No Wolves in Los Angeles by M S Lawson - HTML preview

“Guys, guys, it’s okay,” said Will, irritated. “I understand you were just doing your job with the information you’d been given but let’s go our own ways. I’ve had a hard time of late.”

Will and Bella walked off down the corridor while the detectives hastily went in the other direction.

“Sorry it took so long to work out what had happened,” said Bella. Will was a himbo and history, as far as she was concerned, but she had some sympathy for discarded lovers and he was owed an apology. “I hope it wasn’t too bad.”

“I woke up handcuffed to a hospital bed.”

They reached the lift and Will held the doors open for a moment so that an elderly lady could get in – a routine act of courtesy that impressed Bella.

“You were operated on at the hospital?” she asked.

“The happy couple missed the intestines so all I really needed was stitching. They were more concerned that I arrived unconscious but as I didn’t seem to have concussion when I came too they just kept me overnight.”

They walked through the police station foyer.

“Is Meghan really with that Benjamin guy now?” he asked.

“Seems so,” said Bella. “I’m sorry Will. I asked her what I should tell you and she said to tell you whatever.”

“Huh! Really! Hard to believe I’d be dropped just like that after we’d been going so well, but they’re engaged already?”

“Engaged?” said Bella. “Who’s engaged?”

“Meghan and Benjamin. One of the nurses at the hospital told me this morning. News item on the Sidewalk Stars site. I really can’t believe she would do that.”

‘Um, well, a lot’s happened while you’ve been away.”

“Yeah, well, I guess it was all too good to be true. Should have known better after Violet. Doomed again, that’s me. Tell Meghan I’m sorry I couldn’t make her happy.”

He turned away from Bella, before the assistant could ask who Violet was, not wishing to show that his eyes were now wet. He walked off, thinking that he might as well just go to the airport.

In the taxi back to the hotel, Bella looked at the Sidewalk Stars site on her phone.

 

You heard it here first, the siren of the shower Clarise Chalmers and rock legend Bo Benjamin have declared that they are engaged. The pair rekindled an old love when Bo dropped in on Clarise in Toronto where she is filming the popular series Alien Search. Bo has declared he is “over the moon” about the engagement but few other details are available yet. Don’t worry folks we’ll keep you posted.

 

When Bella got back to the hotel Bo Benjamin had gone out and Meghan was sleeping, the remains of a stick in a saucer by her bed, and she went back to her room sorely puzzled. Something was amiss. In the middle of the night it occurred to her that Benjamin had called Meghan Clar, short for Clarise, rather than Meghan. Anyone who knew her called her Meghan or even Meg, but not her supposed fiancé. Then she recalled Will’s automatic kindness in holding the lift doors open for an old lady; Benjamin dismissing Will’s plight with contemptuous indifference and Meghan’s vacant answers to her questions. Uh oh!

Yet it was a good match and, potentially, a blockbuster wedding. That wedding would require considerable organisation by Ms Chalmers’ hard-working staff and that meant Bella would be kept on when Mia returned from her honeymoon, which would be soon, and when Emma recovered from her heartbreak. There was also the undoubted problem that if Meghan and Will ever connected again and started comparing notes, the star might take exception to Bella dumping Will on her behalf. The more Bella thought about it, the more she realised how much trouble she could get into. Then again, perhaps there was some genuine feeling between Meghan and Bo that needed time to develop.

During the night, when all was quiet, Bella got up and found Meghan’s phone where she had left it in the suite’s living room. She took it back to her room where she opened it – she had long known Meghan’s passcode, simply by observing the star when she used her phone – and wrote a text to Will.

 

Sorry you had to hear about the engagement on the Sidewalk Stars site, Will, and I’m sorry Bella had to be the one to tell you it was all over. Stuff happens. Thanks for the good times. Meg.

 

Bella sent that, deleted a text Will had already sent asking the star what was happening along with a voice message, then blocked Will’s phone number. After some fiddling around she then deleted the text she had sent and edited Will’s number so that it gave a “number not in service” response. She returned the phone and went back to bed. That time she managed to sleep. Bella admitted to herself that her interference was nasty and certainly beneath her, but she thought that in the end all parties would eventually be better off. Even if Meghan did not end up with Bo she would have her pick of eminently eligible men. Will was hot and seemed very nice. He would find a nice girl in his own league and be much happier. It was the right thing to do.

 

CHAPTER TWENTY

 

When Meghan woke up clear headed on Monday morning in a darkened hotel room the last thing she remembered with any clarity was that of Bo coming to visit and offering her a stick, which she had taken.

After that came a haze of memories of smoking the sticks and sometimes trying to refuse them, only for Bo one way or another getting her to take another. Alcohol was involved. Still disorientated, the star turned over in bed to find, to her horror, that she was lying next to Bo. Then she realised that, under the bed clothes, she was naked. Suddenly fully awake, albeit feeling sick and with a headache, she got up at once, exclaiming “Oh shit! Oh shit!” She put on the dressing gown she found on the floor – the same one she had been wearing when Bo had arrived – and ran out into the suite’s living room calling for Bella. Her assistant appeared fully dressed, a piece of toast in hand.

“Oh hi!” she said. “Glad you’re up. The director, Liam, was pissed at you missing the shoot on Friday but we can still make today.”

“Missing Friday!” said Meghan horrified. “It’s Saturday morning? Where’s Will?”

“It’s Monday morning,” said Bella.

“WHAT! Where’s Will? Does he know about this?”

“He was here on Friday and found you with Bo so yes, he knows.” She took another bite of toast.

“Oh my god! Oh my god!” said Meghan face in her hands. “What happened? Where is he now?”

“Well, from what I can make out he saw you two together naked,” said Bella matter of factly, “you underneath him on the desk over there.”

“Oh my god!” exclaimed Meghan.

“He rushed you guys. Bo picked up one of those old fashioned letter openers on the desk – you were holding it too - and Will ran into it. Then the bodyguards rushed in and tackled him, knocking him out. He was taken to hospital then a police station and later released. I don’t know where he is now.”

Bella decided to leave out the fact that he had spoken to Will and that she had dumped him on Meghan’s behalf.

“I helped stab him? Where’s my phone?”

Bella picked up the device and handed it to Meghan. She used her contact list to call Will and got the “this number is no longer in service” response.

“Shit!” said Meghan flinging the phone onto the cushions. “I want to talk to Will. Call him.”

“Of course, but don’t you want to talk about your engagement?” said Bella. “We need to discuss that.”

“Engagement? To Will?”

“No, Bo, it was announced on Saturday.”

“WHAT? I’ve been drugged out of my mind all weekend. Those sticks had a really bad effect on me. There was something in that wine too. How come I’m suddenly engaged to someone I don’t even like much.”

“For the whole weekend?” said Bella. After her deceptions – all in a good cause, or so she thought – the assistant now had to act as if had not suspected anything.

“Yes for the whole weekend! Every time I started to come out I think I got more sticks shoved in my face. You didn’t realise something was wrong?”

“Bo said it was all fine and you seemed happy. I spoke to you a couple of times.”

“I don’t remember.”

The bodyguard in the foyer chose that moment to look into the living room to see what the noise was all about.

“You,” said Meghan pointing at him. “What are you doing in my hotel room?”

“Here with Mr Benjamin,” said the guard, taken aback.

“He shouldn’t be here either. Grab your boss and get out of my hotel room.”

“I’ll get the boss up and ask him,” he said.

“You do not need to ask him. It’s my room. Get out and take him with you or I’ll call management.”

The bodyguard went into the bedroom and Meghan turned her attention back to Bella.

“Where does this engagement story come from?”

Bella used her own phone to show Meghan the Sidewalk Stars item.

“I never agreed to any engagement,” said Meghan indignantly. “I don’t remember being asked and I sure as hell didn’t say yes. Will must have seen this. Oh my god, and he saw us together. No wonder he’s disappeared. Has my mother seen it or Madison? Have my friends seen it? Why wasn’t this contradicted straight away?”

“I couldn’t get any sense out of you,” said Bella, which was true enough. “Even if I’d known who handles your PR I wouldn’t have known what to tell them.”

Bo came out of the bedroom wearing only shorts and holding a stick and a lighter. His bodyguard, aware now that something was seriously wrong with his boss’s view of events, hovered in the background.

“Hey, babe,” said Bo, grinning wolf-like. “What’s with all the noise? Just have one of these and everything ‘ll seem right.”

“I’m not your babe,” retorted Meghan. “You took advantage of me. I told your guy to get you and leave and now I’m telling you. Get out!”

“Babe, just have a stick and the worries go away,” said Bo still grinning and holding it out.

“Get that away from me!” shrieked Meghan, slapping at the stick, knocking it out of Bo’s hand so that it fell to the floor.

“There’s no need for that,” said Bo, exasperated. He bent down to pick up the stick and lit it. “Just have this.”

“I told you I don’t want it,” said Meghan, shrinking away from him, “and I want you to get out of my room.”

“But babe we’re engaged,” said Bo, advancing on her.

“We’re nothing of the kind,” said Meghan stepping away again. “I only just found out about that story, and I’m going to start denying it. How dare you put that item up! Bella, call the hotel management and call those Sidewalk Stars people.”

“Why are you being so hostile!” snarled Bo. “You’ll never get a better offer than me.”

“What? What is this the seventeenth fucking century?” said Meghan. “I don’t need to marry anyone. I’m a major star in my own right. I don’t need you, and I don’t even like you and I’m sure as hell not marrying anyone who keeps me strung out on drugs.”

Bo snatched at her, grabbing her arm. “Yes, you need me. Stop this! I’m trying to help you.”

“Let go of me!” shrieked Meghan, struggling.

“You can’t do this, Mr Benjamin,” said Bella, who had finally picked up the suite’s phone to call the front desk.

“Boss this ain’t a good idea,” called the guard.

Meghan grabbed the stick from Benjamin’s hand and jammed the still glowing end into the singer’s bare arm.

The singer yelled and released her. “You little bitch!”

Meghan ran into the suite foyer, where she encountered the second guard.

“Stop her,” called Benjamin.

“Don’t you dare touch me,” said Meghan.

The guard hesitated. He had no reason at all to grab her and he knew it. She ran around him flung the door open yelled “Bella call the hotel people,” over her shoulder and ran into the corridor.

“Go after her,” he heard Bo yell from the suite. “She’s being fucking hysterical.”

Meghan ran down the corridor and turned the corner into the lift foyer before the guard got out the door. She was in the best suite in the hotel but there were other rooms on the floor. She saw a hotel maid, a middle aged lady with a service cart outside the open door of one room.

“Sorry, I need this room,” she said.

The maid looked up startled and her eyes widened.

“Don’t tell the man following where I’ve gone, and call management.” She had the sense to say this quietly.

The maid nodded, as Meghan closed the door as silently as she could. The thought occurred to the star that perhaps the maid had been in such situations before. As it was, by the time the guard from the foyer looked down the corridor the maid had opened the door on another, empty room. When the guard asked if she had seen anyone she shook her head and let him look in the room she had just opened. After he had left she opened the door to Meghan’s room.

“He has gone ma’am,” she said. Then she got the front desk on her own phone and handed it to Meghan.

 

As for Will after leaving Bella on Saturday and not knowing where to go he ended up at the airport thinking that he would catch the first flight South. When he arrived he found that there was a flight to New York with a connection to LA for which he only had to wait about half an hour. That would do. He was sitting in the departure lounge deleting voice messages from his now extensive network of reporter contacts who wanted to know what was going on with Clarise Chalmers – Will figured that it was now none of his business – when Hap called.

“Will, so sorry to hear about you and Clarise. You and actresses, huh.”

Will supposed Hap meant well. “I should’ve gone for the girl next door type like you said at our first meeting.”

“You should’ve but I’m sorta hoping now you’ll now be able to get to our premiere function.”

“Premiere? For Party Town Terror? When is this.”

“Monday evening.”

“Monday? What this Monday?”

“Yep, a last minute thing,” said Hap. “One of the good theatres had a cancellation and the guy in charge watched our movie. He saw we’re a few cuts above the usual slasher genre and gave us the slot.”

“Monday’s not exactly a prime day,” said Will.

“I know, but we’re new kids on the block. We’ve gotta take what we can get. We won’t be able to fill the theatre but a few of the website reviewers ‘ll be there and we can get some circulation for the promotional pics. Speaking of that now you’re single can you take Danni Devlin to this event?”

“You mean escort her, like a date? I’m going to swear off actresses – anyway, what happened to her mall billionaire, what was his name … Scranton?”

“He’s history,” said Hap. “Danni asked if you could.”

Will thought that he really did not want to go out but that film represented months of work, and what did it matter?

“Sure,” he said. “Say, you’ve got a big place. Can I crash there tonight?”

“Will, that’d be real cool,” said Hap enthusiastically. “I’ve got just the film for tonight. Shrine of the Vampire Strippers. It’s got a whole one star on Rotten Tomatoes.”

“Great, just what I need now a quality movie experience,” said Will.

 

 

To Meghan’s fury, the youthful hotel manager summoned from the desk along with someone from hotel security did not immediately throw Bo out of her suite. Instead, afraid of offending the singer who was still a major force in the entertainment industry, he looked for some compromise.

“I’m sure there’s some middle ground to agree on,” he said, standing in the suite’s living room. “Maybe if both parties take some time to cool down.”

“There isn’t any middle ground,” said Meghan, almost growling. She was still in her dressing gown. “And it’s not a question of cooling down. This is my suite. The producers I work for are paying for it. If I say Bo’s to leave then out he goes with his two goons. If he wants to take a suite elsewhere in the hotel that’s your problem.”

