Color Me a Crime (18 page)

Butterflies still flutter around in my stomach. The thought of someone watching something so intimate makes me want to throw up. I might beat Joel to the punch of pretending to be sick, only I will not be pretending.

“Are you ready?” He puts the car in park.

“Where are we?” I look around, not recognizing the area.

“Some undercover sleuth you are.” He pats the dashboard of the car. “How can I go undercover if I drive a police car?”

I follow his finger as he points to a sign.

“Public transportation?” My jaw drops. I have never ridden on a bus before.

“Yep.” He looks out the rear-view mirror. “Come on or we are going to miss it.”

We jump out just in time to catch the next bus. We aren’t on long because the next stop is right in front of the 4Play building.

We decide to go up separately so Beth doesn’t think that something is going on. I go up first and head to the filth floor…um…fifth floor.

“Good morning,” Beth smiles and holds out her palm. I look at the small pill she is thrusting toward me. “You are going to want to take this to relax for your big scene.”

Holy crap!
I don’t know whether to pretend to take the pill so I have evidence that she tried to give me something or decline.

“Go on. It won’t hurt you.” Her smile widens, making me a little more uncomfortable. Her aura pales, telling me she is trying to be very deceptive. She opens my hand and puts it in. “Here.” She hands me a bottle of water.

We turn when the elevator dings. Joel steps out. Beth thrusts her hands behind her back.

“Good morning. Angela is ready for you in makeup.” Beth puts on a shit-eating grin. Her aura dulls to a dark grey---almost black---sending a chill up my spine.

I try not to give him eye contact, because I know he will be able to read me.

Too late.

His aura darkens to a deep blue. He is in protective mode.

“Is everything okay here?” He directs his question to Beth.

“Are you my boss?” She stands stiff, rigid. “I suggest you go do your job and I will take care of Lolita.”

“Lana,” I correct her. “My name is Lana Deep and I’m fine, thank you.” I nod at Joel, letting him know that I’m fine.

Without another word, I walk into the little room that Beth has always put me in.

“No, no.” She puts her hand on me to stop me. I turn around and she’s smiling from ear to ear. “We can’t be having our new star in that little room. You’ve got Linda’s old room.”

Joel’s eyes narrow with suspicion. His aura is so deep that I feel like I’m at the Caribbean Ocean.

“Old room?” I question.

“She’s dead, so you get her dressing room. Hugh even had it redone overnight.” Beth squeals.

I follow her, but I’m not so giddy.

“Here you go.” She opens the door.

Erin is already sitting on one of the four red leather couches. Red-feathered lamps are scattered all over the large room along with a wall full of shoes and designer clothes.

“We can’t have our new star walking around like
that
all the time,” Beth says and points to my sweatpants. “You will be up for a lot of XXX Awards. I’ll fetch Angela.”

Erin and I wait for her to leave.

“I can’t be here that long,” I say to Beth,” trying not to cry. All I can think about is Aunt Matilda. She is already so disappointed in me. I hold out the pill in my hand. “Beth tried to get me to take this so I will be relaxed for my sex scene.”

“Don’t take it.” Erin grabs a tissue out of the tissue box and has me put it in there. “We will give it to Angela.”

Someone knocks on the door.

“Great idea.” I walk over to answer the door. “Harold, get in here.”

“You have gotten yourself into a big mess.” He flails his flashlight in the air. “They hired me on the spot. I was here all night. And so were a lot of other people.”

“Did you see any funny business going on?” I ask, and plant my hand on the door just in case Angela or Beth decides to walk in without knocking.

“There were big men coming in and out of here all night long.”

“Were they working in here?” I ask, trying to eliminate the possibility of construction workers and not drug smugglers, or better yet, killers.

“There were some guys in here, but they were only moving stuff from one room to the next.” He gestures with his flashlight. “Something fishy is going on around here and I’m going to figure it out.”

The knock at the door abruptly stops our conversation.

“I’ll stop by your house later today,” I say before I open the door to Angela.

I know I should tell her and Joel about Harold, but they are so focused on the drug smuggling ring that my issues aren’t as crucial…to them.

“Is something wrong?” Angela questions Harold.

I can’t help but smile when I see his eyes almost fall out of his head when he sees her big boobs practically tumbling out of her very thin pale-yellow V-neck---a stark contrast from how she dresses in real life.

“Just introducing myself and letting Ms.…” He looks at the nameplate on the door and looks back at me. His eyebrows form a V…“
Ms. Deep
know that if she needs anything while I’m here, to let me know.
”

“I appreciate that.” I nod and smile.

“Are you ready for makeup?” Angela pushes back her super curly hair and opens the door wide enough for Harold to walk out.

Instantly, a different color aura grabs my attention from the production floor.

I strain my neck without being too obvious, to see whose aura it is. It’s the same one the mystery girl had at Buddy’s mixer.

“Strange.” I look at the long red-haired woman in a heated conversation with Hugh. She is jabbing her finger into his chest and he is giving it right back to her.

“What?” Erin gets up and looks out the door. Angela turns around, as does everyone else on the production floor.

“Something is going on out there.” I try to buy time to see if there is any shift in the colors, but the girl’s aura is magenta and she is bound and determined to try to figure something out. That ‘something’ is a deep secret that Hugh is keeping. His aura tells me.

Hugh snaps his fingers and Harold rushes over.

“This old man is going to kick me out of here? She screams and laughs in Harold’s face. “I will leave on my own, but this is not the last time you will see me! I will go straight to the tabloids!”

“Don’t mind her.” Angela shuts the door, putting the production floor debacle out of sight. “She got fired.”

I sit in silence as Angela puts on my makeup. She doesn’t say a word about the plan that she and Joel had concocted. I chalk it up to Erin sitting there. Erin knows that as soon as I get on the set, she is supposed to go nose around. I hope she heard everything Harold said and will go searching around Hugh’s office.

“Are you ready?” Angela stares deep into my soul. There is a jealous tinge to her aura.

“I can’t wait to kiss him,” I squeal and watch her aura go from red to a deep maroon. She’s so mad and I don’t care. It makes me sick to think that she, as Christy, had held Joel’s heart at one time. “He was fantastic last night,” I whisper, “Only we weren’t pretending.” I wink and get up.

I strip down to nothing and shimmy into the lacy nightie.

“Work it.” Erin winks with approval on how I set Angela straight. She knows that Angela is really Christy.

“Ta-ta.” I wave over my shoulder and make sure I strut out of the dressing room.

“Quiet on the set!” Hugh and the camera are covered with a black blanket to drown out any of the light that might hurt the scene. “Where is Dirk?” He throws the blanket off. His face is red.

Joel, aka Dirk, walks on the set with one of the socks hanging off his man parts. I try not to look at him, but his smile is so big that I laugh out loud.

“No, no, no, honey.” Hugh wags his finger back and forth. “Don’t be laughing.” He throws the blanket back over his head.

One of the camera men gives the 1-2-3-GO with his fingers. I slink around to the music just as Joel slides around with the ‘hungry eye’ the script calls for. I let one strap fall slightly off my shoulder and continue to do my best lusty stare back at Joel.

His aura turns light.

Son of a bitch!
I glare at him. He is playing with me. He is going to hold out playing sick until I become totally uncomfortable.

The co-director is motioning for me to let the nightie fall, but I continue to swing the edges with my hands as I sway back and forth. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Erin walk back to Hugh’s office, unseen.

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.