“Yes, I do. Thank you. My worries are with Larsen now.”
Larsen looked compassionately at Kathryn. “Don’t worry too much, okay? Things with my mom are the worst ever. But I have more supportive friends than I’ve ever had in my life. That’s got to count for something, right?”
Chapter 23
Gabe was fidgeting with his desk drawer when Arielle and Muggins got to the trailer at ten o’clock. Muggins took his usual spot on his bed under her desk, and Arielle noticed that the dog didn’t offer his usual good-morning greeting by running to the end of the trailer.
Putting up his hand to greet her, Gabe didn’t say a word. Arielle was just about to ask him what he thought of the promo whodunit, when something told her to wait for Lisa’s call. “Good morning, Gabe. I hope you got my text. I went to Palm Desert to pick up the hardware for the restrooms. The packages are in my car. I’ll go get them in a bit.”
Gabe glanced at her sideways, avoiding direct eye contact. “Not gonna need them until tomorrow. Not a problem. Getting the rest of the seats in will be today’s priority.”
“Yeah … right. Well, I’m just letting you know.” Arielle turned on her computer and tried not to look at Gabe while she nervously waited for it to boot. Lisa had said she’d text her, but Arielle hoped that maybe she’d sent an email with more information.
Out of the corner of her eye she watched Gabe. He was working almost too quickly with an intensity unlike any she’d noticed before. Twenty minutes into reading her emails, she heard a notification on her phone. Seeing the text she was waiting for, she hurried out of the trailer to her car, jumped inside, and called Lisa.
“Hey, Ari. That was quick.”
“Quick? It felt like an eternity between last night and now. Please tell me you’ve solved this miserable mystery. My heart can’t take it.”
“I’ve solved it all right, pretty much, but you’re not going to like it. Steel yourself, girlfriend.”
Arielle leaned back in the car seat and took a deep breath. “I’m ready. Let me have it.”
“Okay, you remember the first time we came to Mystekal to film. I think I’d mentioned to you that a guy who worked in the building was visiting my assistant, Petra. I told you it was a bit much, but I was being cool about it.”
“Uh … yeah, I think I do remember that. It didn’t seem too significant, so I haven’t thought about it since.”
“Ah, well, turns out, it was very significant.”
Arielle grabbed the steering wheel with her free hand as if it were Lisa’s arm. “In what way?”
“Do you remember when I first called you about this project and I gave you some dirt on your ex? Remember I told you Phil works in my building?”
“Yes, I do. But slow down; I’m confused. Are you saying he’s been disguising himself to see Petra?”
“Oh, no! Not enough makeup in the world to disguise that mug. Ugh. Phil hasn’t been seeing Petra. For one, he’s hot and heavy with his new girlfriend, Candace. Found out via Petra that’s the name of that blonde he’s been seen around town with.”
Arielle scrunched up her nose as if a bad odor had invaded her car. “Ugh, I remember. Go on, Lis.”
“She has some kind of workout show he’s producing. Anyway, forget about her. The person of interest here is Daniel Clemmons, Phil’s assistant. He’s the one involved with Petra.”
“Are you serious? Phil’s assistant has been hanging out in your office every day?”
“ ’Fraid so, Ari. Let me backtrack to last night. I was so wired up after what happened that I was still online around two a.m. I was just about to shut down my email when one comes in from a guy named Edgar Benson.”
“That name rings a bell, but I can’t place him.”
“He’s a B-movie director. He’s known for doing mostly horror flicks. Anyway, his wife was watching that romance movie on our sister station last night, and at the commercial break she was rather startled to see a clip from her husband’s film smack in the middle of the Desert Theater’s promo trailer.”
“Is she one hundred percent sure it’s from his film?”
“Think so, Ari. She was the actress who did the screaming.”