“We can offer you another suite, Mr Benjamin,” said the manager, hopefully. “If someone from your admin can arrange it…”

“She’s just hysterical,” said Bo. At least he had put on a tee shirt. “We’re engaged.”

“We’re NOT engaged,” snapped Meghan. “I never saw that stupid story about an engagement until a few minutes ago and I don’t know how or why Bo here thinks we got engaged but we’re not and never were. Now get him out of my hotel room! That is the end of the matter. I want you and the security person to stay here until Bo and his bodyguards leave, and make sure he takes that bottle of wine and those drugs of his with him.”

“Drugs!” said the manager, in alarm. “Mr Benjamin this is Canada, not America. Please remove your drugs from the hotel.”

“You bitch!” said Benjamin.

“Get fucked and get out!” snapped Meghan. “Bella go into my room and get me some clothes, jeans, underwear. I’ll change in your room. And some of that toast you were eating would be good. I’ll eat in the taxi.”

“I’ll ruin you!” snarled Benjamin.

“If he’s not completely gone by the time I come back this evening,” Meghan told the manager, ignoring Bo. “I’ll start complaining to your bosses and the producers.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Meghan then spent a lot of time on her phone. The first call was about apologising to the director Liam who, while still not happy particularly as Meghan was late for the rescheduled shooting, accepted the star’s repeated, heart-felt apologies and urged her to get to the set as soon as possible. Then she spent some time reassuring her mother that no, she was not engaged to anyone least of all Bo Benjamin whom she now heartily detested. No, she did not know where Will had got to and that was a real problem. She had to find him and make things right. Now she had to dash. “Love you but I’ve got a lot to do. I’ll call later.”

After that, in the taxi, she sent a group text to the friend who had left voice messages saying that she was definitely not engaged and never would be to Bo Benjamin who was a total slease. Then she called the Sidewalk Stars newsroom. On a Monday morning that consisted of one junior female reporter who initially thought Meghan had called to express her delight at the engagement. Dismayed to find that Meghan was killing the site’s prize scoop stone dead, she did not believe the star.

“You could be just a prankster. It’s such a good story and Benjamin was so enthusiastic about the hook up,” she said.

“Well I’m just as enthusiastic about telling you that it’s all crap, so why did you believe him and not believe me?”

“Well, I… it’s taken you this long to deny the story which seems odd,” said the reporter. “It’s been the talk of the town. Why has it taken so long?”

“Never mind that,” snapped Meghan, unwilling to say she’d been strung out on drugs for the whole weekend. “I only saw the story this morning and I was horrified. Let’s switch to a video call and you’ll see it’s me.”

Even with the video call the reporter was still reluctant to report just on Meghan’s say so that there was no engagement.

“Maybe if I call Mr Benjamin’s PR,” she said.

“You can call anyone you want but it takes two to make an engagement and if I say there isn’t one, then it doesn’t exist, and it never did. I want a story up now saying that there is no engagement, or I’ll really start complaining.”

“Okay, okay,” said the reporter. “I’ve just gotta talk to my editor.”

“Now!”

“Okay, Ms Chalmers.”

This resulted in the show’s editors also asking for a video call and got one of Meghan between takes, wrapped in a towel. The show had been hoping for an exclusive interview with the starry eyed fiancée about her life with the rock legend. Instead, it now looked as if they would have to settle for a bare-bones denial of the whole story and they were not happy.

“But Ms Chalmers,” said the woman editor, “why did it take so long to deny the story and if Bo Benjamin is not even your boyfriend is there anyone in your life right now?”

“Never mind that, and never mind why it’s taken me so long to deny anything. The engagement story is still wrong. There is nothing between us and after this there will never be. I demand that the story be retracted now.”

“We can put up something, sure,” said the editor, “but we also understand that Benjamin was in your hotel room in Toronto over the weekend.”

Meghan was still reluctant to say that she had spent the weekend high, mostly unwillingly, or that she had probably been roofied by something in the wine, not to mention almost certainly raped although she remembered very little about that part of it. Allegations like that would draw the attention of the police, who would want more details about the drug taking. It was also highly embarrassing.

“Well, yes, he was there and I spent part of this morning demanding that hotel management remove him.”

“Okay, so it’s a breakup, after a weekend affair.”

“There is no breakup, there is no affair. Just why I took a day or so to deny the engagement is none of your business. I’m telling you now there was no engagement and never was.”

 

Meghan’s strenuous denials of the story resulted in an item on the Sidewalk Stars site.

The engagement of the century between siren of the shower Clarise Chalmers and rock legend Bo Benjamin is already on the rocks, but the two sides of this dream hookup differ sharply on how they got there. Clarise has told Sidewalk Stars emphatically that there is no engagement and there never was any. Bo Benjamin says there was an engagement when an old affair rekindled as he visited the star in her hotel room in Toronto. But after a weekend of ecstasy in each other’s arms when they pledged their love for one another, Chalmers turned hostile.

The star admits that Benjamin was in her hotel room but says that there was no ecstasy, no love and no proposal, and she does not know why the rock legend thinks they were ever engaged. She declined to answer questions on why it had taken a day and a half to deny the story but says that she was “horrified” to find Benjamin in her hotel room on Monday and had to get hotel management to remove him.

There you have it you have it viewers, no need for the couple to book a reception room or buy a dream wedding dress just yet. As always Sidewalk Stars will keep you posted.

 

Meanwhile in LA Will was surprised to find that Danni was living at the Hollywood house of Connie Leighton. Having collected some of his belongings from Meghan’s house, along with his car (a base model Ford had replaced the Saturn at Meghan’s insistence) on the Monday Will drove from Hap’s place to Casa-Connie to find the mansion just as it was when he visited it all those months ago, but this time it was considerably livelier. While he waited in the entrance hall with its sweeping twin staircases he was aware of a hubbub and pulsing music in the main living room. He also saw a forlorn looking but pretty pre-teen girl with frizzy hair dressed in a grubby, cast-off tee shirt, jeans and tatty sneakers sitting on a chair, out of the way.

“Hello,” he said. He nodded towards the living room. “Not going to the party?”

She shook her head. “Adults, drugs,” she said.

“Good girl,” he said.

Then Danni called from the top of the staircases. She was dressed in a backless, low cut halter neck dress in a silver-chainmail-like material.

“Oh wow!” said Will. “Even Clarise would have trouble pulling off that effect.”

Will actually thought that Meghan’s figure was better than Danni’s and that she wore dresses with considerably more style – as opposed to in-your-face revealing - but was not about to say any of that. The porn star was pleased with what he did say.

“You like it,” she said, smiling and clutching a purse that matched the dress as she walked down the stairs.

“It’s distracting me from my troubles. And that means a lot just now.”

“You’re doing well with the compliments this evening, Will,” she said. “Shall we go?”

Will nodded and waved at the girl who gave him a wan smile in return and they walked out, Denni grasping Will’s arm.

“I didn’t know you knew Connie Leighton,” said Will. “If she’s here I should at least say hello.”

This surprised her. “You know Leighton?”

“Sure, I met her a few times organising that joint charity thing a while back. I’ve even been to this house before.”

“Right, I’d forgotten the charity thing. But I’ve never met her and she isn’t here; she’s touring someplace. I came here with another guy who also didn’t know Leighton but knew someone who knew her. You heard the party in the living room?”

“Oh yes.”

“That’s going on all the time, but I don’t think any of those guys know Leighton either,” said Denni. “For some reason, the singer doesn’t come back to clear out all these guests but she does pay for housekeeping to clean up every so often.”

“What happened to the guy you came with?”

“A singer who’s gone on tour. Won’t see him for a couple of months, if then. But I just stayed in the room after he left and no one said anything.”

“And no rent?”

“Not a cent, it’s been great. Should find something soon, but a room here will do for now.”

“It’s good to be so rich you can have a mansion in the prime area of LA with a house full of guests you’ve never met,” said Will. “How well does your channel pay?”

“Not well enough to buy mansions.”

They talked some more about the details of the porno business, Denni impressing Will with her grasp of the business side, then they got to the venue. This did not involve a full Hollywood-style arrival, which was just as well as Will’s Ford was not a stretch limousine, but it did involve Denni posing for photographs against a backdrop of scenes recalling the Hollywood glory days of the 40s and then arm in arm with Will in the theatre foyer. The mainly male audience lining up to get into the film was kept back by security as they ogled the porn star in her dress. As both Hap and Denni intended the resulting pictures went viral, giving the film a publicity boost.

Then they sat down to watch the Party Town Terror. There had been no budget for showing the finished product to test audiences as often occurs for major films. Instead, it came to the screen as Will, Hap and Evan intended, and the audience seemed to like it. They certainly raved about it afterwards at the launch party. Although Will had been in LA long enough to discount mere enthusiastic congratulations as something people always say, no matter what they might think of the film, underneath it all he detected genuine interest. The few critics that showed up – all from niche websites – asked Will questions that indicated they appreciated the result.

At one point Wilma, who had turned up with Buck to make up the numbers, pulled Will to one side.

“You remember you were going to provide words for my drawings,” she said.

“I haven’t forgotten,” said Will. It’s called “David Saves the World. I’ve done most of it. I just need to think about it some more and, well, you know I’ve hit a rough patch.”

“Poor Will,” said Wilma. “You’ll hate all women now.”

“Not all women,” said Will. “I’ll still think well of female illustrators.”

“That’s something to be thankful for,” said Wilma.

Otherwise, the evening went so well that by the time Will took Denni home, the porn star was hopeful for the future – a hope fuelled by having a little too much to drink.

“A good film, Will,” she said. “Some genuine tension and chills and thrills.”

“Yeah, well, I thought Evan might make a good director but he proved even better than I expected.”

“And don’t forget the scriptwriter and the effects,” Denni said.

“Oh them, but there was that really hot star who …” Will chose his words carefully, “…. Impressed the audience with her acting skills.”

Denni laughed. “You mean who got her top off?”

“That too.”

She laughed again. “It’s what I do, Will, but it is sweet of you not to say so. I don’t say this to many guys but you have class.”

“Oh right, I’m complimented back,” said Will.

They reached the house and Denni punched in a key code to open the gates. Will stopped at the front door.

“Park over there,” she said, indicating a row of cars in what seemed to be the house’s unofficial guest car park. Then she leant over and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m in a mood to spend time consoling you over the loss of Clarise. Park and come up to my room.”

Will did as he was told. After all, he thought, it hardly mattered.

 

Film review on niche website Hollywood Horrors –

With Party Town Terror, the core production team of director Evan Zagame, scriptwriter and assistant director Will Moreland and producer and special effects director Jason Hap shows just what can be done on a limited budget. Just as importantly for the guys, porn star Denni Devlin turns in a decent performance in her big screen debut which also includes getting her top off. There is something for everyone.

Below this favourable review was a picture of Will, smiling determinedly, arm in arm with Denni at the premier with the caption reading “hot new couple Will Moreland and Denni Devlin”, which Meghan read with disbelief when Bella showed it to her in a hotel room in New York. After two days of filming and Meghan denying stories of an engagement, they had moved to the Big Apple where the star was due to appear in a fashion show.

An urgent request to the series producers had resulted in a highly recommended, gigantic, bearded French-Canadian called Edouard joining the star’s entourage. Edouard looked truly ferocious but Meghan found him to be sweet. More importantly, as far as the star was concerned, he filled up the entrance hallway to Meghan’s Toronto suite nicely, keeping Benjamin and his goons away. All Bo had been able to do was ask a hotel employee to pass a note to Meghan, which he did while she was still in Toronto. The woman desk clerk handed this folded note on hotel stationery to Meghan on a silver platter saying, “sorry ma’am, Mr Benjamin insisted that I give this to you.”

“I understand,” said Meghan, sweetly. She then carefully ripped up the note and dropped it back on the platter. “Be sure to tell him I did not read the note.”

“Of course, ma’am,” said the clerk.

As well as being effective in keeping undesirables at bay, Edouard had also proved sufficiently considerate and discreet for Meghan to take him with her to New York – the security man had duel US-Canadian citizenship – where he was now filling up the entrance way to her new suite. Now she was looking at a picture of her boyfriend arm in arm with a porn star.

“We were a happy couple just last week,” she whispered. She found herself tearing up and dashed the tears away impatiently.

“He did find you naked with Benjamin,” said Bella.

“I know what happened!” snapped Meghan. “I just can’t believe it’s all fallen apart so fast. How did it come to this?”

The star realised she was wearing the pendant Will had given to her and recalled how he had said it would be good for ripping off her neck and throwing it at him when they had an argument. She took it off now but by carefully lifting it over her head and putting it in her pocket. Later she would wrap it up and put it in her luggage.

“Maybe it is for the best,” said Bella. “I mean someone of your stature can take their pick and not just a pool Himbo…”

“Will is no Himbo!” snapped Meghan. “What gave you that idea?”

“Emma said he swims and makes coffee.”

“He worked as a barista to pay his way at the University of Chicago,” said Meghan. “I bought a coffee machine for the kitchen at home so he can make my friends coffee. It was good fun. He’s also former national swimming team, as well as writer and assistant director, and he pulled me out of so much shit I’ve lost count. He told me once not to be hospitable to guys in my own hotel room as they’d get the wrong idea. I didn’t listen and look what happened. What I want to know is how long has it been going on with that Devlin girl?”

“You know her?”

“Met her once at an LA night spot. She’s got her own porn channel. She was talking to Will then.”

“I see – well, that’s not so good.” Bella did not know what else to say.

“No, it isn’t,” said Meghan, standing up. “What else is there this week?”

