A Vintage Murder (6 page)

A valet waited to park the car. “Schnazzy,” Simon said, stepping out of the vehicle. “Like you didn’t tell me that this thing was a major shindig.”

“We were told it was a simple ‘shrimp on the barbie’ kind of deal and to come casual.”

“Huh. So who all is going to be here? As if I’d know anyone in Australia.” Simon laughed.

“Shawn Keefer,” Nikki replied.

“Oh yeah, you are so funny. First you’re a twit in a turtleneck and now you’re a comedienne.”

“No. I’m not. I’m telling you the truth.”

“Okay. Funny girl.”

“She is telling the truth. They’re filming a movie here at the vineyard. That’s why they’re having the party.”

Simon stopped dead in his tracks. “Stop it. No. Uh-uh. Are you two for real?”

They nodded in unison.

“Oh my God, oh my God. Get me a paper bag. I think I’m going to hyperventilate. Shawn Keefer is here?
Here?
” He pointed to the ground. “Shawn as in
People
magazine’s sexiest man of 2005? Please, oh God. And you two let me wear
this
? You said it was a barbecue. Oh no, no, no. I think I’m going to pass out.”

Derek took his brother by the shoulders. “Get ahold of yourself. First of all, you look fine. And second, Shawn Keefer is not gay. You wouldn’t have a chance with him.”

“Please. Everyone in Hollywood is gay.”

Derek rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around Nikki. “I’ll pretend I don’t know him, if you will.”

“Deal.”

“Whatever. I’m gonna meet a movie star. But I will kill the two of you for not telling me to wear something a little more stylish. Do I look okay?” Simon ran his hands through his spiky, bleach blond hair. He was a good-looking man, just like his brother. They both had a kind of David Beckham look about them. Tonight Posh Spice had nothing on her. Nikki smiled. A reality show on her own life might actually be worth watching. There was enough craziness to spread around.

“You look great. Stunning.”

“Stunning?” Simon asked. He smoothed down his white linen shirt, unbuttoned his suede jacket, and tugged his 7 For All Mankind jeans down around his hips even farther.

“Stunning, and you know if you pulled your boxers out now, above the jeans waistband, maybe you could pass for Slim Shady,” Derek said with a sly grin.

“Oh shut up. At least I have style. What the hell are those anyway? Levi’s? Oh, aren’t you cool.”

“Boys,” Nikki scolded. “Act like grown men, please. You can go back to sibling rivalry later.”

Simon smirked and walked on ahead. Live music was coming from the rear of the home.

“Good to see you, mate,” Liam Hahndorf said, pumping Derek’s hand. “And you, too.” He kissed Nikki on the cheek.

It was true when people remarked that the Aussies were gracious hosts. Everyone they’d encountered so far had lived up to that.

Within minutes, flutes of champagne appeared and they were being introduced all around. Simon’s eyes about bugged out when Liam introduced them to Shawn Keefer. Liam had to excuse himself to check on the food and left Nikki and Derek to witness Simon fawning all over the actor.

“Oh Shawn, I loved you in
A Woman to Die For
. The chemistry was fabulous between you and Angelina. Just fabulous. You really should’ve won the Oscar for that movie.”

As much of a fool as Simon was making of himself, the movie star didn’t seem to mind at all. His ego ate it up. Actors didn’t impress Nikki much. She’d spent enough time in Hollywood to learn that many of them were insecure egomaniacs with superiority complexes. Thus, her acting career hadn’t been that difficult to walk away from, especially when she’d found that life could have a hell of a lot more substance.

“That was a great flick,” Shawn said. “A lot of intense work, you know.”

He crossed his arms over his tan sweater, which was only a shade darker than his skin. Looked as if Shawn Keefer could give George Hamilton a run for his money at the tanning salon. He reminded Nikki of a pretty-boy Clint Eastwood in his younger years. He even had down the eyebrow cock that Eastwood was notorious for. Nikki wondered if he’d studied Clint.

“But this movie here,” he continued, “will be phenomenal. You know, you can’t go wrong working with Nathan Cooley. He’s a genius. And Kane . . . man, the guy is awesome. He’s poured so much cash into this thing, and he’s banking on it being huge. We all are. It will be, of course.”

“Of course.” Simon touched his arm as if they were old friends.

“Huh.” It was the only word Nikki could muster.

