“A Beverly Hills Detective who”
“Devin Jones. Who is apparently inside and”
“Her name is Devin Jones. We understand she was an actress and a model before becoming a police officer.”
“Su nombre es DEVIN JONES.”
Brad laughed. “Oh my God. She’s everywhere.”
“Totally.”
“You think this is going to help somehow?”
“Not sure.”
Armand kept changing the channel.
“And apparently she’s sending out messages via Twitter. It’s pretty amazing.”
“Twitter. And we’ve just gotten a first message.”
“She’s talking via a Twitter. Here’s what it says.”
“Here’s her message.”
Armand stopped changing the channel, leaving it on the local news where they started. The female reporter read off Devin Jones’s message.
“She says, ‘I know who you are Richard.’ Now we’re not sure what this means… or who Richard is… but we’re going to find out.”
Brad smiled. He sat down on the edge of the couch. He got it. He knew exactly what she was doing.
“…She’s a fucking genius.”
60
Bronco Bennett finished watching the news on one of the monitors in the LAPD crime scene truck. He tossed his headphones down. “What the fuck is she doing?”
He stormed out of the truck and over to Milner who was standing at the side of the road.
“This is getting out of control.”
“How did they even know she was in there?”
“She’s fucking this whole thing up.”
“Don’t you mean,” Milner said, “Your officer is in danger and we have to get her out of there?”
Bronco stared him down hard. “That fucking dyke is no officer of mine.”
Milner looked like he wanted to say something in protest but then thought better of it.
Bronco reached for his cigarettes. Fuck it. He was too pissed right now to smoke. “What’s happening with the money? Have you been able to trace it?”
“We can’t figure out where it’s going and where it’s even coming from. The money goes into the CashFriend account and then it disappears. No trace. No way to find it.”
Bronco was barely listening. He was focused on Devin Jones’s face all over the news. His heart was thumping in his chest and he desperately wanted to punch something or someone. He had to move.
Bronco walked away from Milner. Then turned back.
“The roof.”
“What?”
“I want to go in through the roof. Make it happen.”
“We can’t.”
“Make it fucking happen.”
“Bennett… no. They’ll kill people.”
Bronco Bennett came back and loomed over Milner. It was everything he could do not to grab him by the throat. But he’d been reprimanded for doing that to a puny little runty FBI officer who’d gotten in his way two years ago on a case. So he had to watch himself.
“They’ll fucking kill people anyway, Milner. Wake the fuck up.”
61
Richard stood in front of the terrified looking celebrities. He sat down on the edge of the table that had the polygraph on it. He made sure the camera was on him.
“You all did really well. And I have to say it was hard to choose a winner. But well I have to. So Kaden Conroy. You’re it.”
He looked over at the mop top kid who was sitting against the couch on the floor. He was holding hands with that Essie woman who was the best actress nominee. Stupid kid. Richard watched all the blood drain out of the kid’s face.
“Me?” the kid said. His voice barely a squeak.
“That’s right,” Richard said. “Get up.”
As Kaden Conroy stood up, Richard kept talking. “Although I could give you a one minute reprieve. If we get 10 million more in the next sixty seconds. You’re saved.”
Richard turned to the camera. “One minute to save this kid’s life.”
Zack was scarfing down the last of a package of Devil Dogs when he heard the bing bing sound of money in the account start to go crazy. He pushed his chair back to the main screen and madly started scrolling the mouse, and entering code, the Devil Dog hanging out of his mouth.
“Fuck… this is crazy.”
Vidic came up to Richard and whispered in his ear.
Richard turned and walked with him. Before he left he barked, “Keep the camera on those assholes” to the cameraman.
In the director’s booth, Richard stood next to Sis and they watched the monitors filled with coverage of Devin Jones. Richard watched as the female reporter read Devin Jones’s Twitter message. “I know who you are Richard.”
Richard shook his head. “How the fuck?”
Sis looked at him. “She’s bluffing. She can’t possibly.”
“Can’t she?”
“How?”
“I don’t fucking know!”
He turned to Vidic. Was it him? Did that psycho Serbian sniper turn on him? The guy had ice water in his veins. He was the only one besides Sis who knew who he was.
Richard pulled his gun out and shot Vidic in the head.
Sis screamed.
Vidic slumped to the floor.
“What did you do that for?”
Richard calmly put his gun back in its holster, snapped it shut. He straightened his suit jacket.
“Only one person other than you knew who I was.”
“What if she was bluffing?”
“Well, then that sucks for Vidic. But I can’t take the chance.”
Sis looked at the screens again. “What are we going to do?”
Richard smiled. “She’s Tweeting us? Fucking Tweeting us?” He laughed.
“Yeah. So? What are we going to do?”
“Tweet back. Set it up on your computer. And here’s the first reply to that bitch.”
Richard grabbed a piece of paper and on it he scrawled some words and then handed them to Sis.
She opened the piece of paper. “You’re very succinct.”