“Wow …”
“Yeah. Wow. Anyway, Edgar was polite in his email but wanted to know how the hell footage from his movie ended up in my station’s promo trailer. I wrote back and told him I didn’t have the faintest idea and was looking into it. Then I went to bed. Got up this morning, grabbed my shovel, and started digging. Two hours ago, I get a call from him. At first, he has a not-so-friendly accusatory tone in his voice. He said he read my email, and it was hard to believe I didn’t know anything. Know why? This is rich: because he knows that the production manager from said film, Phil Hodges, used to work with my husband, Ross Finlay.”
“Oh, man. What did you say, Lis?”
“You mean after the F-bombs stopped flying out of my mouth?”
Arielle managed to laugh. “Yeah, then.”
“I told him that Ross and I had cut all ties with Phil over two years ago and that he just happened to work in the same building I did. I told him that the fog was lifting, but I needed to investigate and would get back to him ASAP. Meanwhile, Petra is shoving a note in my face to let me know that Sam Olson from the corporate office is on the line demanding to speak to me immediately. I put that fire out for the moment and went to speak to Petra.”
“And what was she doing? Playing dumb?”
“Believe it or not, she had nothing to do with it. Not directly. Poor thing. She’s actually been sleeping with this Daniel guy, thinking she had a hot new boyfriend, and the entire relationship appears to be a farce. We’re guessing Daniel has been paid by Phil to see her. I was wondering how he managed to take her to extravagant restaurants on an assistant’s salary. Not to mention the flowers and other gifts he was giving her.
“Petra should have kept her mouth shut about my business, but since she and Daniel had similar jobs, his keen interest in my work didn’t seem all that suspicious to her. And nothing was really top secret, either.”
“Okay, so didn’t Petra know the name of his boss? She’s been working for you for years. She would have had to recognize the name.”
“I asked her that. He just said he worked on whatever health and fitness show Phil produces. There are a lot of people who work on that show.”
“So what happened next?”
“On Thursday, Petra happens to mention in passing that Josh and I would be working on Saturday to edit the promo here in the office. Later that afternoon, Daniel asks for her car keys so that he can leave a special gift for her in there. She thought that was so flippin’ romantic that she gave them to him. Clearly, he went and made a copy of our office key, then bought a teddy bear to stick on her passenger seat to keep the ruse going.”
“Have either one of you confronted Daniel or Phil?”
“No, not yet. Thinking about what to do. I have a locksmith here at the moment taking care of one problem. Anyway, my guess is that Daniel gave the key to Phil, and when he saw Josh and me leave, he came into my office, stole the flash drive from my computer, downloaded the file to his own, worked his revolting magic on it, then replaced the file on my drive. And I come in here yesterday morning and merrily shoot the file off like a damn fool.”
“Are you kidding me? I feel sick to my stomach. Phil must have done this to try and sabotage my work! Why would he do something so stupid like that? Even he’s capable of better tricks than the one he pulled. This is so childish. He wants revenge; I know it. He blames me for ruining his movie career. He’s out to get me, and he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants: my total destruction.”
“Ari, I need to think about this. Just hang on. Listen, there’s one more thing I need to tell you.”
“Holy hell. There’s more?”
“Yeah. Um, that first time I was in Mystekal, I told you that Gabe looked familiar.”
Arielle felt a tingling sensation as
goose bumps formed on her arms. “Uh, yeah.”
“I remembered where I’ve seen him before: at the coffeehouse in the lobby of our building. He was in some heavy convo with Daniel.”
`*`*`*`
When Arielle returned to the trailer, she found Gabe sitting at his desk looking very angry and agitated. He was so lost in thought that he didn’t hear her come in. Not wanting to startle him, she walked slowly over to his desk.
Just as she approached, he put a cup of coffee to his lips. Seeing Arielle standing there, he put the cup down so quickly that a fair amount of coffee spilled on his desk. Cursing, he blotted the wet spots with tissue, then looked disgusted as they turned to soppy mush in his large, muscular hands. Finally, he looked up at Arielle. “Sorry, I’m a bit jittery today. On my third cup of coffee. Bad idea. Just didn’t get enough sleep last night.”
“Really? Any particular reason?”
“Well, uh …”
“I take it you watched the promo trailer.”
