Not Famous in Hollywood (Not in Hollywood Book 1) (9 page)

The next
morning I found myself standing in the reception area of Bliss
being eyed off by perky little Cindi, as her badge proudly
proclaimed. I could now see why Jorge had not been able to get
through to help me yesterday. That door which led to the inner
sanctum had an electronic lock. You either needed a security code
or access to the little button which was obviously underneath
Cindi’s desk. Obviously Cindi had been here yesterday and had seen
that I had been led out of here in handcuffs, because she did not
seem keen to let me in.

“
Hi, look I
know things got out of hand yesterday but I am here on behalf of
Eleanor Channing. She seems to have had a reaction to some part of
the products she had yesterday. I’m just trying to track down what
it could have been” I said brightly in a soft non-threatening way
as opposed to a ‘we are going to sue this place for all that it is
worth’ way.

“
I’m sorry. I
can’
t help you with that” said
Cindi.

I waited but
she just looked at me, still with the perky grin. Okay this was
obviously going to be a lead the horse to water scenario. Cindi
seemed to be incapable of grasping what my problem was.

“Can I please speak to someone who can help
me with the situation?” I asked.

“
Oh,
I’
m afraid there is no one else here who
can help you” Cindi said brightly, her big smile and excessively
white teeth exacerbating the tension headache which was beginning
to form behind my right eye.

Either that or Detective Griffin had managed
to find a voodoo doll and decided that I needed to feel a bit of
his pain.

“
Okay Cindi”
I said deciding that bright and friendly was not the way that I was
going to play it today. “I need you to get somebody here so I can
talk about the reason why Eleanor Channing is still in hospital. A
fact that can be related back to this place. If I don’t get
somebody here right now, who can give me the answers that I want,
then I am going to leave. The next time you hear about this
situation is going to be from Eleanor Channing’s very highly priced
legal firm and I will be sure that they include your name in the
paperwork. That is Cindi with an ‘i’ isn’t it?”

Cindi looked at me for a second. “If you
could please sit down for a minute I will get someone to talk to
you” she said.

To her credit that smile did not waver. I was
onto her though. Behind that perfectly pleasant face I could tell
that she was wishing me at the bottom of a very deep hole. You know
what, I could live with that. Being nice and sweet to everybody had
got me a job where my life was not my own, at the beck and call of
a nut job with impulse control issues and with a felony charge
hanging over my head.

The door
opened and a woman came out,
perfectly
put together and with the serene look that I would expect from
someone who worked at Bliss.

“
Good
morning
, I’m Jennifer Saunders. I believe
you needed to speak to me.”

Oh hell,
Saunders. This was Emily’s sister. What was the daughter of Henry
Saunders doing working in a spa? Deciding to completely ignore the
huge elephant in the room I held out my hand.

“
Yes Ms
Saunders. Thank you so much for agreeing to see me. My name is
Trudie Eyre. I need to speak to you about the products used by
Eleanor Channing yesterday.”

Realization
finally reached Jennifer Saunders’ eyes and they clouded
over.
Yes,
I thought,
that
Eleanor Channing. The one who put your sister in a head lock less
than twenty four hours ago.
Keeping my
face open and smiling gently I hoped she could look past my
unfortunate associations.

“Ah yes” she recovered beautifully. People
are so wrong. Sometimes money can buy class. “Please, call me
Jennifer. Let’s speak in my office.”

Following
Jennifer to her office I wondered what her role at Bliss was.
Jennifer Saunders’ office was beautiful. Completely impractical
with the white suede chairs. I would be able to destroy them in no
time at all. The office suited her though, beautiful and
calm.

“
I
didn’
t realize you worked at Bliss” I
said, taking the seat that she indicated with a delicate wave of
her hand.

“
My husband
and I opened Bliss together. My husband is a strong advocate of the
environmental movement and I love the idea of creating beautiful
products that are completely natural. Here at Bliss we believe in
living in harmony with the environment. As much as is possible we
only use what nature provides in our products. A lot of the
products we use, we actually grow ourselves on a property on the
edge of the city limits” she said her eyes glowing with
enthusiasm.

It was easy to be caught on the wave of her
passion.

“
I hate to
say this” I said, and I truly did. “It seems Miss Channing used a
product yesterday while here and it has caused a mild skin
irritation.”

“Does she have any known allergies?” asked
Jennifer her face creased with concern.

“
Not that we
know of
at this stage” I said mimicking
her concern. “As you can understand though we are very keen to
determine if there is a new allergy or intolerance that we have not
been previously aware of.”

“
Of course”
she said turning to her computer and hitting some keys. The printer
came to life spitting out pieces of paper. “I am printing out a
list of the products used yesterday by Miss Channing and their
ingredients. As her representative I will ask you to sign a
non-disclosure agreement for me. I hope you understand.”

I signed the piece of paper quite
happily.

“Also” she said, “I would like to apologize
for the incident that we had here yesterday involving Miss Channing
and my sister. The person who was making the bookings was new and
had not been aware of the situation between them. We always try to
ensure a calm and tranquil space for our clients. I can assure you
that a situation like that will not happen again.”

Smiling I took the paperwork. “Thank you very
much. I understand that your sister must have been under a great
deal of strain yesterday. Maybe her grief got the better of her.” I
gave her my card. “If there is anything else that you can think of
that may have caused the reaction, please call me.”

After getting to the hospital I gave the
paperwork with the ingredients of the products used on Eleanor to
the medical staff. Juggling a coffee I settled down to wait with
Jorge for the next step.

“Glad to see you out of jail” Jorge said.

“Yeah” I said.

“That detective yesterday looked pretty angry
when I was talking to you” he mused. I could see the curiosity
sparking in his eyes.

