Not Suspicious in Hollywood: Not in Hollywood Book 5

by Leonie Gant

  He looked so downcast that I felt sorry for him. “I’m fine. Everything worked out in the end and the important thing is that Jolena is going to get justice. Thanks to this morning’s effort, Fletchall will be going away for a very long time.”

  The paramedic stepped up. “I’m sorry Ma’am but we’re going to need to get the patient to hospital.”

  I nodded, squeezed Vale’s hand and stepped back.

  As I watched the ambulance drive off I felt Detective Pickett step up behind me. “I need you to come with me to the station,” he said. “Griffin’s been notified and he’s going to meet us there. Seems he was already on his way.”

  Seems like Plan B would have worked as well if I’d just been able to keep Fletchall talking for long enough.

  As soon as we arrived at the station Pickett deposited me in the interview room. For the first time I only waited a few minutes before the door opened again and Pickett walked in. He put a cup of coffee in front of me and I don’t think I hid my expression of distaste very well.

  “Just coffee, nothing else,” he murmured.

  “I think I’m going to have a little problem with anything a police officer gives me at the moment. Might take me a little while to get over it.” I pushed the cup away. “Is this going to take long? I have a wedding to go to.”

  “That will be a change of pace for the day.”

  “Yes. A couple of hours ago a wedding was the absolute last thing that I felt like doing. Now, I’m kind of grateful that I’m going to get the chance to go.”

  “I can imagine. Detective Griffin told me that you saw Fletchall following you last night.”

  “It might not have been me, it could have been Ramos,” I pointed out.

  “It could have been. Fletchall’s not talking at all so there is a chance we may never know. It does look like he stole Ramos’s phone at one of those two venues. He used that to lure Griffin away so that you would be alone when you got to the mansion.”

  “Worked a treat, didn’t it?” I said.

  Pickett inclined his head. “The case we’re putting together looks like classic stalker material. Rationality left the building long ago but he’s still a cop. He was using those skills to build the best case possible against Vale. Might have worked too if the goat hadn’t got involved.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short,” I said sarcastically. “I’m sure you would have come out and arrested him at some point. I like to believe that it would be before I was killed.”

  Pickett looked at me sourly. “Of course I would have.”

  I wasn’t so convinced. It could just have been the trauma but I was not so sure Detective Pickett would have risked his investigation just to save little old me.

  “Why did you go down to the lake this morning?” Picket asked.

  “Buddy was missing again. The last time he got out of his pen he ended up at the lake…” My voice tapered off. “I told Fletchall that at the first interview. That’s the exact same thing that happened the morning I found Jolena’s body.”

  “Probably where he got the idea to lure you down there. He let the goat out of the pen and human nature would dictate that you would go looking for the goat at the place you found him the last time he went missing.”

  “It was a great plan, wasn’t it?”

  “Nobody said Fletchall was dumb. The man is pretty intelligent, if you don’t take into account his willingness to coldly kill a woman to frame someone else for the murder he had previously committed.”

  My stomach was not reacting well to this information.

  “Can we finish up soon? I’m starting to feel a bit ill.”

  For the first time, Pickett looked sympathetic. “Sure.”

  He led me out of the interview room and I was faced with Griffin who was standing as close to the doorway as he possibly could without blocking it. He pulled me into his arms and the knot in my stomach started to calm down.

  “Tell me you’re okay,” he whispered into my hair. “I just need to know that you’re okay.”

  I nodded. “I’ll be fine. I just need you to hold me for a little bit longer.”

  “I can do that,” he said.

  “Trudie can go home,” Pickett said from somewhere behind me.

  Griffin didn’t say anything. He just gathered me close and led me out to the car. I didn’t say a word as we drove home but I could feel Griffin glancing at me with a worried expression on his face.

  As he closed the door to my apartment I turned to him, buried my head in his chest and started crying.

  “Oh, honey,” he soothed as he stroked a hand gently up and down my back.

  “I just need a moment,” I said between sobs. “I just need to let this out.”

  “It’s okay, take as long as you like.”

  Griffin picked me up as though I weighed nothing and took me over to the couch. He sat down with me still in his arms and muttered nonsensical things to me as I calmed down.

  “You’re safe now. He can’t hurt you.”

  “I know, I’ve just never been that scared in my life. I’ve been in some bad situations but that was terrifying. I honestly thought he was going to kill me in a horrible, horrible way and there was nothing I could do.”

  “I wish I’d been there. I wish I could have stopped it.”

  Griffin’s eyes were tortured and I knew for a man like him this would have been seen as a failure.

  “None of us knew. For goodness sake, I invited the man in for a coffee. I thought he was nice.”

  I really needed to work on my instincts because if this situation had proved anything it was that they were absolutely useless.