“There’s the fashion show. Friday’s free except for a producer meeting. They’re here in New York and want to talk to you about another film.”

“Cancel it. Call Stella’s office and tell her I’ll reschedule or do Zoom or something. Just not now. What else?”

“There’s a nightclub appearance thing at a hot new night club with Connie Leighton on Saturday night here in New York, as part of the Bad Diva brand. Difficult to get out of that.”

“Connie knows Will. I want to talk to her. But I want to go home straight after that if possible. Find out about flights. I’ll do a private jet if I have to. You can go home when you want but have Edouard go with me to the club and sit in the plane beside me. I don’t want to talk to anyone.”

“You don’t want me at the night club,” said Bella, hopefully.

“I don’t want anyone with me. Edouard knows not to say anything unless I speak to him. Now I’m going to my room. No interviews and I’m not to be disturbed.”

Meghan went to her bed and thought that she might lie there and sob for a while, like Emma.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

 

Will was called out of a pleasant dream where he was back with Meghan by Denni tapping him gently on the cheek and calling his name, as they lay naked together in bed.

“Wha… oh, right, sorry,” said Will. “Bad manners to fall asleep directly afterwards.”

“I didn’t mind Will,” said Denni, amused over Will’s apology. Most men would not have seen anything to apologise over. “You did well but I’ve got to get up early tomorrow. The premiere was a last minute thing and I have got other things to do.”

“Okay, sure. Will got up and put on the tuxedo he had come in but leaving the bow tie in a jacket pocket while Denni watched, a sheet wrapped around her. “Um, call tomorrow or later today maybe?”

“Sure Will,” she said.

“Dinner, maybe?”

“Sounds good, but I won’t know until later what’s happening. Talk then.”

On his way out and despite the long night Will thought he might look into the living room and see what the perpetual party was like. From the doorway and, as far as he could make out in the dim light, there were perhaps 30 people or so in the room. A few couples were dancing to the slowly pulsing music. A few had collapsed on or around a sofa.

One man in a bright green jumpsuit and a ton of gold bling was waving around a lava lamp plugged into a long electrical extension lead saying “look people, it glows, it moves, it transforms. It is a thing of beauty to behold. This lamp is worthy of worship!”

Another, portly gentleman in a suit of a cut and style that would have done credit to a senior private banker, except that it was bright pink topped by a pink bowler hat, was waving around a furled umbrella – a proper one with a curved handle – saying “hear, hear. Hear, hear good sir. But the umbrella remains the key. You can never go out without an umbrella as you may be rained on, even in California.”

Will was just thinking that the party was too way out even for him, when he noticed the child he had spoken to when he came to pick up Danni sitting to one side, her back to the wall. She was looking at him and still seemed to be mournful.

“Hello,” he said. “You’re still up – isn’t it way past your bedtime?”

“No one to tell me to go to bed,” said the girl. “I slept some before.”

“Okay, you’re not here with anyone?”

“I was, but he went out and hasn’t come back.”

“When did he go out?”

“Before noon, yesterday. He said he’d be back soon.” She sounded as if she was about to cry.

“A day and a half ago?’

She nodded.

“You’ve been waiting for him since then?”

She nodded again.

“What have you been doing, just sitting?”

“Mostly. I couldn’t find anything to eat in the kitchen and no snacks in here. I’d have liked to look at the television, but I can’t with the party.”

“Guess not,” said Will. “You haven’t told anyone that you’re alone here.”

By way of answer she waved at the umbrella guy and lava lamp guy, both still holding forth.

“Okay, I get it,” said Will. “But you haven’t eaten since, what, early yesterday?”

She nodded again, looking forlorn.

“I can help with that,” said Will. “I used to live around here and I’ve got the delivery places on speed dial. Lead the way to the kitchen.”

On the way, Will logged on to the delivery service. “Anything you want?”

“I don’t know what to get. I heard some kids talk about nuggets once. They sound good.”

“Coming right up, along with fries and soft drink.”

The kitchen proved to be spacious with an enormous central stone-top table where Will sat on wooden chairs with the girl.

“I’m Will by the way,” said the writer holding out his hand.

“I’m Pud-hole,” said the girl shaking it.

“Pothole?” said Will, thinking that he must have misheard.

“No, Pud-hole.”

“It’s an unusual name.”

“I was born on a commune where they talk a lot about loving nature and animals and all that. They name babies after the first thing anyone sees when the kid arrives. One kid got leaf, another got rain drop. I got Pud-hole because someone saw a Pud-hole.”

“Shouldn’t it be either puddle or pothole?”

“My mum says she asked about that and she was told that was doubting the commune’s laws, which is bad. I’ve been Pud-hole since.”

“Where is your mother now?”

“In jail. Police came to the commune and took her away. I was told she killed some people.”

“Oh wow, that is serious. How long ago was this?”

“Maybe two years.”

“And how old are you?”

“I think I’m ten.”

“You think?”

She shrugged. “I knew there was a world where kids got birthdays and went to proper schools. Sometimes we would see old movies or my mum sneaked me a book, but we didn’t get birthdays on the commune, or Christmas or anything else.”

Over nuggets and fries which Pud-hole ate with relish, William urging her to slow down in case her stomach reacted, more of the story came out. She had spent her whole life until a few days ago on this commune, a large farm a few hours’ drive north of LA. Pud-hole had received some schooling although her life had mainly been about farm chores. When her mother was taken away, life became worse. She was moved from the tiny hut she had shared with her mother into a communal bunk house and put to work minding the chickens and the cows, a job which she hated. The commune’s love of animals did not prevent it from selling the eggs laid by these chickens or milk produced by the cows, but in any dispute between humans and animals, the animals were obviously in the right.

“The cows were just hard work but if I got pecked by the chickens it was my fault for annoying the chickens,” said Pud-hole, indignantly. “I was always being pecked for taking their eggs, so I was always in trouble. Now I hate animals and I hate farms.”

Pleas to be taken to visit her mother or even write to her went unheeded and she never got any message from her. The problem was not so much that her mother had killed people but that she had confessed and co-operated with the police, or so Pud-hole was told. As that broke the laws of the commune Pud-hole’s mother had become a non-person and, by extension, Pud-hole had dropped to the bottom of the commune pecking order, below even the chickens it seemed. In the end, she had busted out by grabbing an opportunity when it presented itself. She saw one of the younger men sneak out to where the commune vehicles were garaged and, suspecting he was going to make a run for it, followed him out. She caught up with the man and begged to be taken with him. The man, Chris, had been one of the few to show any sympathy for her plight and hadn’t taken much convincing.

Chris then crashed a pick-up truck through the commune gates and Pud-hole was off the farm for the first time in her life. They passed neat houses and through towns with shopping centres and schools where kids were playing and she was entranced. Even going hungry for a time had not put her off the wide world outside the commune. She was all for it. Chris apparently knew a girl, a Sarah, who took them to this house. Pud-hole did not know Sarah’s connection to either Chris or the house

As for her family, she did not know who her father was. Her mother had never told her. Chris also did not know. Apart from her mother in jail, she had an uncle on the East Coast – New York, maybe – and a grandmother in a nursing home somewhere but had never met either of them.

“I really want to go and see my mother,” said Pud-hole and I want a different name – I hate Pud-hole – and I’m also sorta curious to know what happened to Chris.”

“That’s quite a back story,” said Will.

“Back story?”

“Sure, you’re in Beverley Hills, part of film industry central, and I’m a writer of a kind. I’ve even been involved in films and when a character comes into a film he or she has a back story saying who they are and how they happen to be there.”

“Films? Really, what films?” said Pud-hole, whose sketchy education had not extended to even basic American geography.

“Never mind that for now. Let’s concentrate on the name thing,” said Will. “As you’re about the only normal person I saw in the room back there why don’t I call you Normal until you decide what name you want and legally change it.”

“Can you do that?”

“Oh sure, but you have to go to a court I think. Or you can just start calling yourself the name you want. For now, let’s do Normal.”

“I don’t mind Normal,” said Normal.

“I guess you can come home with me if you want. I’m staying with a friend after a big breakup myself but I know he’s got spare rooms. He won’t care.”

“Your place sounds good but I still hope Chris might come back,” said Normal. “And I want to be here when he does.”

“If you’ve been alone all this time I guess a few more hours won’t matter. But if he hasn’t fronted by tomorrow evening I will insist. You shouldn’t be left alone. Come on, I can at least take you up to bed. Leave some of the nuggets for breakfast. Bring them with you”

Normal consented to being escorted up to the room she had been using. As it happened the room was next to Danni’s and Will thought he could hear whisperings and giggling. Maybe Danni’s talk of an early call had just been an excuse to get rid of him so she could play with others. Will decided that he did not care.

Normal’s room had a big double bed, a wardrobe and an ensuite but few personal belongings. The bed looked as if had been slept in once and there were some folded blankets with a pillow in one corner.

“The one night Chris was here he slept in the bed. I sleep over there,” said Normal pointing at the blankets.

“No clothes, no pee-jays?” said Will.

“I didn’t have time to get anything,” she said. “I didn’t have much to get anyway, but now all I got is what I got on.”

“I see. You should clean your teeth.”

“Don’t have toothbrush or toothpaste,” said Normal.

Will thought for a moment about knocking on Denni’s door and asking to borrow her toothbrush but then thought better of it.

“Well take off your sneakers, jeans and socks at least before you get into bed, and at least rinse your mouth out. A breakfast of sorts is there for when you get up. Looks like I’m coming back tomorrow. I’ll take you to someplace for lunch.”

“Thanks Will,” said Normal. “You’re the first person who’s done anything for me for so long.”

“You mean apart from Chris, I guess, but don’t mention it,” said Will.

On his way back home, Will thought that Normal had been given such a rough time she deserved some help and, in any case, he could use the distraction.

 

Will returned about midday. Danni had told him the gate key code so he went right in. A security service monitored the mansion, he discovered later, but did not bother anyone who knew the key code and were obviously just coming and going. Normal, sitting in her usual post out of the way in the main entrance hall, jumped up when Will arrived.

“Here you go,” said Will, handing her a day pack he had picked up at a shopping mall on the way. “Yours.”

“Thanks, Will,” said Normal, looking at the pack as if she had just been handed a diamond. “That’s really nice of you.”

“It was just a few bucks, like these tee shirts I picked up.” He handed them to her. They were both white. One had letters saying ‘Future President’ on it. Another had ‘Totally Awesome’. “They should be close enough to your size.”

“They’re new,” said Normal in an awed tone, looking at them. “They’re so … so clean and white. Thanks, Will.” Then to Will’s distress she started crying. He patted her awkwardly on the back. Crying young girls were not his scene. “I’ve never had any new clothes before,” she said between sobs.

“They were just a few bucks off the remainder table,” said Will, also tearing up.

“What’s a remainder table,” she sobbed. She hugged him around the waist then stepped back to rub her eyes. “Sorry,” she said. “Thank you.”

“Don’t be,” said Will. “The next item is way less fun.” He handed her a paper packet. “A kid’s toothbrush and toothpaste. Go use them and change the tee shirt. You’ll be way more presentable in public and we’ll go out to lunch. I’ll wait here.”

“But I wanted to wait for Chris. The takeaways yesterday were good.”

“I searched online for Chris and cult and I found someone who I think is your Chris,” said Will. “He’s in police custody. Would you believe he tried to kill the leader of your cult a couple of days ago?”

“Kill him? Really?”

“Yep. He tried to kill the Reverend Hallelujah Jones, head of The Church of the Natural God.”

“That’s them, that’s the people who run the farm.”

“A Chris Jenson confronted the Rev Jones outside the reverend’s Bel Air mansion wielding a kitchen knife, but before he could do anything much he was crash tackled by the reverend’s security detail and handed over to the police. He’s now on remand where we can visit him. Go up, change and use that toothbrush and toothpaste. Then put anything you want to take in that pack. After we visit Chris I’ll take you to my friend’s place. I’ll wait here.”

As Will waited in the entrance hall Denni came in.

“Will?” she said. “You were going to call.”

“Oh it’s okay, I’m here for someone else.”

“And who would that be?” she said, indignantly.

Normal appeared at the top of the stairs in the tee shirt that said ‘Future President’ pack slung over one shoulder.

“Her, in fact,” said Will gesturing at Normal. “I found her alone and hungry, hunting for something to eat in the perpetual party.”

“Oh right,” said Denni, her indignation vanishing. “I’ve seen you around,” she said to Normal. “That Tee shirt is better.”

“Will got it for me,” said Normal.

Explanations ensued.

“If you’re going to do the clothes thing, Will, some new jeans would look good,” said Denni. “Maybe new sneakers and take her to a hairdresser to clean up this.” She patted Normal’s frizzy hair.

“I can do that,” said Will. “Are we on for dinner tonight?”

Will fully expected Denni to say she couldn’t make dinner that night but she said yes and that Will could pick her up at seven. The writer was a little puzzled that he was not being put off but agreed like the gentleman he was and left with Normal.

“You and the Red Witch, eh?” said Normal.

“Red Witch?”

“My name for that lady,” said Normal, but would not say anything more about her.

Will took Normal to a Mall where they bought jeans, sneakers that did not look as if they had been subjected to a nuclear strike, underwear, socks, and two more tee shirts in different colors. After that came the hairdresser and when Normal emerged, Will thought that now she had shaken-off the street kid look and looked considerably more cheerful, his protégé had a certain charisma or star quality about her. Then they went to a late lunch at one of the restaurants around the entrance to the movie theatres. Normal was enthusiastic about all of it, including the simple joy of being able to choose from a menu, and was entranced by the big screen over the entrance to the theatres showing the trailers for the films now being played.

