Sugar Valley (Hollywood's Darkest Secret) (86 page)

“Well, Tom already gave me some of the money,
two million so far,” Mark stated, hearing Julienne sneezing,
causing her to not hear the correct amount of money that Tom gave
him.

She pulled out a check from her pants pocket,
speaking with calm and smoothness to her tone, “Alright, well
here’s a check for eight million dollars. Now, do you want to go
along with Tom’s plan, or mine?”

“Let me hear your plan.”

Julienne explained it all to him. As she
explained it, Mark became skeptical of her evil scheme, and her
trust that showed sinister through every word she spoke. You see,
Julienne explained to him that once he finished the job, the check
was his, yet, he didn’t know her at all, he was wondering if she
would bail out after he finished the job, and take the money with
her.

They came to a stop, and she explained, “I’ll
leave the check under my seat at the Academy Awards. Once you’ve
killed them, the audience will be so afraid and wild, that you’ll
be able to grab the check and run for it. By the time everyone
calms down, you’ll be gone.”

“Yeah, but how do I know you’ll leave the
check there? You know, you can easily get away without giving me
the money. You see, I knew Tom for a while, that’s how I know I
could trust him. How could I trust you?”

They both sat down at a vacant bus stop, and
sat there in silence for a moment or two. She then saw her
limousine, long and black, down the street, circling nearby her, so
she spoke with quickness, “Alright, I’m putting myself out on a
limb here. But, I know a way. I left a voicemail on your pager, and
I talked about the money. If I don’t leave the money for you, then
you could give the voicemail message to the police anonymously, and
that will be their proof that I hired someone to kill them.”

“Well, I don’t know.” Mark was unsure; he
felt like this was too good to be true.

She became stressed, frantic, confused as to
her own fate and mission, feeling her own nerves pumping through
her veins and forcing her heart to speed up its rhythm, its pumps.
She lost it, explaining in a fast and panic-stricken manner,
“Listen, my ass is on the line here, Okay? Tom Fryer has been
bitching, and bitching to me about Damen. For these past months,
Tom has called me up on a daily basis and complained to me about
having a plan ready. A plan to make sure Damen doesn’t ever get
discovered by a talent agent, or any other agent for that matter. I
just found out about you and the plan that Tom wants you to do. I
found out tonight!” She was talking so fast that Mark couldn’t, in
a way, understand a thing she was saying. “In the beginning, I
wanted the same thing, but only because I felt the movie was
perfect for Jose. But Damen was up for the role instead, so I had
to lie to Henry Schultz, that’s one of the directors of that movie,
and tell him Damen was a drug addict. So, in return, Jose got the
role instead,” Julienne explained in a wild manner; Mark tried to
calm her down by rubbing her back. “And now, I got the Oscars to go
to tomorrow, and everything, every lie, every evil act is riding on
whether you complete this job tomorrow or not.”

“Lady, I mean, Miss Wells, calm down. Why
don’t you start from the beginning,” he spoke in a soothing
voice.

She lit up a cigarette and took a big breath
of air into her lungs. “Alright, listen to me very carefully. My
reputation as an actress has been mortified, ruined, even my own
private reputation. In the beginning of my acting career, I climbed
to the top of fame; everyone in Hollywood loved me. But, I realized
they loved me for one thing,” Julienne announced, then pausing for
a second.

He waited anxiously for her to go on talking,
questioning, “What’s that one thing?”

She looked down at the pavement in slow
motion and responded with, “Paul Fresco.”

“Who’s Paul Fresco?”

Julienne looked up at him in a shocked
manner. Her eyes began to bulge out in a twisted formation as she
began to cry.

She grabbed a tissue from her pocket and
started to blow her nose, explaining with tears, “You see, even you
don’t know who Paul is anymore.”

“I’m sorry, maybe if you tell me about--”

She then, abruptly, interrupted his words in
craziness, stating in a loud voice, “Listen to me, Paul Fresco was
one of the top male stars in Hollywood back in the early ’90s.
That’s how I got discovered. I began dating him. I walked with him
on the Hollywood streets and even at a few Oscar ceremonies, and
people loved it. So, I got in a few movies and then I realized that
I didn’t like Paul in the first place. You see, I realized that the
whole time I was dating him, I wasn’t dating him, I was using him
for, I guess, fame, however corny it may sound. And that’s what I
got. After we broke up, everyone loved me because I lied and said
he was an abusive boyfriend.”