  I used the palms of my hands to wipe my eyes and took in a deep breath. “Okay, I’m fine and we have a wedding to go to.”

  Griffin looked stunned. “You can’t be serious. We are not still going to that wedding, are we?”

  “Absolutely,” I said with a watery smile. “If there was ever a wedding that was going to self-destruct, this is it. I wouldn’t put it past John’s daughters to stage an intervention to stop this thing. Crystal may need back up and if things go really bad we may need your badge.”

  “Fine, but the second it starts looking like it’s too much, I am taking you out of there.”

  “Deal,” I said. “As long as we wait until after the vows have been said.”

  I spent extra time getting myself ready for the wedding and by the time I finished I had convinced myself that I had managed to hide the damage from my meltdown.

  “You ready?” Griffin called from the living room.

  “Uh huh,” I called back as I grabbed my clutch, although I no longer had a purse or phone as it was now being examined by forensics thanks to Fletchall kicking it into the water. I wasn’t really sure what my waterlogged possessions were going to add to the case against him but Pickett had insisted.

  “Wow,” whistled Griffin. “You look gorgeous.”

  I smiled shyly. “You look pretty good yourself.”

  He did. I always thought that Griffin in jeans looked amazing but when he wore a suit, he took my breath away.

  A serious look came over Griffin’s face. “Trudie…”

  We were interrupted by Griffin’s phone ringing, as so often happened in our relationship.

  “Timing,” he muttered as he looked down at the screen. “It’s the lieutenant. I’ll be just a second.”

  He walked into the bedroom. I could hear his voice rising and when he hung up I heard words that I usually didn’t hear coming from Griffin.

  “They want you to go in, don’t they?” I said when he joined me in the living room.

  “Yeah,” he replied. “I’m quite happy to tell them where to stick it this time. But they want to talk to me about Fletchall. I don’t want to risk someone dropping the ball and him not getting everything that he deserves.”

  I shook my head. “No, of course not.”

  “I will be as quick as I possibly can and I’ll join you at the wedding,” he pr
omised. He bent his head and gave me a quick kiss before heading out the door.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I sat down on the couch. I really didn’t want to go to this wedding. What I wanted was to curl up in bed and hide from the world for a while. With Griffin here I had been able to push myself into believing I could do this. Now that I was going to have to turn up to the wedding alone, I wasn’t too keen on the idea. I debated with myself for several minutes as I tried to convince myself to get going. The internal argument was interrupted by a knock on my door. I opened it to find Miss Betsy standing there.

  “Your man asked me if I could take you to the wedding.”

  I should have expected Griffin to do something thoughtful to take care of me.

  “Something bad has happened, hasn’t it?” Miss Betsy said.

  I nodded, trying really hard to control the tears I could feel crowding into my eyes again.

  “Are you going to be okay or do I need to pull you out of this?” she asked.

  “I’ll be fine,” I smiled tremulously. “I just got a really big scare. I never want to feel that terrified again in my life.”

  “But you survived,” Miss Betsy said. “That is what matters, the fact that you got to come home. Everything else you can deal with.”

  She was right. I could always count on Miss Betsy to go straight to the heart of a situation.

  As I got into her car Miss Betsy grinned, “I knew something bad had happened. That man has got access to my driving record. No way would he normally entrust the most precious thing in his life to my driving skills.”

  I laughed just as she’d wanted.

  “That’s better. Now I suggest you hang on. I want to get to this wedding on time. After yesterday I’m curious to see whether it is actually going to happen.”

  From long experience I knew to do as I was told. The wedding was being held in the garden of a friend of John’s with a marquee set up for the reception. Considering the short amount of time that had been available for planning, everything looked beautiful.

  “I guess all that experience had to be good for something,” muttered Miss Betsy.

  I had to stop myself from laughing. I spotted Edwin over in the corner, looking concerned, and tugged Miss Betsy behind me.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “There’s going to be a bit of a delay with the ceremony,” he said diplomatically.

  “This sounds good,” Miss Betsy said eagerly. “What happened? The daughters chained themselves to their father’s car, didn’t they? They had the looks of the kind of people who’d do that.”

  Edwin didn’t smile at what I thought was an obvious joke. “As far as I know there haven’t been any chains. There has been some yelling, some threats and a huge amount of emotional blackmail. Roxy’s a mess and Crystal is trying to deal with her.”

  “What are the odds of this wedding actually happening?” asked Miss Betsy with what I considered an inappropriate look of glee on her face.

  Edwin shrugged his shoulders. “I wouldn’t be betting on it. John’s son looks like he could go either way but his daughters are raising holy hell. Depends on how much he wants to marry Roxy I guess.”

