She drove herself back to Palm Springs on Monday morning in the SUV she’d borrowed from the set, and she was in her trailer by six A.M. She tried to rouse herself to think about her work, but everything was hard right now and took ten times the effort it normally did to get her motor running and concentrate on the film.
She handed the script changes back to the writers, and by eight the cameras were rolling and they were back to work. Brigitte had gone to L.A. for the day, to do some work, and she didn’t come back to Palm Springs until Tuesday. Brigitte arrived in the Aston Martin, looking as sexy as ever. She put on a big show of being jolly and in good spirits. She had brought Tallie her mail from the city and had a number of things to show her. Tallie pretended to be interested but she wasn’t. She didn’t care about anything right now except what she was waiting to hear from Meg. It was Thursday when Meg finally called, six days after they had met. They had been the longest six days of Tallie’s life.
“How are you?” Meg asked her politely. She sounded businesslike and cool, and Tallie wanted to scream at her to tell her everything immediately. She couldn’t wait a minute longer, but that wasn’t the way Meg worked. She was professional and precise.
“I’ve been going crazy waiting to hear from you,” Tallie said honestly. She was in her room at the hotel, and hadn’t gone back to L.A. all week. She told Hunt she was still feeling sick, was too tired to drive back to L.A. at night, and didn’t want to expose him to her flu.
“I’m sorry,” Meg said quietly. “Sometimes it takes a few days to get the lay of the land. This is actually pretty quick for us, but I know it must seem long to you.” It was the understatement of the year.
“Interminable,” Tallie said grimly as she lay on her bed. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“I’d rather we meet face-to-face. I can come out there if you like. When are you coming back to town?”
“Tomorrow night, or maybe in the late afternoon.” Part of her wanted to press Meg to tell her now, and part of her didn’t. She was afraid to hear the results of her investigation. What if she hated what she heard?
“I’m clear anytime tomorrow,” Meg said crisply.
“Four o’clock?” Tallie suggested. “I’ll try to get out of here after lunch.” She could drive herself in again, and she was going home for the weekend. She had kept her dealings superficial with Brigitte all week, or avoided her completely. She wasn’t comfortable with her at the moment. Tallie felt as though she had been blindfolded and didn’t know where she was, or with whom, or who to trust. Her confidence in the people closest to her had been shaken, until she talked to Meg. Only she could reassure her, and Tallie didn’t know if she would, or make it infinitely worse with her report. She was dreading what she’d hear.
“Four is fine,” Meg confirmed. Tallie didn’t ask her if the report was good or bad. She was too afraid to know, without the details. And she was awake all night after they spoke.
The shoot the next day seemed endless and her nerves were on edge. She had a meeting over lunch in her trailer with the writers, and as soon as it was finished, she took off, without saying goodbye to Brigitte or anyone else. The AD was taking over for her again and seemed pleased. And Tallie kept her foot on the gas all the way to L.A. She was at Meg’s office at four o’clock sharp, with her heart pounding. She felt her stomach tie in a knot as Meg’s secretary showed her in.
Meg stood up with a warm smile as Tallie walked into her office, and she invited her to sit down across her desk. Tallie had never been as nervous about any meeting, or as frightened about what she was going to hear. Meg’s face gave away nothing, she was a pro. But she looked sympathetic, which Tallie read as a bad sign.
“Well, I think we have what you wanted to know. Not all of it, after this brief an investigation, but enough to give you a general picture.” Tallie noticed she had a thick file on her desk with a number code on it, which represented Tallie’s case. She was discreet if nothing else.
