Not Famous in Hollywood (Not in Hollywood Book 1) (20 page)

“You are the one who wanted to come here” I
said exasperated at this sudden change in mood.

“Well yes, only because I wanted to see what
Ryan saw in her” she said as she picked at the fabric on the
couch.

“Ryan was engaged to Emily” I reminded
her.

“Well yes, but he was sleeping with Jennifer
first.”

“But she’s married” I said, my jaw
dropping.

Eleanor
simply looked at me like I was an idiot, and you know what, I kind
of had to agree with her. I was an idiot. I was reminded of my
visit here and the way Jennifer had spoken about her husband, as if
he wasn’t really present in the marriage anymore. Lonely, neglected
wife with a husband caught up in his activism. I could see why
falling for sexy Ryan Hendricks would be easy to do.

“
Here we are”
announced Jennifer as she walked back in the room. Passing a glass
to Eleanor and me, she smiled. “To better understanding” she said
and started drinking from her own glass.

Eleanor
brought the drink to her lips and took a sip. “That’s really not
bad” she said taking a second sip.

As I raised the glass to my lips my phone
rang and I saw that it was Griffin.

Putting the
glass down I said “I’m sorry, I’ve got to take this.” Stepping
through the large doors at the back of the house I answered the
phone as I looked out over the national park that came up to the
back of the property.

“Hi” I said feeling a bit tongue tied.

“Hi” said Griffin.

There was silence.

“Can I help you with something?” I asked.

Griffin cleared his throat. “Uh yeah, I just
thought I’d let you know that they’ve done further testing on Ryan
Hendricks and they found something.”

“A new drug?” I asked.

“
No
” he said. “It seems that Ryan
Hendricks died of oleander poisoning. Oleander is a plant that
grows naturally. It’s actually pretty common.”

“I know what oleander is” I said. “There was
some on the farm when I was growing up and it poisoned some of the
sheep. My dad and I had to dig it out.”

“
Yeah well
this stuff is nasty. It can poison you just by being on your skin.
We don’t know yet how it got into Ryan.”

A sick feeling started in the bottom of my
stomach.

“Griffin” I said, lowering my voice. “I am
currently standing on the rear porch of a house that backs onto
national park. I was here a few days ago and the park has oleander
bushes growing near the fence.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“I almost sprained my wrist pulling out those
plants at home, believe me I know what they look like and I am
looking at a bush that is about fifteen feet high growing over the
fence just in front of me.”

“Trudie, they are everywhere. It’s a common
plant in LA. What makes you think that these are the oleander
bushes that poisoned Ryan?” Griffin asked patiently.

“
Because I am
standing in Jennifer Saunders’ house. Jennifer’s company supplies
an organic diet juice that I saw in Ryan’s refrigerator, which
means he was drinking it before his death. Did you know that
Jennifer was sleeping with Ryan until he left her for her
sister?”

I looked
through the door and saw Jennifer pouring more juice into Eleanor’s
glass.

“Griffin” I said moving quickly. “I need you
to get here right now. I think Jennifer is trying to poison Eleanor
Channing.”

As Eleanor
raised the glass again I raced inside and grabbed hold of it, put
it rather forcefully on the coffee table and grabbed Eleanor’s
arm.

“I’m sorry” I said with a forced smile on my
lips. “That was just a phone call from Eleanor’s manager. We need
to get to a meeting with him right away.”

“No we don’t” Eleanor said.

“
Yes we do” I
said forcefully gripping her arm, pulling her towards the front
door.

“I don’t think you should leave just now”
said Jennifer and I heard an ominous click behind us.

Turning around I saw Jennifer and for the
second time in twenty four hours I had a gun pointed straight at
me.

“Jennifer” I said quietly. “What are you
doing?”

“You know don’t you?” she said.

“I don’t know anything Jennifer” I said as
calmly as I could. “I just need to get Eleanor home.”

“Why do you care? She’s a horrible person.
Just like Emily. They don’t care who they hurt.”

