by Lisa Rinna
He frowned. “He was speeding when the officer over there came up behind him.” He nodded at another cop. “The officer signaled for him to pull over, but instead, he hit the accelerator. We found an empty bag crammed in the ashtray. Maybe he had his eyes off the road for too long. Or he could have had an overdose. A toxicology report will show us for sure.”
Tally thanked him, then crouched down beside Sadie and put her arm around her. “It’s OK, I’m right here. Let me take you home.”
The memorial service took place at Forest Lawn.
Because Josh represented many of Hollywood’s elite, the service was well attended and star-studded. Sadie, with Mandy and Tally at her side, accepted the condolences of Josh’s clients, partners, and staff.
Notably absent was Josh’s assistant, Seth. Tally had reported to the police what she’d seen take place in ICA’s offices less than two hours before Josh’s death, and other office staffers verified her suspicions that both Seth and the actor might have been Josh’s drug suppliers.
Tally noted that Richard and Elizabeth Carlton were at the service, as well as Mac and Susie.
“The nerve of her!” Mandy hissed to Tally behind Sadie’s back when she spotted her friend’s nemesis. “Look at what that bitch is wearing!” Susie had come in a low-cut red dress, with a wide-brimmed hat and big sunglasses more appropriate for salsa dancing than mourning.
Tally’s makeup artist, Ben, had come, too. She was surprised to see him and gave him a warm hug. “I didn’t realize you’d even known Josh.”
“He was in my Cocaine Anonymous group. In fact, I was his sponsor once. But I had suspected he’d gone back to using when his assistant wouldn’t put through any of my calls.”
“You tried your best, and that’s what counts,” she said as she blinked away more tears.
Ben glanced around at the crowd. Something he saw made him smirk. “Well, well, well, isn’t that interesting?”
Tally strained to see what had caught his attention. He was staring at Susie, who was conversing with Richard and Mac. She had her arm intertwined with Elizabeth’s.
“Of course, they’d be here. Susie was one of Josh’s clients, and Mac and Richard did numerous deals with him,” Tally said.
“Oh, that doesn’t surprise me,” Ben said in a low voice. “It’s Susie’s audaciousness I’m referring to.”
“I know! She looks like a hooker in that red getup. It’s atrocious.”
“No, not the outfit. I mean her coddling her lover’s wife. Talk about gall!”
Tally looked at him sharply. “Ben, what are you saying?”
He leaned in closely. “I have it on the highest authority that Susie has been sleeping with Richard the Liver-hearted.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Tally whipped back around. “Why would she do that?”
Ben shrugged. “Why does Susie do anything? Because she can. Mac would never suspect it, and Richard always has at least one play pal on the lot at any given time. Not that I blame him. Look at Miss Elizabeth. Why, she’s practically pickled.”
Tally winced, even though she’d be the last to deny that Elizabeth was a lush. “Ben, are you absolutely sure that’s true?”
“I got it from Garfield. The things that boy shouts out during sex would make a priest blush!” Ben’s brow went so high it nearly pushed his hairpiece out of place. “Trust me, there’s plenty of meat on that bone.”
Tally stole a glance at Mac. She knew him well enough to be certain he had done what he could to make his marriage work, but it wasn’t enough, and it never would be. He’d been lied to from the very beginning. Most important, he’d been lied to about Tally.
She was willing to forgive him. But Susie? Never.
It was payback time.
Chapter 31
TALLY WAS TOLD that Louis Cabrini was a go-to guy. People in Hollywood knew that if you wanted to cover up something really, really bad, he would take care of it, no sweat, and if you wanted something exposed, he’d find where all the corpses where buried.
In this case, more than one hot-blooded body had shown up in Susie’s home in Coldwater Canyon. Apparently, she’d never rented it out, as she’d claimed to Mac when she moved into his Pacific Palisades spread.
Louis shook his head in wonder as he played the surveillance DVD for Tally in his dingy office. “That woman might as well install a revolving door in that bedroom of hers. Just take a look at this one twenty-four-hour period alone.”
