Not Wanted in Hollywood (5 page)

“So what are you going to do about it?” she
asked.

“
Nothing,” I
said.

“
Nothing?”
Crystal looked doubtful.

I understood where she was coming from. I am
one of those people who usually am incapable of leaving a problem
unsolved, but I had no idea how to fix this one.

“
I need to
get to the club and pick up my car,” I said, ending that particular
part of the conversation. “Any chance you can give me a
ride?”

“
Sure,” said
Crystal. I could see that she wanted to go deeper into Griffin’s
and my relationship woes, but she also knew better than to push me
when I was in this kind of a mood.

The strip
club was strangely quiet when we got there. The police tape was
still up and the place had the air of being almost deserted. Of
course, almost deserted didn’t mean completely deserted. There,
leaning against my car was Detective Liza Ramos.

“
You okay?”
Crystal asked as she pulled up.

“
I’ll be
fine,” I murmured. “I’ll talk to you later.”

Walking up to Ramos, as usual I was struck by
how stunning she was. Thanks to Griffin I also knew that she was a
really good cop. She was also not overly fond of me.

“What have I done now?” I asked.

Ramos smiled.
“You mean other than setting a self-destruct on your own
relationship.”

I winced.
That hurt, but then I knew Ramos would go for the
jugular.

“Any reason you are leaning against my car or
did you run out of real criminals to torture?” I asked.

“Last night you told us that there were
hidden cameras all through this place. I need you to show me where
they are.”

“
I think
Hugh, the cameraman, would be a better person to ask about that,” I
said, pulling out the keys to my car and starting towards the
driver’s side.

“
I would, but
unfortunately it seems the cameraman doesn’t have the world’s
greatest stomach. After he saw Hammy last night he went on a
bender. He’s pretty hungover at the moment and to be perfectly
honest doesn’t smell the best. I wasn’t looking forward to having
him in my car. So you’re my second choice.”

Well didn’t I feel special. Especially since
her partner was nowhere to be seen.

“
Fine,” I
said.

The sooner I
got this done, the happier I was going to be. I had been in the
club before when there was nobody there. I had helped Hugh with the
setup of the cameras when we first started this project. Showing
Ramos the layout of the hidden cameras, I could see her
distaste.

“Did any of the patrons know that they were
being taped?” she asked as I showed her a camera that took in the
entire first row around the stage.

“
As far as I
know they weren’t notified,” I said. “Alistair has this whole
undercover filming reputation that he says gives the real essence
of humanity.”

“
I see a lot
of criminals who do the same thing,” Ramos said.

“
Unfortunately they don’t have filmmaking awards on their
shelf,” I said. “According to society that is what separates art
from criminal behavior.”

“
Don’t sound
like you’re too fond of what is happening here,” said
Ramos.

“
Alistair may
have pretensions about what he is doing here,” I said. “But the
reality is, it is exploitative. These girls have a hard enough job
without some jerk who thinks he is better than them, coming in and
using their lives to win his next award.”

“
So, not a
fan,” Ramos ventured.

“
I am very
rarely a fan of the people I work with,” I said
cynically.

“
Yet you are
still doing it,” said Ramos.

“
The people
you deal with aren’t that great either,” I reminded her.

Ramos
laughed. “That’s the truth,” she said.

Showing Ramos
the area with the workout poles she eyed me speculatively. “So this
is where you were practicing?” she said.

“Yes, and before you ask, no I am not giving
out a demonstration.”

“
Wasn’t going
to ask,” Ramos said innocently. “Are there cameras in
here?”

“
Unfortunately yes,” I said.

“
So you’re
telling me there is footage of you swinging on this pole.” Ramos
looked a little too happy at that prospect.

“
Number one,
despite a great deal of practice, I never got to the swinging level
of competency. I was more in the trying to heft myself up and
requiring some assistance level. Number two, before a few of us
would practice we would stick something over the camera to stop it
from taping us.”

“Like what?” asked Ramos.

“Depended on where the camera was. If it was
poking out between something we would put some fabric from one of
the costumes over it. Sometimes I’d cover the lens with duct
tape.”

“Just as a question, wouldn’t that be going
against what your boss wants?”

“
You really
think I do everything my boss wants?” I said. “I spent most of my
time listening to women who wanted to completely remove his
manhood. I was hosing down fires all the time. In those
circumstances a little bit of obvious rebellion is sometimes
required to keep the peace.”

Ramos looked confused.

“
Alistair was
as popular as Hammy with the girls. The fact that it was Hammy and
not Alistair with a whip around his throat is pure chance. No one
wanted Alistair here, but thanks to Hammy’s desperate need for
money, they had to put up with him or leave. Not many of them are
in a position where they can just walk. My job was to minimize the
antagonism towards Alistair. Sometimes I listened to them vent
about the creative things they would like to do to him. Other times
I fermented a small bit of rebellion. It didn’t make any difference
to the finished product and it gave everyone some breathing
space.”

Ramos shook
her head. “I really do not understand why you do this job,” she
said. “At least I’ve got the option of arresting the people who
annoy me.”

“
Obviously
not always,” I said. “You still haven’t arrested me and I am
betting that there has been many a time when you have been sorely
tempted.”

“
Isn’t that
the truth,” sighed Ramos, but she was smiling. I was going to put
that into the win column.

Back in the hallway Ramos noted me frowning.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“
There aren’t
any cameras which are facing the alcove,” I said.

“
I know,”
said Ramos. “It was one of the first questions we asked the
cameraman. Unfortunately easy cases like that do not usually go our
way.”

