Not Famous in Hollywood (Not in Hollywood Book 1) (18 page)

I found Miss Betsy working in the garden
again.

“Did Sean come through here?” I asked.

“Why yes dear” she said as she stood up and
wiped the sweat from her forehead. “He took off in your car. I
think I’d be careful about lending that car to him. He doesn’t seem
to be a very good driver.”

“Can I borrow your car, I have to stop him.
He’s about to put himself into a lot of danger. Please” I
pleaded.

“Of course dear” she said. “Do you know where
he has gone?”

“No, but my boss has got GPS tracking on the
vehicle.” I really hoped it was working. As far as I knew Monique
had never used it.

“Alright dear, I’ll drive and you direct me
and tell me what is going on.”

Getting into
a
car with Miss Betsy has never been one
of the things I wanted to do with my life. Miss Betsy’s former
career as a stuntwoman during a period of history when workplace
safety wasn’t a priority, leads her to be a little blasé when it
comes to the road rules, and some of the laws of the physical
universe. I strapped myself in and logged onto the tracking
software on my tablet. Following the GPS, Miss Betsy and I found
ourselves parked outside an old nightclub. I tried to call Griffin
again and this time he answered.

“Where the hell are you?” he growled. “I got
your message, I’m back at your place and no one’s here.”

“Sean took off. He’s determined to save his
mom.” I gave him the address of the nightclub.

“I’m coming right now” Griffin said.
“Whatever you are thinking, do not go in there.”

I hung up and Miss Betsy looked at me. “We’re
going in there aren't we?”

“I am going in there” I said. “You stay out
here and wait for the cops.”

“
Oh
sweetie”
she said as she patted my cheek.
“That is so not going to happen. For one thing I’m the one with the
permit for this.”

With that she
leaned over and flipped open the glove box. Inside it was the last
thing I expected. Miss Betsy pulled out a large black
gun.

“What is that?” I squeaked.

She stroked it gently, which I found a whole
new level of disturbing.

“
It’s my
baby” she said, “and more importantly it can put a hole through
anyone who is trying to hurt that sweet boy.”

I
contemplated that for a second and you know what, in that moment, I
was perfectly okay with that. I would be thinking about that
reaction very deeply when I had some time to myself, but that
wouldn’t be right now.

“How did you want to deal with this?” Miss
Betsy asked after tucking the gun into the back of her pants.

“
Since you
have the weapon I think you should stay behind me and keep a watch
until I can have a look around and see what’s going on.”

As I walked towards the club she grabbed my
arm. “It might be smarter to go around the back.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Always works out better in the movies.”

Great, I was
taking my breaking and entering advice from a former stuntwoman
carrying a loaded monster of a gun, who was basing her
recommendations on movies she had been in. There was no way this
was going to end well.

Getting to the back door of the nightclub I
wasn’t surprised to find it locked.

“I’ve got this” Miss Betsy said and pulled a
pin from her hair. She proceeded to pick the lock. She turned the
doorknob and shrugged as I looked at her in amazement. “You’d be
surprised at what you can learn on a movie set.”

“When we get out of this” I said in a rare
burst of optimism, “I want you to teach me how to do that.”

“If we get out of this” she said, “I’ll teach
you to shoot as well.”

Now I had something to look forward to. We
crept along through the kitchen area. Coming to the main area of
the nightclub I heard loud voices. Peeking out through a swinging
door I saw Sean on the floor, a red mark on his face. Vincent
Mendoza was holding his phone. Adam Hendricks was tied to a chair
and what looked like Sean’s mom and her boyfriend were slumped on
the ground next to Sean.

“Tell me the truth or I kill your mother. Has
anyone else seen these photos?”

“
No” said
Sean obviously terrified. “I promise, I haven’t shown them to
anyone.”

Good
, I silently cheered Sean. No
need to be honest with the sociopath holding you prisoner. I willed
him to say anything that Mendoza wanted to hear. Mendoza was
looking through the photos.

