Drawers started opening and closing on the dresser, then on the nightstand less than a foot away from me. A shoe came close enough to my hiding space for me to see the mud cemented into the tread. The body attached to the shoe leaned over and a fat wallet popped out next to me. I stared at folds of brown leather and the worn edges of two dozen receipts for a second beforeI snatched it. I grabbed a wad of paper and started to look at the business cards.
A hand reached under the bed, feeling around for the wallet.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I dropped my wallet.”
“Well, get it and let’s get the hell out of here.”
“I didn’t check under the pillows,” the voice whined. The hand kept feeling around on the rug in front of me. I stuffed some of the receipts back into the wallet, wrinkling them to make up for the ones I kept. The business cards hadn’t told me much, hopefully the receipts would.
“What are you, nuts? Who puts shit under the pillows in a hotel room?
The hand under the bed slyly formed into a fist with the middle finger extended in a hidden act of defiance. “I just thought something might be there.” I put the wallet next to his hand, practically moving it against his palm. “Got it!”
“Goodie for you. Let’s go. I got up too damn early for this.” The other voice didn’t sound happy at all. It was after four. If you usually worked night shift you might think that was early. I sympathized with the faceless voice. I hated getting up early, too.
I decided to give them fifteen minutes to get out of the building, just in case Passive Aggressive Voice really needed to check under the pillows, but my leg started to cramp up. I shimmied out from under the bed, trying to massage the fake tissue into behaving but it wouldn’t have it. The pain hit me like a hammer, the muscle in my thigh knotted into a rock-hard ball. Tears went down my face. I struggled to breathe through the pain and massage the muscle like Ted had taught me. Neither worked. All I could do was hurt. An attempt to stand left me crumpled, cursing the fake tissue and the position it put me in. If the studio guards came back, I was dead.
My eyes fell on the photo frame. While I sat there waiting for my muscles to unlock, I picked it up. Even unopened, it gave off a calm vibe I used to push out the panic and relax. Taking a deep breath, I lifted myself to a standing position with only my arms, and then gingerly put weight on my leg. I said a quick prayer for whoever the silver photographed women were, grateful for their help as I scooped up the debris from the wallet and got the hell out of there.
If the two guards couldn’t find anything, I wasn’t going to waste my time trying.
12
Across the street, Calvin admitted to watching the drama.
“I thought you were caught.” He didn’t sound like the idea bothered him, which reminded me why I didn’t get along with LaRue’s thugs.
“Well, lucky for us I wasn’t.”
He turned to face me, considering it.
“What?”
“If you had been caught, they’d probably take you to wherever Samuel is. I could have followed.”
“Assuming Samuel isn’t dead.”
He made a face.
“Oh, now I’m being difficult because I didn’t get caught? Jesus. At least I got these.”
I threw the receipts on the table. He poked through them, disappointed while I took the excuse to sit and open the picture frame. The ladies looked out at me, lovely and serene. In the light of this room, I thought maybe they were the same person, or at least related.
“Was he dating sisters?” I asked.
Calvin’s head jerked up then went back down before he spoke again. “Wife and daughter, both dead of small pox.”
I waited for something more—their names, when they’d died. He didn’t give it. I grabbed a handful of receipts: fast food, a dry cleaner, nothing important unless it mattered that our guy liked extra pickles. I dropped those and fished out another few.
“Burgundy and Blues,” Calvin announced. I snatched the paper from his hand. It was indeed a receipt from Burgundy and Blues, dated from the night I’d been in with Jo.
I clucked my tongue at it. “So he’s our guy for the phone call.”
“Pretty much.” Calvin leaned back and rubbed his eyes. “It’s still bright out there, isn’t it?”
I didn’t have to look before I nodded.
“The thing is, there are lots of night clubs here. Bars, too, and restaurants. But the receipts are only for a drink or two, not a meal or enough drinks for a night out.”
“What does that tell us?” I asked, genuinely lost. Calvin had been doing this job for decades before I was even born. I hoped he was about to give me some knowledge.
“He was tailing someone. Following them around, someone like her or maybe you.”
The her in his sentence was Jo, but as I pushed through the receipts, I saw places Jo wouldn’t go. Diners, fast food. Places she probably wouldn’t even consider entering.
“Not me. I’ve been tailing a producer and out in Arizona. And not Jo, either. Can you even picture her at McDonald’s?”
“You’ve got me there. Who’s left?”
“Jeremy Steel.”
“Maybe this guy is Jeremy’s private security staff? Someone to get there before the cameras go off and catch him doing something wrong?”
“Or maybe they’re there to clean up the mess afterwards.” I didn’t like the way this was turning out for my sister’s boyfriend. Before I hadn’t approved of him, now I was downright suspicious. “I think I can find out what he’s up to tonight. I’ll call you here and you can meet me after sunset.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed.
The studio security hadn’t been alerted to my car. Or maybe they didn’t check after I told them I had pizza for one of the offices. I headed for the back lots, ostensibly looking for whoever had ordered the pizza, but really looking for Jeremy’s name on the wall. I found it, written in chalk on a little black film marker next to B71. I ate the pizza and waited, expecting them to call things at five o’clock.
