Star (45 page)

“Can’t you do it for me? Oh God, Spencer … I’m scared. What if I can’t prove I wasn’t there?” She
sounded like a little girl and his heart went out to her. He was so engrossed in the conversation that he hadn’t seen his wife walk in. She was standing in the hall and listening to what he was saying to Crystal.

“Don’t worry. We’ll prove it. But listen, I’m not a criminal attorney. You should have the best. Don’t mess around with this, Crystal … please …” He would have been too afraid not to do her justice, and there was too much at stake. Her life. And his, indirectly.

“I only want you to do it … if you have the time….” She hadn’t even thought of that before, but listening to him had calmed her down a little bit and now she had to think of whether or not he would have the time to do it. She assumed he had a job, and maybe he couldn’t get away. But that wasn’t what he was worried about. He had never been a criminal attorney, no matter how much it fascinated him, or how much he loved her.

“We’ll talk about it when I get out there. Do you need anything in the meantime?” He was shouting again. There was static in the connection.

“Yes,” she smiled through her tears at her end, “a hacksaw.” She laughed damply and he smiled.

“Good girl. We’ll get you out of this. Just hang on. I’ll be there before you know it. And, Crystal …” He smiled thinking of her, and as he did he saw Elizabeth watching him and he knew he couldn’t finish the sentence. “I’m glad you called me.” So was she, but she felt guilty about it after telling him to leave her alone the year before. But she had no one else to turn to. And she had always loved him.

“I told them you were my lawyer. Is that okay?”

“That’s fine. Tell them I just confirmed it. And don’t tell them anything else. Nothing! Do you hear me?”

“Yes.” But she sounded hesitant. They had already asked her so many questions. They’d been interrogating
her all day, until she collapsed in hysterics and then they had finally let her call her attorney.

“I mean it! Don’t tell them anything. I want to discuss it all with you first. You got that?”

“Yes.” She sounded surer now.

“Good.” He was satisfied. “I’ll see you tomorrow. We’ll get you out of this, just believe that.” She thanked him and started to cry again, and a moment later they hung up. He stood looking at the phone for a long moment, and turned to see Elizabeth looking at him.

“What was that all about?”

There was a long moment as their eyes met before he answered. He knew he had to tell her the truth, or most of it. She would have found out anyway once the story hit the papers. Crystal was well known by then, well enough for it to be a big story. “An old friend in trouble in California.” He took a breath as she frowned. “I’m going out there tomorrow.”

“May I ask why?” Her eyes were cold as she lit a cigarette and watched him.

“I want to see what I can do to help.”

“May I ask who the friend is?”

He hesitated for a beat before he answered. “Her name is Crystal Wyatt.” The name meant nothing to her but the look in his eyes did.

“I don’t believe you’ve mentioned her before.” She sat down carefully on the couch, scarcely taking her eyes off his face. She knew instinctively that this was the woman who had stood between them. “What kind of friend is she, Spencer? An old flame?”

“A little girl I used to know. But she’s all grown up now and in a hell of a lot of trouble.” He didn’t sit down next to her and there might as well have been a wall of ice between them.

“Oh? And what are you planning to do to help her?”

“Defend her possibly, or find her a good lawyer.”

“What exactly is she accused of?”

He looked straight into his wife’s eyes. “Murder.”

There was a long silence in the room, and then she nodded. “I see. That is serious, isn’t it? But has it occurred to you, Sir Galahad, that you’re not a criminal attorney?”

“I told her that. I’m going to see who I can find to defend her.”

“You can do that from here.” Her voice was tight as she stubbed out the cigarette.

But Spencer shook his head. “No, I can’t.” And he knew he had to be there. Just to see her. She had called him in desperation, and he wasn’t going to let her down. It was his one chance to help her. Her life was on the line, and no matter what it took, he was willing to do anything for her, even defend the case himself if he had to. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” There was a thinly veiled threat in her voice as she looked at him. But he was immovable on the subject.

“I have to.”

Her voice was strangely calm. “If you go, I’ll divorce you.” It was what he had wanted a year before, and now she was offering it as a threat. But no matter what she did or said, Spencer knew he was going.

“I’m sorry to hear that,”

“Are you?” She was every moment more frigid. “It’s what you wanted anyway. And what about Miss Wyatt?” The name was etched in her mind forever. “How would she feel about that?”

“The only thing she feels right now, Elizabeth, is terror.” His palms were damp as he faced his wife. They had finally reached the turning point. And it had been a long time coming. “I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”

“I meant what I said, I don’t want to be publicly embarrassed by you making an ass of yourself out there.”

“We can talk about it when I get back.” The divorce was no longer as crucial.

“I don’t think so, Spencer. You’d better give it some serious thought before you go.” The silence in the room was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. “I get the feeling you’re developing political aspirations, and a divorce won’t help you much in that direction.”

“That sounds like blackmail.”

“Call it what you like. It’s something to think about, isn’t it?”

“I don’t have any choice.” He ran his hands through his hair, and there was silver at the temples. He was thirty-five, and he had been in love with Crystal for eight years, and now she needed him. He wasn’t going to let her down, no matter what Elizabeth did to him, or threatened. “Elizabeth … she needs me.”

“Are you in love with her?” But she knew from the look in his eyes that it was a foolish question.

“I was.” For the first time, he was honest with her. It was too late not to be. Their marriage had been a mistake from the start. He had never stopped wanting what they didn’t have. What he had had all too briefly with Crystal.

“And now?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her in a long time. But that’s not why I’m going. I’m going because she has no one else to turn to.”

