Not Famous in Hollywood (Not in Hollywood Book 1) (4 page)

“You are not an American citizen are you?”
she asked.

“
No I’m not,
I’m Australian” I said sighing.

I knew where
this was going. The one thing about working in America but not
actually being an American, is that there are some people who
assume you are here illegally. If you do anything that annoys them,
or if they want something from you, they threaten to report you to
Immigration.

“Miss Eyre is working in this country
legally. I have all the paperwork here,” Reggie interrupted
reaching into his briefcase.

Lucky for me
Reggie did all my original paperwork, as Monique was the one who
sponsored me for my green card. Ramos and Griffin weren’t
interested in the paperwork, I knew that and Reggie knew that. The
question was just aimed to rattle my cage, make me feel uncertain
about my status and a little bit more willing to cooperate. What
they failed to realize was I had no idea about my status and the
only reason I was holding it together was because Reggie was
sitting beside me and his knee kept bumping my leg in what I think
was a desperate attempt at communicating with me in Morse code.
Unfortunately for me I had no idea how to interpret what he was
trying to tell me.

“
Miss Eyre”
Detective Griffin said with a smile. I looked at him and the
ingratiating expression was so far away from irritated or amused at
my expense, that I did a double take. Okay so he was going to try
to be good cop. Didn’t look like he was comfortable with it. I
tried to quirk my eyebrow at him and if the expression on Ramos’s
face was anything to go by, it didn’t work for me
either.

“Can you tell us what happened this morning?”
he asked.

I breathed in
and tried to be smart, just like Monique told me. Lucky for me
Monique always gets me to write up any incidents with clients in a
report format. She said in the litigious world that we lived in, we
had to protect ourselves. I decided to approach this situation like
I would one of those reports.

“Today was supposed to be my day off. My cell
woke me this morning and it was Miss Channing. She informed me that
she was at Mr Hendricks’s house and wanted me to pick her up. I
reminded Miss Channing that it was my day off and she should
contact a limo service who would be happy to pick her up. Miss
Channing informed me that she paid me so my life was not my own,
and that I better get my lazy ass out of bed or she would make sure
I would never get a job in this town again.”

At this point
Reggie’
s knee was starting to leave
bruises on my legs so I wasn’t sure if he was happy with the level
of detail I was giving. I was tired and cranky and these detectives
were annoying me. Between Ramos looking like she wanted to laugh at
me and Griffin quirking that damned eyebrow, I was not in the mood
to answer questions. Seriously I was wondering if it was a nervous
tic.

“
I got in my
car and drove to Ryan Hendricks’s house. There were no staff in
attendance which was unusual, as the man was not able to have a
thought in his head without somebody putting it in there. I called
out for Miss Channing but didn’t receive an answer. I crawled
through the doggie door as Miss Channing had neglected to leave a
door open for me and wasn’t answering when I knocked. I went
upstairs to Mr Hendricks’s bedroom and found Miss Channing sitting
on the bed. She told me Mr Hendricks was in the bathroom. I went in
the bathroom as Miss Channing was distressed and found Mr Hendricks
slumped in the shower. I ascertained whether I could see any signs
of life in Mr Hendricks, could not find a pulse and then I called
911.”

I looked at Reggie, quite proud of myself. A
good report I thought. Succinct and straight to the point.

“
How did you
know where Mr Hendricks’s bedroom was?” asked Griffin.

“I’ve accompanied Miss Channing to several
parties in that house before and know where most of the rooms are”
I replied.

“Did Miss Channing and Mr Hendricks have a
sexual encounter last night?” asked Ramos.

“
You would
need to ask Miss Channing that” I said, reaching for the glass of
water in front of me.

Reggie beamed
at me and I had a little smile myself. I was quite proud of myself
for that answer. I’m pretty sure they went at it like bunnies last
night but I don’t know for sure, and these two police officers
weren’t going to trip me up with speculation. No way, I was on to
them. I watch enough cop shows to be smart about this.

“Were you involved in a sexual encounter with
Mr Hendricks last night?” Griffin asked.

He really
should have waited until I’d finished that sip of water because I
choked and sprayed a mouthful of it all over his shirt. Griffin
jumped up and Reggie helpfully thumped my back as if I was choking
to death. The man may be small but he has a strong arm on
him.

“
What?” I
spluttered, tears running down my face as I desperately tried to
get back control of my airways.

Griffin got back in his chair trying to
ignore the fact that I had just spewed water over him. At least it
stopped him from quirking that eyebrow.

“I asked if you had a sexual encounter with
Mr Hendricks last night” he repeated.

“No” I said.

The two detectives waited but I was no longer
in a sharing mood.

“Have you ever had a sexual encounter with
Ryan Hendricks?” Griffin ventured.

“No” I repeated.

Ryan
Hendricks was gorgeous, there was no doubt about it. Despite my
bravado and the fact I knew what his personality was like, if he
had looked in my direction I am not so sure that I would have had
the intestinal fortitude to say no. I hope so, but there is still
that geeky teenage girl in me, the one who wouldn’t mind being able
to say I’d caught the attention of Ryan Hendricks. I’m not
particularly proud of that facet of my personality, but there you
have it. The fact of the matter was that I hadn’t caught his
attention.

“Have you ever had a sexual encounter with
Eleanor Channing?” asked Ramos.

“Definitely not” I answered, the horror
obviously evident in my voice. I have a friend who repeatedly says
that all women are about three drinks from a girl on girl
encounter. This friend is also a bit of a pig when it comes to
women so it may be just his wishful thinking. If that statement is
true though, to get me near Eleanor Channing it would take a lot
more than three drinks.

