by Joan Rylen
“Mini-guy?” Adrienne asked.
“He seriously might be 5-feet tall.” Vivian held her thumb and index finger an inch apart. “Mini.”
“Shorty freaked out on Jon last night, remember?” Lucy noted.
“Oh yeah, I forgot. We were so flustered at the station this morning, I guess none of us thought of it.”
“And don’t forget the crazy lady,” Wendy said, moving her finger in circles by her temple. “We didn’t see her last night but Jon got a drink from her, remember?”
“No…Jon didn’t, Dominik did,” Kate said, dipping her right foot in the pool.
“That’s right, his soap opera persona. She’s a good candidate, can’t rule out the crazies,” Adrienne said. “What did she look like?”
Vivian raised her arms above her head to stretch and ran her hands through her hair. “She’s normal looking, I guess. Hispanic, about my height, with long, black straight hair. She wears green contacts, but it looks like her eyes are really brown.”
Kate touched the small of her back. “And she has a spider tramp stamp.”
“Classy,” Adrienne said, cleaning her sunglasses with her form-fitting tank top.
When she lifted it Vivian noticed she had a belly button piercing. She’s blingin’ everywhere!
“What’s her name again?” Adrienne continued.
Lucy stood up and yelled out, Streetcar style, “Stellaaaaaa!”
Adrienne and Vivian looked at each other and laughed. At least they could still find a little humor in things.
“See, so we need to be careful,” Wendy said. “There are at least three strange people in this town…”
Vivian cut her off. “You can say that again!”
“Who could and should be considered ‘persons of interest,’ ” Wendy finished, all that reading paying off with her amateur sleuthness. “But I have to admit, if I were reading, I’d think it was you.”
CHAPTER 26
VIVIAN LOOKED up to see Pierre walk out of the lobby, heading straight for them, a scowl still on his face. She was relieved, however, that he was not carrying any objects that could be described as weapons.
He walked over to her and sat down on the lounger Al vacated earlier.
“Vivian. Listen, I’m sorry about earlier at the station. Surely you can understand I’m upset, and having the police all in my business isn’t helping. I’m sorry they brought you in, I feel bad about that. I don’t think for a minute you did this.”
Whew. Vivian sat down next to him and gave him a long hug. “Thank you, Pierre.” After a moment she asked, “Do you know what happened to Jon? Did the police tell you anything?”
Pierre leaned over and put his thumb and finger over his eyes. He cleared his throat. “The evidence indicates his neck was sliced with some sort of jagged weapon, severing his jugular. He was dead within minutes.”
Vivian was too upset to speak. She leaned into Pierre and sobbed into his chest. He cried silently as he held her and the other girls were upset, too.
After a while the tears subsided and the group let out a collective sigh. Wendy then asked, “So I guess they didn’t find the weapon?”
He shook his head. “No. Vega didn’t give me a lot of details. He started off interrogating me, though I don’t think I ever really was a suspect. He said it went fast, that Jon took a few steps and collapsed.”
Everyone was silent.
“It just doesn’t make any sense.” He cleared his throat again. “I can’t imagine who would want to hurt Jon. Vega kept asking me that in the interview this morning, and I can’t think of anyone. I’ve known him for years, and he’s never had any enemies.”
“I didn’t know him for long.” Vivian was sad thinking about Jon lying on the beach bleeding to death. “But I can’t see anyone wanting to hurt him.”
“Did he have any stalkers?” Lucy touched Pierre lightly on the arm.
“No, not that I know of anyway.”
Wendy asked, “Did Jon have a blog, Twitter account, Facebook page, something?”
“He has a Facebook fan page but doesn’t use his Twitter account much.”
“Have you checked it since last night? See if there are any strange comments on his wall?”
“Briefly early this morning, but it was more than I could take.”
“Can you check his Facebook on your phone?” Vivian asked.
“Battery is dead,” he said with a sigh. “I left it in the room charging.”
Kate, who had been pacing, stopped and asked, “Where’s Jon’s phone?”
“The police must have it.”
“I’ll go grab my laptop,” Wendy said and dashed off. She was a loan officer for a mortgage company. She brought her computer on vacation “just to keep tabs on a couple of files.”
Adrienne sat on the lounger, legs crossed, right foot shaking back and forth. “Did Jon ever do drugs? Could he have been into something you didn’t know about, maybe money laundering or sleeping with married women? Those things can get a guy killed.”
“No,” Pierre answered. “Absolutely not. Compared to most people in show business, Jon led a clean, honest life.”
Arturo walked up and announced, “Vega will be here in a few minutes.”
Kate gave Arturo a nervous grin. “Can you tell us if the police were able to find the weapon that was used to kill Jon?”
He shifted from foot to foot and watched as Wendy arrived with her computer and sat down. “I’m sorry, I can’t say. You need to talk to Vega.”
Vivian pushed her sunglasses on top of her head and looked directly at Arturo. “Do you know who this guy is with the scar on his face and the long ponytail? Have you seen him?”
Before Arturo could answer, Pierre interrupted, “What are you talking about?”