“
Looks like
they’re all here” he said. “I don’t really need you anymore do I?”
he sneered bringing his gun down and pointing it at
Sean.

I dialed
Griffin, motioned to Miss Betsy to stay back, sent up a small
prayer to St Jude, the patron saint of desperate situations and
lost causes, and pushed through the kitchen door. All of a sudden I
had two guns pointing in my direction. Mendoza kept his gun aimed
at Sean. I put my hands up holding my phone above my
head.

Voice shaking I said, “I’m here to take Sean
home. Let us leave and we can forget about this.”

The three
thugs
looked at me and burst out
laughing. Frankly if I wasn’t so terrified I would have joined
them.

“What the hell?” Mendoza said as he moved the
gun to point in my direction.

“I am currently on the phone to the LAPD” I
said, my voice wavering. “Everything you are doing at the moment is
being recorded live. If you kill us you cannot get away with it.
They already know that I am standing here with Vincent Mendoza who
has a gun aimed at me. If I am killed you will be charged and you
will go to jail.”

“But you will be dead” Mendoza pointed
out.

Yeah, like I hadn’t worked out that part of
my stupid plan.

“Maybe” I said, “but at that point I won’t
care. What happens next will cease to matter to me, but what
happens next will matter to you very much.”

Despite my words I was terrified. I refused
to look at Sean because I didn’t know if I could keep this up. My
only hope was to delay until Griffin turned up.

“
You’
ve put me in a little bit of
a situation haven’t you” Mendoza said frowning.

I really hoped so. I needed him to think
about his next step very carefully. The longer he took to think it
through, the more time that I could give Griffin. I was winging
this and I am not a person who works well without a plan. The
moment Mendoza had turned the gun on Sean I hadn’t thought of
anything but stopping what was coming next. Mendoza came up to me
and wrenched the phone out of my hand, cutting the connection to
Griffin.

“That takes care of it doesn’t it?” he
whispered in my ear, the smell of his breath turning my
stomach.

“They still know that I’m here with you” I
whispered back. “They know that you had a gun on me and they know
why I’m here. That is means, motive and opportunity right there,
and the recording gives supporting evidence. A prosecuting attorney
would love this case.”

“
You think
you’re smart don’t you?” he sneered digging that gun into my
side.

Actually no. Right at that moment I was
thinking that I was a bit of an idiot. I could see my death in
Vincent Mendoza’s eyes. He badly wanted to hurt me. I really hoped
I wasn’t shaking as much on the outside as I was on the inside.

All of a sudden I heard voices yelling out
“Police. Freeze. On the floor.”

I wrenched
myself away from Mendoza and threw myself down, all the time
waiting for him to shoot me. My heart beat once, then twice and no
shot. Looking up I saw Mendoza had been thrown to the ground and
Griffin had a knee in his back while he was putting handcuffs on
him. Other police had taken out the two goons who had kidnapped
Adam Hendricks. Still more were attending to Adam and Sean’s mom
and boyfriend. In a rather undignified way I crawled towards Sean
who was watching in shock.

“Are you okay?” I said urgently.

Sean looked at me, his eyes slightly
unfocused.

“You stopped him.”

“Not really” I said, “that was more of a
delaying tactic.”

“I can’t believe you did that.”

“Neither can I” Griffin growled as he grabbed
me around my shoulders and hauled me to my feet. “Of all the things
you could have done, that was the world’s dumbest move.”

“I know” I said, leaning into him trying to
soak up some warmth.

“You’re shaking” he muttered as he put his
arms around me.

“I’m really cold” I said.

“Probably shock, and coming down from an
adrenalin high.”

“Never did understand adrenalin junkies” I
said. “This is not pleasant.”

“
No” he said,
his mouth against my hair. “I’m sure you’re not finding it
particularly pleasant at all.”

Sean was behind me and I grabbed hold of his
hand.

“I need you to check Sean” I said to Griffin
urgently. “I’m too shaky to do it.”

“
You’re
amazing” I think I heard him whisper before he let go of me and
started making sure Sean was okay.