“Kids told me about places like this,” said Normal. “This is awesome. Can we go and see a movie? I’ve never done that at a theatre. I saw a couple on a screen at the farm, but never in any place like this.”

“Sure, I guess. Not right now, we’ve got to see Chris.”

The jail holding Chris Campbell was a formidable looking stone building painted white with a large tower and in the general style that Will thought of as West Coast civic. After the writer’s driver’s licence had been recorded they were led to a booth in which sat a good-looking, crew-cut young man – he could not have been more than eighteen – in prison clothes. Like Normal he seemed thin and drawn but was losing some of his pallor thanks to three meals a day in prison.

“Hey, Pud-hole,” said Chris, grinning. “I’m glad someone found you. Sorry I didn’t come back but well, I ended up here.”

Will and Normal explained how they happened to be there and that Pud-hole was now Normal

“You didn’t tell anyone about Normal?” said Will.

“I did,” said Chris, “but I never knew the address, apart from it being in Beverley Hills. All I knew was that it was a really big house.”

“Then how did you find it, and how did you find the reverend’s place?”

“Through Sarah. We met on the commune but her folks managed to get her out. She smuggled a note into me with a phone number saying she was in LA so I busted out, taking Pud-hole – Normal – here with me. Poor kid was being treated really badly.”

“I sure was,” said Normal.

“The girl knew about the house you stayed that one night?” said Will.

“Said it was a place to stay, then I wanted to confront the reverend and, well, shit got out of hand. Sarah ran away. I haven’t been out in the world since I was a kid so I hadn’t kept her phone number or the address of the place I had been at. The cops were not happy with me.”

“Guess not,” said Will.

“Now they’re talking about putting me in prison for years for attempted murder.”

“You didn’t get near the reverend, right? You didn’t hurt the man?”

Chris shook his head. “Didn’t touch him. Didn’t even mean to kill him.”

“Do you have any sort of police record – have you been spoken to by the police for any reason?”

“First time I was even in a police station was when they arrested me.”

“Then you can probably be plead down to a lesser charge. The cops won’t have much interest in you; just want to get you through the system. Tell you what, I’ll find a cheap lawyer – it’d be better than the court-appointed ones – and get him or her to negotiate with the district attorneys. My generosity does not extend to paying for a trial, or anything much beyond a plea deal. Plead guilty to the lesser charge, promise not to go anywhere near the reverend again, and you may be back again on the mean streets of LA soon. Do you have any family?”

“A mother in Oakland, last time I had contact with her.”

“I’ll ask the lawyer to find her.”

“Thanks, Will,” said Chris, looking relieved.

“Get yourself straightened out, forget about this Church of the Natural God thing and have a good life,” said Will. “Now we have to find Normal’s mother. Do you happen to know what prison she’s in?”

“I dunno the name of it,” said Chris, “but I know it’s near a town called Granite Resort, a long way from the commune. I heard the boss talking once and the town’s name stuck with me.”

“We’ll see what we can do with that,” said Will. “Take care, Chris.”

Finding a lawyer proved to be simpler than Will thought, as the breed tended to cluster around remand centres, and he asked one of the guards if he could recommend anyone. The recommendation produced a young, bustling man who seemed to know his business and had a banking machine for payments. Will paid him some money; warned the man that his generosity was limited and left him to it.

“We’ve done something for Chris,” he told Normal as they walked to the car. “Now we can get you settled in my friend’s place and find your mother.”

“Great!” she said. “Is there a television at this place?’

“No problem – with cable.”

As it happened, Hap had acquired a live-in girlfriend, a pleasant if not particularly motivated 20s-something called Moira who Will remembered as being an assistant make-up lady on the Party Town Terror set. Moira was delighted to keep Normal company as she watched Disney movies – this being a novel experience for the girl.

“Will, we’re getting some traction with Party Town,” said Hap. “The theatre says they’re selling tickets. Now a theatre in New York wants to use it for late night screenings.”

“Multi-outlet distribution across two states,” said Will. “Sounds good; sounds great. If we’ve got an extra one this early, we’re bound to get more.”

“That’s what I’m hoping,” said Hap. “I also sent that Jungle Kids idea you had around to a few places.”

Now fancying himself as a producer, Hap had asked Will for an idea or two and the writer had given him a treatment for a series about four children abruptly cut off from their parents on a remote planet who then have to survive in a jungle filled with terrifying animals and hazards while dodging aliens looking for them and trying to reunite with their parents. But Hap wanted other financiers involved to share the costs, and risks, involved in producing even a pilot episode for such a series.

“Any takers yet,” said Will.

“Nothing, but I’m hoping Party Town will give us some credibility. You going to watch a film tonight?”

“Sorry, gotta date, maybe later in the week.” Will had never said anything about Denni

“Already? You’ve been busted up for all of a week.”

“Just someone I know, don’t think much will come of it.”

 

An internet search showed that the Eastern California Women’s Prison was close to the town of Granite Resort and a call got through to an inmate liaison officer who knew Normal’s mother, Amelia Marchetti, and about her missing daughter.

“She has been driving us crazy about her daughter,” said the officer. “The police were unable to find her, although they went twice to that commune.”

“She says she was taken to a cellar twice and not allowed out for hours,” said Will. “Probably when the police visited.”

Visits were allowed on weekends but in the circumstances, a special visit could be arranged if only so that inmate Marchetti would shut up about her daughter. Will was given an address and a time in the afternoon of the next day.

“Normal, we’re doing a road trip to see your mum, tomorrow,” Will said, interrupting the second movie of the day. “Early start, bring your pack.”

“Will that’s great!” said Normal, hugging him “Thank you, thank you. You going to watch a movie with us?”

“Not tonight. Your Red Witch is calling me.”

“She’s not my Red Witch.”

Will thought he detected a note of disapproval and in the circumstances, even from a ten year old, he was not surprised. But Normal could be left to watch movies with Moira happily agreeing to feed her and get her into bed at an appropriate time while Will went off on his unapproved date.

Despite Normal’s disapproval and Will’s general reluctance to go anywhere, however, dinner went well with Denni proving good company. They went back to Connie Leighton’s place and got down to the serious business of coupling. Then as they lay in each other’s arms, Denni said “there’s something else I want to try, Will.” She got out of bed wrapped a towel around her and went to another room. A few seconds later, another man and a woman came in also in towels which they discarded and advanced on the bed.

This was not to Will’s taste at all but he thought that it hardly mattered and he might as well go along for the ride. He had not seen either person before. The woman seemed okay in a long, lank dark haired kind of way while the man, to whom Will paid little attention at first, was a proto-typical Californian surfer type with bleached-blonde hair and tattoos. The couple advanced on the bed then the woman got in beside Denni and the man advanced on Will.

Alarmed, Will kicked off the bed sheets that had been covering him, got both feet on the surfer’s chest and shoved hard. The man fell on the floor at the foot of the bed.

“Hey man, what’s your problem?” he asked, getting up and rubbing his chest.

“What’s yours?” said Will. “I’m not gay.”

Denni burst out laughing, while the other woman looked on, puzzled. “Hugo, I forgot to tell him.” Will stood up, naked, by the bed and stared at her, as did surfer Hugo while Denni continued to laugh. “That was so funny,” she said eventually.

That was enough for the writer, who now realised he didn’t want to be there or have anything further to do with Denni. He put on his shorts and tee shirt and grabbed the rest of his clothes thinking he would change downstairs.

“Hey, is this going to be a problem in any future films you guys do?” said Denni, realising what was happening.

“I’m not petty,” said Will. “Let’s pretend this never happened.” He paused at the door. “You guys have fun now.” Then he left.

 

 

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

 

Gaining access to Eastern California Women’s Prison on a non-visitors day was not easy. A guard at the gate tried to get rid of them and only allowed them through when he had confirmed Will and Normal had an appointment. Then a male guard who happened to come out of the reception area door as they were coming in also tried to warn them off, grunting when he was told they had an appointment with inmate liaison officer Rachel Novik, and gesturing at the reception desk. The civilian receptionist looked owlishly at Normal through thick glasses and said, “I know who you are”, then called officer Novik.

That officer proved to be a tall woman in her fifties who emphasised her height by wearing her hair in a bun. She shook Will’s hand and then exclaimed, “you’re the image of your mother” to Normal who beamed. The girl had been apprehensive on the long drive up, and the initial hostility had not helped.

Officer Novik took them down a corridor and into a room with a single window with bars set high on one wall where they sat on plastic chairs at a large table. Will suspected that it was a room set aside for lawyers to meet their clients. After a few minutes, the door opened and Normal’s mother, Amelia Marchetti, literally exploded into the room, shouting “Pud-hole”, giving Normal time only to exclaim “ma” before lifting her daughter of her feet in a monster bear hug in clear defiance of the signs saying, ‘no physical contact permitted’. A male guard who had come in with Marchetti moved to intervene but was waved away by the liaison officer.

Then Normal managed to choke out, “ma, too tight, you’re squeezing me”.

“Marchetti, that’s enough,” said Novik, “you’ll hurt your daughter”.

Amelia released Normal then put on the girl on her lap and mother and daughter alternately cried and babbled together for a time, Amelia repeatedly saying that she was “so sorry” about what had happened, and she had written to everyone she could think off and complained to the officers, and Normal exclaiming indignantly “I was hungry Ma and all I did was mind cows and chickens, and I was always in trouble and no-one cared”.

As Will’s phone had been taken off him at reception, all he could do during this crying session was to exchange a few words with Officer Novik.

“What house did you find her in?” asked Novik.

“It belongs to the singer Connie Leighton. The singer herself is on tour but she tolerates all sorts of people coming and going and I saw Normal – I call her that as she was the only normal person there – just sitting to one side waiting. Turned out the guy who helped her bust out of that commune had left her at the house and gone off to try to assassinate the head of the church that ran it and got caught, so he never came back.”

“Right, I read about that,” said Novik. “The item caught my eye thanks to Marchetti here driving me crazy over the commune.”

“Sorry about that,” said Normal’s mum, wiping her eyes.

Now that Will could see Amelia properly he realised that Normal was a copy of her mother.

“You got out with someone, baby?” said Amelia, smiling at Normal.

“Chris decided to drive out, Ma,” said Normal. “Busted through the gates in one of those farm trucks.”

“Chris?” said Amelia.

“Chris Campbell,” said Will.

“Oh right, Chris at the bakery. He was a nice young man.”

“He was the only one who helped me,” said Normal. “He gave me extra bread when I was really hungry. I got him to take me with him when he busted out.”

“That was really good of him,” said Amelia, “and thank you too,” she said to Will, “but who are you?”

Will told her that he was a writer on the fringes of the film industry who happened to find Normal in Connie Leighton’s house.

“Do you know the singer?” asked Amelia.

“Met her a few times. I helped organise a dinner dance benefit for a children’s hospital some months back.”

“That was with that rival of hers Clarise Chalmers. Do you know her as well?”

“I did Ms Chalmers’ PR for a time. That’s how I came to be involved in the charity event.”

“What’s she like, as a person?” asked Novik, while Amelia cuddled Normal. Even a prisoner reuniting with her daughter after two years did not stop the guards from showing interest in celebrity gossip. Will was told later that celebrity gossip helped pass the time in jail.

“Fierce. She fired me three times for not doing exactly what she said to do – well four times, counting the last time which stuck.” Will was not about to tell them he was a boyfriend who got dumped in the most painful of circumstances. “Now she’s gotten engaged to the singer Bo Benjamin, who I’ve also met and is a total arsehole, so I’m going to stay fired.”

“No longer engaged,” said Novik. “In fact, she denies there was any engagement. Got the singer thrown out of her hotel room.”

“Didn’t hear that,” said Will, puzzled. “Since I’ve left that job I haven’t paid much attention to the news. But to get back to the problem at hand what am I going to do with Normal here? I didn’t have the heart to just hand her over to family services as I should have done from the start.” Normal looked apprehensive at this. “Is there any family to leave her with?”

“No there isn’t,” said Amelia. “I have a brother in New York but I lost contact with Francis years ago and I don’t think you can leave a child with him. My mother is in a nursing home eating up savings from my time as an actress, but she doesn’t even remember who I am.”

“You were an actress?” asked Will, thinking that he never seemed to get away from actresses.

“Yep,” she said, holding Normal close. “I had a long running part in a soap and a few television shows, but my career was coming to an end then I got this bug about nature and ended up on the commune.”

“Okay, how did you end up here? I heard you killed someone.”

“It wasn’t me and it was an accident. Me and another man set fire to some logging equipment, as part of the anti-development thing. He said he’d checked there was no-one around and I kept watch while he set the fire, but there were two homeless people sleeping under the logging machine. I didn’t want to go with him after that and we had a real argument over it. The cops later caught him trying to set more fires and asked him about that incident and he got back at me by saying that I’d set the fire. He got three years I got twenty.”

“Oh wow, how much of that will you have to serve?” asked Will.

“Served two, maybe eight to go,” said Novik.

“Normal here will be well into dating and colleges by the time you get out,” said Will.

Amelia nodded.

“What about the father? Is he the firebug?”

“Not him. I had an affair with a married man on the commune. It didn’t last long and he left with his wife before I started to show. I never told him about Pud-hole.”

“Normal, Ma,” said Normal, still on her mother’s lap, rubbing tears out of her eyes. “I want to be known as Normal until I find a name I like. I hate Pud-hole.”

“Okay, baby,” said Amelia. “Your grandmother’s name is Louise. You could try that.”

“I’ll think,” said Normal, although it did not sound as if she much liked Louise.

“That brings me to another question,” said Will. “Does it really say Pud-hole on the birth certificate?”