“
Exactly
where are you going with these questions?” Reggie asked a bit too
mildly for my tastes. Personally I would have preferred him to jump
up and defend my honor and demand apologies for the inappropriate
questioning, but it looks like chivalry isn’t what it used to
be.

“
Just trying
to ascertain the nature of Miss Eyre’s relationship with all
parties involved” Griffin replied just as mildly.

I narrowed my
eyes at him. Yeah, I really didn’t like him. I started doing my own
Morse code thing with my knee against Reggie’s leg. I wanted out of
here now. Fortunately for me, Reggie is smarter than most people
and he was able to translate my leg spasms into ‘get me the hell
out of here’.

“
I think
we’
re done here Detectives. You have your
statement. My client is the only person involved who actually tried
to help the victim. If you have any other questions for her please
contact my office.” Reggie started packing his briefcase indicating
the interview was over.

As we were
leaving Griffin cleared his throat. “We will be processing your car
as it is part of the crime scene. We’ll get it back to you when we
can.”

I turned
around and Griffin quirked that damn eyebrow of his and tossed in a
smirk just to get to me. Reggie, seeing that I was about to lose
it, very wisely grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the station,
all the time murmuring in my ear.

“
Don’t even
think about it.”

He got me into his car and once the doors
were closed and he was sure we were alone he turned to me.

“
They are
just trying to upset you. At the moment you are a witness, they
can’t really push you that much. The second you do something they
will lock you up and interrogate you a lot harder than
that.”

“
I
wasn’
t going to do anything” I said
calmly staring straight ahead.

“
Right” said
Reggie. “You didn’
t want to hit that cop
at all.”

“
I would
never…” I spluttered.

“
No of course
not”
said Reggie, “that’s not like you at
all.”

I looked
sideways at him and gave him my haughtiest expression. That didn’t
even deserve a response.

Reggie
dropped me off at the front of my apartment. As usual Miss Betsy
was working in the gardens. Miss Betsy Peterman owned the entire
complex and rented out the various apartments, generally to people
that she felt were interesting. She liked to talk, but most of all
she liked to listen and hear stories that people from different
countries and different walks of life could bring her. After trying
to find a reasonably priced place in LA I’m sure I only landed this
one because I launched into a story about the time I got chased by
an emu when holidaying in the outback with my family when I was a
kid. I wish it hadn’t been true. Despite the fact she owned a very
pricey piece of real estate in LA and was raking in the rent, she
liked to do the maintenance on the building herself. It was not
unusual to see Miss Betsy pottering around the place, her gray hair
in a messy bun and with a tool belt around her hips. I always felt
guilty when anything in my unit needed to be repaired and generally
stayed there to do any of the heavy lifting. That being said when
she fixed something she did it well. She said she had to
considering the bum of a husband she had tossed out on his rear
years ago.

As I walked
through the door to my apartment my cell phone rang insistently.
Stupidly I didn’t check caller ID before answering.

“Where are you?” screeched the familiar voice
of Miss Eleanor Channing.

“Well Miss Channing. I have just been dropped
off at my home after spending the morning being questioned by the
police.”

“
Why were
they questioning you?” she asked suspiciously.

I looked at
the phone and contemplated smacking it against my head. “They
required a witness statement regarding the passing of Mr Hendricks
earlier today” I said, wondering if she had actually
forgotten.

“I know” she sighed, “it has been such a
trauma for me. I need you to get here right now and take me to the
spa so I can deal with everything I have been through.”

“
Actually
Miss Channing, I can’
t get to you right
now. The police have impounded my car as it is considered to be a
part of the crime scene. Maybe it would be a good opportunity for
you to speak to your therapist and I will be there tomorrow morning
to help you.”

See,
that’
s what you call self-control.
Remember this was still supposed to be my day off. Eleanor needs to
be led to the next person to take care of her. She can’t have a
moment of the day where someone isn’t holding her hand. Her
entourage of managers, lawyers, hangers on and I generally play a
game of pass the starlet. She gets too much for one, we pass her
along to the next person in the line.

Once I got
Eleanor off the phone I called her manager immediately. Eleanor at
a loose end is a disaster waiting to happen, but for the rest of
today she was somebody else’s disaster. Of course there were no
queries about how I had done at the police station. To be perfectly
honest though, the guy probably didn’t even know my name. I was
just minion number one.

Flopping down
on the couch I wrapped my arms around one of the cushions and
promptly fell asleep. Next thing I heard was pounding on my front
door. Not nice, polite knocking, no, this was pounding. Getting up
from my couch I threw the cushion down and ripped open the door to
find Detective Griffin about to assault it again.

“
Not you
again” I groaned. “What do you want now? I told you everything I
know and weren’t you supposed to speak to Reggie if you needed
anything else?”

“
Sorry Miss
Eyre” he said. “I’m not here with any more questions, I’m just
returning your car. We’ve finished with it now and I knew it would
be important to you to get it back.” He smiled and I could swear I
heard angels sing.

“
You’
re being nice” I said
squinting up at him, still not fully awake. “Stop it, it doesn’t
suit you.”

“I can be nice” he said lowering his voice
seductively.

I felt that
butterfly feeling in the pit of my stomach, but then I stopped
myself and thought this through. Detective Hottie was being
pleasant and seductive to me, breathtakingly average me. I saw his
partner. If she was his version of normal I had no chance. I know
it sounds like I have low self-esteem. I prefer to think of it as a
very strong grasp of reality. Detective Griffin and I had known
each other for a total of eight hours at most, not nearly enough
time for him to be seduced by my stellar personality. Seeing as I
wasn’t a big proponent of love at first sight, the whole seductive
voice thing was just not working for me.