“We’ve been following Hunter Lloyd since last week, and doing a superficial assessment of his financial situation. There are records we don’t have access to, like his bank records, but we checked his credit, spoke to some people at his bank, and investigated as much as we could about how he spends his money. He has a big income, as you know. And his assets are solidly invested in a diversified portfolio. Everything we found tells us that he’s financially sound. He’s not afraid to spend money, as you probably also know. He drives a Bentley sports model that he owns, he has solid real estate holdings and investments. He’s not irresponsible about his money, and it looks like just about all his purchases and transactions are done by credit card. There is absolutely nothing we turned up that suggests he’s in financial trouble, needs money, or has a shady reputation. He has an A1 credit rating, and from what I was able to find out, he seems to make no purchases with cash. All the stores he deals with are paid by credit card. In fact, he seems to charge everything. There can always be something hidden we didn’t find—this was really an initial investigation, not a forensic financial one—but he looks solid as a rock financially, and my gut tells me that he’s not stealing cash from you. He has absolutely no reason to. Another three hundred thousand dollars a year would be nice, but he just doesn’t need your money.” Tallie nodded as she listened. It was reassuring, but if what Meg said was true, then Brigitte was lying, which was upsetting too. But at least Hunt was clean about the money. It was what she had thought too. Why would Hunt steal from her? There was just no reason to, he had a lot more than she did, and he wasn’t a greedy person. He had always been generous with her, and paid way more than his share of their expenses. As far as the money went, Brigitte’s story didn’t hold water.
“The rest of what we found out about Mr. Lloyd is more disturbing. Our sources were consistent and told us that he has been involved with this young woman in his office for about a year. It may have begun as a situation of sympathy. She was in fact the victim of domestic violence from her estranged husband. She took him to court repeatedly over it, was hospitalized once, and is currently waiting for her final decree of dissolution, in about two months. Her ex-husband was jailed twice for abusing her and their son. The boy is three years old. And she does work for Mr. Lloyd. He sees her in the evening several times a week, meets her at the Chateau Marmont and Sunset Marquis, and spends the night with her frequently when you’re out of town. He stayed with her three times this week. She leaves the child with a neighbor, and they usually go to a hotel. She may be afraid to have him stay at her house in case her ex-husband is watching or stalking her. They seem to spend a lot of time together.” And with that, she took several blown-up photographs out of the file on her desk, and spread them in front of Tallie. He was kissing a beautiful dark-haired young woman in one of them, and in another he had an arm around her shoulders and was holding a little boy’s hand, at the zoo. Meg pointed to the photograph and explained that it had been taken the previous Saturday. Tallie remembered that he had told her he was playing tennis with friends. Instead he had gone to the zoo with this woman and her son. The little boy looked very cute.
“Her name is Angela Morissey. She is twenty-six years old. And he has told several people he plans to marry her. She believes that to be true too. And she has told people that in confidence.”
She showed Tallie several more pictures of them then, going to a movie, coming out of a restaurant with the boy, and getting out of his car at the Sunset Marquis. He looked like he had a whole life with her, and they both looked happy whenever they were together. Tallie suddenly wondered if she had let him down in some way, if she complained too much, or wasn’t as much fun, or was too tired after working too hard. Or was she too old since the girl was so much younger? Why had he done this to her? She had to fight back tears as she looked at the photographs. It nearly broke her heart to see them, and he looked like he loved the little boy.
“There is a previous history here as well,” Meg went on, looking slightly apologetic.
She could see how shaken Tallie was, and had known she would be. This was like being brought into the doctor’s office to be told you had cancer, instead of getting a phone call to say you had a clean test. There was nothing clean about this. Hunt had been cheating on her with this woman for a year. For an entire year, he had lied to her, and been sleeping with someone else. And in the photographs he looked happy and in love. And the girl was gorgeous and thirteen years younger than Tallie.
“In the course of our investigation, we were told that he had another involvement before this, with another woman. We have a full description of her, but no photographs. We can research it further if you like, but I don’t think it’s necessary. He also met her at the Chateau Marmont and Sunset Marquis several times a week during their involvement. He’s been a regular in both places for several years. The woman before this one was mid to late thirties, blond, very beautiful, very sexy, looks like an actress. They were involved for approximately three years, and her first name is Brigitte.”