“I don’t know if there is one,” said Amelia. “That was part of the problem I had with the police.”

“Yes, that was a problem,” said Novik.

“There was no record that Pud-hole, sorry Normal, ever existed,” said Amelia, “and the commune denied that anyone had ever been born on the farm, although there were other children.”

“No birth certificate!” said Will. “Oh wow, that’s interesting. Do you know where we can find Normal’s dad?”

 

Much later, after more tears and hugging and promises that Normal would write and visit when she could, Will and Normal were back on the road.

“Thanks, Will,” said the girl. “I really missed my mum.”

“No problem. Your mum really cared for you; thought she might squeeze you to death when she first saw you.”

Normal giggled; for the first time Will could remember. “Where are we going?”

“We won’t go back to LA tonight. Hap has a country place not far from here we can stay at.”

“What kind of place is it?”

“It has scenic water views,” said Will.

“Does it have a television?”

“Oh yes.”

That satisfied her until they stopped at the gas station and convenience store that was the main feature of the hamlet of Mystery Valley. Will bought frozen beef patties thinking that at least he knew how to fry meat, a salad kit and a packet of gravy that could be just put in the microwave. That would do for dinner. On a whim he gave Normal ten dollars and told her to buy sodas and maybe anything else that caught her fancy. As he put the groceries in the car Will saw Normal talking to the store clerk. When she came out, carrying the sodas, she carefully scanned the landscape around the convenience store. She continued to scan the sides of the road as they drove away.

“What were you talking to the store clerk about?” asked Will.

“I saw a story about Wolves coming back into the mountains on the board behind him,” said Normal.

Newspaper articles of local interest had been clipped out and pinned up on a board at the store. Will had not paid them much attention.

“Wolves?”

“He said that Wolves were coming back into these mountains.”

“Maybe, in small numbers,” said Will. “and I doubt that there are any around here.”

“He said that there were hundreds and that there had been attacks nearby.”

Will laughed. “He was teasing you.”

“I hate animals and I’m terrified of Wolves,” said Normal. “I had to wait up by the hen house at night sometimes to scare away foxes, and Wolves are giant foxes – that’s what he said.”

“I see,” said Will.

“Are there Wolves in Los Angeles?”

“Not wolves with fur and teeth,’ said Will. “Maybe of the two legged kind that hang out at bars.”

“So there are wolves.”

“Not of the kind you think.”

That did not satisfy her. She kept a careful eye out for lurking animals as they took their goods into the house, then kept peering out of the windows as Will set up the stove and refrigerator.

“Don’t think you’ll see any out there,” said Will. “They only come out at night, anyway.”

Later, after carefully inspecting the surrounding wasteland from the house’s windows and realising that there was not much cover for Wolves, Normal relaxed sufficiently to ask about the water views Will had mentioned. Will took her to the side veranda and pointed at the stream.

“We had a drainage ditch with more water at the farm,” she said, after looking at the stream.

“I said there were water views I didn’t say there was a lot of water,” said Will. “Come on, we’ve got time for a walk to stretch out legs before dinner. Let’s walk up to the top of that hill and see what’s there.”

“What happens if there are wolves?”

“Why do you think I’m getting you to come along? I can run faster than you so the wolves will stop to eat you. I’ll get away.”

Normal was sensible enough to know that she was being teased but still kept a careful eye on the tree line as they walked towards it.

“Can’t I stay with you?” she said after they had been walking for several minutes. “I mean you said you should have given me to child services, but I don’t know who they are.”

“That’s a part of the government that deals with kids like you. I dunno what the official name is in California but whatever the name they’d find you a good foster home – one without wolves.”

“You’ve been nice to me,” said Normal. “I’d prefer to stay with you.”

Will was touched. “I guess I’d like that to – something in my life - but I doubt that it’d be allowed. They’d want someone who has a girlfriend at least; preferably a wife and I don’t have either. All I’ve got to show in that department is a string of relationship disasters. I don’t have a job at the moment either, or even a place of my own and that wouldn’t look well to child services at all.”

“They have to give the okay?” asked Normal.

“A court has to approve but an okay from child services is vital. You can certainly stay with me for a time as the government doesn’t know about you. No birth certificate, remember? But that also means you can’t go to school or do anything much in your life.”

“Maybe if we find you a girlfriend and a job?” said Normal.

“I’ve been trying the girlfriend route for some time and nothing seems to work,” said Will.

When they returned Normal watched with interest as Will fried the patties and then mixed the salad.

“This is good, Will,” she said as she ate. “About your girlfriends; there was Red Witch...”

“Very brief.”

“Good as I don’t think I could have stuck with her,” said Normal. “Then there was Meg the stabber, Charlotte the cheater and Violet who ran away for a theatre job. I guess this is not a good track record, Will.”

“Great, I’m getting relationship advice from a ten year old.”

“Got to look closely at this area,” said Normal. “If I can get you a steady girlfriend, I can hang around. Say now that I’m finished where am I meant to take my plate?”

“I’m glad you asked that,” said Will.

A few minutes later Normal found herself at the kitchen sink washing dishes while Will looked on.

“Is this what happens in kitchens?” she asked.

“Cooking utensils have to be washed, so do plates. You never had to do washing up before?”

“Didn’t use plates much. Was given bread, mostly, and ate with my hands outside. Sometimes toasted, sometimes stale. Got different pastes on it. And I got these pills – vitamins I think.”

“Sounds grim,” said Will.

“It was horrible,” she said. “Can we watch a film after this?”

“In a few minutes. If I’m going to be cast in the role of dad, then I should check where you’re at with your schooling. Clear up the table once you’ve finished your dish washing labours. I’ll be back in a moment.”

When Will visited Meghan’s place he had put most of his personal library in the trunk of his car. He retrieved a book, flicked through it until he found the section he wanted then handed it to Normal.

“Read from the place I’ve marked.”

“I’ve never seen a book this big,” said Normal. Then she read, occasionally stumbling: “Throughout the South for fifty years there would be bitter-eyed women who looked backward, to dead times, to dead men, evoking memories that hurt and were futile… futile?”

“Means no use in doing it. Doesn’t help.”

“Okay… futile, bearing poverty with bitter pride because they had those memories. But Scarlett was never to look back.” Normal looked at the title page. “Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell.”

“That was very good reading,” said Will. “I’m impressed.”

“This Scarlett never looked back?”

“She was from a rich family but was on the losing side of a war and became poor – went hungry for a time. I thought of it because although her character isn’t a likeable one and doesn’t exactly have a happy end in the book, she’s a survivor. But also I thought that neither of us should look back. It doesn’t help.”

“Can I read this?” asked Normal.

“Oh, sure. It’s advanced for a ten year old but it can’t hurt to try. There’s also a very famous film which follows the book reasonably closely. Maybe to watch that first might help. Don’t think we’ve got access to it here. Let’s see what’s available.”

The next morning Normal got up, checked for wolves from her bedroom window, then made herself toast as she had been taught to do at Hap’s place spread with margarine and jam. She was happily adapting to life outside the commune. Will was working on something on his computer which he had set up on the kitchen table, and she read over his shoulder while munching on toast.

 

David saves the world

It was a bad day for David when the aliens invaded. He could see their black ships in the sky. Someone had to fight them, but his parents were out for the day. The babysitter was watching television. It was up to David.

 

“What’s this for?” asked Normal.

“A friend of mine has drawings she wants to put in a bedtime story book of kids playing at being spacemen and wants a story to go with the drawings. Don’t munch in my ear darling and put a plate under the toast so you don’t just leave crumbs on the floor.”

“Okay,” said Normal and got the plate. Then she read -

 

David had a spaceship in the garage but it needed more energy. His Dad had told him that batteries had energy. He found a small square battery on a bench in the garage and put it in his spaceship. Then he took off, firing at the Alien spaceships.

 

“Hey wait,” said Normal. “You can’t have the kid killing aliens. Mums would never read a story like that to their kids, and where’s the girl? You gotta have a girl as well.”

“Hmmm! I guess that’s right,” said Will. “What about David and Michelle save the world.”

“Better,” said Normal. Then she read as Will wrote.

 

David’s sister Michelle was already at the garage.

“You need someone who’s smart to fight aliens,” she said.

“I’m smart,” said David.

“I’m smarter,” said Michelle. “I’m almost as smart as mum.”

“No one is that smart,” said David.

They got in the spaceship, took off and flew at the aliens.

“Yair!” they cried. “Yair! Go away aliens!”

 

“Yair?” asked Normal.

“Well, what would kids say to scare away aliens?”

“Yair is good.”

“What are my ferocious aliens going to look like?” asked Will.

“Wolves?” said Normal.

Will wrote to the point of Michelle and David confronting the King Wolf, a ferocious beast with sharp teeth and fur, in the throne room on his home planet.

 

“We are so angry because we’re thirsty,” said King Wolf. “We don’t have anything to drink.”

Michelle got a drink box from her lunch and gave it to King Wolf. Who tasted it. Straight away he became less fierce.

“That is very good,” he said.

“Our mum gives us a drink box to take to school every day,” said David.

“Your mother is a very smart woman,” said the King Wolf. “Go in peace. We will not fight Earth any longer.”

 

“That’s good Will,” said Normal. “Kids and their mums might like that.”

“I’ll see if it suits. Time to pack up. Wash up the breakfast things, pack up your stuff and clean your teeth. We’ll hit the road. We may be able to see your dad on the way.”

“My dad?”

“Pretty sure it’s your dad. I’ve even made an appointment.”

 

Will and Normal were waiting outside the house for sale when Samuel P. Lewis, realtor drove up in an aging Ford. He was a large, broad-shouldered man running distinctly to middle-aged fat, but in his younger days his square jaw and soft brown eyes would have earned him a second look from a lot of women.

“Hello folks!” he said cheerfully. “Great day for buying a house.”

“Sure is,” said Will, shaking his hand. “This is Grace.” He gestured at Normal.

Mr Lewis hesitated when he saw Normal then shook her hand. “You sure do remind me of someone, young lady. But that was years ago. Let’s go in, shall we?”

The house was a small white-clapboard, two-bedroom affair with a flat iron roof and a large living room window overlooking the front garden and driveway.

“The price range you nominated doesn’t get you much, even in this area,” said Mr Lewis when they got to the living room, “but it’s comfortable enough.”

“I’m sure it is,” said Will. “But this meeting is not about buying the house. You were a member of the Church of the Natural God about a decade ago where you knew one Amelia Marchetti? This is Amelia’s daughter.”

“Hello dad,” said Normal.

“Oh my lord!” said Lewis.

 

A lot of explanation later and having gotten over the initial shock, Samuel P. Lewis proved to be quite pleased that he had a daughter.

“I had no idea you even existed until just now, young lady,” he said, as they sat around the kitchen table. “My wife had two children who now live with us, but I don’t have any of my own or at least I didn’t. It was really quite a brief thing with your mother which she ended. A few others left about the same time as my wife and I, and she never said who your dad was until yesterday?”

Normal shook her head.

“You’ve had a tough time; I’m real sorry about that. I’ll do what I can to make it up to you, but I can’t take you. My business is in the pits just now and I’m dependent on my wife financially. She has money. The moment I take you home, looking so like your mother, I’ll be taken straight to the divorce courts. Are there any other options?”

“Just me, it seems,” said Will, “and I don’t think I’d be allowed. I just got dumped hard, like I always do, and I’m between writing jobs. The decision can be put off for a time, however, as Normal here doesn’t have a birth certificate.”

“Oh right,” said Lewis. “The Church was nutty about acknowledging any laws other than their own when I was on the farm.”

“I’ll leave you with my number and take yours,” said Will. “You can always just explain the calls by saying I have an interest in real estate in the area.”

Lewis nodded. “Don’t suppose you want to buy the house?”

“Sorry, although it seems nice. Not sure where I’m going just yet.”

Lewis gave Normal a self-conscious hug and waved them off.

“Now you have two parents,” said Will on the drive back, “even if neither can do much for you.”

“Better than what I had before,” said Normal, cheerfully. “Where are we going now?”

“Back to Hap’s. He wants to watch bad slasher movies with me. I’m sure Moira won’t mind watching a couple of kid’s movies with you.”

“You don’t want me to watch those bad movies?” asked Normal.

“I’m the dad here and I say those movies are definitely not suitable for young ladies. Kids movies for you.”

As it happened when they returned to Hap’s place, the multi-millionaire was enthusiastic over the increasing attention which Party Town Terror seemed to be getting.

“Two more screens in New York and one of those is for an evening showing,” said Hap. “Plus another here in LA and one in San Diego. The comic con crowd have heard about it.”

“That’s good,” said Will. “You might even make some of your money back.”

“Maybe,” said Hap. “I’m hopeful. In the meantime, it’s generated enough credibility for me to get a call over that Jungle Kids thing by some producers who want to fill a gap left by some show that dropped out. We can do the pilot on a back lot with computer graphics, but I need you to go and pitch the show to these guys.”

“Me?”

“It’s your idea. You’ve done the treatment you’ve got the characters sketched out and you’ve got a script.”

“Half a script. I’d better start work on fleshing it out. You’re not presenting with me?”

“Got software development business to attend to – business where I don’t lose money,” said Hap. “Just do the pitch; try not to mess up.”

“You getting Evan to direct?”

“He’s already on board. If we get it, the time frame is crazy. We gotta grab whoever’s around.”

“If that’s the case, then Normal come here a sec.” Normal, who had been talking to Moira, came and looked up questioningly at Will. “Why not test Normal here for the part of Dana, the smart, tough one who knows about animals and the jungle?”