There it was. I was going to have to bring
Griffin into my world and Jorge had just provided me with an
opening.

“
Yes, about
that” I said, “I’ve kind of been seeing him lately and he’s a bit
possessive.”

“Wait” said Jorge looking confused. “You were
arrested yesterday by your boyfriend.”

“Doesn't sound good when you put it like
that” I said.

“Seemed like a bit of a dick” Jorge said
slowly.

“
Yeah he did,
didn’
t he?” I replied matching his
tone.

“
Doesn’
t sound to me like he’s the
kind of guy that deserves you” said Jorge.

That was
nice. Jorge and I didn’t usually have deep and meaningful
conversations but it was good to know that he had my back when it
came to my fake blackmailing boyfriend.

“
I don’t know
how long it’s going to last” I said despite the fact I knew that it
was going to last three months and not a second longer.

“Problems already” he asked knowingly.

“
Let’
s just say he doesn’t exactly
live up to the advertising” I said sagely. Hell if I was going to
be forced to have the guy as my boyfriend I was quite happy to
trash his reputation while I was at it.

Jorge looked
at me with a speculative gleam in his eye. I wasn’t really worried.
Now Griffin was established as my current if not future
boyfriend.

One of the nurses who had been working the
ward came over to us.

“Miss Channing has said she wants Trudie to
get her ass in there now” she said with that harried look on her
face that I had become used to seeing on the face of anyone who
dealt with the woman.

I ducked in the hospital room to find Eleanor
strangely subdued.

“Miss Channing, is there anything else you
need? I will organize canceling all your appointments for the rest
of the day” I said.

“
That would
be good” she said. “Except the party tonight at Jessica Bailey’s
house. I’ll be attending that. She is such a good friend and I
wouldn’t want her to think I don’t support her.”

“Yes of course” I replied.

Jessica
Bailey was a young actress who had managed to get a couple of parts
recently that Eleanor had wanted. Going to her party was Eleanor’s
way of saying that she wasn't scared of the up and comer, that she
was perfectly secure in her position. Well that took care of the
rest of the day. Eleanor was so secure in her position that even
though the dress code for this party was casual, Eleanor would be
spending the rest of the day with stylists, hair and makeup people
to ensure that she looked entirely natural for the party
tonight.

“I’ve given the list of the products that
were used yesterday on you to the doctors. I believe an
immunologist will be in soon to see what they can find out” I
said.

“Very well” she replied, “as long as I am
ready to leave in time to get ready for tonight.”

When the
immunologist arrived I ducked out and scrolled through my contacts
on my cell looking for my fake boyfriend. There it was, Jake
Griffin. I hit the dial button and waited nervously for it to
connect.

“I was waiting for your call Trudie” he
answered.

“
Hello
Detective Griffin” I stammered. I was a little put off by the fact
he knew I was calling. “I’m just letting you know that there is a
party tonight at Jessica Bailey’s house” I said. “I am not sure if
it comes under the terms of our agreement but...”

“What time do I pick you up Trudie?” he asked
smoothly.

“About eight should be fine” I said. “Dress
code is pretty casual. The aim for us is to blend into the
background.”

“I know how to blend in”" he said shortly
before disconnecting the phone.

Well that was fun. Can’t tell you how much I
was looking forward to being his date tonight.

By the time
Eleanor had been released from hospital and we had gone through the
round of stylists and what she should wear I got home twenty
minutes before Griffin was supposed to arrive. I raced into the
shower. Lucky for me it wasn’t a real date so I was quite happy to
let all the regular primping go by the wayside. In my mind Jake
Griffin was only worth the minimum so that is what he got. When the
doorbell rang and I hurriedly opened it wearing sweats I could tell
he didn’t think much of it.

“Good to see you made the effort” he
said.

“I only just got in” I said. “I need five
more minutes. Grab yourself a drink if you want.”

Hurrying back to my room I threw on a knee
length skirt and a silk top, both conservative and was out of the
room in four minutes and thirty seconds. He looked me over and I
could see the word boring flashing through his head.

“I am not going to this thing for fun” I said
grabbing my small clutch. “This is work for me, just like it is for
you.”

When we got
out to the car Griffin opened my door for me. I grudgingly gave him
points for effort. I’ve got to say that it isn’t often I get a door
opened for me. Once we were headed to the party I wracked my brain
for something to say but he started first.

“
I heard
Eleanor Channing was in hospital for most of the day. I didn’t
think she got hurt so badly yesterday.”

“Oh she didn’t, it looks like she had an
allergic reaction to one of the products they used at Bliss
yesterday before the fireworks started. The products at Bliss are
all natural so we needed to get her tested to see if she has
developed an allergy to something she is likely to come into
contact with on a regular basis.”

“Has she?”

“
Doesn’
t look like it. The
immunologist went through every product on the list and she didn’t
have an allergic reaction to any of them.”

Silence settled between us again. This felt
uncomfortable.

“Should we exchange information about how we
met, how we know each other, you know in case somebody asks?”
Griffin said.

“
We can but
we don’t need to go into too much depth. I can pretty much
guarantee that no one at this party is going to care about any of
that information” I said.

“
Why not?”
Griffin asked. “Surely you’ve made friends with this crowd. Don’t
you go to a lot of these things?”

I sighed. “I
go to a lot of these parties, not because I am specifically
invited, but because I come with Eleanor Channing. As far as most
of the people at these things are concerned I am part of the
furniture and that is the way it should be. I am there to deal with
any situation that comes up. I try to stop Eleanor doing anything
stupid. I extricate her from difficult situations and I make sure
that at the end of the night she is home in bed safe and hasn’t
done anything to damage the brand” I said.