I wouldn’t
let go of Sean’s hand until the paramedics came and checked us both
out. At that point Griffin let Miss Betsy come in to make sure we
were okay, before one of the officers arrested her for annoying
them. She gave Sean a hug and had him ducking his head in
embarrassment.

Moving over
to me she looked me in the eyes. “That was the bravest thing I have
ever seen.

I lowered my eyes. “I don’t feel brave” I
said. “I was so scared I thought I was going to throw up.”

“
Sweetie” she
said. “You looked a killer in the face and dared him to kill you to
protect that boy. They don’t come much braver.”

“He’s a good kid” I said.

“That he is” she agreed.

“He came here to sacrifice himself for a
mother that tossed him out.”

“That he did.”

“I hope she appreciates it” I said
fiercely.

“
Oh Trudie”
Miss Betsy said regretfully. “You’re looking for a fairy tale
ending. From the looks of it I don’t think that is what Sean is
going to get.”

I looked over
at where Sean was talking to his mother and her boyfriend and I had
to agree it didn’t look good. Sean seemed to be hunching in on
himself as his mother was berating him. Dropping the blanket I had
wrapped around me, I went over to stand next to him.

“This is all your fault” his mother
hissed.

“Hey wait a minute” I said. “You can’t blame
him.”

“He’s my kid you stupid bitch, I can say what
I want.”

“Don’t you call her a bitch” Sean said
indignantly.

At that
moment I saw out of the corner of my eye the boyfriend raising his
hand. I pushed Sean out the way as I realized the punch was heading
toward him. Unfortunately my face ended up where Sean’s had been
and I caught the punch in the side of my cheek. I heard a blood
curdling yell and Miss Betsy jumped on the back of the boyfriend.
He swung around trying to dislodge the little old lady who was
holding on as if she was at a rodeo. The cops ran over and tried to
tackle the man to the ground without hurting the woman on top of
him. Sean’s mom then decided to tackle the police who were
handcuffing her boyfriend. Before we knew it, we were all down at
the police station filling in statements.

Once again I was in the interrogation room
with Griffin, only this time I was the one with an icepack on my
face.

“Do you actually think before you do things?”
asked Griffin.

“
Usually yes”
I said touching the icepack against my bruised cheek gingerly. “But
lately things seem to be getting away from my control. Is Sean
okay?”

“He’s in the other room talking to
Ramos.”

Despite the pain I smiled. “That’ll make him
happy.”

“Why is that?” Griffin asked.

“
He’s a
teenage boy and she’s hot.” I lowered my voice. “So what happens
now?”

“
Well”
said Griffin, “Mendoza is going away for a
while. Adam Hendricks has agreed to press charges so he’s going
down for kidnapping and assault at least. Sean’s mother and her
boyfriend are also pressing charges but we don’t really need them
to make the case. Probably just as well as I’m assuming you’re
going to press charges against the boyfriend for
assault.”

“Hell yes” I said.

Griffin
nodded approvingly. “Thanks to Sean’s photos and a search we’ve
done on Mendoza’s house he’ll be going down on drugs charges. We’ve
also got him on firearms charges. Mendoza’s insisting he didn’t
kill Ryan Hendricks, but the situation now gives us enough reason
to do a deeper investigation into the tox screen on his body. We
can see if there is anything that we don’t know about that’s been
injected in Ryan’s system. Lucky for everyone involved it looks
like Mendoza’s Uncle Johnny has decided he’s too much trouble and
maybe a stint in jail will do him some good. He’s cutting him loose
so there shouldn’t be any threatened reprisals against
anyone.”

That was good. I really wanted to keep off
the mobster’s radar. My face throbbed.

“Man this hurts” I said.

“
A hit to the
face always does.” Griffin smiled obviously remembering the one I
had given him. I grinned at the memory.

“
What’s the
smile for?” asked Griffin. I would have thought it looked more like
a grimace considering how much my face hurt, but obviously Griffin
had a different interpretation.

“I’ve got to say a couple of years ago I
would never have seen this happening to me.”