“But I hate animals and I don’t know anything about them or about jungles,” protested Normal.

“The animals will be just production guys wearing tags for the computer images. You won’t have to go anywhere near animals and you just read your wise words off a script.”

“Sounds better,” said Normal.

“Your mum was an actress remember?” said Will. “She was in soaps. You might have something. Just test anyway,” he said to Hap. “Evan should have the say on this.”

“Sure, whatever,” said Hap. “Evan is coming over tomorrow. You want to try a screen test young lady?”

“Doesn’t sound so bad,” said Normal, shrugging her shoulders.

 

Will was deep in his script work when Connie Leighton of all people called him.

“Connie, this is an honor,” said Will. “What can I do for you?”

“You remember my brother, Ty – he said you found him someplace along with Meg.”

“I remember very well.”

“He’s gone missing again and my mum is worried. I’m well out of LA now, can you look in the same place?”

“Oh sure, I think I remember where that house was.”

“Thanks, Will. I’ve always figured Ty just has to find his own way, but my mum wants to get him into rehab. I’m not hopeful but if you find him could you pass on the request? I can get a spot for him no problems.”

“I can do that,” said Will, “but my understanding of these things is that if he doesn’t want to go to rehab then there’s no point in forcing him.”

“That’s my understanding of it too, Will,” said Connie. “Just try. If he says no it’s his choice, but it gets my mother off my back. Now, what is all this about Meg getting engaged? I thought you two were an item.”

An hour later, Will thumbed the call button on the front gate intercom for the drug house where he had met Ty.

“No walk-ins,” said a voice before Will had a chance to say anything. “Cars only with the gate key number.”

“I’m here to pick up Ty Leighton,” said Will. “His family are concerned about him and I’ve got some money to pay what he owes. But if you don’t let me in to get him I’ve got to try other means and that might involve talking to the cops and I don’t want to do that. Let me in, I pay what he owes and we both walk away.”

Whoever was on the other end of the intercom did not reply for several seconds, then Will heard the street gate click.

“Walk straight to the front door,” the intercom said.

The bearded man with hot, black eyes was in his usual spot by the door. Will nodded at him; the man sneered. Evil Buddha was in the living room and, if he remembered Will from the party, made no mention of it.

“Seven hundred dollars,” he snarled.

“I don’t see Ty. Let’s see him and then I hand over the money.”

This statement earned him another sneer, then Evil Buddha jerked a thumb at an open door at the far end of the room. As on his first visit, Will heard the faint murmur of voices from that darkened room. He walked in and became aware of people, men and women, lying on couches and beds scattered through the room – perhaps a dining room with the table and chairs taken out. A few were talking quietly with their neighbours but most were silent. A single attendant, a whippet-like male with blonde hair, sat on a chair at the other end of the room. He wore a breathing mask that filtered the air and a stethoscope. A monitoring instrument of some sort was on the table next to him. Will suddenly just wanted to find Ty and get away from that house as soon as possible.

“Ty?” said Will, uncertainly. The murmuring stopped. The attendant paid no attention to him. Will switched on the flashlight attachment on his phone and scanned a few of the couches, to find Connie’s brother in a far corner.

“Come on,” said Will lifting him up. Close up Ty smelt.

“Wha…” said Ty.

“Connie’s been hassling me about you; said she’d get her bodyguards to beat me up if I didn’t get you.”

That was nonsense, of course, but Will was trying to kid Ty into coming and he was sure the singer wouldn’t mind.

Ty smiled. “Tough kid. Say you were with Meghan that time.”

“That’s me. Come on.”

He grabbed the still high Ty around the waist and half lifted, half marched him out to reception, counted out the hundred dollar notes he had taken from a bank machine just before coming to the house then hurried past the ferocious doorman, out to his car.

By the time they got to Hap’s place Ty had come down from his high sufficiently to ask, “how much do I owe you, man?”

“I’m Will and it’s Connie who owes me. She got me to get you out of there. Pay her.”

“Okay, and thanks.”

“She also said to tell you once and only once, that the rehab option is open – she said to ask just to get your mum off her back.”

“Yeah, well that option’s been open for a while, I guess,” said Ty. “But I couldn’t face them.”

“You don’t have to face them,” said Will. “I’m sure it can be arranged so that you go straight in and don’t speak to either of them.”

They walked through to the kitchen while Ty thought about it.

“Thanks man, but I’ll still pass,” he said finally.

“Whatever. I’ve got a griller here I can make something. Get food into you and then Connie might not have me beat up.”

“Sure Will, something grilled if it keeps you healthy.”

Normal walked in. She was wearing Moira’s cast-offs as pee-jays.

“Hello,” said Ty.

“Hi.”

“You should be in bed,” said Will.

“Got thirsty. Thought I’d get some of that bottled water Moira’s got. She said I could.”

“Oh sure,” said Will.

“Nice kid,” said Ty after Normal had gone. “Yours?”

Will told Ty about how he had found Normal at Connie’s house and about her history. The next morning when he got up he found Ty deep in conversation with Normal and heard them laughing.

Later that morning Ty said, “if I agree to rehab I don’t have to speak to Connie or my mum?”

“I’m sure I can arrange to have a driver take you straight there, no questions asked.”

Ty sighed. “Talking to Normal made me think I should try. She’s quite a kid – a survivor.”

“She is,” said Will.

“Can you call Connie’s people and get them to set it up for me?”

 

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

 

Meghan’s stretch limousine passed long lines of hopefuls waiting to get into the new nightclub, The Stellar, uptown from the Marquee and downtown from the Lavo and Paradise. The owners wanted to make a splash and what better way than to spend money to get the entertainment industry bad girls Connie Leighton and Clarise Chalmers together.

Meghan certainly did not feel like smiling but she was a professional and able to put on a game face at command. She made the big Hollywood entrance and smiled her way through a row of fans behind a rope who had been waiting for hours to exchange a few words or take a selfie with the big star. Edouard followed close behind watching the crowd carefully. Then it was into the club with its endless thumping music and a few words with the owner who declared himself delighted that the star could come. Meghan smiled as best she could. Then she saw Connie. As it was before the dancing started, they could still talk over the music.

“You’ve been keeping the Bad Diva brand in the news,” said Connie. “And you dumped Will.”

“I didn’t dump Will.”

“He says you did.”

“What? You’ve spoken to him?”

“Sure, I called him to see if he could get Ty from that drug house you guys found him in. He said he walked in on you naked with Bo Benjamin.”

Meghan nodded and told her what had happened.

“Oh man, you got roofied and stabbed Will?” said Connie. “That explains a lot. Didn’t think you’d go for Bo.”

“Soon as I got clear headed I had Bo thrown out of my suite, and I’ve been doing damage control ever since. Now Will’s gone off with that red-haired porn star.”

“That’s over. I asked him about that and he said he was upset about being dumped with just a text and she offered. Considering what’s happened and if you want him back you can overlook some red-haired action.”

“But I didn’t dump him. I didn’t text him.”

“I didn’t think you’d do it like that but he sent me the text,” said Connie.

“I never sent him any text.”

Connie got out her phone, tapped it a few times then gave it to Meghan who read the text.

“But I never sent this,” said Meghan, after reading it. “I was out of it for the whole weekend and the number I have for him doesn’t work. I’ve tried calling him but I just get number no longer in service.”

“Get my man, Colby here to have a look at it.” Connie laid a proprietorial hand on the man who had been standing next to her eying the crowd.

“Never can get used to these clubs,” said Colby. Meghan noted that he was tall and good looking. “Let me look at the phones.”

“I liked your nerd so I got one of my own,” said Connie, smiling. “Like you and Will, I can push him around and he doesn’t care.”

“The problem is that the number you have is different to the one in Connie’s phone,” Colby said.

“Really?” said Meghan. “But I haven’t changed it.”

“It’s always been the same number since the hospital benefit,” said Connie.

“Can you change it please?”

“No problem,” said Colby. He tapped Meghan’s phone a few more times. “You know Will’s number is listed in your calls on Monday.”

“But Will didn’t call me.”

“Now I see. You missed it because the number is blocked.”

“What? I haven’t blocked anyone. I don’t know how to block them.”

“Will also said your new assistant – Bella, was it? – found him at the police station and told him you’d decided he was out,” added Connie.

“She never told me she saw Will,” said Meghan, then realisation hit her. “Bella’s done all this. She sent the text, blocked Will’s number and changed it in the list. That’s why I haven’t been able to contact him.”

“That makes sense,” said Connie, “but why would she do that? What has she got against Will?”

“Oh, she has a mad idea that part of being an assistant is finding a good match for me and thinks Will is a himbo – a bunch of muscles who makes coffee.”

“He’s sure got the muscles from what I understand,” said Connie, “but he ain’t no himbo.”

“I know Will,” said Colby. “I would have said smartest guy in the room.”

“What I don’t understand,” said Meghan, “is why did Bo make up that crap about being engaged. I mean, I was out of it but I’m sure I wasn’t asked and what did he need me for? I’m certain he doesn’t care for me and he’d have groupies all over him.”

“Maybe because he’s on the way out,” said Connie. “Heard it from one of the managers. He’s still one of the majors but he was having trouble filling the stadiums in Australia. Now they’re booking smaller venues for him. It’ll happen to me sooner or later, I hope later. But it’s happening to him now and he knows it. In a couple of years, he’ll be on nostalgia tours playing to older audiences at the larger clubs. It’ll be all over and he hasn’t kept his money. Maybe he thought a big time marriage to you would keep the media attention on him, keep him on top that bit longer. You didn’t need him at all. He needed you.”

Meghan thought about that for a few moments, feeling more hopeful than she had done for days. Maybe she could get back with Will, and she was grateful to Connie for the help.

“You know I broke up with Ty over drugs.”

“I worked that out later, but you could have told me at the time,” the singer said.

“He begged me not to, said he’d clean up.”

“That boyfriend in college you said I stole he came onto me and I didn’t know you were dating him.”

“I realised that afterwards,” said Meghan. “Other girlfriends said he tried them.”

“And I won that prom queen contest fair and square,” said Connie. “Those things are a popularity contest as much as anything and back then you were a hard arse.”

“Yeah, well, I guess, sorry about that,” said Meghan.

“You ladies have quite a history,” said Colby.

“It’s all over between red-haired and Will?” asked Meghan.

“She’s onto several others, so my spies in that house tell me,” said Connie. “It’s a useful source of gossip, but when I get back to LA it’ll be time to clear it all out and have the engagement party.”

“Engagement?’

“Sure, me and Colby. He popped the question.”

“Congratulations!” said Meghan and meant it. “I hope you two will be very happy.”

“I told Will,” said Connie, “and he said I wasn’t gaining a husband but losing a hit breakup song.”

Meghan smiled.

“The way the music industry is,” said Connie, “the hit was real tempting, but I’ll keep Colby.”

“Worth more than a hit, I guess I can live with that,” said Colby, grinning.

“Oh yeah, and Will got Ty to go into rehab,” said Connie.

“That’s great! Your family has been trying to get him to go for a while I’m told,” said Meghan.

“Only it wasn’t Will it was someone called Normal – a cult survivor.”

“Normal? What sort of name is that and who is this person?”

“I dunno,” said Connie. “In all the excitement I forgot to ask details. He said he found her hungry in my house waiting for someone else.”

“Her?”

“Don’t think it’s anything like that but, like I said, I didn’t ask. When you speak to Will and it all checks out you face some competition, my mother wants to marry him. Come on, let’s do our jobs and work the room.”

Later in the limousine on the way to the airport, Meghan closed the partition between herself and Edouard and the local driver, who were discussing ice hockey, and called Bella. It was very late but her assistant was out on the town and apparently enjoying herself.

“Bella can you step away from the crowd, there’s a few things to discuss,” said Meghan. She was quiet and calm, but there was a note in her voice that caught Bella’s attention.

“Yes, boss,” she said, excusing herself and stepping outside the bar she had been in.

“I was just talking to Connie Leighton at The Stellar.”

“Right, how was it?”

“Good. Connie said she’d spoken to Will a couple of days ago about something else, and Will said he’d got a text from me dumping him.”

Bella was silent for a moment, then said “oh yes”.

“A friend of hers looked at my phone and found that Will’s number had been changed in the contact list and his right number had been blocked. There is only one person who could have done all that. You must have worked out my pass code.”

“Well, yes, I thought that I should…”

“I’m also told you saw Will at the police station and you told him I’d said it was over.”

“You sorta did say that.”

“I was out of my mind on drugs for heaven’s sake, and that total slease Benjamin kept me strung out the whole weekend. You didn’t realise that something was wrong?”

“You just seemed happy, and Bo Benjamin is such an idol it seemed like a good fit.”

“He’s a slease, who was hoping a hook up with me might keep his career from sliding down hill. Connie said he’s on the way out.”

“He’s still such a legend and I only worked out that Will had been there on the Sunday when I asked about two bags in the entrance hall.”

“You didn’t see what happened? I thought you did.”

“No, I went out for coffee as I thought it would be better if you were alone with Bo. I was just told the bodyguards had grabbed someone who got into the room and thought it was an intruder. Then after realising the bags didn’t belong to anyone I searched them and found that ring – quite a sweet ring I thought.”

“Ring!? What ring?”

“There was a ring case in Will’s shoulder bag with a ring in it.” Bella had not remembered the ring until she talked about searching the bags and the reference had just slipped out. She also had not fully realised just how serious Meghan was about Will until that moment. She added lamely. “I don’t know why it was there.”

“Go on,” said Meghan, an edge to her voice. “Then what happened?”

“I went down to the police station and vouched for him to the police, then told him you’d moved on.”

“What did he say?”

