Hollywood Confessions (29 page)

“
Oh, you’re one to talk! I know you were looking at my coroner’s report.”

“
Dude,” Gary piped up. “Cat fight. Hot.”

“
Shut up,” we both yelled at him in unison.

“
Wow, and people say
I
have anger issues.”

“
Gary, I swear to God…” I started.

“
Quiet, someone’s coming,” Tina interrupted me.

I shut my mouth with a click. She was right. I heard footsteps on the stairs above us. I bit my lip, listening in the dark, feeling Tina and Gary do the same as Don…or Deb…came closer.

At any other time, three on one odds were pretty good. But when all three were tied up, I didn’t like our chances of making it out of this estate alive.

A door at one end of the room opened, and light suddenly flooded the room. I blinked against it, feeling my pupils contract painfully as I squinted to see which Davenport was shadowed in the doorway.

It wasn’t until the door shut again and the overhead lights turned on in the practice room that I saw which one of us had been correct about the killer’s identity.

And was shocked to realize we were both wrong.

“
What a terrible nuisance you all have caused,” Nanny Nellie Mc Gregor said, her lilting voice taking on a sinister tone as she held a gun straight-armed in front of her.

“
Dude. The hot nanny!” Gary said. “Totally didn’t see that one coming.”

I’ll admit, neither had I.

“
Wait, you killed Barker?” Tina asked. And I was glad to hear my own surprise mirrored in her voice.

Nanny nodded slowly. “Yes. Yes, I did.”

“
But why?” I asked.

She cocked her head at me. “He was evil. What he was doing to the family, to the children, it had to be stopped.”

“
What was he doing to the family?” Tina asked. I felt her twisting her body toward Nellie, her hands coming up against mine. Or, more specifically, the ropes holding her hands together. Instinctively I backed up, my fingers exploring the knots at her wrists. If just one of us could get free, we might have a fighting chance.

“
The children’s lives were being torn apart by that beastly show,” Nellie went on. “Cameras everywhere, paparazzi stalking them,” she said, spitting out the word as she sent an accusatory look Tina’s way.

Tina shrugged. “Sorry?”

“
Sorry is right! Sorry is what their lives had become. A sorry excuse for a childhood.”

I felt my fingers slip beneath the first knot, slowly loosening it as Tina shifted closer.

“
So what did you do?” Tina asked, clearly trying to keep Nellie talking, trying to buy us some time.

“
I did the only thing I could do! Deb and Don didn’t care about the girls. All they cared about was the money and the fame. What their poor excuse for parenting had bought them. Their children became a distant second to their careers.” Nellie snorted. “As if they’d even have careers without those poor girls.”

“
Hey, Deb has a lot on her plate right now,” Gary piped up, defending her.

Nellie spun the gun his way.

Gary squealed.

“
So you had to protect them,” I asked, getting us back on the path of distraction. I could feel the first knot slip loose. A couple more minutes, and Tina would be free.

“
Yes,” she answered, an eerie calm coming over her voice as she turned back to me. “I had to protect them. I’m all they have. I did the best I could to shield them from the craziness, but when I saw Deb in bed with Barker, I knew he had to be stopped. And there was only one way.”

“
So you killed him,” Tina said.

Nellie nodded. “It was easy, really. All I had to do was inject some of Deb’s anti-depressants through the wine cork. I told Barker it was a gift from Deb.”

“
And once he was dead, the filming stopped,” I noted.

She nodded, her face breaking into a smile. “Everything has been so nice. The children have been so happy these last few days. So normal.”

“
Except for you taking them to trash my place. That’s hardly normal kid stuff,” I pointed out.

She frowned, my accusation of being a bad influence on the kids clearly digging deeper than that of being a murderer. “I told them it was a game. They had a wonderful time smashing your dishes.”

I’ll bet.

“
Then smashing me over the head?” I asked.

“
Certainly not!” She shook her head emphatically back and forth. “I had them wait in the car for that.”

“
Well, aren’t you a model caregiver,” I couldn’t help saying.

“
I am! I take care of those girls and anything else that needs taken care of around here!”

“
Like us?” Gary squeaked out.

“
Yes. Like you. Like you nosey, no-good tabloid reporters digging where you have no business being.”

“
Technically, I’m no longer on the
Informer
’s staff,” I pointed out.

“
Shut up!” she shouted. And since she punctuated it by shoving the gun in my face, I did.

“
So now you’re going to kill us too?” Tina asked. I could feel her hands slipping from the knots, wiggling free. “Kill us right here in the girls’ rehearsal room?”

Again, the frown settled between Nellie’s eyebrows, as if appalled that we’d even think such a horrible thing of her. “Of course not.”

“
Oh, thank God,” Gary sighed.

“
I’m going to take you into the closet and kill you there. I don’t want to wake the girls.”

I think I heard Gary squeal again

“
And,” Nellie went on, looking right at me, “I’m going to start with you.”

My heart leapt into my throat as she pointed the gun at my head and took a step toward me.

Then everything happened at once. Nellie’s hand clamped around my arm, I felt Tina’s hands slip free, and then Tina jumped up from the floor like a jack-in-the-box, hurtling herself straight into Nellie.

Surprise registered on the nanny’s face for a split second before she toppled backwards, the gun going off in her hand as she fell, taking out a Barbie and a chunk of the mirror with her.

Gary screamed, crawling into a fetal position.