“Thank you.”
Richard turned and headed out. Sis looked at the paper again. There in block letters, a deliberate hand, not phased by anything going on obviously. It said, “You’re fucking dead, bitch.”
Sis thought she might leave the word ‘bitch’ out when she typed it. That kind of sexism made her mad. But then she realized, what did she care, she was supposed to be dead.
Like Devin Jones would be soon.
62
Devin looked at the TV monitor in Kyp’s dressing room. Nothing was happening, the camera just stayed on the actors. As she watched, she pressed the release on the magazine cartridge on her Glock, then slammed in another one. She released the safety and slipped the gun into her waistband.
She watched as that guy Richard came back into the shot.
“Good news,” he said. “We just received 50 million dollars for Kaden Conroy’s life. Well done.”
Devin hated this guy with such a passion. This fucking asshole. What he was doing to these people was so fucked up. Not to mention what he was doing to the people watching.
She watched as he walked over to the group and pointed.
“Tannis Overholt. Your number is up. You’re next.”
Devin shook her head. She sighed. Looked over at a very dead Kyp Valentine.
“Time to move… Well… not you. But me. Wish me luck.”
Devin looked down at the very dead Kyp Valentine.
“Yeah. I know… Luck’s the least of what I need.”
63
Fake security guard Joey Kopnick lumbered along the corridor carting the pretty actress whose movies his stupid girlfriend had made him go see. He was a little star struck. Joey almost thought of asking her out. But then he realized oh, wait… he’s taking her backstage to kill her. Right.
But no reason why she wouldn’t date him. They were about the same age – Joey was 24. Tannis Over
holt was a little older but he didn’t care. She was hot.
“So, I like your movies,” Joey said.
Tannis Overholt looked at him hard. “Are you fucking kidding me? Are you kidding me with this?”
Joey got his feelings hurt. “What?”
Tannis Overholt shook her head.
It suddenly occurred to Joey, he was on his own. There was no one to tell him what to do or what not to do. So he was going to do what he wanted to do. And right now he wanted to fuck Tannis Overholt. He looked behind him in the hallway. No one there. He was on his own. He had no idea why the boss trusted him and didn’t have Vidic do this. But fuck, he was happy for it.
He spotted a utility closet.
He grabbed Tannis Overholt by the elbow, “C’mere.”
She made a little noise like a startled cry.
He opened the door and turned the light on. He tossed her inside. It was pretty big for a closet. There on the other side was a table, had some cleaning supplies on it. Perfect.
He dragged her over to the table. Started kissing her. She tried pushing him away. But he was 6’ 3”. She didn’t stand a chance. And he knew it. Finally, something for him. Everything was always for everybody else. This was for him. And no one was about to stop him.
“Please, no!” Tannis cried out.
“Shhhh!”
“No!”
He put his hand over her mouth. “I said shut up.”
He undid his belt and started yanking her dress up the sides of her hips. He was ready for this in every way.
At that moment he heard a noise behind him and turned around to see an incredibly hot brunette in a black dress pointing a gun at him. She held a little orange throw pillow in front of her gun.
What the fuck?
Devin pulled the trigger and the gun went off with a BLORF sound as she shot through the pillow, sending orange pillow fluff-explosion everywhere. Well, there was her silencer gone. She’d have to figure something else out.
The fat guy she shot fell backwards onto the floor. Leaving a terrified looking Tannis Overholt standing behind him with her mouth open. Too terrified to even scream.
Devin rushed over to her. “You okay?”
Tannis was shaking. “Yuh…okay…” she looked at Devin. “Who…you…”
“I’m a Police Detective. Are you sure you’re okay?”
Devin pulled Tannis dress back down her hips for her. Tannis looked down realizing what she’d just done. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
Devin looked around. “We’ve got to get out of here. There isn’t much time. They’ll be looking for you when you don’t show up on the stage.”
As they made their way towards the door, Devin felt her heel step on the floor and it felt weird. Different. It made a different sound. Like an empty clonk instead of a click. She took a few more steps in this zone. “Oh my God.”
She looked at Tannis. “Stand back.”
With that, Devin grabbed a crowbar from nearby. She smashed it into the floor. The floor moved. She smashed it again; something seemed to loosen. She smashed it one more time, half of it fell out. And she saw the hole.
“Oh my god. There it is. There it fucking is…”
Tannis looked confused. “There’s what?”
Devin looked at her and smiled. “Their way out. Freedom.”
Devin looked at the hole. “Can you fit down there?”
“Of course I’m a size 0!”
“Let me try first… We don’t have lots of time.”
Devin lowered herself into the hole, climbing down the rugged blasted out rock.
She scrambled down to the bottom, crawled through a small tunnel and peered out, seeing the subway track.
“Holy shit.”
With that she hoisted herself back up. And up through the hole. Up into the room.
She looked into Tannis’s eyes intently.