He clicked forward on the DVD. The time stamp showed that it had been taken three days after the funeral, on a Sunday. At the speed he was playing it, the sunlight moved rapidly across the house’s tile roof, but the video was clear enough to make his point.
The first car to move through the gate and up the drive was a chauffeured Lincoln Town Car. Larry hit the play button just as Susie opened the door to greet Richard, who jumped out of the backseat with a bouquet of pink roses. While she embraced him, Susie said, “My favorite!” then nudged him inside.
Larry fast-forwarded the DVD a bit more. Richard had barely been gone two hours before another vehicle pulled up. This time, it was a jacked-up monster truck Tally recognized as Jared’s. He fixed his hair in the mirror for a moment before Susie shouted for him to get his ass into the house, pronto. Whatever she had in mind apparently included the cat-o’-nine-tails she held in her hand. Tally shivered at the thought.
The third segment of the tape caught a well-known young female starlet going into Susie’s place. Confused, Tally wondered what she was doing there.
Tally didn’t recognize the car in the next segment—an old Jeep—but she certainly knew its driver when she saw him: Gabriel. Apparently, he’d had to sell his Porsche after he couldn’t get any work. Susie opened the door nude, holding a honey bear, and the memory of the night Gabriel raped her came flooding back. Tally swallowed hard to keep down the bile.
“This has to be foolproof, Louis. I presume there’s a way to prove she was meeting these people for sex, right?”
“What, are you kidding? That broad has a camera in every room! If she ain’t in the porn industry, my guess is that she uses it for blackmail.” He chuckled. “We tapped into her cameras wirelessly. Breaking her security code was a piece of cake. It’s all here in living color, with Dolby sound to boot. I’ll show you foolproof.”
He clicked a button on the DVD remote, and a softly lit bedroom appeared on the TV screen. Susie was straddling Richard, who was moaning ecstatically. Louis fast forwarded the DVD until it came to Jared in the same room, down on all fours in front of Susie, who wore high-heeled boots and a mask. In the next interior shot, Tally saw Susie had one leg up on a chair. Her silk robe was wide open, allowing the starlet, who was now kneeling in front of her, to put her head in Susie’s crotch. The ecstatic look on Susie’s face left no doubt in either viewer’s mind that Susie was enjoying herself immensely.
Oh my God, Tally thought. When Susie dry-humped the strippers at Sadie’s party, that was no act!
Another few frames further into the video showed Susie again, this time in her den. She was naked and bent over a chair as Gabriel poured something thick and gooey over her back.
There was more on the tape, but that was all she could stomach.
Again, a shiver went up Tally’s spine. “I’ve seen enough. Thank you. The whole video covers, what, a full week?”
“Yep.” Larry turned off the DVD player.
“Here’s your cash.” She handed him an envelope, and Louis popped the DVD out of the player and handed it to her. As she turned to leave, he said, “By the way, I loved you as that nun in Cloistered. Made me cry like a baby. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you, Ms. Jones.”
Chapter 32
THE DVD WAS waiting for Mac when he came into his office the next morning. The envelope was marked personal, and on it “SUSIE” was written in block letters.
Interesting, he thought. He’d never received so much as a love note from his wife. That just w
asn’t her style. At least, not since they’d said their I do’s. Now he was getting a home movie from her?
He took the DVD to the closest monitor and put it on. It didn’t take too long for the plot to sink in, particularly after his father drove up and kissed his wife as ardently as Mac had ever kissed her, and she responded in a way that she hadn’t responded to him in quite a while. Mac went numb.
As the video segued to Jared, Mac was so angry he couldn’t see straight. And by the time Gabriel was done with Susie, he was ice-cold.
He flipped off the monitor and buzzed his assistant. “Do me a favor, and send a dozen roses to my wife. Pink ones. The card should read, ‘Because they’re your favorites. See you tonight, eight sharp. Don’t be late.’ You don’t have to sign it. Thanks, Carole.”
