Not Famous in Hollywood (Not in Hollywood Book 1) (17 page)

“What's going on Trudie?” Griffin
growled.

“Some information has fallen into my lap
which may, and I do stress only may, be pertinent to the Ryan
Hendricks situation. I think it’s the reason Adam got kidnapped
yesterday.”

“Where are you?” growled Griffin.

“I’m at home.”

“I’m coming over now.” Griffin hung up on
me.

Turning around I turned off my phone. “He’ll
be here soon.”

Looking down at myself in my old worn pajamas
I said ruefully, “I probably should shower and get dressed
shouldn’t I?”

Sean nodded a little too enthusiastically. I
didn’t think I looked that bad.

I only had time to have a quick shower and
get dressed before there was a pounding at the door. I wondered if
they taught that heavy handed knock at the police academy. As I
walked to the door I threw a reassuring glance at Sean.

“
Don't worry,
it will be okay. I’ve got your back remember.”

Sean smiled gratefully. Admittedly it was a
really tense kind of smile but I was going to put it into the win
column.

“You really need to lighten up on the
knocking” I said as I opened the door.

Griffin
walked in, slowing down as he spotted Sean.

“Where’s Ramos?” I asked looking behind
him.

“Considering what you said on the phone I
thought it was a good idea to keep her out of it until I see what
we are dealing with.”

He was
talking to me but his eyes were completely fastened on Sean. Sean
for his part looked ready to bolt, and personally I didn’t blame
him. I’d been on the receiving end of Griffin’s glares. I could
appreciate Sean’s need to be anywhere else. I walked over to Sean
and put an arm around his shoulder partly in support and partly to
make sure he didn’t run.

“This is Sean, I met him yesterday.”

“
And you let
him stay here last night” Griffin said incredulously.

I stopped. “How did you know that?”

“Detective remember.”

I looked around. I had to admit, the made up
couch was kind of a giveaway.

“Sean is the one who has something to
say.”

The three of
us sat down and Sean told Griffin everything about taking the
photos, going to Ryan Hendricks and about how we ended up in the
place where we were right now. I kept my eyes on Griffin and could
see his jaw get tighter and tighter. When he saw the last of the
photos and I pointed out the man I’d seen at Adam’s kidnapping
yesterday he ran his hand over his face.

“
You’ve both
well and truly stepped in it haven’t you” he asked in what I’m
assuming was a rhetorical question. I’m not a cop and even I could
see we were in trouble.

He pointed to the photo of the guy who was
handing Adam what looked like some pills.

“
This here is
Vincent Mendoza. He is the nephew of Johnny Rollins, one of the big
guys in the illegal drug trade in LA. Vincent is a bit of an idiot
but he is the only child of Johnny’s much loved older sister.
Johnny has had to pull this moron out of the fire more than once
and people have a tendency to get very hurt when Johnny is
protecting family. The guy you identified as one of the kidnappers
yesterday is part of Johnny’s crew.” Looking at me he said
regretfully, “I’m sorry Trudie. I can’t deal with this alone. It is
way too big. If Ryan Hendricks confronted Adam about these photos
and Adam told Mendoza, he could have been killed in any number of
ways. The tox screen was clear for drugs but there could be
something there that is new that we don’t have a test
for.”

I nodded. “Sean, this is your life we’re
talking about. You get a say in this as well.”

Sean looked
surprised but there was no way I was going to let Griffin take this
choice away from him. I was surprised to realize that it looked
like I still had some residual anger in me regarding the way
Griffin had treated me. Looking at Griffin I could see that he saw
that as well.

“Ryan Hendricks is dead because of the photos
I took” Sean said quietly.

“No” I said vehemently putting my arms around
him and pulling him into a hug that I probably needed just as much
as he did. “Ryan Hendricks may still have died from natural causes.
Even if he didn’t and these guys killed him, you are not
responsible, they are.” I said it fiercely not wanting him to hold
onto that guilt.