They broke for fifteen minutes then, not the night. On his way back from his break, Jeremy looked at my car but dismissed it. An hour after that, the building vomited out people. Jeremy came out last. I followed him with the car for a few blocks. When he went into a building, I turned off the engine and stepped out to wait. My body lengthened into a stretch, cramped from sitting in the car. How much longer could this go? With a sigh, I called Gina.
“Any chance you got a date tonight?” I asked by way of hello.
“It’s Friday night, Lizzie. Most normal girls have a date.” She did her best to sound exasperated.
“And it’s with Jeremy, isn’t it?”
“Jealous?” The way she asked meant she wanted me to be more than anything in the world. I leaned back on the car. The sun setting behind me threw gold light on the building.
“Not really. Look, Gina, what do you know about this guy?”
She sighed. “I don’t need you to be my big sister and protect me. He’s a great guy. He opens doors for me, always pays when we go out, talks to me like what I have to say matters. He’s perfect. If you could get over your jealousy, you’d see that.”
“Prefect? Honestly? Did I tell you someone called me threatening Jo, telling us to stay away from him?”
“It’s sad how you lie,” my sister declared. I could see the smirk on her face in my mind.
“Goddamn it, Gina, I’m not—”
“Just sad really,” she interrupted. “Because he’s a great guy. Tonight he’s taking me to see some old movie, and then we’re going out for milkshakes. Does that sound like the kind of guy who makes threatening phone calls?”
“I didn’t say he made the phone call.” I was losing this battle. “What old movie?”
“An Affair for All Time? A Magical Affair?” She paused, probably trying to remember but then gave up. “Something about an affair. It’s a love story but a sad one.”
“An Affair to Remember,” I informed her. “I hope you two have a good time.”
“We will and I’m sorry you can’t come along.” Her voice dripped with false sympathy. “See-you.” She hung up in my ear.
I stared at my phone, as if it could somehow make Gina see reason. As far as she was concerned, I was jealous, Jeremy was a catch, and everything was perfect. I could have screamed in frustration.
“Hey there, are you following me?” Jeremy asked, wearing an open smile I wasn’t in the mood for. He’d walked over while I stared at the phone, gotten close to me before I realized it.
“Should I be? You’re dating my sister—it would be nice if I knew a little bit about you.” Taking my annoyance out on him was childish, but I did it anyway.
“There’s nothing for you to know. I’m a good guy.” He didn’t stop smiling and that pissed me off even more.
“Sure you are. A good guy who’s what, twenty-eight, twenty-nine? Maybe thirty-five. But who just happens to have nothing, no history outside what the studio made for him, and likes to date eighteen-year-olds. A great guy.” I nodded widely, showing him how much I didn’t believe it.
“It’s not what you think.” His smile faltered.
Poor baby, I was fresh out of sympathy. “When were you born?”
He looked at me with his mouth open.
“Come on, it’s not a hard question. What’s your birthday?”
He took a second to reply and I pounced. “Most people don’t need to think that hard. It’s second nature. Try another —where are you from?”
“My bio says I grew up on a farm in Nebraska.”
It was as smooth as any actor could deliver a line, but I recognized the misdirection.
“I didn’t ask about your bio. I asked about you. Not the movie you made or the last interview you gave. I want to know about the real you. Tell me something, anything.”
He opened his mouth, but shut it again before a word came out. This time I waited him out, expecting him to give something up. He surprised me by shaking his head, then raising his palms in defeat. “What do you want me to say? Because I don’t know what you’re looking for, what answer you want to hear.”
“It’s not about what I want to hear. It’s about who you are and what you’re going to do with Gina. Don’t hurt my sister.”
“Or what? Isn’t there supposed to be a threat at the end there? I make movies like this all the time. I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to have a threat.” He tried for a good-natured smile, but it never reached his eyes.
“I don’t need to threaten you.” I flexed my arm, the bad one with the fake muscles, trying to remind him of the things I’d seen and the things I’d done.
“It’s not what you think,” he repeated, then he walked away without looking back.
If I called Calvin, he’d chew me out for getting in Jeremy’s face without getting any information, so I didn’t. I drove over to the hotel and dumped the remains of the pizza in the parking lot trash bin before I went upstairs. Calvin was having his dinner out of a plastic bottle, wearing a frown.
“Issues?”
“It’s cold, tastes like cardboard.”
Someone else I was fresh out of sympathy for. I could level with him, let him know how Gina connected in with all of this. But what he knew, LaRue probably knew. I didn’t want my baby sister exposed to LaRue at all. Jeremy might be dangerous and evil, but he was at least human. Well, at least I thought he was human, anyway.
“You get anything good?”
“Steel is going out to a movie and then dinner. I can tail him.”
“No, you head home. I’ve got the night shift, remember?”
“I’d rather stick with you.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” He crumpled the empty plastic bottle up and tossed it in the trash. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Not really.” I swallowed hard, sticking with the truth.
He looked at me for a long minute, then stood and declared, “Fair enough. We tail Steel. You head back when you’re ready or when I tell you to.”
I could have argued with him, but I didn’t. There was too much going on for me to pick a fight.
