Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (96 page)

Julienne began explaining every lie that she
told, and why she told them. Every evil deed, every deceitful
falsification, fabrication that she created, came out, yet the only
thing that she kept inside of her was the incident where she hired
Mark to kill Damen. The tears came down from Jose’s eyes and
Julienne explained her story still, striving to get it all out,
wanting this weight to be lifted from her chest, but it never
would, because of Jose’s position that she put him in at this
crucial second. Her final words to her explanation was, “I’m sorry,
Jose, but I wanted to be ... successful, great, and famous
again.”

“You know, if it wasn’t for you, I might not
be here right now. But the sad thing to it, Julienne, is I used you
too. I used you for fame, probably as much as you used me,” spoke
Jose.

Julienne began walking to the doorway. “I am
sorry, Jose. Goodbye.” Julienne walked out of the room, hopped down
to the lobby of the hospital, and called from her cell phone for
her chauffeur to pick her up. When her chauffeur finally arrived,
she was on the first floor of the hospital. She heard her cell
phone ringing as she frantically grabbed it and pulled up the
antenna.

Nervous as could be, she answered,
“Hello?”

“Miss Wells, I’ve arrived,” the chauffeur
said.

“Where are you?”

“I’m out back in the alley.”

“Alright, I’ll be right out there.” As she
hung up the phone, suddenly Julienne saw two police officers
approaching her.

She put her phone into her purse, tried her
best at acting normal, not wanting to be too suspicious, and
listened to one policemen question, “Excuse me, Miss Wells, but
would you mind coming down to the station and answering some
question?”

“Regarding what? I didn’t see anything, all I
saw was my boyfriend getting shot,” Julienne defended, trying to
believe that she was innocent, manifesting her thoughts into
capturing her character as a tired, fatigued, and innocent
girlfriend that was shaken up.

“Yes, we know. But we found the killer, he
was killed himself at the building where they held the Oscar
event,” the other policemen explained.

Julienne started crying. She was starting to
lose it, shouting toward them, “So, what does that have to do with
me?”

“Because, ma’am, we received an anonymous
call about an hour ago. This stranger told us that you hired them
to kill Tom Fryer and Damen Schultz. You see, we found a pager on
the killer himself, and the anonymous caller gave us his access
code to his voicemail. I’m sorry, Julienne, but you have the right
to remain silent.”

Julienne was stubborn to the policeman’s
voice, so she walked away from them, shouting in delirium, “I don’t
know what the hell you’re talking about, but I’m going home to my
mansion. I’m famous, you know, and I don’t have to listen to this
bullshit.”

One of the officers grabbed her, took out his
handcuffs, and spoke with calmness, “Please cooperate with us, Miss
Wells.”

She saw the handcuffs, and knew her fate, but
still tried, in her evil mind, to escape them. So, she put up her
last, and final acting performance, and questioned, “Okay, alright,
but could I first go to the bathroom?” The officers looked down at
the ground, not wanting her to leave their sight for a minute.
“Come on, you could stand next to the bathroom if you don’t trust
me. Could I go?”

“Alright, but five minutes,” the officer
spoke before Julienne hopped her way into the ladies’ room.

As Julienne stood in the bathroom, staring at
her image in a cracked mirror, she realized that her life was over.
She walked up to a window that was directly above a heater, and
tried desperately to open it, wanting to escape so bad, that her
wounded body hopped its way up upon this heater of warmth. As she
opened it, she gave out a smile of craziness, understanding that
her last plan, of escaping the law, was about to be completed and
accomplished. Yet, suddenly, Julienne heard a voice ask, “Where do
you think you’re going?”

She turned around, and saw nothing in her
view, but an empty bathroom of cleanliness, and a cold draft of air
surrounding it. She hopped down off the heater, and stared at the
stalls. One of the stall doors opened slowly, creaking its sound,
and echoing in her ears. Once the stall was fully opened, out came
Curtis. Julienne was horrified, yelling out, “Oh my God, what are
doing here?” All she could see was him, and a knife he was
holding.

One of the officers heard the scream, asking,
“What was that? It sounded like Miss Wells yelling.”

“Well then, go check it out, Fred,” the other
officer spoke with them both standing next to the ladies’
bathroom.