Flustered, he picked up a stapler from his desk to give his trembling hands something to do. “Yeah, I saw that nightmare. Watched with my kids.”
Arielle stood there, trying to gauge his guilt or innocence. “Gabe, come sit at Larsen’s desk. We need to have a chat. Okay?”
She noticed as he swallowed a lump in his throat, then put the stapler down and rose to follow her back to the other end of the trailer. Fumbling with Larsen’s chair as he pulled it out from under the desk, he sat down, trying to give Arielle his very best impression of a man with few worries.
Arielle looked at Gabe for several seconds before speaking, noticing that he got more nervous with every moment that passed. “Gabe, it’s very interesting to me that you saw that trailer, with a woman in a white dress screaming as Larsen recited from Othello, and it wasn’t the first thing you mentioned to me this morning. Or the second. Or the third. Why in the world weren’t you eager to discuss it? Didn’t it flip you the fuck out the way it did me?”
“Yeah, of course. As for this morning, well … you looked really upset, and I figured maybe I should leave you alone. I thought you’d talk to me when you were ready. Just like we’re doing now.”
Arielle smiled sweetly. “Gabe, no disrespect intended, but that’s bullshit, and you know it.”
Gabe sighed heavily and said nothing.
“Cat got your tongue? I get it. You don’t really want to say anything to me until you figure out how much I know. Am I getting warm?” Arielle grabbed her bottled water and took several long gulps. “Gabe, you’re tops in your field. You came highly recommended. That’s why I hired you. And I know you’re supporting three kids. I’m assuming that you want to keep not only this job but also the ones you were hired to do when we’re finished here. Just speak up at any time and let me know if I’m on the right track. Before the end of the year would be good.”
“You’re right. I want to keep my job. I need to keep my job. My family will go down in flames if I don’t. My kids need me more now than ever. You know I’m recently divorced, and you know my wife tricked me into moving to Los Angeles just so she could dump me when we arrived.”
“Right. I do know all of that, and I’m very sorry.” Arielle picked up her key ring and began playing with it. She noticed that whenever she stopped talking, Gabe appeared even more agitated. After two long minutes of silence, she put the keys down and looked into his eyes. “So why don’t you start by telling me what I don’t know? How about that, Gabe? Do I sound like a happy woman to you? I hope not. In fact, I’m a really pissed-off woman who has zero tolerance for bullshit right now. So why don’t you start by telling me how you know Daniel Clemmons in Los Angeles. And don’t even think about saying you don’t, because I know that you do.”
“Aw, shit. Arielle, I know this looks bad, and I’m not entirely innocent, but I didn’t do anything. I had nothing to do with that promo trailer, and I’ve done nothing to compromise the integrity of this renovation. Well, not really.”
“What the hell does ‘well, not really’ mean?”
“Will you let me explain everything without cutting me off or firing me before I finish? Please, Arielle. Can you do that?”
“Absolutely. Believe me, it would be disastrous for me to lose you. But if you deserve to be fired, you will be. So start talking.”
“All right. You know that work had dried up in Jersey City, or so I thought, and my wife found herself a job in Los Angeles. She’d been out here at some convention and apparently made some connections. Yeah, she connected, all right! Whatever. Anyway, I had no desire to leave Jersey City. I’ve lived there all my life. It’s my home. I know people and knew something would turn up soon. Meanwhile, my older girl, Avalon, the one your son knows, has this gift for painting things before they happen. Yeah, I know, it’s freaky and all that, but if you knew my girl, well, it wouldn’t surprise you. She’s different and just about as wonderful as a kid can get.
“So, uh, one day she paints this lady lying on the street, and the next day a lady gets hit by a car. The scene was pretty much as Avvie had painted it. Before you know it, we’re getting phone calls, death threats, and all kinds of shit saying that my girl was the devil and we needed to get the hell out of Dodge. My daughters were scared out of their mind, so I finally gave in to my then wife and said yes to Los Angeles. When we got to the City of Angels, she dumped me within forty-eight hours.”
