Famous (19 page)

I quietly open the door and peek out. No one's in the hall. There's no sound of movement nearby. Is this a trap? Are they lying in wait for me? I step out. Now what?

Footsteps start coming down the stairs. No time to think. I scoot into the kitchen, bracing for Maria to start screaming, but the kitchen's empty. I hurry out the back doors and around the pool toward the guesthouse.

And that's when I see the bright yellow ladder next to the tall hedges which hide the wall around the property.

I'm sprinting across the lawn. The gardener must have been trimming the hedges. I'm not good at judging heights, but I'd guess the wall must be twelve feet tall.

I drag the ladder through a thin gap in the hedge and prop it against the wall. Up close, it looks
really
high. I climb up, but even from the top of the ladder I still have to reach and pull myself up another two feet. For an instant I straddle the wall. It feels like sitting on a tree branch way up in the air, and between the tall palms and evergreens I can see the red tile roofs of the houses dotting the green Hollywood Hills. It's a long way down the other side of the wall, but I can't sit here and think about
it. Anyone looking out of a rear window of Willow's house will see me.

I lower myself down the other side of the wall until I'm hanging by my fingertips, but it's still at least six feet to the ground below. What am I doing? If I let go and fall I'll break my leg! Terrified, I try to pull myself back up, but my hands aren't strong enough. My fingers are slowly sliding off the top of the wall, and I lose my grip.

I hit the ground and roll like they do in the movies. But it wasn't intentional. I only did it because I lost my balance. A moment later I'm sitting on the dirt staring at my feet. Amazingly, nothing hurts. I look back up at the wall and cannot believe I just climbed over it! When I have the time, I will have to congratulate myself on this insane act of bravery.

I get up and dust the dirt off. I'm surrounded by rubble. They're doing a teardown on this lot—dismantling an old house to build something new. Right now it's just a construction site—dirt, a gray concrete foundation, piles of debris, some yellow construction machinery, and big square pallets of bricks.

Oh, and one other thing. About two dozen yards away, some guy is standing on wooden scaffolding pressed against the wall. He has binoculars.

We first heard about Richard Hildebrandt from Willow Twine's people. There'd been an incident at her place involving an unauthorized photographer, and a short time later Hildebrandt showed up at the front gate saying he was there to help. Twine's people told him to go away, and when he refused they apparently got a little rough with him.

Usually that's enough to get rid of a stalker, but in this case it appears to have confirmed what Hildebrandt was imagining—that Miss Twine was surrounded by dangerous people who might try to harm her.

Anyway, during this incident where Miss Twine's
people got rough with Hildebrandt, he made some statements that Doris Remlee, Miss Twine's assistant, picked up on. She went back through some old fan mail and e-mails and discovered that Hildebrandt had been writing to Miss Twine for several years. And some of what he wrote was pretty strange.

DAYS WILL PASS BEFORE YOU OPEN THE FEDEX BOX AGAIN. THIS TIME
you will find a scrapbook. The first photo will bring new tears to your eyes. It's a shot of you and Avy sitting together at a school party in fourth grade. In front of you on paper plates are pink and blue cupcakes, each with a single candle.

On the next page is another photo of you and Avy, taken on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the fall of freshman year. You and he were partners on a project about ancient Egypt, and you'd gone to the museum to see the mummies. You're wearing a bulky turtleneck sweater. Avy is wearing a hoodie. Your shoulders
are pressed together, and you're grinning happily. You can't help thinking that this photo was taken less than two years ago and yet so much has changed. Back then you were just a couple of kids. You had school to attend, homework to do, parties you wished you'd been invited to, and favorite TV shows you always made sure to watch.

It wasn't that long ago.

But it feels so long ago, it's like ancient history.

On the next page are the shots you took of Tatiana Frazee in Cafazine. Why, you will wonder, would Avy put them in his scrapbook?

On the next page will be the
New York Weekly
story, the youngest paparazzo.

And on the next, the
New York Press
story: baby pap scoops the pros again!

That's when you will realize this isn't a scrapbook Avy kept about himself. It's a scrapbook he kept . . . about you.

THE GUY WITH THE BINOCULARS CLIMBS DOWN FROM THE SCAFFOLDING
and starts toward me. He's wearing cutoffs, high olive-colored military boots, and a green Army-surplus jacket that looks much too warm for a day like today. His hair is matted and disheveled, and his jaw is covered with unshaved facial hair. And there's something wild and strange about his eyes.

“Who are you?” he demands.

“Who are
you
?” I ask back, knowing the best defense is often a good offense. “And what were you doing spying on Willow Twine's property?”

Amazingly, my bluff seems to work. He's caught off
guard. “I,” he stammers, “I have to protect her.”