“He said he’d heard you gotten engaged at the hospital and was sorry he couldn’t make you happy.”

“Oh my god!” said Meghan, putting her free hand to her face. “What a disaster. Then you sent that text and changed the numbers?”

“Well, yes, I thought it was for the best. I thought that you wouldn’t want your new relationship with Bo Benjamin spoiled by old boyfriends trying to contact you.” In fact, Bella had changed the numbers to save her job but she was not about to admit that.

“Really?” said Meghan. “What made you think you had the right to mess with my love life? I hired you as my assistant not as my mother, and for the record my mother adores Will.”

“I was trying to help and, well, he did catch you with Benjamin.”

“I know what I did and I know I messed up, big time, but let’s get one piece of business over with first. In England if someone loses their job they say they’ve been sacked, or they’ve been given the sack don’t they?”

“Now wait..” said Bella.

“Well guess what this is America,” Meghan shouted into the phone, “and you’re fired! You come near me or mine again and I’ll ram half a dozen lawyers up your scrawny rear end!” She hung up and flung the phone on the seat beside her. After a moment’s thought she picked it up and blocked Bella’s number as now she knew how to do it.

Edouard rang on the intercom. “Everything all right, ma’am?”

“Just taking care of business, Edouard. Everything is fine.”

Then she rang Emma. As LA was three hours behind New York her other assistant was still up.

“How are you feeling now?”

“I’m okay, I’ve stopped crying,” said Emma. “I can work. Josh was trash and I’m better off without him.”

“Atta girl!” said Meghan. “’Cause I need you to be my assistant this week, or until Mia comes back.”

“Okay, um, what’s happened to Bella?”

“I just fired her arse!”

“Really? Like the way you use to fire Will…”

“No as in go now and change the security passcode on the house as I think that was all she had access to. And remember to send me the new access code so I can get into my own house. I’m on my way back now.”

“Okay, um, about you and Will, what’s happening there?”

Meghan told her what she had found out.

“Oh wow!” said Emma. “That’s why the engagement announcement which I didn’t believe.”

“The trouble was that Bella didn’t know me so she didn’t deny it or get help and Will handles my publicity as you know and he was in hospital and a police station – after I’d helped stab him.”

“Poor Will,” said Emma.

“Poor me, too,” said Meghan.

“Sure, poor you, but you can’t blame Will for what happened and afterwards he thought he’d been dumped. Do you think there’s a chance for you guys?”

“I have to find him and either beg for forgiveness and for him to come back, or I’ll kill him.”

“Oh okay,” said Emma, then asked tentatively “do you know which way you’re leaning? As your assistant, I need to know as you might want a lawyer, or maybe a weapon. I’m not sure I can get a gun.”

“No guns for now,” said Meghan. “I may yet be begging, but it’s a thought. Is there anything happening on Monday?”

“I’ll have to check but a film financier backing that Moon Shadow project you’re starting next week has asked for a meeting. It came through on the business line just today. The problems in Vancouver have caused them concerns and want to ask you directly what happened. As shooting is about to start they’re asking if it can be Monday.”

“How embarrassing, oh all right! First thing Monday and then we find Will.”

“Okay.”

After hanging up from Emma, Meghan looked in a side pocket of the bag she had with her, found the locket Will had given her and put it around her neck.

 

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

 

 

On Monday morning Meghan was being driven along Hollywood Boulevard in her BMW, Emma by her side, George and Noah in the front seats. Maybe it was time to get a stretch limousine, she thought, as even the spacious BMW was becoming crowded. But the garage at her house was too small for such a car, and was she really going to move simply because she needed a stretch limo?

That was something she would have discussed with Will. Then it occurred to her that she had first met Will in a bar close to where they now were, and she was grateful for the sunglasses she wore as they hid the fact that her eyes were wet. She was also glad that Emma was on the phone busy sorting out her engagements with Stella Buckingham’s office and the modelling agency she also used. Emma’s scarifying boyfriend experience had made her both quieter and perhaps more serious about her job. She had been paying the bills with the account she and Mia had access to, she told the star. More importantly, as far as Meghan was concerned, Will also had access to that account but had not touched a dime. He had been back to the house, however, while Emma had been out and taken away some of his stuff, and that was a real concern.

She had to find Will but had put off making that vital call on the Sunday. She had arrived home only on Sunday morning, after lengthy delays at the airport and on the roads, too tired to do anything but crash for a few hours. Then she put off the call partly out of dread over what might happen.

“Here we are Meghan,” said George. He was now the star’s full time security guy and, like all others in her entourage, now called her by her proper first name. “We’ll get out and Noah will find parking elsewhere.”

She nodded and stepped out not waiting for George to open the door, to audible gasps from passers-by who hurriedly reached for their phones. The financier’s office was one flight up where the receptionist started gushing the moment she saw the star.

“Oh Ms Chalmers, what an honour it is to meet you. We’re delighted you could come.”

“Eh, delighted,” muttered Meghan, sunglasses still on, and did her best to smile.

One of the senior executives appeared almost immediately at the mention of the star’s name and also gushed about it being an honour.

“Not at all,” said Meghan automatically.

“Mr Babbage, you still have your original nine thirty appointment,” said the receptionist. “They just came in. I’ve put them in the smaller conference room and told them you’ll be a while now.”

“That’s fine, that producer guy Hap told me not to get him started on his theories about Star Wars and he’ll be fine.”

The fog that had settled over Meghan’s mind suddenly cleared. “Wait, theories about Star Wars?” she said. “Is that other person Will Moreland by any chance?”

“Why yes, Ms Chalmers, but your appointment was the more important, of course, so we…”

“Where is this smaller conference room?”

“Just down the corridor there,” said the receptionist pointing, “but you’re in the larger conference room this…”

Meghan, who did not care where the larger conference room was, kicked off her high heels and ran down the corridor much to the astonishment of the receptionist and Babbage. Emma scampered after her bleating “Meghan, honey, maybe I should go first and see how things are.”

After a moment’s hesitation George picked up the shoes and followed, saying “I’ll be back to explain” over his shoulder.

Meghan saw Will and what appeared to her to be a young girl in this small conference room – a normal work conference room with full length windows on the corridor side – and charged through the door. Normal saw her coming and jumped out of the way saying “whoa!”

Will also jumped up to meet the onrushing Meghan torrent and was backed up against the wall a finger pointed at his face.

“You,” said Meghan. “How long was it going on between you and Red and who is this Normal person?”

“It was all very short with Denni,” said Will, “just a couple of days after you stabbed and dumped me.”

“You’re Meg the stabber?” said Normal. “Far out! You’re famous!”

“And who is she?” demanded Meghan flinging her other arm out to point at Normal.

Emma and George had also arrived at the meeting room to stand uncertainly just inside the door.

“That is Normal,” said Will. “Say hello Normal.”

Normal waved and gave her best cheesy grin. “Hi!”

“I found her hungry and totally alone at Connie’s place.”

“Oh!” said Meghan looking at Normal, then back at Will. “There’s no one else?”

“Normal here said she’d look for girlfriends for me but hasn’t started yet.”

Normal nodded confirmation.

“We need to talk,” said Meghan. “Sit!” she pointed at a nearby small leather sofa.

“If this is about the formal exit interview and how I’ll find some nice girl to be happy with can’t we take it as read,” said Will. “I could do without an exit interview.”

“It’s not over Will Moreland!” Meghan said. “It was never over!”

“It’s not? But I thought…”

“Let me explain,” she said. “Sit!” She pointed at the sofa again.

“Oh okay,” said Will hesitantly. “Hi guys,” he said to George and Emma who said ‘hey’ back. “Maybe you could take Normal here out and wait down the corridor. You can swap life stories and, Emma, can you keep an ambulance on speed dial.”

“Ambulance on call. You’ve got it, Will.”

Will and Meghan sat on the sofa. Meghan finally took off her sunglasses.

“I love you I want you back,” said Meghan. “There I said it.”

“But what about me finding you with Benjamin?”

“That was a mistake..”

“A mistake!” snapped Will.

“I mean the mistake was taking the drugs he offered,” said Meghan almost sobbing. “I wouldn’t have done anything without that. I didn’t want him at any time.”

“Drugs?” said Will, eyeing Meghan narrowly, then he picked the star up and swung her over to his lap.

“I got a confused call from Connie on Saturday night,” he said. “She also talked about drugs but she was so high or drunk or whatever I didn’t get what she said. Let’s hear what happened from the beginning.”

“To recap,” said Will after the explanations, “despite being a world-famous movie star you made the classic chic mistake of being hospitable to a guy expecting him to behave himself after I warned you not to do that. As a result you got drugged, roofied and, well, raped.”

Looking sheepish, Megan nodded.

“There was no betrayal on your part, just a huge mistake,” said Will, “or maybe an ordinary mistake which had all these horrible consequences, which we must make sure is not repeated. Let’s look at increasing your entourage and adopting procedures about letting in guys. There are a lot of wolves out there and you shouldn’t accept drugs or drinks from them while alone in your dressing gown. You also shouldn’t have gone there without your own security guy. That other guy you had in should have been there from the start and kept Benjamin’s bodyguards out of the suite.”

She nodded. “Fair enough.”

“And I have an apology - I’m sorry I didn’t realise it at the time and gone back to the hotel or called the police.”

“Bella was the huge mistake. I really messed up there as well.”

“Judging people just on an interview is impossible. You weren’t to know that she’d get these strange ideas or that those ideas would have horrible results, or that she’d try to cover up her mistakes. Only have people you’ve known for a while as assistants. In other words, the mistake is maybe not to leave hiring decisions to the last minute.”

Meghan nodded. “Okay.”

“More importantly this is all horrible. We should get Benjamin arrested for rape.”

“I don’t remember much about it,” said Meghan. “I only remember you coming in, in a haze, and at the time I thought the whole thing hilarious. Will I’m so sorry, I would never have done anything voluntarily. You didn’t see anything was wrong?”

“I didn’t see your eyes which would have been the give-away, then I got jumped by the bodyguards and knocked out – are we going to the police?.”

“Mother told me to do that but she even checked it out with lawyers and there might be problems in proving anything. No one at the time realised that I was drugged up and we don’t have the drugs or the wine for testing. Anyway, it’s really embarrassing.”

“Reasonable doubt I suppose,” said Will. “What we can do if you want, is to give the world a big hint about what really happened by taking out a restraining order against Benjamin, citing the fact that you had to run out of the hotel room to avoid him, get a maid to hide you and hired a bodyguard to keep him away, but he still passed notes to you. Easy to show all of that especially just for a restraining order, and it’ll be a warning to others.”

She nodded. “Okay, let’s do that.”

“After that totally horrible experience did you manage to finish off the filming?”

“That was worse,” said Meghan, “I had to do this shower scene but we ran out of hot water halfway through and there was no time to heat more so both myself and Don” (her co-star) “had to do it in this nearly cold water. We did a lot of yelling and moaning but because it was so cold.”

Will laughed. “You poor thing.”

“Hey, no laughing,” said Meghan laughing herself, glad that the conversation had turned to lighter matters. “You try acting passionate when you’re freezing, and what about you and that Red Devil person.” She thumped Will on the chest. “What happened there?”

“That turned bad real quick,” said Will. “I was in her room a couple of times then she went and got two friends of hers, a man and a woman, and I thought ‘this is interesting’.”

“I bet!” said Meghan, pushing herself away from Will’s body to glare at him.

“But it turned out that the girl was for her and the guy was me.”

“Noooo!”

“I had to fight this guy off.”

Meghan laughed and lay down again on Will. “Was he good looking?”

“Hey, no laughing,” said Will, laughing in his turn. “That’s serious for a guy. I can’t judge whether a guy is good looking.”

Normal, Emma and Henry waiting down the corridor heard the laughing and thought that the ambulance might not be needed.

“If you say so,” said Meghan, resting her head against Will’s cheek. “I love you, are you going to come back home?”

“I want to come back but there is a complication – Normal. She has been hanging around with me the past week and she has no one at all.”

“No family?”

“Nope, I’ll explain later but her mum is in jail and her dad can’t acknowledge her.”

“This sounds like quite a story,” said Meghan.

“It is but as I can’t bring myself to turn her over to child services, I’m going to apply to be her guardian.”

“What?” said Meghan sitting up again. “We’d be like parents?”

“I won’t be adopting her, just get myself declared guardian so I’d be legally responsible for her to the courts. No need for her to go to a foster home.”

“We’ll have a child in the house?”

“It’s not as if she’s a baby or a toddler. She’s ten and seems to have it together. Maybe those will be famous last words, but I don’t think so.”

Meghan sank back onto Will. “But you won’t be able to stay with me on location like you used to,” she said in a small voice.

“Meghan Kowalski, I’m not leaving you alone for any length of time after what just happened,” said Will, sharply. “Along with the re-organisation of your entourage which is part of the deal, maybe we can come to some arrangement over a nanny. Mrs Mendez has a sister looking for a job. I won’t be able to stay as much as I did but I can balance the two.”

“We can do that,” said Meghan, playing with Will’s collar.

“There is also a related issue,” said Will, dragging his shoulder bag to him, with Meghan still on his lap, then rummaging inside it.

“A single guy applying to be guardian of ten year old girl might be seen as creepy.” He brought out the ring case and flipped it open to show the ring that Bella had seen back in Vancouver. Meghan went still. Will put the case on the conference table. “But a guy applying for a guardianship who is engaged to the most glamorous woman in Hollywood – a woman who he happens to be crazy in love with – is not so creepy.”

“I see,” said Meghan quietly, looking at Will.

“This is early in the reconciliation process, but you did use the L Word, twice.”