Eleanor had finally worked out that keeping
her mouth shut was the best course of action.

“
Ryan loved
me” Jennifer said. “He made me happy. Do you know how long it’s
been since someone made me happy? All Josh cares about is his
causes. He doesn’t even see me anymore. Ryan saw me.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Emily found out about us and just because I
had him she went after him. She’s been like that ever since we were
kids. The main reason I married Josh is because he was never
interested in Emily. I didn’t work out until later that he wasn’t
really interested in me either. Ryan fell for it, just like every
other guy. He left me and got engaged to her.”

I nodded. No way did I want to say anything
that was going to set the unhinged woman with the gun off. I was
ready to elbow Eleanor if she so much as took an intake of breath
because nothing that came out of that mouth was going to help our
situation.

“She was always throwing it in my face, that
she took him away from me, that he wanted her more. And then he was
sleeping with so many other women. Why wasn’t I enough?”

Seeing the
tears in her eyes I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Of course
feeling sorry for her didn’t negate what I thought she’d done to
Eleanor.

“You poisoned Ryan didn’t you?” I asked as
gently as I could.

Jennifer nodded. “I couldn’t let Emily have
him.”

“Jennifer, have you given Eleanor some of
that poison?”

Again Jennifer nodded. Eleanor gasped and
went to step forward but I used that elbow to good effect.

“I need to get Eleanor to a hospital
Jennifer” I said.

“No” said Jennifer, her resolve suddenly
stiffening and the gun which had started to lower was once again
pointing at us. “She was trying to steal Ryan away from Emily.
She’s just as bad as Emily is. I can’t hurt Emily, she’s my sister,
but I can get rid of Eleanor.”

“Please Jennifer, don’t do this” I pleaded,
my eyes firmly on the gun.

“I have to” she said and I could see her
swing the gun towards Eleanor.

Eleanor screamed and as I went to push her
out of the way I felt a searing pain in my right side and then
nothing.

Opening my
eyes had never seemed to be such a monumental task before. My
eyelids felt like they were stuck together and all I could hear was
beeping.

“
I think
she’
s waking up, get a doctor.” I heard
Griffin’s voice and even feeling as bad as I did, it still went
right through me.

The bright light as my eyelids opened seemed
to pierce through my brain and it took me a second to focus. I saw
Griffin’s tired unshaven face looking down at me.

“Don’t you ever do anything like that again”
he growled.

“Yelling at her is probably not being
helpful” said a large nurse as she shoved Griffin out of the way.
“Now you ignore him honey” she said soothingly. “Men have a
tendency to get a bit growly when their women do something stupid
like step in front of a bullet.”

“I was shot?” I croaked. How the hell did I
accomplish that?

“What was the last thing you remember?” she
asked.

“I was talking to Jennifer. She pointed the
gun at Eleanor and I went to push Eleanor out of the way. Are you
telling me I took a bullet for that woman?” I said in disgust.

“
Yes
sunshine, you did. On behalf of those who have been working her
ward, we really want to know what on Earth was going through that
head of yours."

I tried to shrug my shoulders only to get a
shooting pain go through my side.

“
What
happened?” I looked around at my room and saw that not only was
Griffin standing there, but also Miss Betsy had managed to find
herself a chair. Sean seemed to be camped out on the floor in the
corner.

“I need everyone out” said the doctor as he
strode into the room.

Miss Betsy
put her arm around Sean’s shoulders and hustled him out of the
room, ignoring the mutinous look on his face. Griffin gave me a
look that I had no idea how to interpret before heading
out.

“I’ll be just outside” he said.

Finally given
some peace I took stock of my situation. I wiggled all my fingers
and toes. Okay, they were all working. My side though was burning
with pain.

“What happened?” I asked.

“You caught a bullet in your right side. You
were lucky though. It hit your rib and got deflected out. Your rib
is cracked underneath the bullet wound. That was relatively
minor.”