“From what?”

“People. You never know who. That's the problem.”

A nervous shiver runs through me. He's a weirdo. I've seen enough of them on subways and New York City sidewalks to know the signs, but this is the first time I've encountered the Los Angeles variety. But this might be the good news.

“I think you're right,” I tell him. “You have to protect her. You'd better stay here and make sure no one else comes over that wall.”

His forehead creases and his eyebrows dip with consternation. “Is something wrong? Did something happen to her?”

“Not yet. But she's in danger. We need to be careful. Listen, if anyone asks, you didn't see me. You didn't see or talk to anyone. Understand? Just stay here and make sure no one else comes over that wall.”

It's all nonsense, and I feel bad for feeding into his delusions, but this is an emergency. I make a wide circle around him and walk quickly toward the tree-lined sidewalk. A few minutes later, I get to a corner. Two women with blond ponytails and skintight Lycra tights are jogging in place, waiting for the light to change. Suddenly a car screeches around the corner. It's Sam, and he stares right at me.

TRANSCRIPT OF TESTIMONY
The State of California vs. Richard Curtis
Hildebrandt

DORIS ANNE REMLEE,
being sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth testifies as follows:

My name is Doris Anne Remlee and I currently reside at 41 Fairweather Court in the city of Los Angeles. I was employed by Ms. Willow Twine as her personal assistant. In that capacity it was my responsibility to assist Ms. Twine in the conduct of her professional and personal affairs.

Q: Did this include reading and answering correspondence?

A: Yes.

Q: And was this where you first became aware of the defendant?

A: Yes.

Q: Would you tell us about that?

A: Ms. Twine received dozens of fan letters every day. Many were addressed to her record company or film studio. A few were addressed to her agent or manager. It was rare for a fan letter to be addressed to her home. Ms. Twine preferred to keep her home address a secret. I first became aware of Mr. Hildebrandt because somehow he got Ms. Twine's home address and sent his letters directly to her there.

Q: Was that the only reason Mr. Hildebrandt's letters attracted your attention?

A: No. They were strange.

Q: Would you explain how?

A: Based on his letters, Mr. Hildebrandt seemed to feel that Ms. Twine was in danger and that he was the only one in the world who could protect her.

Q: Is that why you kept the letters?

A: Yes, I always kept the ones that sounded strange. There were lots of them from all sorts
of people—vulgar, threatening, strange, and disgusting. I filed them away just in case. When I went back through the file I found about a dozen from Mr. Hildebrandt. They weren't particularly vulgar or disgusting. Not even that threatening. But they were definitely strange.

Q: Please tell us about the first time you saw Mr. Hildebrandt.

A: He came to the front gate of Ms. Twine's property. It was on a day that Ms. Twine was extremely upset because of some personal issues, and it was just by coincidence that a number of us were outside near the gate.

Q: Would you tell us who was there?

A: I was. And Zach Cushman, who did odd jobs around the house for Ms Twine. And Sam Russell, who was Ms. Twine's personal bodyguard.

Q: And what happened?

A: Mr. Hildebrandt came up to the gate wearing torn-off shorts and a green safari jacket with lots of cargo pockets. His hair was messy, and he had stubble on his jaw and chin. He said he had to speak to Ms. Twine. I told him she was away. That is our standard reply to strangers. Usually they would go away.

Q: Did Mr. Hildebrandt go away?

A: No. Mr. Hildebrandt replied that he knew
that was what we were supposed to say. He kept insisting it was important that he speak to Ms. Twine. He insisted that she knew him. He said it was urgent.

Q: Did he say why it was so important?

A: Yes. He said that her life was in danger.

Q: What happened next?

A: I told him that I would give any message he had to Ms. Twine when she returned. Then he asked me if my name was Doris.

Q: How would he know that?

A: I don't know. There had been a few stories about Ms. Twine in which my name was mentioned. He might have read one.

Q: Did he tell you why he thought her life was in danger?

A: He said Ms. Twine had to stop going around like she did, because there were people who wanted to harm her and he couldn't always be there to protect her.

Q: Did he explain what he meant by “going around”?

A: No, but I assumed he meant going shopping and out to restaurants and normal things like that.

Q: Would you tell us what happened next?

A: I told him again that I would give his
message to Ms. Twine when she returned and that it would be a good idea if he left.

Q: Did he?

A: No. He said that I didn't understand how great the danger was and that people were climbing over the wall around Ms. Twine's property and that for all I knew she might be in grave danger at that very moment. I told him that wasn't possible because she wasn't there.

Q: And what happened next?

A: He got excited and started to yell that I should stop lying and that he knew she was there and that it wouldn't be his fault if something terrible happened to her, because he couldn't be expected to stand guard there all the time.