“How touching.” Elizabeth stood up and walked to the stairs that led to their bedroom. “Think about what I said. Before you go. I suggest you call another attorney for her.”

But when she was gone, he called the airline and made reservations. He walked upstairs slowly, wondering what would happen to them. But they weren’t important now.
All that mattered to him was saving Crystal. This was nothing to fool around with. Her life was on the line. But at least she was rid of Ernesto Salvatore. But at what price. He knew she could get the death penalty, or at the very least, a life sentence.

He went upstairs and packed his things, and called his boss to tell him that he had to go to California on a personal matter. He was understanding, and Spencer said he’d call as soon as he knew where things stood, and then he walked into the bedroom, and saw Elizabeth quietly reading the paper. She glanced up at him with a strange look, and as he looked at the newspaper, he saw that she was reading the story of Ernie’s murder, and just above it there was a huge publicity photograph of Crystal. She looked far less beautiful than she really was, but she looked striking anyway, in a big hat, and a low-cut dress, and her long pale hair fanned out across her shoulders. Her eyes looked straight out at you, and after a long moment, Elizabeth looked up. There was a strange look on her face. She had seen those eyes before, and she remembered her perfectly as she looked straight at Spencer.

“It’s the girl in the nightclub, isn’t it?” She had remembered her. It was part of Crystal’s appeal. Once one saw her, one never forgot her. And he nodded slowly. The truth was out now. He had lied to her about Crystal right at the beginning, but that had been when he was still telling himself he was in love with Elizabeth Barclay. He nodded slowly as he looked at her, feeling sorrow and regret and guilt. But the marriage had been wrong from the start, and they both knew it. “Funny,” Elizabeth mused, “I always thought she was the one. I still remember your face that night. You looked as though you had been hit by lightning.”

He smiled then. They were exactly the words he had used so long ago, talking about what he wanted. He had
been thinking about her even then, when he had said to Elizabeth in Palm Beach that he wanted to hear thunder and lightning.

“You’re going?” She eyed him again.

“Yes.”

She nodded and turned off the light. And as he lay in bed beside her, all he could think of that night was Crystal in jail in California.

The gate opened inexorably, with a hideous clanking sound and he was led into a small room with a large window, a battered wooden table and two chairs, and the guard locked the door behind him as he left him. It was a terrifying feeling just being there, and he was momentarily stunned into silence when Crystal was led in, in a blue smock, her arms behind her, locked in handcuffs. Her eyes were wide with terror as she looked at him, and his heart almost broke as they turned the key, freed her hands, and then left her with him. But as her attorney, he didn’t even dare to kiss her. All he could do was look at her and feel the same surge of love he had always felt for her, and as her eyes met his, he didn’t doubt for a minute that she loved him. The past year seemed to melt away, and he felt powerful beside her.

But he also suspected that the room was bugged and he kept his voice low as he looked at her, and reached for her hand, without telling her any of what he was feeling. She clung tightly to him and her eyes filled with tears.
She had missed him so much, and the last year had been a nightmare.

“Are you all right?”

She nodded and sat down, still holding on to him, and he waited a few minutes before asking her any questions. They went over everything, and he was horrified by the story. Salvatore had kept her like a slave, well protected, in the proverbial gilded cage, but she had been his prisoner in recent months and she could only do what he allowed her to. The movies, the parties, the public appearances, the outings. The rest of the time he kept her at home, under careful supervision. And she had fought constantly with him about it. She posed no real threat. There had been no other man in her life since Spencer.

“Did anyone ever see you fight?”

“The maids,” she nodded. “The chauffeur.”

“Any of his friends?”

“Some. He took most of them to Malibu. He kept his own doings to himself.” And she also suspected he saw other women. He had abused her sexually several times in recent months, and given her a black eye that forced her to stay off a movie set for two weeks, and word of it had hit the papers. They had said she had an accident, and her face was too bruised for her to work. She had worked on the sound track instead, now that she had started singing in her movies.

Spencer looked agonized at the tale. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“He told me he’d kill you if I ever called you again. He knew who you were that time when he saw you. That’s why …” she hesitated, “I called you last year and told you it was over. I was afraid for you.” She looked at him sadly, knowing the pain she had caused, but his heart soared. She had loved him then, and she had ended it to protect him. His eyes were warm as he smiled at her then
and she told him that Ernie had threatened to kill her, too, more than once, particularly recently when she fought him constantly about her contract. “All the money went to him. Everything. All I got was money to buy clothes,” like a prostitute with a pimp, but Spencer didn’t say that, he just sat and listened, and took notes when she said something he thought was important. He asked her about dates and events and people and places. It had been a terrible time for her, a life built on nightmares. “I used to think I owed him so much. I never understood then what he was doing.” She looked up into Spencer’s eyes and his heart melted again as he listened. Even more so now that he knew why she had told him not to come back to California. “I guess he always thought he owned me. I was just an object to him. Something he’d bought cheap and made a lot of money from, like a good investment. And at first he always let me think he was doing everything for me.” She looked at Spencer bitterly. “I used to feel that I owed him something. But he took everything I had to give, even you.” Spencer remembered it only too clearly.

“And then what?”

“We had a lot of fights.”

“Publicly?”

“Sometimes.” She was honest with him. “I told Hedda once that I was going to break my contract, and find an agent. He almost killed me for that. I think maybe someone else was in on the deal with him, and he was afraid of their reaction. But I never knew, because I never saw my contract again, and I was too stupid to read it the day I signed it.” She had even lost touch with Harry and Pearl. Eventually, Salvatore had cut her off from everyone. She was only allowed out to work, and she was getting bigger and better pictures. His investment had done well. Like a prize-winning racehorse …