Vivian touched his hand and said, “Hold on a sec, Pierre,” then continued, “he was at the Purple Peacock, at the marina and at Club Caliente. We think he’s the killer.”
“Whoa, Viv,” Wendy interjected. “There’s more than just him. You need to tell Arturo everything.”
Pierre moved his hand away from Vivian’s. “What guy? Do you think he was following us? What do you mean there’s more than just him?”
“There’s also Shorty short short and Crazy Stella,” Wendy said.
“Who is Shorty? I have no idea what you are talking about.” Pierre put his head in his hands and slowly shook his head back and forth.
Arturo, too, shook his head. “Sorry, you really need to tell Detective Vega. I shouldn’t make any comments.”
Al returned from calling his connections to find the group silent and somber.
Adrienne asked Al if he had any luck. He reported that he spoke to someone who owed him a favor and he should be getting a call back shortly.
Wendy had the laptop fired up and handed it over to Pierre.
He went to Jon’s Twitter account, but as expected there were no recent tweets by him, and the tweets to him were minimal and harmless. There were a slew, already, that announced Jon’s death. Pierre then went to Jon’s Facebook page. “Looks like a couple of weeks ago Jon posted that we were down here and having a great time.”
He held the computer so Vivian, who was still sitting next to him, could see but the other girls had to gather around behind him to see the screen. Jon’s picture was a professional head shot, and Vivian thought he looked damn good in it.
“Not much activity, no threatening posts,” Wendy said.
“Can you get into his e-mail?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t know his password.”
“What about the soap opera, do they have a website?” Kate asked.
“Yes, but I’ve never been to it.” Pierre went to Google and typed in “obsessions soap opera.”
Wendy rolled her eyes. “Soap opera names are so dumb.”
Pierre clicked on the link to the soap opera and up popped a picture of the cast, sans Jon. “They sure didn’t waste any time getting him out of the picture.”
A headline announced the demise of their beloved soap star, Jon Tournay. The article had several pictures of Jon looking dapper on the set, and also a picture of him on a beach.
“News travels fast,” Kate said.
“I wonder how they found out?” Vivian said.
“I had to call Jon’s agent with the news this morning,” Pierre said. “The worst phone call of my life. And with social media, the announcement has gone haywire.”
“I’m so sorry Pierre,” Adrienne’s foot no longer shook back and forth. She just looked down right forlorn.
“I wonder if we’re going to see any paparazzi down here?” Lucy said. “Because that seriously looks like the Playa del Carmen beach in that picture.”
“Dear god, I hope not,” Vivian said. “That won’t be good for my divorce.”
Pierre looked at her. “If they’re not here yet, you can bet they’re coming.”
CHAPTER 27
“THE PAPARAZZI will be here in force,” Pierre said. “Jon’s momentum was building. He was recently voted one of Canada’s most eligible bachelors.”
“Wow. Who knew?” Vivian said, but thought he was pretty damn hot!
“He was on the cover of a recent issue of SoapStuds magazine.”
“SoapStuds? That sounds more like porn.”
“Not in Canada, though he was half-naked in a few of the pictures. After the magazine spread his popularity skyrocketed. In fact, he wouldn’t renew his soap contract because of the interest in him for a movie.”
“How ticked were the soap people when Jon didn’t renew his contract?” Vivian asked. “In America, when you’re written off a soap it’s usually in some way where one day they can write you back in. Sounds like Jon’s character was blown to bits.”
“Yeah, they weren’t happy with his agent and gave him some shit. They didn’t think he tried hard enough to get Jon to renew, but he was ready to move on to bigger and better things.”
“That piss his agent off?” Al leaned on the back of Adrienne’s chair. “Make it hard for him to place other actors with the network and hurt his income?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know, the timing of this is weird on many levels,” Vivian said. “Maybe the soap people were mad enough to really off him.”
“Surely not. It’s just a soap opera,” Kate said, who was not a watcher of soaps.
“To us it’s just a soap opera, but to the TV execs it’s business — big business, and he pissed them off.” Vivian clicked on that thought and said, “Did you mention any of this to Detective Vega? The agent or the TV execs?”
“No. At the time I didn’t think it was relevant, but now, it seems more important. Especially since I remember hearing Jon talk to his agent about him not liking the direction they were taking his character.”
“That could have chapped some hides,” Lucy said. “What were they going to do that he didn’t like?”
“He had always been the good guy, you know, married to Celeste and they had a baby. They were the ‘dream’ couple on the show. The writers were going to have his character have several affairs and Jon didn’t like it. He felt like there was enough drama with the other characters and they should leave one good guy. He was pretty adamant about it.”
“I definitely think you should bring it up.” Arturo said.
Pierre clicked on the headline announcing Jon’s death. A new blog page popped up with pictures of him from the show, a guest book where people could post their sympathies, and a snippet of the details surrounding his death. Pierre read it aloud.
Obsessions is sad to announce that Jon Tournay, who played Dominik Gagnon, was found dead in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, early this morning. Circumstances surrounding his death indicate foul play.
Authorities gave few details but did say there is at least one suspect in the case.
Obsessions will provide additional information as it becomes available.