  An hour later we discovered that John really wanted to marry Roxy. So much so that he was willing to have his daughters walk out of his wedding if that was the only way for the day to go forward. A part of me had to admire that kind of determination. I just hoped that Roxy proved to have some staying power this time to reward that kind of faith.

  Despite everyone’s fears that Megan and Sally would abandon the wedding, they proved themselves by standing next to their father, albeit with disapproving frowns instead of the traditional smiles.

  When the minister asked if there were any objections, there was an audible intake of breath around the room. Realizing the precariousness of the situation the minister rushed on, barely giving anyone the time to think, let alone object.

  I looked up as Griffin slid into the seat next to me.

  “Am I too late?” he asked.

  I shook my head. We sat there quietly even though I was dying to ask what had happened. As Roxy and John recited their loving vows, with their respective children glaring at each other, I felt Griffin’s hand cover mine as he entwined our fingers.

  I smiled at the scene in front of me. If you could ignore the obvious tension in the room, the day was proving to be quite romantic.

  When the ceremony was finished and the party started there was a noticeable easing of hostilities. Of course, that was being helped along by Miss Betsy plying Megan and Sally with a steady stream of alcohol to improve their spirits.

  When the music started I dragged Griffin up on the dance floor. Swaying to the music I laid my head against his chest.

  “Crystal and her mom look like they are going well,” muttered Griffin.

  I smiled as I saw the two women laughing.

  “Goes to show, you should never write anyone off. People constantly surprise you,” I said. “How are things at the station?”

  Griffin smiled humorlessly. “The lieutenant’s losing it a bit. He’s having to explain how he managed to have a homicidal stalker as one of his detectives and never saw it coming. To be perfectly fair though, none of us saw it coming. We all knew that Fletchall was a bit on the sleazy side but this…this was unexpected.”

  “How’s Ramos doing?”

  Griffin sighed. “She’s not doing well. She wants a transfer and at this stage the department is willing to let her do anything that she wants. For that matter, some of the legal bigwigs at the department have been indicating that you would be able to launch a lawsuit if you were so inclined. If there is anything you want, this is the moment to ask for it.”

  “Does she still blame me?” I whispered. Our relationship had never been good but I had a feeling it would never recover from this.

  Griffin smiled sadly. “I don’t think she really blames you. You just might be collateral damage. I think most of us are. She just wants to get away from what is an ugly situation.”

  “So what happens to you?” I asked.

  “My unofficial suspension is over and I am now partnered with former Internal Affairs Detective Desmond Pickett. That’s going to be fun. The guy’s a bit uptight.”

  A bark of laughter shot out of me. “You’re complaining about someone being uptight. Do you have any idea how many people tell me that about you?”

  “Yes, well, it seems I’m now considered a bit of a loose cannon according to Lieutenant Ellis and he’s putting the blame for that completely on you.”

  I grimaced. “I seem to be having a very bad influence on the people in his department. I can almost understand that attitude.”

  Griffin raised his hand and stroked down the side of my cheek. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he whispered.

  I smiled up at him.

  Griffin looked down at me and I could see a tenseness to him.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “Marry me,” he said, and as usual with Griffin it was more of a statement than a question.

  My jaw dropped. “Are you serious?” I asked.

  Griffin nodded. “I’ve known that you were the one for me from that moment when you saved Sean from the mobsters on our first case. I remember hearing you walk into that room to save a sixteen year old boy getting a bullet in the brain and thinking that one day I was going to marry you.”

  Not the most romantic of proposals but if it had been, it wouldn’t have been Griffin. He wasn’t about romantic words but then neither was I.

  “Marry me,” repeated Griffin. “I swear I will do everything in my power to make sure you are happy and loved for the rest of your life.”

  I didn’t hesitate. I loved Jake Griffin and I couldn’t think of anything that I would rather do than spend the rest of my life with him.

  I nodded. “Yes,” I said, wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.

  ###

  Thank you for r
eading Not Suspicious in Hollywood. If you enjoyed it, please take a moment to leave a review at your favorite retailer.

  Regards,

  Leonie Gant

  About The Author

  Leonie Gant started her writing career at the age of ten when she stuffed notes in her pencil case full of ideas for mysteries that Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys should really have been solving. After years of watching mysteries play out in her head, in full, sometimes gory color, she decided that writing them down was the best way to deal with them.

  In her life away from writing, she is a voracious reader with not nearly enough time to make her way through all the books that she wants to read. She enjoys bushwalking, sewing and chocolate, possibly not in that order. She also believes in the value of trying new things, walking in the rain and enjoying every moment.

  To find out more about Leonie Gant and her books

  www.leoniegant.com

  Discover other titles by Leonie Gant

  Not Famous in Hollywood

  Not Happily Married in Hollywood

  Not Talented in Hollywood

  Not Wanted in Hollywood