Not Wanted in Hollywood (17 page)

Trying to
tackle the rest of the audio files I kept getting distracted by the
thoughts of Hammy’s last moments. I wondered where Alistair had
been while his recorder had been close enough to Hammy to provide a
permanent account of his death. Finally I slammed shut my laptop
and headed to the office. I had a feeling Alistair knew more than
he was saying. Despite his faults, of which there were many,
Alistair was a formidable investigator
.
Before this debacle of a filmmaking exercise that I was involved
in, he had made his reputation with hard hitting documentaries that
had brought down corrupt government officials and greedy companies
who had skirted and then dumped all over the law. Maybe he had seen
something and was following it up.

When I
arrived, the office was quiet. I was surprised to find that
Alistair wasn’t here. When he wasn’t on site at the club or in
meetings with lawyers he was generally to be found in the
warehouse. I think he even had a bed in a small room attached to
his office. Today though, the whole place was quiet. I was starting
to have a very uneasy feeling. Sitting down at my desk I logged on
my computer. When I first started working with Alistair he had
given me network access to all his research notes. I went in to the
research notes on the club and found a folder titled Hammy. Opening
it up, I found the photo of Denise and Hammy on their wedding day.
Now that I looked at it closely I could see the slight baby bump
under the wedding dress. I wondered if she had given up the baby
for Hammy. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how that would feel.
Looking out the window I noticed something small sitting on the
ledge. As I went over to the window I could see that it was
Alistair’s recorder.

Looking down
at it in my hand I made a decision and downloaded it onto my
computer. I could see that Alistair had created a few new files
since I gave the recorder back to him the previous night. Throwing
on my headphones I listened to Alistair’s voice. He had been
putting something together. It seemed that he had become aware of
the change that Hammy had been planning to make with his will. He
had plenty of theories as to why Hammy might have been killed.
Unfortunately he didn’t have much in the way of evidence. The
folder did show that he was investigating and Alistair did have a
reputation for being relentless.

When I opened the last file I was surprised
to hear Amber’s voice in the background.

“What are you doing here Amber?” Alistair
growled. I could hear the sound of the recorder being placed on a
hard surface.

“
I just
wanted to see you,” purred Amber.

Hearing the seductive tone in her voice I
suddenly felt uncomfortable. I had believed that Amber was no
longer interested in Alistair and his lies. Obviously I’d been
wrong.

“
I’m busy
Amber, I’ve got something I’m looking into.” Alistair sounded
distracted.

Amber sighed.
“I was afraid you would say that.” Her voice had suddenly become
hard. “Alistair, Alistair, you really shouldn’t have started
sticking your nose in where it wasn’t wanted. That kind of thing
can get you into a lot of trouble. You do know that don’t
you?”

“Amber, just leave. I’ll see you later when
I’ve got time.”

Alistair sounded dismissive to the woman he
had been sleeping with. That was Alistair, sensitive to the
end.

“
You really
shouldn’t turn your back on me,” hissed Amber.

The next
thing I heard was a thud. “And you really need to reevaluate the
way you treat women,” said Amber with a cheery note in her voice.
There was silence and then I heard Amber’s voice again. “We’ve got
a problem Mom. I’ll be there in a little while but I’m going to
need some help.”

Hearing the
dragging
noise
, I ripped off the
headphones and grabbed the recorder. Heading for the door I pulled
up short when Amber stepped through it.

“
Hi Trudie,”
she said, smiling brightly.

“
Hi Amber,” I
replied, trying to smile just as brightly. Proving once again why
my childhood dreams of becoming an actress never had any chance of
coming to fruition, Amber’s eyes darkened.

“
You look
nervous,” she said suspiciously. “Has something
happened?”

“No, no. I’ve just been doing some work and
Alistair left me a list of errands that he wants me to run.”

Amber’s eyes narrowed in on the hand holding
the recorder and realization crossed her face.

“
Oh Trudie,
this is unfortunate,” she said.

I stepped back. “What do you mean?” I knew my
voice was a little high pitched but there was really nothing that I
could do about it.

“
You know,
don’t you?” she said. She didn’t come towards me but she was
blocking off the doorway.

It’s amazing how sometimes, moments of pure
terror can clear your mind and you can see things that haven’t been
obvious before. I usually saw Amber at the club with her makeup and
costume on. Today though, she was completely natural and I saw
something different.

“
You’re
Denise’s daughter aren’t you?”

I should have
seen it earlier. Now that the pieces were falling into
place
, I could see the similarities.
Amber had the same chin and nose as her mother. If the situation
hadn’t been so unexpected, I might have spotted it
earlier.

Amber looked
at me sadly. “You really should have kept out of this Trudie,” she
said. Her eyes flicked behind me and pain exploded in the back of
my head.

For the first
time in a while I made my way out of unconsciousness without
Dominic Caldwell looking down on me. For a brief and admittedly
insane moment I missed him. My only excuse was that while I had
been realizing that Amber was not quite the innocent stripper
dominatrix that she appeared, somebody had sneaked up behind me and
cracked me in the back of the head with something hard. That may
have messed with my thinking processes somewhat. I would also like
to point out that hitting me in the back of the head while there
was a slight possibility that I was already suffering from
concussion was a really lousy way to do things.

“Trudie, is that you?”

Now that was not fair. It wasn’t enough that
I had been kidnapped. It looked like I’d been kidnapped to keep
Alistair company.

I groaned as I turned my head. Sure enough,
there was Alistair, sitting with his back against the wall.

“What happened?” I croaked as I struggled to
sit up.

“
We’ve been
kidnapped,” muttered Alistair.