He’d make sure it was a night Susie would never forget.
“You fucking bitch!” Jared yelled as he swung open the door to Susie’s trailer. “How could you do this to me?”
Susie peeled back the cucumbers that covered her eyes. Her green mud face mask had just stiffened, so she felt safe enough to move her head to see what Jared was squawking about. As she sat up, he tossed the DVD case at her face. Well, there went the mask.
“Damn you, Jared! What the hell?”
“See for yourself.” He snatched the DVD out of her hand and stalked over to her TV set.
At first, she didn’t recognize the video’s setting. When she did, she turned white under the mud pasted to her face. “Where the hell did you get this?” She grabbed him by the throat. “Where? Tell me!”
“I thought you left it for me. See? It has your name on it.” He pointed to the envelope. “You’re making out with that old asshole Richard Carlton? And Gabriel McNamara, that washed-up loser? How the hell could you do that to me?”
Susie shoved him out of the trailer and locked the door. She panicked at the thought that Richard might have a copy of this same DVD. Or, worse yet, Mac.
A knock on her door made her heart leap into her throat. “Jared, get the hell out of here!” she yelled.
It turned out to be one of the production assistants. “Delivery! Flowers!”
What the fuck? She opened the door to a bouquet of pink roses. She tore open the card. Because they’re your favorites. See you tonight, eight sharp. Don’t be late.
She breathed easier. So Richard didn’t know. Good. Now, if that idiot Jared does anything stupid …
She called Burt Tillman and told him that Jared had finally lost it, that he was threatening her life. She demanded that he be escorted off the set—in fact, off the show—for good. Afterward, she was still so nervous that she walked onto the set without realizing her face was still covered with mud mask.
On the drive out to her love shack, she made up her mind. She was tired of playing games. The sooner Richard left Elizabeth for her, the better. She was going to convince him of that tonight, and she planned on pulling out all the stops to make it happen. If Richard started yammering to her about his guilt again, she’d just remind him how Elizabeth had sucked him dry all these years. Like one of her martini olives, she thought. Then she’d remind him how Mac thought he was so much better than his father, now that he had two Oscars of his own. You gave him everything, and what did he do? Left you, she’d say. Richard would be furious with his wife and son and so entranced with her that he’d take that final step and commit to a divorce.
And not a moment too soon. Since Tally had left Dana Point, the ratings had plummeted, and it was only a matter of time before the show was canceled. But Richard could coerce any of the producers kowtowing to Royalton’s studio boss to build a show around her. A new show. Maybe even a comedy.
She got home and began setting up for her life-changing rendezvous. By the time the doorbell rang, the candles were lit, soft music was playing, and rose petals—pink ones, from this morning—were strewn from the foyer to the bedroom. She had also changed into a sheer white negligee, which she wore with high heels.
She ran to the door and threw it open, only to find Mac.
“Surprise,” he growled.
A cold trickle of dread went down her spine. He knows … or does he?
He looked around. Taking note of all the work she’d put into her little tryst, he let loose with a low, appreciative whistle, then followed the rose-petal trail that led into the bedroom. As he began unbuttoning his shirt, he looked back at her. “Aren’t you coming?”
Susie was at a very interesting crossroads, and she knew it. The only way to keep the upper hand, she figured, was to grovel. So she decided she’d do it in the same manner in which she’d captivated him in the first place: with mind-blowing sex.
Slowly and seductively, she walked over to him. She took the zipper of his pants and pushed it down, leaning into him while she worked her magic. She tilted her head up to him, but he wouldn’t kiss her. Instead, he took her by the hair and forced her onto her knees in front of him. She took the hint and put his cock into her mouth. As it grew, and even as he heard her gag, he thrust it deeply, again and again, until he exploded, then smiled as he watched her swallow.
Knowing she had pleased him, she shimmied onto the bed and spread her legs, anxious to get hers.