“What do you mean you don’t have tequila? I want a margarita.” The voice was recognizable from her earlier tantrum—Lucy Swanson.

“Oh yeah, she’s the only buzz kill in this deal,” Shawn said. “Lucy Swanson. Royal pain in the ass. Chick hasn’t even had a real hit and she thinks she’s Meryl Streep. Little Miss Diva freaked today on the poor animal safari dude, then hunted me down, thinking I’d come to her rescue. God. Come on.”

“You’re talking about Andy Burrow?” Derek asked.

“Yeah, man, that dude has some balls.”

“Right.” Derek leaned into Nikki and whispered, “Would you like to get something to eat?”

She nodded. They left Simon to stare and pump mental iron with Shawn Keefer.

Nikki started to say something about leaving Simon with Shawn, when Miss Diva herself bumped into Derek. As she looked at him with her doe-like hazel eyes, Nikki wanted to slap her for just looking all nubile, and . . . well, pretty damn close to physically perfect. She suddenly felt matronlike in her turtleneck and jeans compared to Lucy Swanson’s down-to-there silky V-neck black dress. The girl had no body fat—zilch—and had to be freezing her ass off. That gave Nikki some comfort. At least she was warm. But the chill didn’t seem to affect Lucy, who smiled coyly at Derek.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you standing there,” Lucy said.

Nikki couldn’t help notice the way Derek looked at Lucy. Okay, probably every man looked at her the way he did—like he was going to start drooling any minute—but still, he was with her, and she couldn’t help feeling a sting from the green-eyed monster.

“Lucy Swanson, right?” Nikki asked.

The barely legal actress glanced at Nikki. “Yeah.”

“I just read about your latest mishap in the
Enquirer
. What a shame. You poor thing. I can’t believe you had to do community service for what was it, like forty hours?” Derek glared at Nikki and she knew exactly how she sounded—like a jealous old hag.

“Like whatever. That was so lame, you know. I didn’t do anything wrong. So like I had a few drinks and well, it’s such a lie that I hit that stupid girl.”

“Bummer,” Nikki said.

“Like who are you guys? I don’t think I know you two. You’re not from around here. I mean, you have to be American, right?”

“We’re from Napa Valley,” Derek said.

“Oh cool. I so love it there. I went up there last year after I finished filming. I needed a battery recharge.”

More like she needed to dry out, which was hard to do in the land of liquid grape aplenty.

“You guys hanging with Liam and Grace then?”

“We have some business with them,” Derek said.

“Right on. I didn’t catch your names.”

“I’m Derek Malveaux and this is Nikki Sands.”

“Nah-uh,” Lucy said. “Oh my God. I totally thought you looked familiar.
You’re
Nikki Sands? You played Detective Martini. Oh my God. I loved that show. It was so campy.”

Who knew that Nikki would find a fan in Australia and that it would be Lucy Swanson? She thought she’d only had one fan in the world and that was a policewoman back in Napa Valley who oohed and aahed over the fact that Nikki played Sydney Martini on what was supposed to be a
CSI
sort of show that only lasted a season.

“Oh this is so classic,” Lucy said. “My mom and I watched that show all the time. I mean, well, I was like what, fifteen I guess, and that was before my mom went off the deep end, you know. Everyone heard about that. She was kind of cool back then. But then she just lost it when my dad left and bankrupted her. Now I support her and my brother and sisters. It’s a nightmare. But that’s another story. So like I don’t believe this. What happened to you? I thought you were gonna be like all Heather Locklear, you know. You were perfect for all that soap opera stuff.”

Nikki wasn’t sure how to take that one, so she used the grin-and-bear-it tactic. “Thanks. Yeah, well, I kind of got a life.”

“Oh.” Lucy nodded. “I get it. You burned out. I can totally see that, and you probably didn’t want to do the whole plastic surgery thing.”

Nikki impulsively touched her face and then glanced down at her breasts. Did she need plastic surgery? “No, I really wanted to explore other avenues.”

“Cool.” She looked Derek up and down. “But I have to tell you that you were one hot chick in that show.”

“Thanks.”

“All right, well, I’ll catch you later. I’m going to go see if Hannah was able to find some tequila in her daddy’s liquor cabinet. I thought everyone had tequila.”