As she said it, Tallie nearly threw up on the desk. She stared at Meg in disbelief and horror, as the investigator handed her a glass of water. Tallie took a sip and set it down on the desk, and looked at Meg blindly as she went on.
“It sounds like it was your assistant, from everything we heard about her.” It also explained the credit card charges Brigitte had signed several times at the two hotels until a year ago. Either she had been careless, or maybe she’d gotten to the hotel first, and since Tallie never looked at the bills, she had never expected her to see them, until Victor’s recent audit. And it had stopped a year ago when Hunt got involved with the other girl. And God only knew how many others there had been. “All our sources say that their affair stopped when he got involved with Miss Morissey, and supposedly Brigitte is very angry about it. In addition, although your assistant makes a great deal of money, she has a considerable amount of debt, her credit is not flawless, and you appear to be her only source of income. All of those records are not available to us since we’re not a government agency, but we saw nothing to suggest she gets money from her family. And she spends a lot. And she is currently having an affair with a young man named Tommy Apple, who is a minor actor in the movie you’re filming. She spent last weekend with him, and they’ve been together since filming started. It doesn’t sound like a serious affair.” She showed her several photographs of Brigitte with Tommy, which Tallie didn’t care about. What she cared about was that Hunt and Brigitte had betrayed her. And his three years with her and one year with this new woman meant that Hunt had cheated on her for all four years they were together. For the entire time, he had been seeing someone else, and Brigitte, the person she had trusted most in the world, had had an affair with her boyfriend for three years. They had both betrayed her totally. And as hurt as she was by Hunt, she was even more so by Brigitte. He had turned out to be just another asshole who was lying to her and cheating, Brigitte had been her best and closest friend for seventeen years, since they were barely more than kids. It was a blow she hadn’t expected and it hit her like a wrecking ball as she stared at Meg in disbelief.
“Are you sure?” Tallie said in a hoarse voice.
“I believe so. Our sources seemed very sure of what they were saying. The evidence seems to be pretty glaring.” She looked deeply regretful to be reporting it to Tallie, and she felt sincerely sorry for her. It was a terrible shock for Tallie. And even if the report of Hunt’s affair with Brigitte was wrong, which seemed unlikely, he was clearly involved with someone else now. She was thirteen years younger than Tallie, and he seemed to be deeply committed to her and her little boy. And all Tallie could think was that he was a cheater to the core, with no integrity or decency at all. And Brigitte was no better.
“I want to pursue another subject with you,” Meg said quietly. “The disappearing cash. I think that’s a very serious issue. I’d like to see you go to law enforcement with this. I think you need to pursue it before you lose more, and possibly you already have. We don’t have the access that a law enforcement agency has to investigate bank records and financial matters. I don’t think Hunter Lloyd is involved here, but you never know. It could be that several people are ripping you off, and not just one, or it could be a clever embezzler. You need to know. I’d like to see you investigate Hunter Lloyd further, just to be sure, your assistant Brigitte Parker, and your accountant Victor Carson. You just don’t know what people are capable of. And you’ve already had a loss of close to a million dollars,” Meg reminded her. “This is no small thing, and it could be a lot bigger than you already know.” This had been a double hit, a triple. Her boyfriend had cheated on her for four years, her best friend had betrayed her with him, and someone was stealing money from her, in vast amounts. Tallie wanted to lie down on the floor and sob, but she maintained her composure and listened to what Meg had to say.
“Who would I go to?” Tallie asked her, feeling lost.