He laughed. “What, are you kidding? I got what I wanted. Save that for Richard. Oh, and do me the favor and break the news to him that I’m on to both of you.”
Then he walked out.
“Where are you going?” She shouted after him. “Oh, let me guess! You’re going back to her.”
That stopped him cold. “You know, that’s not a bad idea.”
Chapter 33
OK, SO NO BIG DEAL. Mac knew. He was bound to find out sooner or later. Granted, Susie had wanted it to come from her, but that wasn’t going to stop her from dumping him for Richard.
She was in a terrible frame of mind, thanks to her messed-up personal life, and work wasn’t making her feel any better. When she saw her script the next morning, she noted that her lines were tepid, void of any emotion. What did the writers think she was, an extra? She might as well have been part of the scenery.
I can’t win an Emmy with lines like this. She fumed.
Then she remembered she was fucking the studio head. I don’t have to say this drivel. I can say anything I want.
“Quiet on the set,” the director, Larry, called out. “OK … action!”
Spencer’s line came first. Blah, blah, blah, thought Susie. When he paused for her response, she gave it: “No, Hank. I’ll never agree to that! Not in a million years. I’ll die first—”
“Cut!” Larry shook his head in exasperation. “Susie, what the hell are you reading? That’s not anywhere in the script. We’re on page twenty-three, remember?”
She stared right through him. She could tell it unnerved him by the way he frowned.
Good, she thought. Get ready for a fight.
“OK, from the top, Spencer. And action!”
Spencer delivered his line again, and again, Susie responded just the way she wanted to.
“Cut!” Larry took a deep breath, then walked over to his star. He took her by the elbow and pulled her away from Spencer and the crew. “Look, Susie, I don’t know what you’re going for here, but whatever it is—”
“I’m going for authenticity, Larry. The lines I was given are pure garbage. You know it, I know it, and heaven knows the writers know it, too, because they are the ones who turned this crap out it out in the first place. Let me go with my gut here.” Susie was determined to stand firm.
“This isn’t the Groundlings, doll! It’s a primetime drama. And this scene is just one plot domino in a row of them, which is why your line has to be delivered in a certain way. Otherwise, the show doesn’t make sense. You know that.”
“I’ll tell you what else I know, Larry. I know a bad script when I read one.”
Larry closed his eyes and took another deep breath. “Susie, I’m not looking for an argument. I just need you to read the lines as they were writt
en. Do I make myself clear?”
He presumed he had, because she went stone-faced and walked back over to her mark.
Larry nodded to the crew. “OK … and … action.”
For the third time, Susie read the line the way she wanted, completely ignoring Larry’s direction and what was on her script. His next conversation with her wasn’t as civil, and the brouhaha sent the assistant director scurrying off the set to call Burt Tillman. Another had already alerted a network suit to get down there fast, because it looked as if someone was going to get hurt.
Both the suit and Burt made it to the set at the same time.
“Susie, what the hell is going on?” Burt demanded.
She glared at him. “Larry doesn’t get it. I don’t like my lines, and I’m doing a different interpretation. And frankly, I don’t know why you’re here and not drinking your way into oblivion. Isn’t it your happy hour?”
“I’m here because you’re fighting with your director, and you’re acting like a damn madwoman! Now, just read the lines as they’re written.”
“How dare you talk to me like that? Who the hell do you think you are?”
“The producer of this show. Now, if you know what’s good for you—”
Before he could finish, Susie slapped him. Hard.
The cast and crew drew a collective gasp, and then was there was silence.
Burt touched his raw cheek, straightened his back, and began walking off the set. As he passed Larry, he murmured something so low that only the director could hear it. Larry nodded silently in response.
Burt kept walking. As he exited the building, the network executive was right on his heels. The suit looked as if he’d seen a ghost.
As the door closed behind them, Larry called out, “That’s a wrap,” and everyone dispersed.
All alone on the set, Susie looked around, wondering what was going on. That’s it? But what about the scene?