Finding a showing of An Affair to Remember took a little doing, but not much. The theater was vintage and exclusive, a place where stars went to get some credit with the old school. The interior was a sea of velvet in deep red, tied with gold tassels and gold edging. A movie theater from when the word meant something special. The bar inside had top-shelf liqueurs and half a dinner menu. The movies shown here might be decades old but the Asian fusion cuisine and drink specials were all on trend. Gina wasn’t here for the film. She had no love for old movies that didn’t showcase her heroine, Sophia Loren. No, like everyone else, she was here to be seen, with her hair and makeup done perfectly and wearing a dress Sophia could have worn in some movie. My sister smiled and laughed like this was the best time ever—making me feel like an ass for not wanting her there.
Calvin ordered blood, hot, and I did my best not wrinkle my nose. For me, they provided Scotch, old and smooth. I settled back into the shadows around our table with my drink. The main area of the bar was packed, pretty people bathed in blue and red neon lights. Bodyguard and paparazzi seating was around the edges. Those tables didn’t have much room for comfort or lighting. They were seats for people who didn’t want to be watched but were willing to give up the big bills it took to get in. That worked just fine for me. In fact, I was glad I didn’t get hassled about my dusty jeans.
I combed through my hair with my hand, a gesture that was half nervous twitch and half necessity. The day on top of the roof had left my natural waves frizzier than usual, and even though I was working I still had some sense of pride. I caught Calvin smiling at it.
“What?” I demanded.
“Never seen you primp before, Hicks.”
“That hardly counts as primping.”
“Uh-huh. Well, thankfully it’s not wasted. Look who just walked in.” He nodded at the door. I didn’t recognize the men from their clothes but the shoes leaped out at me. I’d been eye-to-eye with those shoes not that long ago. The security guys took a seat about five tables away. Calvin’s face was intent but I couldn’t see on what, so I asked.
“Shh, I’m listening.”
“From fifteen foot away in a crowded bar?”
“I could hear their heart beat from here if you were quiet,” he hissed.
I shut my mouth. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was long, and when the house lights flashed, I was grateful.
“Now what?” I asked, looking for direction. The two guys watching Jeremy and Gina brought out the big sister in me. I wanted to grab Gina and drag her out of there but Calvin got to me first.
“Your sister is fine.” He said it like he knew, like he could trust them. I didn’t even have a chance to register shock that he’d recognized her before he grabbed my arm, the bad one, and pulled me outside. He didn’t stop until we were next to my car. “When were you going to tell me she was seeing him?”
“I wasn’t.”
“Give me the keys,” he commanded.
My only reply was an angry grunt.
“Look, it’s not easy but I get it—you don’t want LaRue to know about her connection to the guy that got Josephine threatened. You know it could get her hurt. That makes you smart. Shoving your way in there and beating the hell out of people wouldn’t be smart. If those two are busy, that means no one is minding the shop. We go there, see what we can find. If there’s nothing, we come back, and beat the living shit out of them.”
I gave him a long look trying to see if he was toying with me.
“No games, Hicks. Someone’s tailing your sister and you’re pissed about it. We don’t find anything useful, I’m happy to help you work them over. I just don’t want to waste the opportunity to get something concrete. There’s always another chance to beat people, but that office is usually staffed.”
&nbs
p; “Fine.” I yielded, but stayed stubborn about it. “If the office doesn’t give us anything, if it’s locked up tight, we come back here and get a little more hands-on with things.”
“Agreed.” He nodded. “So give me the keys.”
“I can drive.”
“Nope, you’re too pissed. Keys.”
I handed them over, then got inside when he opened the door for me. I was still seething with rage. Gina, my baby sister, was being stalked by men who’d kidnapped and maybe killed a vampire. This was a problem needed to be beat on until it went away. I turned to Calvin, ready to make the argument. Sure, it was late. I was tired. But I was more mad than anything else.
“I’m hoping you forgive me for this later.”
“For what?” I couldn’t quite get the look in his eyes, sort of worried. I studied them, fascinated by the color. They were a light brown. Why hadn’t I noticed that before?
“Sleep,” he commanded, and like everyone else who’d ever been caught by a vampire, I did exactly that.
13
The room was dim, lit by a single light bulb that hung from a wire. It threw the light around like it was paint, leaving great splashes of brightness and long slants of dark on the scuffed wood floor. I looked up and saw myself in a mirror, glass settled against the wall at an angle, no frame. Calvin stared back at me, wearing more skin color than I’d ever seen on him. I was inside his memory, with no control over the dream. I never liked becoming someone else. Wearing a cheap undershirt, pants with suspenders and worn-through shoes didn’t help. My hands, no, his hands tossed a battered gray hat on to the corner of a scarred wooden chair
A heavy weight shifted in his hands, a cold pistol in a room that reeked of cheap whisky. He reached down and took a long drink from the bottle at his feet, letting the fire slide down his throat without enjoying it. He put the bottle back, then turned the gun over again and again, like staring at it would give him the answers he needed. Finally, he sighed and put the gun to his temple.
Hollywood Dead: Elisabeth Hicks, Witch Detective Page 14