Well thank you Captain Obvious. I would have
thought, being a hard hitting seeker of the truth, as I had
actually heard him describe himself once, that I would have got a
bit more detail regarding our predicament.

“
This is all
your fault,” he accused.

I was used to the many ways perspective could
be shifted in Hollywood. A drug overdose could actually be
exhaustion and picking up a prostitute was the act of a good
samaritan. That being said, I failed to see how this was in any
way, shape or form, my fault. I was not the one who had the bright
idea of filming a documentary in a strip club. I was not the one
who decided that a skeleton crew of three was the best way to film
the documentary. I was not the one sleeping with the person who had
kidnapped us. If anything the only mistake that I had made was
answering the phone the day Monique called and offered me a job
working for a man who had managed to alienate every single person
who had ever been in his employ.

I’d been
kidnapped before, on my own, by a dangerous man and then passed
along to another very dangerous man. At the time I thought that,
although I wouldn’t wish for anyone else to be kidnapped with me,
it would have been good not to go through it alone. Logically you
would assume having someone with you when you’ve been kidnapped,
who wasn’t one of the kidnappers, would be a good thing. I was
quickly finding out that that was not true. If I had been given a
choice of being kidnapped on my own or being kidnapped with
Alistair, I would have definitely chosen on my own.

“Where are we?” I asked, choosing to ignore
Alistair’s accusation.

“
I don’t
know,” he said. “She hit me on the head, how could she do
that?”

He was honestly perplexed. How wonderful must
it be to live in your own world where there are no consequences to
your actions.

I slowly rose to my feet and looked around.
Wherever we were, it was dark. There was some light coming from
underneath a doorway. I tried the handle but the door didn’t
give.

“
Because that
wouldn’t be the first thing I’d try,” said Alistair
sarcastically.

Definitely having fond memories of the times
I’d been kidnapped on my own. I banged the door and yelled. “Is
anyone out there?”

As the door
came open I took a step back, only to be confronted by a smiling
Amber. Following her were Denise and to my surprise Hugh. I stepped
towards Alistair as they came into the room.

“Oh good, you’re awake” she said smiling.

I would have
taken some comfort in that statement, believing if she was going to
kill me she would have done it already. Unfortunately I could see
the distressed looks on Denise and Hugh’s faces. I had a very bad
feeling that they didn’t have a vote in this decision.

“
Why are you
doing this Amber?” I asked, watching her walk around Alistair and
me as if we were art pieces in a gallery.

“
I’m taking
back control,” said Amber. “Did you know he forced our mother to
give my brother and me away?”

I slid my
eyes over to Hugh
. Twins. “You were the
one who hit me.” It was more of a statement than a question. I
should have known. With his ability to sneak up on someone, I
hadn’t stood a chance.

Hugh nodded. “Sorry I had to do that.”

“
Could have
been worse,” giggled Amber. “You should see his skills with a
whip.”

I was
surprised but I shouldn’t have been. Amber had been on stage when
Hammy died, Denise had been at a church meeting. The owner of the
murder weapon and the one who had the most to gain had great
alibis. Who would have suspected the man who had no investment in
Hammy’s life whatsoever? It was brilliant, in a completely crazy,
kind of way.

“
You killed
your father to get hold of the club,” I said.

“
He owed it
to us,” said Amber. “We were tossed aside as if we were nothing
because he liked this life so much. Hugh and I grew up never
knowing our family, all because of him. We had a plan in place to
make it look like an accident. It was brilliant, but then he
changed his will to give this place to the crying girl. We couldn’t
let that happen so we had to improvise.”

And
improvising meant strangling a man with a whip. I had to stop
myself from shuddering. This was a serious conspiracy happening
here. It was interesting to see that Denise and Hugh did not seem
to have the same enthusiasm for this situation that Amber did.
Amber was acting like she was in Disneyland. It concerned me that I
had not seen this level of crazy in her before. I shook my
head.

“It isn’t like Hammy was living the high life
here. The man was in debt up to his eyeballs.”

“
That’s where
Alistair came in with his big plans and all that money,” said Amber
and she brushed her lips across Alistair’s cheek as she walked past
him.

I had to give
Alistair credit. He was standing straight and tall. He wasn’t even
flinching at the realization that he had been involved with a
woman, not only capable of planning the death of her father, but
seemingly eager to do it.

“
If you had
this master plan,” sneered Alistair, finally finding his voice.
“Why did you get involved with me?”

I couldn’t believe it. I actually heard a
little bit of hurt in his voice as if he was affronted that she may
have used him.

“
Would you
believe Hammy wanted me to keep you happy? He saw that you were
interested and he so wanted you to keep paying him. It worked in
well with our plans. Bring the money in and then get the club. And
you were so easy. As long as you thought you had all the power.
That’s the aim of the best seductions,” Amber said, as she stroked
the side of Alistair’s face and looked over at me as if imparting
the wisdom of the ages. “If they believe that they always have the
upper hand, they will never know that you are using
them.”

Despite the fact that everything in me said
that Amber was a few sandwiches short of a picnic, you had to
admire her ability to stay on task.

“
You have no
problem with this Denise?” I
asked
,
hoping to find an ally.

“
I’m sorry
Trudie. You seem like a nice girl but this reckoning was a long
time coming. I lost my babies because of him. I’ve only just found
them. I can’t risk losing them again.”

Hugh nodded in agreement.

Amber came up
beside me. “They’re not going to help you Trudie. You got in the
way. That was a very bad idea. You really need to learn to mind
your own business. Everything would have worked out perfectly if
you and Alistair had simply stuck to your roles.”

“What are you going to do with us?” And by us
I meant me because at that point I found it really difficult to
care one bit regarding her plans for Alistair.