“Are you serious? In two days?”
“That’s right. And that’s when she clues me in that she’s had a boyfriend there the whole time. She conned me into moving the family there because I ‘owed’ her. She raised my kids. What the hell does that mean? Who does she think has been supporting the fam damily for two decades! Next thing I know, I get a call from a Good Samaritan in JC telling me that my wife was the one who initiated the hate campaign against our own daughter.”
“What the … That’s horrible! Why would a woman traumatize her own child like that? The entire family? That’s crazy, Gabe.”
Gabe’s face reddened, and Arielle could see that he was getting angry all over again. “Why? Because she wanted to be with some son-of-a-bitch more than she loves our kids, that’s why. She’s tried to tell my kids that it was for their own good that she told a little white lie to bring the family to California, where they’d have a better life. Have you ever heard such a damn crock?”
“No. And I’m guilty of some pretty twisted rationalizations myself, but nothing that bad. So, what happened next?”
“She tells me that the least she can do is find me a job. Turns out her new employer is also her new boyfriend, and he knows a lot of people, including some restoration specialist in Los Angeles, Winston Blane. He’s also an old friend of yours, right?”
“Yes … I’ve known Win for several years. He’s the first person I called when I was hired to renovate the theater. He said he didn’t know you personally but that you had an impressive work history and impeccable references. There was no reason to ask him anything else. Go on.”
“Okay, my ex introduces me to Daniel Clemmons, who she says is a coworker of hers, and he’ll introduce me to Win. He does. Win tells me you had called him for referrals, sends me down here, and you hire me on the spot. When I go back to LA to pack my stuff, again, Daniel tells me there’s one caveat: he says that he needs me to plant some clues around this place so that you’ll think the theater is haunted. He doesn’t give me any reasons why, but he tells me that you left your husband and kids once and moved to LA, where you found another man.”
Arielle looked nauseated. “A part of my history I would gladly erase from the annals of time if I could.”
“I’m sure. So, I’m really pissed off with my soon-to-be-ex, and I’m not really thinking clearly. All I want to do is support my kids. When Daniel tells me that you’re a woman who left her family, well, I’m throwin’ you in the same mud pile with Candace. I figure you’re already dirty, so what’s the big deal if I do what the guy says?”
“
And then what, Gabe? What did you do?”
“Nothing, Arielle. I’m a guy who grew up on the streets. Yeah, my senses went on vacation when Candace pulled all the shit she did, but once I got here, I saw you were a good woman. I found out you’d remarried your husband and were very much in love.”
“Yes. Even more so than when I first married him.”
Gabe smiled in acknowledgment. “I saw you were a good woman and that you had the same passion to restore this place as I did. Then the first day of school my girl gets bullied, and it’s your kid who’s got her back. I’m telling you, there was no way I was going to do jack to hurt you. And I told Daniel that.”
“I see. And what did he say?”
“He and some other guy kept threatening me. They said they were going to tell you what I had planned to do, and I threw that back in their faces. Those dim wits aren’t the brightest bulbs. I kept calling their bluff, but the threats kept getting uglier. Then shit started happening around here, and—”
“Whoa. Wait a minute. Rewind the tape. Did you say your wife is named Candace? Is she an aerobics instructor? Does she have a little show on another cable network? Is her boss the guy she left you for?”
“Yeah. That’s her.”
Arielle lay back in her chair and screamed, “Holy shit!”
Muggins came out from under the desk and looked at Gabe to see if he’d done anything worthy of a growl. “It’s all right, boy. Go back under Mommy’s desk. Go on.” Muggins looked at Arielle, then at Gabe, as if to warn him, and curled up again on his bed.
“Gabe, do you swear to me that you have told me everything and left nothing out?”
“On my children’s lives, Arielle. And I don’t get any more serious than that.”
“It’s all making sense now. The bastard that your wife is shacking up with, the one she dragged you all out here to be with … he’s my ex. His name is Phil Hodges.”
Desert Star Page 21