the call. I huffed. He’d gotten on me about using my birthday and the Lord didn’t even have any security
codes himself. I answered. “Hello?”

  “Who’s this?” Prince Phillip asked. I recognized his voice instantly.

  “Cree,” I said, resting my fist on my hip. “We found her killer. You’re off the hook.”

  “Who was it?”

  “You can read about it in the paper, Prince not so charming.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Yeah, I know you’re a widower and didn’t tell your fiancée. Oh, and I found your stupid diamond, and you can shove that where the sun don’t shine.”

  “Ms. Blue.” His voice got demanding in that way that way he wanted my undivided attention. Too bad that crap didn’t work on me.

  “Because of your lies, I’m waiting on West to get out of surgery, and I’m on edge. If you expect me to be nice, then you should call back because it’s not happening today.”

  “Surgery?”

  “He took a bullet trying to save my life and yours by stopping the person responsible for Calinda’s death. If he survives, be sure to thank him.”

  The doctor walked in, pulling the face mask down, so I hung up on Prince Underpants, the man that needed to grow a pair and own up to his youthful indiscretions. I felt sorry for the people of his country if he was going to be their next king.

  “How is he?” I asked.

  “The bullet missed all of his major arteries, but I’m afraid it broke two of his ribs. He’s going to be hurting for a while, but he should be just fine. He’s still under anesthesia and being monitored in the recovery room. When he wakes they’ll get him into a room.”

  A tear slipped from my eye, and I eased into a chair. Relief swamped my body, giving me the ability to breathe again.

  The doctor walked out, and I glanced up to find Butler and Charlie standing at the door. The cop assigned to guard me was blocking their entrance.

  “Don’t you recognize us? That’s our friend in there.”

  “Sorry, guys. She’s under lock and key.”

  I moved to stand behind the cop and peered around him. “I’m fine. West took a bullet, but he’ll be fine too.”

  Charlie reached for me and squeezed my hand. “Cree, I’m so sorry. If I even thought for one minute Durand could do something like this, I would have never told him about you or how you found the secret room.”