“The right thing would be to help the cops
wouldn’t it?” he said quietly.

“Probably” I said reluctantly.

“Do you think they’ll keep me safe?” he
asked.

“I think” I said, choosing my words
carefully, “that Detective Griffin is a good cop. I think that he
will do everything that he can to protect you.”

The last was
said looking over Sean’s head at Griffin, pleading with him not to
make a liar of me.

Griffin nodded and that seemed to be enough
for Sean.

Griffin got
on the phone to Ramos. Once he’d finished the conversation he
turned to Sean and me.

“Alright, the way we’re going to play this is
that you are going to give me those photos. As of this moment you
are an anonymous source. I am going to try to keep your name out of
this.”

“Thanks Griffin” I said quietly.

“
Don’t thank
me yet. At this stage we don’t know how much information the bad
guys have on you. Adam’s kidnapping is not my case. I’m supposed to
have nothing to do with it. Ramos is going to swing by for the
photos and then she and I are going to do some hunting and we’ll
see if we can get a better handle on what’s going on."

While waiting for Ramos, Sean decided he
wanted to do some more work in the garden with Miss Betsy. As he
was leaving I pulled him aside and indicated to Griffin that I
needed some privacy.

“
How are you
going with all this?” I asked.

“
Not a
problem” he said, with what I was thinking was more of his teenage
hyped bravado.

“Really?” I asked with a skeptical look on my
face.

“Yeah, maybe not so much” he conceded once
again looking like a scared boy.

“Griffin will help you” I tried to sound
reassuring. “He’s a good guy.”

I looked over at Griffin as he picked up the
photo I had of my brother and sister.

“So if you’re Gertrude, are these Norman and
Hildegarde?”

“Your name is Gertrude,” snorted Sean as he
tried to contain his laughter.

Walking over to Griffin I wrenched the photo
out of his hand.

Looking at
his smirking face I called out to Sean as he was walking out the
door, “I’ve changed my mind, he isn’t a good guy.”

Griffin laughed and lowered his voice. “Oh
honey, I’m very good.”

Flustered I put the photo back down.

“
Their names
are Jamie and Katie. Mom learned her lesson after me and refused to
name them until after she was out of hospital and had forgotten the
pain and the drugs.”

Griffin picked up another photo of my whole
family which had been taken when on holiday.

“You look like you have a happy family.”

I smiled as I looked at the photo.

“I do. None of us is perfect but we fit well
together. My parents adore each other and they love us. My sister
Katie wants to be an actress so she thinks I have the coolest job
in the world. She always wants to hear about everything that
happens to me. Jamie is still in school but he’ll be finishing up
soon. Sean reminds me of him a bit.”

“Is that why you took in a street kid and let
him sleep on your couch. Something I might add, which was really
stupid.”

“Look” I said defensively. “I know it wasn’t
the smartest idea, but he was alone. I couldn’t handle the thought
of what could possibly happen to him. Maybe it was about time
somebody started caring about him.

Griffin’
s expression softened. “I
just worry about you.”

“You’re worried about me” I snorted. “You’re
the guy who was going to get me deported.”

“
I’m sorry
for what I did” Griffin said regretfully. “Forcing you like that
was pretty low, I get that now. I didn’t mean to hurt you but where
I come from, you do what needs to be done. My job is to find the
worst people out there. Sometimes I need a reminder that trampling
over the innocent to do that isn’t the best way. If it makes any
difference, if you want to walk away now and have nothing else to
do with this you can. I won’t hold the assault charges over you
anymore.”

“So I could just get you to leave and I would
never have to see you again.”

“Sure, if that’s what you want.”

I looked at him wondering how serious he
was.

“I’m not walking away” I said softly.

“Good to know” Griffin said.

“So” I asked, “what about your family?”

“Just have my Dad. Mom bailed on us when I
was a baby and we haven’t seen her since.” He shrugged.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be nosy” I said.