“Oh shit, Viv. I bet they are talking about you there,” Wendy said.
Arturo turned his head and looked like he was trying to be uninterested, but it came off as uncomfortable.
“Nah, the cops probably told them that just to put a positive spin on it. Right, Arturo?”
An awkward silence followed Vivian’s question. Arturo shrugged and stammered, “Uh…yeah, yeah, sure.”
Yeah, sure, my ass.
“Fuck,” Vivian said.
“Scroll down some,” Kate said.
They stood over Pierre’s shoulder and read the latest guest book entries with condolences and people saying how much they loved Jon and will miss him.
“Look how young he looks in that one!” Lucy pointed at a picture.
“Yeah, that’s from five years ago when he first joined the show,” Pierre told them.
They all sighed a sad sigh.
“I want to see more of the blog entries,” Kate said.
Pierre got up from the lounge chair and handed the computer to Kate. “Here, you take over. I don’t know if I can read any more sympathies.”
Kate clicked on the next most recent post, Jon’s farewell from the show. He had an outpouring of fans supporting him on his next adventure, but one entry caught their attention.
HOW COULD YOU? You should have died in the explosion, you don’t deserve to breathe.
The post was made at 1:45 that morning.
Vivian was too stunned to speak, and so was everyone else except Lucy. “Oh…my…god…Viv.”
“It has to be Stella,” Vivian finally managed to get out. “That woman is nutso.”
Snapping to, Kate turned to Arturo. “Come here and look at this. Does Detective Vega know about this?”
He gave a head shake and a noncommittal shrug. “I don’t know. I don’t know all of the details in the investigation.”
Wendy asked Arturo, “Can the police find out the IP address from where this comment was posted?”
Arturo gave another shrug. He’s full of those today.
Adrienne got up and whispered in Vivian’s ear. “I’ll call my brother and see if he can look into this. He’s a cop in New Orleans, he may be able to help.”
She then winked at Al. “Sweetie, let’s walk down the street and grab a bite.” Turning back to Vivian, she said, “Give Al your cell number, and we’ll call you when we hear something.”
CHAPTER 28
DETECTIVE VEGA walked across the sand toward the girls, Pierre and Arturo, who were still poolside at the hotel. He looked odd wearing a suit on the beach. He also looked peeved.
“Have you found the murder weapon?” Wendy asked as soon as he was within hearing distance.
“What did you need to talk to me about?” He ignored her question.
Fucker’s not going to tell us anything, Vivian thought. She pointed to the computer, “We found something on the Obsessions website that you need to see. Look at the comment that was posted last night. We think we know who posted it, and you need to find her. She may have been the one who killed Jon.”
“This is absurd. It’s about his character, not him.” Detective Vega said in his Mexican accent, but seemed uninterested.
He has to listen.
Vivian gave him Stella’s description, black spider tattoo and all. She also told him about the weird run-in with her at the Purple Peacock and the martini at Club Caliente. Vivian finished with, “She doesn’t understand reality. She keeps calling him Dominik, his soap opera name. She’s delusional.”
Pierre explained that Jon’s character, Dominik, was written off the show by being killed in an explosion.
“Sounds like premeditation to me,” Vivian said.
Detective Vega looked skeptical.
“His agent got some shit from TV execs because he couldn’t get Jon to renew his contract. They had to change the entire direction of the show because of it. That could have pissed off his co-stars, too.”
Pierre sat down on Adrienne’s vacated lounger. “I gave Vega the agent’s number this morning.”
Vega didn’t answer, and he didn’t seem to like Vivian questioning him.
Kate flipped Wendy’s ponytail. “And don’t forget about Ponytail.”
“Oh yeah, there is also this creepy ponytail scar guy who had been following Jon around. He could be the killer,” Lucy informed Detective Vega.
“And why do you think that, Ms. McGuire?” He bristled at the mention of this particular suspect.
“He has been everywhere that we were with Jon,” Vivian said, “and he’s scary looking.”
“And?”
“And I think you need to find out who he is.”
“Where all have you seen this ponytail guy exactly?”
“He was at the Purple Peacock two nights ago.” Kate powered off the laptop. “He was watching people.”
“There is no crime in that.”
“And he was at the marina yesterday morning in the parking lot, taking pictures of boats,” Wendy interjected. “We also saw him last night at Club Caliente, out on the balcony.”
“Don’t forget, Shorty and The Ladies were also out there.” Lucy wobbled along the edge of the pool. Vivian was a little afraid she’d fall in.
Pierre stood. “Wait. Wait. Are you talking about Julio?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Vivian snapped her fingers. “I forgot that Jon said his name last night. We’ve been calling him Shorty.”
Pierre explained to Detective Vega, “Jon went out on the balcony to say hello to Julio but only The Ladies were at the table. When Julio walked up he thought Jon was hitting on his women and shoved Jon.”
Vega shook his head. “Julio may not be the most honest businessman in town, but I do not see him committing murder.”
“What kind of business is he in?” Kate said and closed the laptop.
“Tequila.”
“What does he do that’s dishonest?” Vivian’s interest in Shorty piqued.