“So in return, everyone would love you
because you broke away and had the guts to say he was abusing you?”
Mark asked with a smile.

“Yeah, that’s right. But, as soon as Paul
died, people loved him; it was like he was Elvis Presley or
something. That’s when my fame began to diminish. I mean, I admit,
I did lie a little bit, and that caused my fame to diminish even
more. So, I decided to go out to a nightclub one night, and I was
so depressed about everything when I went. That’s when I met Jose
Rodrigo. I saw he was a very handsome young man, so I thought I
could make him another Paul. You know? I wanted to use him for
fame, just like I used Paul.” She spoke in lowness, having Mark
comforting her by giving her a hug.

“I never heard of Jose Rodrigo either.”

Miss Wells began crying even more, speaking
in a whiny fashion, “I know, that’s the sick, twisted part of the
whole thing. Jose wasn’t famous yet, so I thought by me making him
famous, in return, his fame would rekindle my fame. I don’t know
why I chose him; I guess I thought he was an easy target. I figured
if I made him famous, then people would love me for that, and at
the same time, casting directors, agents, and so on would love me
too. So, my first step was to get Jose in a movie, but I knew I had
to get him away from Darell, and Damen.”

“Why?”

“Because, Damen and Darell were wimps, weak,
kind, and everything else that’s not the recipe for achieving
success in this business. In this business, you have to be
ruthless; you have to step on other people’s souls just to get to
the top. But then I found out that Darell was in a movie already,
so I figured that maybe Darell had a little bit of ruthlessness in
him. So, we went to Darell’s premiere for his first movie, I
figured that’s the best place to make Jose known to the agents.
That’s when I discovered that Henry and Dennis Schultz were
directing a movie together. So, I thought, that’s the perfect
opportunity to get Jose in his first movie. But I discovered that
Damen was wanted for that role. So, I lied and said he was a drug
user, and that made Dennis not want him anymore. I talked him into
giving the part to Jose. That’s how this all began!” Julienne was
stressed, her tears fell down to the tissue she was holding in her
lap, and her aching, palpitating panic was growing larger by each
tear shed.

She explained everything to a man she met for
the first time, a man named Mark, who was a killer, but a listener
to her inextinguishable conscience. She was ready to have a nervous
breakdown as she finished explaining, it was like Mark was her
shrink; she told her problems to a killer. That’s why she told him,
because she knew he was ruthless like her, and he didn’t care about
anyone, except for that moment when he listened to Julienne’s
story. At the end of her story, she dried her tears away with the
tenth tissue she used and spoke, “Now, that’s why I want you to
kill them. I want fame more than anything else, as well as a
leveled mind, and I’m willing to give all of my money to achieve it
again, and to get rid of always worrying about something coming
out, or blackmail. I’m a ruthless, heartless, arrogant bitch, but I
got this far. So I’m proud of it. My plan worked with Jose, and
pretty soon I’ll dump him too and say he raped me or something.
Alright, after hearing my long, boring story, do you still think
I’m gonna run off with the eight million?” Julienne then got up and
noticed her limousine down the street, for the eleventh time.

“I like you, lady, you’re tough but beautiful
at the same time. It’s a deal,” he said. Julienne put the check in
her pocket and grabbed another one, at that moment her limo pulled
up to them and waited for her.

“Now, here’s a check for two million dollars
to get rid of Damen. With this check and the one I’m going to leave
you tomorrow, it will be ten million altogether. Also, just in case
anyone gets suspicious, since this is a large amount of currency,
after this job is completed, and you have the checks, give them
back to me, and I’ll cash them for you. So, these checks are just
insurance that I will comply with this job that you’re going to do
and pay you the full amount. But first, what’s your last name?”

“Michelle, Mark Michelle. But listen, all I
need is one million right now.”

Julienne started to write his name on the
check, and at the same time, announcing, “Oh, Tom said you needed
two million.”