“No more nosy than I was asking about your
family.”

Ramos came through the open door and stopped
suddenly, staring pointedly at Griffin.

“Ready to go?” she said.

“
Yeah I am.”
He put his hand gently on my arm. “Remember to stay safe. If Sean
comes up with anything else, I want you to call me straight
away.”

“Sure, of course” I said.

He stopped at the door as if to say something
else but then abruptly turned and left.

A few minutes
later Sean came back into the apartment.

“
Was that
Griffin’s partner?” he asked.

“Detective Ramos” I said distractedly.

“Man is she hot” Sean said. “Griffin has got
to be nuts if he’s not nailing her.”

I looked at him carefully.

“
Not that you
aren’t pretty” he said, suddenly remembering who he was talking to.
“I mean, not hot like Detective Ramos is, but pretty.”

I cocked my
head to one side figuring if my looks were going to be savagely
critiqued by a teenage boy, I might as well make him feel
uncomfortable too.

“I mean you’re nice too, really nice and that
means more than pretty. I’m sure Detective Griffin is way more
interested in nice than…” he trailed off.

“Hot” I supplied.

“Yeah” Sean swallowed, his face downcast.

Feeling sorry
for him I laughed. “And what did we just learn?”

“That sometimes I need to keep my big mouth
shut” Sean mumbled.

“A very valuable lesson” I nodded wisely.

Sean looked up as his cell indicated he had
received a text. He scooped it up, looking pathetically grateful
for the distraction.

“
What is it?”
I asked
as his expression
changed.

He handed the phone to me and I winced as I
looked at a photo of a beaten up Adam Hendricks. The phone vibrated
in my hand as it rang.

“What do I do?” Sean asked.

“Answer it on speaker” I said.

“
Hello” Sean
said, tremulously
.

The voice
coming over the phone sounded harsh and threatening. “Hello Sean, I
want you to listen very carefully. Thanks to Adam here I know you
took some photos of me that I didn’t want taken. Now I want you to
meet me at the place you took the photos. If you don’t, Adam is not
going to have a very good time. I know what you’re thinking. Why
the hell should you care about whether he lives or dies? The thing
is, if I don’t have those photos by the time he dies, then I have
your mother and her boyfriend here as well to fill in the time.
Believe me when I say that they will feel a lot of pain before they
die. You have half an hour to get here and no telling the cops or
you know what will happen.”

The phone disconnected suddenly. Another text
message came through of a couple who looked as if they had been
badly beaten as well.

“My mom” Sean moaned. “What am I going to
do?”

“First things first, we’re calling Griffin
and getting him back here. He’ll have a plan for fixing this” I
said as I reached for my phone.

Sean put his hand out to stop me. “You heard
him, I can’t tell the cops or they’ll kill my mom.”

“
The cops can
help us” I said urgently. “If you go into this on your own they
will kill you. You’ve seen their faces, you know what they’ve done.
Sean, there is absolutely no reason for you to be kept alive once
they’ve got the photos.”

“I can’t risk anyone else getting hurt. My
little sister is only six years old. She still needs mom, even if I
don’t.”

I could understand perfectly why he wanted to
protect his family, but I was going to have to be the grown up
here.

“Look Sean, I need to call Griffin. He’s the
only one who can help us now.”

“Okay” said Sean resigned to the decision
that had been made. “You’re right, I can’t do this on my own.”

“Good” I said. “This is the right
decision.”

Walking into
my bedroom to get my phone I couldn’t believe how much the
situation had spiraled out of control. Dialing Griffin’s number I
growled in frustration when I could only get his
voicemail.

“
You need to
call me right now. Sean just got a message from Mendoza. He’s got
Adam, Sean’s mum and her boyfriend. They are demanding a swap to
get hold of the photos. Call me back now.”

“
He’s not
answering” I said as I walked back into the living room to find
Sean was no longer there.

“
Dammit Sean”
I growled as I raced out of the apartment.