“I’ve spoken to one of my previous colleagues at the FBI, without telling him your name of course. I refer cases to him from time to time. I explained the situation to him, and he’d like to talk to you. It could be that this isn’t a federal matter, there would have to be wire fraud involved, and bank fraud of some kind, but I suspect that’s very likely with someone stealing in these amounts. Twenty-five thousand dollars a month is a lot of money. I think you should talk to the FBI, and have them investigate it, if they’re willing. If not, you can go to the district attorney and the police, but I’d much rather see you in the hands of the FBI. I think they’ll pay much closer attention and get to the bottom of it faster. If you’d like, my ex-associate said he’d be happy to meet you anytime this weekend. I strongly urge you to do that, whatever else you do about the other issues involved.” She wrote down a name and cell phone number on a piece of paper and handed it to Tallie. “His name is Jim Kingston and he’ll be expecting your call,” she said gently. She could see how hard all of this had just been for Tallie. It was the worst she could have imagined, and not in a million years had she expected Brigitte to be involved with Hunt.
“What do I do now?”
“I would talk to Jim Kingston first, before you accuse your assistant. There may be some value in discretion and even stealth. He may want to do some investigation of her bank records before you alert her that she’s been caught, or is under suspicion, if it’s her. Ask for his advice. I think the matter is less sensitive and more awkward for you with Hunter Lloyd, given the situation. But in Brigitte’s case, I would be cautious and line up all your ducks before you accuse her. You don’t want to warn her and have her steal an even larger amount before she goes. And I wouldn’t discuss the money issues with Hunter Lloyd either, or your accountant. I hope you call Jim.”
“I will,” Tallie promised her, and meant it as she put the piece of paper in her purse, and then she just sat and stared at Meg for a minute. “Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say as she stood up. She felt completely disoriented and as though she were drowning.
“I’m sorry to give you such bad news.” It was what she hated most about her job. Finding the puzzle pieces and fitting them together was fascinating, but doing what she had just done to Tallie and seeing the look in her eyes made her heart ache, and Tallie looked like a nice woman. Greg Thomas, her attorney, had said she was. Meg stood up to walk Tallie out of her office then, and told her to call if she could be of any further help. Tallie nodded, barely able to say anything as Meg handed her the file. “We have copies of all of this. You might want this for your records.” Tallie clutched it to her with tears in her eyes. In it were the photographs of Hunt with the other woman, and the reports of their investigation and surveillance on him and Brigitte. Just having it was depressing. She wished she could throw it away and turn back the clock.
“Thank you very much,” Tallie said softly. “I’ll call the FBI man tonight.”
“I hope you do,” Meg encouraged her. “You really need to investigate this further.” Tallie nodded ag
ain, and left the office. She almost stumbled as she walked back to the car. All she could think of were the things that Meg had said to her, about Hunt, about Brigitte, about the young woman with the little boy. She couldn’t stop thinking of the photograph of him kissing her. She threw the file on the seat next to her, started the car, and drove away as she began to sob.
Chapter 8
TALLIE WAS PLANNING to call the FBI agent when she got back to her house, but she was crying too hard. Hunt was out, the house was dark, and she just sat in the living room, clutching the investigation folder to her chest, and cried. She hated everything in it, and everything Meg had told her. But she couldn’t run away from it now. She opened the folder after a few minutes and looked at the photographs again as she continued to cry. She looked at the one of him kissing Angela Morissey and holding her little boy’s hand at the zoo, only six days before. She felt as though her whole life had come down like a house of cards.
She was still sitting in the dark, when Hunt came home an hour later. He had a bag of groceries in his arms, and walked into the kitchen without noticing Tallie in the dark. She stood up and followed him into the kitchen like a ghost, and he gave a start when he saw her. She looked ravaged as she stood watching him. She still had the folder in her arms.
“Are you still sick? Poor baby, you look awful. You should be in bed. I’ll make you some soup,” he said. He was in good spirits, and she didn’t even want to try to imagine why. God only knew what he’d been doing before he came home. She wondered why he even bothered if Angela was telling people they were getting married and he was spending every free night with her. She realized now that all the times he had told her he had been with their Japanese investor, it probably wasn’t true. Their whole life together was a lie. He probably hadn’t stolen her money, but he had broken her heart. “Are you okay?” The look on her face scared him. She looked as though she had drifted in from another world, like a ghost. She looked transparent she was so pale.
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