They watched Lucy walk away. “Charming,” Nikki said. “What did she mean that I was one hot chick in that show? Am I not hot now?” Okay, so maybe she wasn’t twentysomething hot any longer. She was now inching toward forty and she’d noticed recently that, even with her daily run and eating healthy, nature had caught onto her age, and the pull of gravity had done things to her ass and the back of her legs that she was not crazy about. But plastic surgery? Not her style.

Derek kissed her cheek. “Don’t tell me that you’re feeling insecure. Come on, she’s got nothing on you.”

“Yeah, it’s me who has about fifteen pounds on her.” Oh man, why had she said that?

“You’re being silly. She’s a kid, and from everything that you hear about her, she’s a problem child. Relax. I think you’re beautiful. In fact”—he leaned in and kissed her earlobe—“I think you’re very hot, and I can’t wait to get you alone.”

Mmm, now that was nice. Real nice.

Liam Hahndorf’s voice boomed out, intruding on the moment. “Hello, I’m pleased everyone could make it. Now if you want to get some good food, it’ll be up in a moment. We’ve got shrimp on the barbie here, lamb chops that are delicious—my Grace’s specialty—salad, and all sorts of wonderful dishes. Of course, an Aussie barbie wouldn’t be authentic without a little roo.”

“Roo?” Nikki looked at Derek.

“Kangaroo.”

Nikki brought her hand up to her mouth. “Oh my God, the animals with the pouch that hop around with their babies?”

He grinned. “I know it sounds horrible, but to the Australians it’s like eating beef. It even tastes kind of like beef but a bit more gamey.”

“You’ve eaten it?”

“I didn’t want to be rude to the host. I kind of liked it.”

Liam continued: “And for your entertainment, we have our own Andy Burrow to put on a little show for us. We’re real fortunate because we don’t get crocs down here in the Barossa, but Andy brought some from his zoo, so we’ll have our own tales from the wild side,” he said, referring to Andy’s popular TV show.

Hmm. Nothing like snakes and crocodiles to go with dinner. Perfect. Nikki’s stomach turned over, but she’d be a good sport.

Everyone queued up and served themselves buffet style. Nikki hoped for an opportunity to meet and talk to Nathan Cooley, the director. Not that she had any interest in acting. That chapter of her life was definitely closed, but she would enjoy chatting with a director of his caliber. She spotted him in line talking with Lucy Swanson and the producer.

Interesting: everyone at this party was either connected to Hollywood, or wealthy like the Hahndorfs. Even so, Liam and Grace were super down-to-earth. Grace had prepared much of the food, with the catering company there to simply help serve. Liam had himself a super-sized barbecue grill and he looked to be completely enjoying himself fixing the meats. They had a service pouring drinks and a couple of attendants picking up along the way, but it was oddly intimate. It probably wasn’t the type of party the Hollywood crew was used to frequenting.

The buffet line faced the river that bordered the Hahndorfs’ backyard. Rays of the setting sun flashed onto the murky water, making it appear as if a handful of gold coins had been dropped into it. The deck at the Hahndorfs’ looked to be made out of the same jarrah wood that Grace had put in the house. The dark reddish color reminded Nikki of the floor of an upscale restaurant back in Napa called Grapes, which then reminded her of the man she’d left to go to Spain on his own—Andrés Fernandez. His sister Isabel was Nikki’s best friend and owned Grapes. Nikki knew that she was going to have to deal sooner or later with the consequences of hurting Andrés. And, it wasn’t as if she didn’t feel a little pull in her heart toward him. They’d been great friends, dated for a couple of months, gotten close to becoming intimate—and he’d confessed his love for her. And, when he’d invited her to Spain, she’d come within moments of grabbing her purse and meeting him at the airport. Then, Derek had called, and the message he’d left her had changed her mind. There’d been a few moments where her head had tried to convince her heart that Andrés was the man she should be with. But in the end, as the saying goes, the heart knows what the heart wants, and Derek Malveaux had grabbed hers and was holding tight.

Everyone sat down around a fire pit on cushy sofas and chairs, eating the amazing food, which for Nikki meant sans roo. To her pleasant surprise the director, Nathan Cooley, took a seat across from them, along with Kane Ferriss, the producer. To her dismay Lucy Swanson and Hannah Hahndorf also joined the group.

“Hey, have you guys met Nikki Sands?” Lucy said, almost immediately upon sitting down.

What was it with this girl? Why didn’t she just wave a sign over Nikki that said: “over-the-hill actress right here.”

Both men turned to Nikki and said, “No,” then introduced themselves to her and Derek.