“Well, like I told you before, he gave me a
check for two million dollars already. Now, all I need is one more
million for the Damen job.”

“I knew he was lying. But, take the money
anyway,” Julienne said, handing him the check. “Now, I’ll leave the
check for eight million under my seat tomorrow at the ceremony.
That eight million is the job that I want you to do. So,
altogether, I’m paying you ten million dollars, plus Tom’s two
million that he already gave to you. Is it a deal?” Julienne’s
question was strict; her strictness was caused by her understanding
that she was going to pay a man that she’d met for the first time,
ten million dollars. Her strictness went to anger, questioning
again, “Is it a deal?”

“Well, altogether, I’m getting paid twelve
million dollars to kill two people. So, I guess it’s a deal.” He
shook her hand, adding, “Thanks, Miss Julienne Wells.”

She walked up to her limousine and waited for
the chauffeur to exit the car, and open her door for her. He got
out, and opened it, while she spoke toward Mark, “I’ll say ‘you’re
welcome’ when the job’s completed. Remember what I explained to
you, be at the Oscars by 6:00 p.m.; they begin at 7:30 p.m. Just
make sure you follow every bit of detail I told you.”

Miss Wells winked at him, and stepped into
her limo.

“Don’t worry, Miss Wells, I got it all under
control.”

The limousine drove away, and Mark stood
there, on a vacant strip, and watched the limousine, getting
smaller and smaller, smiling toward it until it was too far for his
own eyes to see its shimmering body, reflecting its resplendent
beauty off of the moon’s jubilant light.

Chapter Seventy-One

Mark ran directly to a public phone,
immediately after Julienne left, and called up his partner, looking
around the vacant streets of California, gawking at every corner,
to see if a silhouette appeared, or a shadow was spying on him. His
partner was named Curtis, he was like Mark’s little brother,
knowing him since the age of eight, going from stealing candy in
stores, to robbing houses of California; they were really close. He
told Curtis to meet him at the Oscar building, in Hollywood, in an
hour. He said, “Bring the equipment with, and also bring the
weapons. By the way, the building is called ‘The Majestic,’ make
sure you don’t screw it up with the old Oscar building.” He then
dropped the phone, without even bothering to hang it up, and ran to
a taxicab that was parked down the street. Mark tried to open the
door to the cab, but it was locked. Still looking around to see if
anyone appeared to his sight, he pulled the handle on the door so
much, that he almost broke it.

“I’m off duty,” the cabdriver announced,
hearing Mark still trying to open the door. The driver, a little
man but a tough one, jumped up from his sleeping position, and made
himself known to Mark’s eyes.

“Let me in now, it’s an emergency, my son
just got hit by a car,” Mark yelled out.

The driver laughed, chuckling as he spoke,
“Yeah, I heard that one before. The next thing you’re probably
gonna tell me is it’s your only son. Am I right?”

Mark ran up to the driver’s side window and
began pounding on it, trying to make the driver change his mind,
wanting him to change his mind before he took drastic actions.
“Listen, if you don’t let me in, I’m going to kill...” Mark paused
his own words, thinking that it was a mistake for him to threaten
the cabdriver. Still looking around the streets, the sidewalks,
seeing vacancy still, he knew what he had to do to this driver.
Mark paused for a moment and then gave a smile, saying in a nice
and subtle way, “Listen, I’ll pay you one hundred dollars to take
me to my destination.”

“Two hundred.”

Mark’s tall frame stared down at the ground,
feeling the anger that this so-called tough taxi driver gave to
him. This driver had no idea about Mark’s character. Hearing a
brief sway of wind blowing against his face, he just stared at
Mark, awaiting a reply, and having a smart-alecky smile engraved on
his taxi driver face.

“Alright, I’ll pay you two hundred dollars,”
said Mark, cracking his tense neck.

The driver smiled again, saying, “Three
hundred.”

Mark leered at this driver in a straight
stare, and glowered toward him, but then smiled back to him. He
started laughing toward the driver, and his giggle rubbed off on
the driver’s mouth, and he began to laugh as well. Then, suddenly,
through the night’s shadows, and the vacancy of silhouettes, Mark
punched straight through the window and knocked this greedy driver
out cold.