“Okay… listen to me… Climb down there. You’re going to see the subway tracks. When you get there, it looks like about 15 feet to the right to the platform, lift yourself up there…Just stay there. I’ll have a police officer meet you. And most importantly don’t let anyone else on the outside know you’re out. Got it?”
Tannis nodded. “Yeah.”
“Go.”
Tannis started to lower herself down into the hole. She stopped and looked at Devin. “Thanks…”
With that Tannis lowered herself down. Devin grabbed a nearby piece of carpet and tossed it on top of the hole, then she pushed the nearby table over top.
That done, she grabbed the dead fat guy and yanked him across the floor by his shirt, where she shoved him into a broom closet.
She flipped her phone open and pressed a number.
“Dispatch.”
“Nita. It’s Devin.”
“Devin, you okay? What do you need?”
“I need to not talk to Bronco Bennett first of all.”
“Okay, what can I do for you?”
“I need you to get a patrol officer from Hollywood to go to the subway platform at Hollywood and Highland. There’s an actress there. Tannis Overholt. I got her out.”
“Got it.”
“And you need to tell the officer to hide her. I can’t have the press finding out she’s safe. Cause if they do these assholes will know I found their escape.”
“Devin, can you get out?”
Devin stopped a moment. “Yeah. I can.”
“Devin…”
“Nita, I can’t.”
“Devin, please…”
“Look, I gotta go. Please get me that officer a.s.a.p.”
Devin hung up her phone. She looked down at the carpet below the table. She looked down at freedom.
She picked up her gun, steadied herself, gingerly opened the door into the hallway and headed out.
She had no idea how she was going to stop them. But she knew she had to try.
64
Richard stomped into the backstage area. There was a Cameraman and no actress.
“What’s happening? Where are they?”
The cameraman shrugged.
Richard pressed his radio. “I need everyone who’s not guarding the actors to find Tannis Overholt and that bolt necked idiot I sent her out with. And while you’re at it, find that fucking bitch Devin Jones.”
He released the radio button. Just in time to hear from Sis.
“Richard, what’s happening?”
“Nothing to worry about.”
“Other than the fact that an actress is missing? Bullshit.”
“We’re working on it.”
“Richard.”
“I said we’re working on it.” He changed the channel on the radio, not to hear from her anymore. Fucking pain in the ass. Richard had already thought through how he was going to ditch her.
They had the plane waiting for them at the Burbank Airport. No reason why she had to arrive with him in the Cayman Islands. No reason at all. She thought she was needed for the accounts. She’d set them up. She thought her signature was required. What she didn’t count on was Richard bribing Zack to set him up his own accounts she didn’t even know about.
Her plan was that she was fake killed in front of a worldwide TV audience, then when the building went up no one could find either of their bodies. His plan was that he was going to push her out of the plane at about 18,000 feet. He liked his plan a lot better. Because in it, Sis Warren died, and he got all the money. Or at least most of it. Fuck it, definitely enough of it.
65
Devin crept along the hallway and into a stairwell.
“Okay… let’s see what’s upstairs.”
She made her way up the stairs two at a time. A pretty impressive feat considering she was still in her Dolce and Gabbana strappy sandals and had a gun in her hand and mobile phone in the other hand.
At that moment the cell phone rang.
She answered it. “Jones.”
“Hey Babe.”
Devin was so
concerned with getting up the stairs and getting somewhere safe she suddenly could give a shit that Lori Plom kept calling her ‘babe.’
“What’s up, Lori, I’m kinda busy.”
“Can you get me any video?”
“What do you mean?”
“Something of you. Where you are. You talking. We can put it up.”
Devin got to the next floor.. She opened the door and made her way into a hallway. It was much more officey looking than the other floors. Administration for the theater.
Devin tucked the phone under her chin and held her gun out in front of her with both hands as she made her way along. Multitasking, like most women are good at. This was just a very extreme version.
“Uh, yeah… I think so. Is it going to help?”
“If we can give people a real-time sense of you, they’ll connect to you even more. And the more they pay attention to you…”
“The less they’re going to pay attention to this situation. Which’ll make the people in charge go crazy.”
“Yes, well, that is the plan.”
“Okay, I’ll send a message first” Devin said, “then get you a video… Here’s the message…”
Devin knew she had to keep on top of this. Keep trying to throw off their game.
Lori piped in. “I’m typing as we speak. Shoot.”
Devin thought for a moment about what she wanted her next move to be. As she did she saw an office that’d make a good hiding place. She tried the door. It was locked. She took a step back.
“Okay, what I want to say this time is – “
With that, Devin stepped back from the door and gave it a huge kick. The door flew open with a splintering sound.
Lori sounded panic stricken. “BABE?? You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m fine…”
Devin entered the office. Some executive had it sweet up here – a big office with a view of Hollywood Boulevard, a designer desk and some Philippe Stark furniture – seating area with a leather couch and two leather chairs.
This is Devin Jones Page 15