“
That
statue,” I said, gesturing towards the truly horrendous piece of
artwork that Hammy had pointed out to me on the first day I worked
at the club. It was a plaster mold that Hammy had commissioned of
himself with a dancer wrapped around him. According to Hammy it was
a work of art. I thought it reflected his personality perfectly,
cheap and nasty.

Going by the
look of distaste on Ramos’s face, she agreed with my
opinion.

“
It shouldn’t
be here,” I said.

“What does it matter if somebody moved it?”
she asked.

“
It matters
because whoever moved it put it directly in front of the only
camera which gives a view into the area heading towards the
alcove,” I said. “You might not be able to get vision of the alcove
itself but it would have let you know whether anyone was in the
general area.”

“
You are
telling me that the only camera which covers this area was blocked
by that monstrosity?” Ramos looked as if she couldn’t believe
it.

I nodded. “I didn’t notice it at first
because we constantly move it around. It is so horrendous that Hugh
and I made sure it wasn’t in any of the footage. We figured no
audience should be subjected to an image that raw, regardless of
what Alistair believes.”

“
Which means
that whoever killed Hammy knew the camera was here and knew that it
was the only one. This wasn’t a crime committed on the spur of the
moment. There looks like there has been some planning to this one,”
Ramos said thoughtfully. “How many people knew where the cameras
were?”

I shrugged.
“Pretty much everyone who worked here. The patrons had no idea
about the filming but staff were all completely aware. Most of them
had been interviewed at some point and Alistair, Hugh and I were
hardly discreet in what we were doing. Alistair was more interested
in the customers anyway.”

“We’re going to need to get hold of that
footage.”

“You’ll have to speak to Hugh. He’s a tech
genius and he has all these cameras connected to a wireless network
As far as I know each of the cameras was uploading elsewhere and he
will have all the footage.”

“Anything else you can tell me about the two
weeks you worked here?” asked Ramos as we walked to our cars.

“I think we’ve pretty much hit the
highlights. I really don’t envy you trying to find out who killed
the man. I have a feeling there is going to be a very long
list.”

“
The LAPD
thanks you for your assistance,” said Ramos smiling and I chose to
ignore the sarcasm.

To stay true
to his gritty reputation, Alistair had his offices in an industrial
area of Los Angeles. It was
, in effect, a
large warehouse with just one office. The rest was an open area
which had been decorated with what I would describe as squatting
chic. Nothing looked permanent and the term ergonomic was
completely disregarded. I found Hugh hard at work on his computer.
He looked up when I entered.

“
Hey,” he
muttered.

I took into account the bleary eyes and
unshaved face.

“
Heard you
aren’t doing too well this morning.” I dropped my purse on my desk
and the noise echoed through the large warehouse.

Hugh winced. “Yeah, had a few to drink last
night. How did you know?”

“I just had to do a walk through of the club
with the cops to show them where all the cameras were.”

“
Thanks for
that,” Hugh said. “Wasn’t really feeling up to it. Wish I had been
though. That cop was….”

“
Yeah, hot, I
know,” I supplied.

Hugh looked
at me shrewdly. “Know her do you?”

“
Yeah, she’s
my...” I stopped for a moment. I could say boyfriend’s partner but
at the moment I wasn’t really feeling the whole boyfriend vibe from
him. “Friend,” I said, wondering how much of the truth I had
stretched with that particular statement.

Hugh looked at me curiously. “You don’t sound
particularly sure about that.”

“
We have a
complicated relationship,” I said as I sat down in my chair. “I’m
pretty sure she doesn’t completely hate me.” Of course I could be
overestimating the progress Ramos and I had made in our
relationship this morning. “What’s happening in there?” I asked,
indicating Alistair’s office.

I could hear the rumble of voices coming
through the walls. Usually that wouldn’t indicate anything but that
office had been built with blocks that were insanely thick and
usually the place was pretty soundproof. For voices to be heard in
the main area, even muffled as they were, someone was speaking at a
very elevated level.

“
One of the
girls from the club came to see Alistair.” Hugh turned back to his
computer.

“Why would they be coming to see Alistair?” I
asked.

Hugh looked
up
and raised an eyebrow with a knowing
look.

Oh, that was
why. I had a feeling Alistair had been a little less than discreet
with some of the women at the club. I hadn’t actually seen anything
untoward happening, but I had just got one of those
feelings.

The door to Alistair’s office had come open
and Amber walked out, holding herself stiffly and not making eye
contact with either Hugh or I as she walked past us.

“
Trudie, get
in here,” barked Alistair from inside his office. I saw Amber
flinch.

“
Yes,” I said
shortly as I walked in to find him sitting behind his desk. I could
see what Amber saw in Alistair. He was a successful, good looking
man. He had the artful messiness of a surfer and it helped him
disarm people on those rare occasions when he chose to use charm,
rather than his usual personality.

“
Deal with
her,” he said shortly.

“
Deal with
what?” I asked.

“
Amber, just
fix her,” he growled.

I headed out
of the office before I said anything stupid or honest. I found
Amber in the parking lot with that look on her face that suggested
she was contemplating slashing the tires on Alistair’s
car.

“Would you like a coffee?” I asked
tentatively.

She swung around and I could see the tears
that she was fighting to hide.

“No, I think I should just go home. It was a
mistake to come here. I just…I thought he was different. I’m such
an idiot. I should have known better.”

“Look, I’ll buy you a coffee. You can just
sit and be quiet for a little bit and decide what you want to do
next.” I smiled encouragingly and after a short hesitation Amber
nodded slowly.