“Really doc, and how many minor bullet wounds
have you had?” I said sarcastically.

The doctor stopped. “Point taken. I meant
that it was minor compared to the concern we had when you fell. You
hit your head and you’ve been unconscious for three days.”

Okay I could see where the priority was now.
He checked my eyes with a light and asked some questions. When he
appeared satisfied with my answers I asked him whether I could get
up.

The doctor looked at me strangely.

“
If I can get
up, go to the bathroom and brush my teeth I know I’ll be okay” I
explained.

He nodded and
motioned for the nurse to help me. In the bathroom I found the
toiletries pack and keeping a tight grip on the sink I brushed my
teeth. The nurse leaned against the wall and watched me. I looked
in the mirror and noted the white bandage patch on my forehead. I
lifted my shirt and found another bandage around my
middle.

“Because the bullet deflected it came out
again” the nurse said. “A bit of a messy through and through.
You’ve already had a plastic surgeon work on it. Some woman
organized it saying she would never convince you to wear a bikini
if you had that scar there.”

I nodded. “That would be my boss
Monique.”

“You’ve got good people around you” the nurse
said. “The waiting room is full and that cop of yours hasn't left
your side.”

“He’s a friend” I said.

“
Girl” she
said as I leaned on her while we were walking out of the bathroom.
“Believe me, I’ve been here the last three days and that man is not
just a friend.”

She was chuckling as I got back into bed.

“Are you ready to face everyone?” she
said.

I looked down at myself. “I’m not exposing
anything I shouldn’t?” I asked.

“No sweetie you’re not” she said with a
smile.

The first one
through the door was Crystal and I think she may have body checked
Edwin as they came through. Behind them was Miss Betsy and Sean
with Monique. Right at the back I was surprised to see Jorge.
Griffin was there as well but he hung back. After assuring everyone
I was okay I discovered that things had moved along while I was
unconscious. Jennifer was in jail awaiting trial. It seemed that
not even her father’s influence could get her out of this mess.
Eleanor had been brought to hospital with oleander poisoning and
her stomach had been pumped, an experience that she had felt the
need to share with everyone according to Jorge. Before long the
nurse came back and told everyone to leave. Crystal and Edwin left
promising to see me first thing in the morning.

Monique
kissed my cheek and with tears in her eyes whispered in my ear. “I
am so happy you are healthy ma petite.”

Miss Betsy dragged a not happy Sean out after
she promised him that they would be back the next day. Jorge came
up to the bed and kissed me on the cheek.

“Get better soon cupcake” he said. “I’ve
missed you at work.”

Griffin’s
eyes darkened at the action and Jorge kept his eyes on Griffin as
he sauntered out. Griffin walked over and sat on the
bed.

“Aren’t you going too?” I asked.

“Nope, special dispensation. Police
protection.”

“I thought she was in jail. What exactly are
you protecting me from?”

“I’ll think of something” he said
smiling.

I sobered
quickly. “So what really happened?”

“
Jennifer
Saunders had an affair with Ryan Hendricks. When he ended it and
started seeing her sister she got jealous. We tested that detox
concoction in his refrigerator and there was enough oleander to
kill him in that easily. You were right, there were oleander bushes
all along the back fence of their home in the national park. At
some point someone thought it would make a great screening plant to
hide the house from hikers. One of the scientists even found poison
in the honey from their bee hives.”

“Eleanor’s skin reaction” I said.

“It looks like she got a small dose when she
had the milk and honey bath at Bliss. Since the story has gone out
there have been a couple of other people who’ve come forward with
the same reaction.”

“Did anyone eat the honey?” I asked.

“
No.
Fortunately it hadn’t been approved for human consumption
yet.”

“Did Jennifer know about the honey?” I
asked.

“
No” said
Griffin. “Neither did the husband. He was pretty messed up about
the bees. Strangely enough he was more upset about that than he was
about the fact that his wife had been having an affair and murdered
someone.”