“No, I’m not going in the ladies’ bathroom,
you go, Derrick.”

Fred started knocking on the door, and waited
for Derrick to go in. Derrick slowly opened the bathroom entrance,
saying, “Fine, then, I’ll do it.” Derrick slowly opened the door
even more, shouting, “Miss Wells, are you alright in there?”

Derrick ran out of the bathroom, passing
Fred, with Fred’s obese face asking, “What happened? Did she
escape?”

“Where’s Lieutenant Simpson?” yelled Derrick
in a frantic way.

“He’s up on the eighth floor, room 802.”
Derrick began running up the stairway that was right next to the
bathrooms, racing each stair in a grievous attempt to find the
lieutenant, knowing what he just saw was beyond terrorizing.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Simpson was just
finishing up his questions to Damen. “Well, thank you for all the
information, Damen,” Lieutenant Simpson spoke, shaking Damen’s
hand.

“My pleasure, sir.” Damen then began walking
back into Jose’s room and saw Mike, Henry, and Dennis leaving.

Derrick finally reached the last stair,
opened the doorway, and saw Lieutenant Simpson in his view. He ran
toward him, down the hallway of sickness, and shouted, “Lieutenant
Simpson!”

“What is it, Derrick? Can’t you see I’m
busy?” Lieutenant Simpson stated, seeing Derrick reaching him and
beginning to breathe heavily.

“It’s about Julienne Wells, sir.”

In the meantime, Damen closed the door
because of the loud noises Derrick was making. Damen walked back to
Jose and sat by him, just watching him, praying by some break of a
miracle, that Jose would get better. Jose turned to Damen’s eyes
that were set on him, and whispered, “What did that Simpson guy
have to say to you?”

“Nothing, Jose, he just wanted to ask me some
questions,” Damen replied. Damen heard from Lieutenant Simpson that
Julienne was the main suspect in this case, but he didn’t want to
tell Jose that. Damen felt inside of his heart, that Jose had
enough to worry about.

A miracle had taken place. The miracle of
destroying the button that Julienne pushed on Jose’s heart, mind,
and soul. It allowed Jose to regain, recapture his adoration and
brotherly love he had for Damen, the brotherly love that he felt
inside. Jose’s life was vanishing before Damen’s eyes, and with it
came a friend that Damen once knew, a friend that would give his
life for Damen, a friend that was being reborn. Every cough that
Jose gave was a sign that death was closer, creeping up behind him,
ready to take his memory of the present away, without due cause,
without any explanation, except for a measly gun-shot wound. That’s
when Jose muttered to Damen’s tear-filled eyes, “Would you retrieve
something for me?”

“Retrieve what?” Damen’s question was simple,
complex, not knowing what it was he wanted. Damen still tried to
squeeze out a tear, but nothing fell yet, his eyes were still
watery.

Chuck stepped into the small bathroom that
Jose’s room had, leaving Damen and him alone to converse about
something that was serious, an issue that would mean closure for
Jose’s mind.

“I don’t know how long I have left, Damen,
but I know that in the past when we read scripts, we would always
finish them. Well ... there’s one script that we never finished.
Remember?” After Jose’s words, his own tears came down again.

Damen smiled, remembering what it was. “Yeah,
I remember, it was called Our Town, we never finished it
completely.”

“Could you please get it for me? I want you,
me, and Darell to finish where we left off. I want us to finish
that script,” he spoke in a weak tone.

“Sure, I’ll just go to a store and buy
one.”

“No, I want the one that we left behind, the
one that’s in Sugar Valley. Please, could you get that one?” Jose’s
voice was sad and low, so he began to inhale breaths of air very
quickly.

“You got it, I’ll get it right now.” Damen
then ran to the bathroom door, whipped it open, and pulled Chuck
out of it.

Chuck was in shock, zippering up his pants
and hearing Damen imploring, “Chuck, I have to use your plane, I
have to go back to Ridge Crest.”

“Why?”

Jose then spoke over them, in a very weak
tone, “Damen, take my Oscar with you, just in case someone takes it
from me while I’m here.”