I dove for the weapon but considering I was still bound, couldn’t do much with it. I twisted onto my back, trying to fit my fingers around the trigger as I watched Tina wrestle on the ground with Nellie. Tina had the element of surprise on her side, but Nellie had the advantage of having both her hands and feet free. One she used to the fullest, wrapping one leg around Tina’s middle and pinning her down.

“
Grab the gun!” Tina yelled, pulling at Nellie’s hair.

“
I’m trying!” I shot back. I had my fingers around the pistol, but with my hands behind me I couldn’t very well see where I was aiming. I twisted, contorting my body until I thought I had Nellie in my sights, and pulled the trigger.

A shot rang out, accompanied by a piercing scream. It took me a second to realize it was not Nellie’s.

“
Oh my God, you shot me!” Gary yelled.

Oops.

“
Sorry! Gary, are you okay?” I asked, twisting to face him. A thin trickle of blood oozed down his right arm. If I had to guess, it was a minor flesh wound. But Gary took one look at it, saw the blood, then his eyes rolled up into his head and he promptly fainted.

Great. Some bodyguard he was.

“
A little help here!” Tina shouted. She was still grappling on the floor with Nellie, and if I had to guess I’d say Nellie was winning. Tina had a chunk of Nellie’s hair still twisted in her fingers, but Nellie had her hands around Tina’s neck. And Tina’s face was quickly turning the same shade of purple as her hair.

Chucking the gun, I inch-wormed across the floor toward them, bringing my legs up to my chest and shoving my bound feet toward the nanny as hard as I could. She grunted, falling to the side, her grip loosening enough that I heard Tina suck in big gulps of air.

I pulled my feet in close, coming in for another attack again, but Nellie was faster, rolling to the left before I could connect.

Tina moved to grab her leg, but the lack of oxygen slowed her reflexes and before she could even make contact, Nellie was on her feet again.

And reaching for the gun.

“
That’s enough!” she yelled, all semblance of British propriety gone as she stood over us, pointing the weapon our way. Her hair stuck up in tufts, missing a small section on the side. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes wide, breath coming in pants. “I’ve had enough of all you tabloid reporters!”

And before either of us had a chance to react, she squeezed the trigger, popping off two shots.

Right at Tina.

“
Uhn.” Tina made a gurgling sound in the back of her throat then fell backwards, her head connecting with the hardwood with a dull thud.

“
No!” I yelled, immediately inching toward her.

“
Don’t move!” Nellie shouted.

The barrel of her gun was suddenly in my face.

I held my breath, frozen like the proverbial deer in the deadlights. Time seemed to stand still, my mind racing.

This was it. I was a goner. I’d never be an
L.A. Times
reporter. I’d never have a chance to thank Tina for trying to save my life. I’d never see Felix again.

For some reason, that last thought brought tears to my eyes, blurring my vision as Nellie’s finger closed around the trigger. I steeled myself for the sharp sting of a bullet ripping through my body.

But it never came.

Instead, Nellie grunted, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she keeled over forward, slumping into a pile on the floor.

I blinked, my eyes going from her to the guy standing behind her.

All four feet of him.

“
Gary,” I breathed out on a sob.

He held a wooden lollipop prop in both bound hands like a baseball bat, glaring at the lump he’d just created on the back of Nellie’s head.

“
Never mess with a little person,” he panted, “with anger issues!”

The next few hours were a total blur. Turns out, Nanny McGregor was right about the noise of a gun in the rehearsal room waking everyone up. Don had called the police after the first gunshot, saying there was an intruder in his basement. The authorities arrived only minutes after Gary brained Nellie, bursting into the rehearsal room as both Gary and I frantically did CPR on Tina. Luckily, the responding officer knew CPR a whole lot better than we did (and his hands weren’t bound together), so he managed to get a pulse while he radioed for a paramedic.

I could have cried with relief when they finally arrived, taking Tina’s prone form away on a stretcher as the number of cops in the Davenport house multiplied several times over. I found myself telling the same story to about fifteen different officers, until finally a guy in plainclothes took pity on me and had a uniformed officer drive me home.

As much as I just wanted to collapse onto my bed and sleep for a hundred years, I forced myself to boot up my laptop first, my fingers typing out the story of my life. When it was done I quickly emailed it off, for the first time in my career completely at peace with where it would be published in the morning.

I had just enough energy left afterward to do a quick call in to the hospital to check on Tina’s condition. She was in surgery. I took that as a good sign, noting the visiting hours tomorrow before I crawled into my bed, fully clothed, just as the sun was beginning to peek through my blinds.

* * *

I awoke to the sound of my cell phone ringing instantly from my nightstand.

I rolled over. 8 am. I’d slept a whole two hours. I thought a really bad word as I grabbed my cell and stabbed the on button.

“
What?” I croaked.

“
May I speak with Allie Quick please?”

I cleared my throat. I swore to God, if this was a telemarketer…

“
This is she.”

“
Well, good morning, Miss Quick.”

“
That remains to be seen,” I mumbled.

“
Excuse me?”

“
Never mind. Listen, is this about some subscription or something? Because I’m really not interested right now.”

“
Oh, I’m sorry. This is Mr. Callahan. From the
L.A. Times
?”

I sat up in bed so quickly I felt my neck seize up on me. “Mr. Callahan. Oh, wow, sorry. I didn’t realize. It’s…so nice to hear from you.”

“
I apologize for calling so early, but I wanted to be the first to get to you before the other papers get their bids in.”

“
Bids?” I asked, my foggy brain trying to process what he was saying. “What bids?”

“
For your services.”

“
I’m sorry. I’m not following…”

“
We’d like to offer you a position on staff.”

I blinked. “Could you repeat that?”