“I did, didn’t I,” said Meghan.

“I’m now meeting your L Word back and raising you the E Word.”

“Are we in a card game now?”

“We’re playing an age-old game,” said Will. “But just before we start this round given what happened last time do you by any chance have anything sharp or pointed in your hands?”

Meghan spread her hands to show that she was not holding anything.

“What about anywhere in the room?”

They made a show of looking, then Meghan said, “I can always look in the other rooms” and made to get up, but Will pulled her back. She giggled and that told him he was going to be accepted.

“Just stay put Meghan Kowalski. I’m trying to be romantic here and you want to look for things to stab me with. I might point out that our last encounter was the sort of nightmare event that makes serial killers out of guys. I’d be featured in one of those streaming series where I’m a fiendishly clever serial killer murdering blonde fiancées who is hunted by a specialised police squad. They’d work out my motivation for the killings and then shoot me. In the final scene they’d say something like ‘poor guy - terrible what happened to him’, but I’d still be shot.”

Meghan laughed. “Poor Will – but I can’t imagine you being a serial killer.”

“I don’t want to be one, as on those shows it involves getting shot. Where was I?”

“Being romantic.”

“Oh right, yes. You know I tried very hard not to fall in love with you.”

“Did you?” said Meghan.

“Yep, my track record with actresses was not good at all, if you recall and I didn’t want to go through that again. Why do you think it was so easy to fire me those times, or that I never tried to sell myself to you or make any sort of sweet talk or flirt.”

“I’m glad I didn’t get the sweet talk or flirting,” said Meghan. “I can’t imagine that from you.”

“Maybe that was my mistake,” said Will. “If I’d tried sweet talking you’d have got rid of me fast. As it was for a while there you had a boyfriend.”

“And you had a girlfriend.”

“I was an older woman’s sex stop – not that I minded. Then you ambushed me with those club dresses of yours. Particularly the one you wore after that drug party thing. I had takeaways and there you were, a vision, and you kissed me. It wasn’t fair.”

“I remember,” said Meghan. “And all’s fair in love and something else.”

“Anyway, over this past week, I thought history had repeated itself and I was doomed to be a serial killer.”

“I don’t want you to become a serial killer of blondes.”

“Then accept the ring. See how it fits. No need to set dates just yet. Of course, I’ll sign whatever pre-nup you want.”

She put her left hand up to his mouth.

“You bet you will,” she said then drew her hand back and waggled the fingers. “Hit me.”

Will put the ring on her finger and they kissed.

“Are we going to set a date?” she said gazing at her ring.

“I just thought to delay, see how your mum and friends react.”

“Only my reaction matters and I’m wearing the ring,” said Meghan. “Anyway, my mother has been a cheerleader for Team Will day one and my friends wouldn’t give you your shirt back. They’ll deal.”

“Okay, that’s good, but we still have check schedules. A honeymoon of a couple of weeks would be good. What about being a spring bride? It can get hot in LA in summer and that’s enough time to prepare. Should hold your mother for the moment until we check schedules.”

Meghan nodded, still gazing at her ring. “The real problem may be announcing to the world as I’m still getting calls about the engagement with Bo and I’ve denied it like a million times.”

“I can clean that up, and in our announcement we can quote Jane Austin.”

“Jane Austin?” said Meghan, finally taking her eyes off her ring to gaze at her new fiancé in astonishment.

“Sure, Austin. I’ll explain later. For now, we should ask Normal if she wants to come home with us. As it means she might avoid that trip to child services I don’t think she’ll mind.” Will raised his voice. “Hey Normal! Come in here!”

Normal came in, followed by Emma, curious about what was happening. The assistant saw the ring and gushed, “congratulations! I hope you two will be very happy!”

“Thank you,” said Meghan, beaming.

“I’m glad I don’t have to buy a gun.”

“Gun?” said Will.

“We were discussing what to do if this meeting went in a different direction,” said Meghan.

“Okay, no gun is good,” said Will.

“Normal, is it?” said Meghan. “I want Will to come back to live with me and I’m happy for you to come too. I guess I’ll be a sort of mum and I’ve no idea what I’ll be like at that, but we can try to get along.”

“Are there any wolves around your place?” asked Normal.

“Wolves?” said Meghan looking at Will.

“I’ll explain later,” said Will. “No wolves, just a cat.”

“I think I can handle a cat,” said Normal. “Do you have a dishwasher?”

Meghan looked at Will again.

“Yes you have a dishwasher,” said Will.

“I have a dishwasher,” said Meghan.

“I’m in,” said Normal. “Does this mean I don’t go to child services?”

“Boosts the chances a whole lot,” said Will. “Incidentally, Normal here tested for a pilot of a kids series the team is putting together - Jungle Kids.” She may get the part,” he started laughing, “of the smart, tough kid who knows about the planet’s animals.”

“Hey, no laughing,” said Normal, laughing herself. “It’s your script.”

“If you get it I’m going to put in lots of alien wolves. Now, guys can you excuse as again for just a couple of minutes, as something else has occurred to me.”

“What else has occurred to you Will Moreland?” asked Meghan after the others had gone.

“There is one other condition about my coming back that I’m going to insist upon.”

“And what other condition is that?”

“You have to listen to my theories on Star Wars.”

“Noooo!” said Meghan, burying her head in Will’s shirt. “Oh very well, it won’t kill me I suppose.”

“The thing is that the Jedi Knights were this unaccountable sort-of galactic police force, that became a power bloc and an obstacle to reform of the military when a real crisis hit the Empire….”

“Yes, dear,” said Meghan, gazing at her ring.

 

FIRST EPILOG

 

Sidewalk Stars News reader Barbara flashed her gleaming teeth. “The top news today folks and the real surprise is that Clarise Chalmers, the siren of the shower, has announced her engagement to boyfriend and business consultant William Moreland who is scriptwriter for the surprise hit of the season Party Town Terror billed as a slasher with style.

“Unlike the previous engagement announcement between Chalmers and rock legend Bo Benjamin, this time both sides agree that they are engaged. As Moreland, a former member of the national swimming team who has also written children’s books, has previously been reported as paring with Party Town star Denni Devlin, the announcement blindsided a lot of people.

However, the happy couple have responded by quoting Jane Austin. For those that remember the classic novel Pride & Prejudice at the end of the book heroine Elizabeth Bennet surprises even her own sister by suddenly declaring that she is going to marry William Darcy, the man she has spent most of the book denouncing.

In response Elizabeth says that “Perhaps I did not always love him so well as I do now. But in such cases as these, a good memory is unpardonable.”

“There you are Ken, who can argue with the greatest romantic fiction writer of them all. The couple are going to forgive and forget each other’s errors, but not those of Bo Benjamin.”

“That’s right Barbara,” said Ken who appeared on camera in front of a photograph of a law court to establish his legal credentials. “The couple have taken out a restraining order against the rock legend and his bodyguards, which sheds some light on what happened in Toronto where Chalmers’ previous supposed engagement was announced. Among other allegations, Chalmers says that she ran out of her hotel room after Benjamin grabbed her and had a maid hide her. Then she insisted that hotel management throw Benjamin out of her suite, along with drugs the singer had with him and a bottle of wine which the actress says, and I quote the documents handed to the court ‘a strange effect on her'. Chalmers has declined to comment further on what she meant by ‘strange effect’.”

Benjamin has completely denied any wrong doing but another woman has come forward to make a complaint to police about an incident in a New York hotel room…

 

Singer Bo Benjamin in his rock uniform of black leather pants, black shirt and jacket and single silver bracelet around his neck knocked on the hotel room door, flowers in hand. After a few moments, the door was flung open and a furious Will charged out, grabbing the rock star’s shirt and driving him straight into the bodyguard standing behind him, forcing them both back against the wall. The second bodyguard tried to intervene but Will spared one hand for a split second for a vicious chop on the man’s Adam’s apple. The bodyguard fell away, choking.

“What was in that wine?” he snarled in Benjamin’s face.

The first bodyguard tried to push away from the wall but was pinned against it by the swimmer’s considerable strength. He could not get any leverage. He tried to hit Will but could not get around his boss.

“Just something to help people relax,” gasped the singer.

“Relax! I’ll show you relaxed,” said Will and he threw Benjamin against the second bodyguard. The singer slumped to the ground. Will had decided not to hit Benjamin as the singer was slight and might do some real damage.

“I was visiting my fiancée,” protested Benjamin from the floor.

“We were never engaged,” said Meghan who had also come out of the room. She was amazed at this sudden show of aggression from her normally mild fiancé and, to her own surprise, gratified that her honour was being defended in this way. “You drugged and raped me and lied about this engagement, that’s what happened. Now I’m engaged to Will.”

“You have choices thing one and thing two,” said Will to the bodyguards. The first bodyguard had prised himself off the wall and was eyeing Will for a charge but George had also come out to stand on between him and Will. “If we had decided to press charges with the police, you two would have been investigated along with the boss as accomplices to rape – you can accept that risk or make a stand.”

“We didn’t know about the wine..” said the first bodyguard.

“Shut up!” snapped Will. “Save it for someone who wants to listen. Just remember what I said about choices and remember that there is a court order preventing any of you from coming within one hundred yards of us. Do not let me see you again or I’ll get you busted for breaching the order. I’d say, ‘have a nice life’ but I dunno if that’s going to happen.”

“Bo, never come near me again,” said Meghan and went back into the hotel room, followed by Will and George, who gave them a little wave as he closed the door.

 

 

 

 

SECOND EPILOG

 

The gleaming teeth of Sidewalk Star’s announcer Ken seemed to have lost some their sheen. “Bad news for rock legend Bo Benjamin today, Barbara. Another allegation amounting to an accusation of rape where the victim is drugged through a combination of wine and drugs has surfaced, and this time the police have witnesses. Two of the star’s bodyguards have come forward to paint a picture of systematic abuse by the star.

The camera switched to announcer Barbara, whose teeth gleamed just as white as ever, in front of a line chart labelled sales which showed the line plummeting. “Sales of the rock star’s music are crashing, record labels can’t get away from him fast enough and tour promoters now want nothing to do with him, and you know what Ken?

“What Barbara?”

“Good!”

 

Family court justice Maureen F. Adams spread out the papers on her desk.

“Regarding the application of William Thomas Moreland to be the legal guardian of the child now known as Grace Louise Marchetti,” she told the courtroom audience which included Normal sitting at a table in front of her looking anxiously at the judge, “I can’t see any moving parts. There is a favourable report from child services, letters from the mother, father and maternal uncle saying they are unable to take the child and that the guardianship seems the best outcome. There are character references for Mr Moreland, including a glowing reference from the singer Connie Leighton, as well as a letter expressing support from his fiancée Clarise Chalmers who has taken the trouble to come to my court today. It is a great pleasure to have you in my court Ms Chalmers, I take it that press gaggle outside are all about you.”

“The pleasure is all mine, your honor,” said Meghan seated beside Will and a little behind Normal, “and, yes, everything I do seems of interest to the media.”

“Well sooner you than me, Ms Chalmers,” said Justice Adams, “the more important point for this court, is that there are resources and to spare for this child. My only remaining concern is arrangements for the child’s education.”

Normal’s counsel, an intense middle-aged woman wearing glasses with thick rims who had been recommended by Will’s mother, stood up.

“Your honour, Grace Marchetti has won a role in an eight-part series for one of the streaming services called Jungle Kids. The studio producing the series is legally required to school the four children, including Grace, all of about the same age on set and tutors have been hired to do so. There is a document setting out those points on your desk.”

Justice Adams sorted through the papers and found the document.

“I see, a Hollywood fairy tale ending it would seem. Very well, I hereby grant the guardianship application.” Her honour scribbled a signature on the piece of paper in front of her and dated it. “I can also hand over a newly issued birth certificate for Grace which was forwarded to my office for some reason, rather than yours.”

“That’s where it went to,” said the lawyer. “Thank you, your honour.”

“But before I send Grace Louise Marchetti out into the wide world I have something I want to tell her. Grace Louise Marchetti stand there.” The judge pointed to a spot in front of her desk.

Normal who was now Grace came forward hesitantly.

“Yes, ma’am?” she said tentatively.

“Your honour,” corrected her lawyer.

“Your honor,” said Grace.

“In a private conversation I had with your lawyer I understand you have certain concerns about wildlife in Los Angeles,” said the judge eyeing Grace sternly.

“I guess ma’ .. I mean your honour.”

“In telling you this I know that I have the entire weight of the Californian judicial system behind me.” She leant forward. “There are no wolves in Los Angeles.”

“No wolves your honor?”

“No wolves.”

“But what happens if I meet a wolf?”

“Then that wolf is in contempt of court and your lawyer will tell you what a serious matter that is. A wolf in contempt of court has no power and will disappear. Grace Amelia Marchetti here are your documents, go forth and have a good wolf-free life.”

“Yes your honour, thank you, your honour,” said Grace, smiling. She took the documents and handed them to Will who put them into a folder. The writer then exchanged a few words with the lawyer whose office would also arrange for an appeal on the sentence for Grace’s mother. It was thought with a little effort Amelia Marchetti might be free two or three years earlier than originally expected.

Will and Meghan walked out of the courtroom as Grace skipped off chanting “I am Grace. I am Grace.”

“Maybe I can warn her later that there are lots of two-legged guy wolves in Los Angeles,” said Will.

“Not just yet,” said Meghan, putting her arm around Will’s “and when you do you can tell her that if she looks hard enough she can find one that isn’t a wolf.”

They walked down the corridor towards the throng of waiting reporters.

 

 

Mark Steven Lawson is a retired Australian business journalist.