Chuck still waited for an answer from Damen,
watching as he grabbed onto the bloodstained Oscar trophy and
hearing Damen question to Jose, “Why? I might lose it or something.
Why don’t I just leave it here?”

“Just please, don’t ask questions,
Damen.”

“Alright, Jose, we’ll be back as soon as
possible. Come on Chuck, let’s go.” Damen then pulled Chuck’s suit
coat, and literally dragged him out into the hallway. They both
began walking fast down the hallway, while Chuck still was confused
about their purpose for doing so.

Chuck then stopped, and Damen turned to face
him in disarray, hearing Chuck questioning in strictness, “Why are
we going to Ridge Crest?”

“I’ll tell you on the plane, Chuck. But on
our way to the airport, I want you to call Darell and tell him to
get his butt down here,” Damen responded, starting to walk
again.

They both reached the elevator with Chuck
saying, “Damen, calm down. Listen to me, I want to know why we are
going to Ridge Crest? Listen, do you realized how far Mississippi
is from California? By the time we get back here, Jose may be
gone.”

The elevator doors opened and they both
stepped into it, with Damen still not answering Chuck’s
question.

“Listen, I don’t know exactly why I’m going
back to my hometown, all I know is that Jose wants me to. Like I
said before, Chuck, I’ll tell you the reason on the plane. Right
now, my mind is twirling with thoughts, and it’s driving me crazy,”
he answered in a stressed, loud, and angry manner. “But right now,
I want you to come with me to Ridge Crest. Will you?”

They reached the first floor of the hospital
as Chuck responded, “Alright, I’ll come with you.” They exited the
elevator and abruptly saw Julienne’s dead body on a stretcher, with
a slit in her throat, revealing her insides and veins to her neck.
They walked up to her, and Chuck asked one of the policemen, “What
happened?”

“Somebody stabbed her and cut her throat in
the bathroom. They stapled this to her body.” The police officer
handed Chuck a bloody check.

He handed it to Damen as he explained with
shock and widened eyes, “This is a check for eight million
dollars.”

Damen dropped the bloody check on the ground,
grabbed Chuck’s old hand, and shouted, “Come on, Chuck, let’s
go.”

Chapter Eighty-Three

Damen sat in the private jet that was
leading back to his hometown, and still gazed at a photograph of
his true friends that he thought became false. He was in a daze,
looking at the bloodstain on his new tuxedo, and then looking back
at the photo. Damen was released from his flashback, and found
himself still in this empty cabin, wanting this nightmare to be
over with. “I’m sorry, Damen, for yelling at you like that, it’s
just I don’t want the police to blame you for these murders. I
didn’t know that they had a suspect before, I’m sorry,” spoke
Chuck, holding his hands close to his stomach.

“I forgive you, Chuck. I’m sorry for punching
you in the stomach, I was just a little bit overwhelmed by the
situation. I understand that you’re trying to look out for my best
interest, but Jose is still my good friend.” Damen’s eyes were
still watery, his undefined, unspecified, and variable tears, or
water that surfaced from out of his eyes, revealed themselves again
to Chuck’s sight.

“So, what is it that you have to retrieve for
Jose?”

“A script.” Damen then looked at the
bloodstain he had on his tuxedo once again, reminiscing that moment
when Jose’s life was altered by a bullet, soaring from the heavens,
dominating the air, and heading directly toward him.

“Oh, is that all?”

“Yes.” Damen stared at Jose’s Oscar trophy
and began crying, with tears falling out of his eyes in slow
motion, like they were apprehensive to plummet on his flesh,
frightened to graze the air, this distant milieu.

Chuck watched Damen’s tears falling down his
face, and smiled toward them. “Damen, you’re crying again.”

“No, it’s because I have something in my eye.
It’s not real tears. Even when I was crying a little bit ago, those
tears weren’t real, it was because I felt a pain in my eyes, or
even if it was tears, they were only tears from all this fuckin’
stress.” Damen turned to Chuck, wanting him to take away his pain,
yearning for him to answer all the questions that are confusing to
his mind’s thoughts. “Chuck, how ... did I get here? How did I get
in this position?”

“Well, it’s up to you to answer that.” Chuck
got up to use the bathroom a third time, leaving Damen there alone
to think about his words.