Star Attraction (26 page)

Zaira pulled out a few of the
newspapers with larger photos, and Brad’s airline tickets.
 
“Look at the photo there.
 
You can just see, at the bottom, the
date stamp on the photo, small and faint, but they didn't cover it up as well
as they thought. It says the first of September.
 
This ticket was for the first.
 
Brad couldn’t have been in two places at once.
 
I’ve checked.
 
Journalists snapped him at the airport here in LA as he was
leaving, and again at Kennedy Airport in New York when he was arriving.”

“But these photos could have been
taken anywhere, even New York.”

“I know that, but look at the
shadows there, and there.
 
Look
with a magnifying glass.”

The Tremaines all stared at the
photo intently.
 

“The one on the arm looks like a
Marine tattoo,” Dave said suddenly.

Zaira nodded.
 
“I know, a friend of mine had one. But
Brad doesn’t.
 
See, in this photo
there are tattoos also. Covered up with make up, but again, the reflection of
the light and the grainness of the newsprint is making them show up.
 
Take my word for it, Brad doesn’t have
a tattoo anywhere on his body.”

“Right, we’ll need to get onto the
newspapers to see the originals of these, or contact the Los Angeles Police
Department and the District Attorney’s office if they have all gone to the
state prosecutor,” Dave advised.

“But you'll have to be
discreet.
 
If Jonathan gets even a
hint that we are onto him, he’ll run, and then we won’t be able to catch him
red-handed.
 
We’re going to need
twenty-four hour surveillance on him, and he mustn’t see you too often. Can you
manage to do it in rotation, different people, different cars, that sort of
thing?
 
I’m telling you, he’s
exceptionally clever, and I’m sure with all of this at stake, he’ll be
dangerous as well.”

“We can use some of our contacts,
people we trust, in different cars.
 
If he spots us, he’ll have to be a genius,” Kelly reassured her.

“Have you got a recent photo of
Jonathan?” Dave asked.

Zaira handed him a snap from two
years before.
 
“He is dyeing his
hair grey now, and he’s about thirty pounds heavier.
 
He also dresses much more conservatively, and I think he has
taken to wearing horn-rimmed glasses some of the time.”

“Well, we’ll send someone with a
camera over to Clarke Studios to get a more recent picture to circulate amongst
our colleagues.
 
Then it will have
to be a case of establishing some pattern of movement or behavior, to see if we
can get any hard evidence of the set up for these fake photos, who Brad's
lookalike is, and whether or not Jonathan's been involved with drugs,” Dave
declared.

“Thank you, I’m so grateful for
all your help.” Zaira smiled wanly, and relaxed in her seat for the first time.

“But I'm warning you now, Zaira,
if your ex is as clever as you say, he won’t slip up unless he's forced to show
his hand.
 
He may think he has got
it all going smoothly.
 
He’ll be
careful for a while. But if he thinks he’ll have to get more evidence, then we
might prod him into incriminating himself.” Dave’s eyes glittered, and Zaira
swallowed hard.

“What did you have in mind,
exactly?”

“I think that the photos
disappearing might provoke him into finding more, don’t you?
 
Whoever this man is, he looks an awful
lot like Brad.
 
He’ll be keeping a
low profile now, so we need to find him if we're to prove Brad completely
innocent.”

“Can you arrange for the photos to
er, disappear?

“Well, not exactly, but I have
friends on a couple of the papers who can say they have if we need them
to.
 
Speaking of which, a few
full-page articles on Brad’s anguished innocence will go down well, stir things
up a bit where old friend Jonathan is concerned.”

Zaira nodded.
 
“I’ll see what I can arrange.
 
What about Brad’s father?
 
Do you think we should tell him the
whole truth, get him to help?

“No point, really.
 
From what you said, Jonathan will
probably have convinced him of his son’s guilt,” Kelly argued.

“I know, but if I can persuade him
to help me, by taking my evidence to him as well?
 
Besides, if Jonathan is up to something, making him force
his hand might lead to some very nasty consequences for Cormac if the Clarke
millions really are his target.
 
I
couldn’t live with myself if something happened to him.
 

“And of course, he must have been
working for the Clarkes for several months now, probably over a year from what
I’ve understood from Brad.
 
God
only knows how much he's been skimming off from the company as their
accountant.
 
If Cormac can get the
dirt on Jonathan there, he’ll go to prison, where he belongs,” Zaira insisted.

“All right, you can go see him,
but you’ll have to be careful.
 
If
Jonathan gets even a hint of what you are up to, it could be a disaster,” Kelly
warned.

“I know.
 
I’ve arranged for Cormac to meet me, supposedly about
business, in six days’ time. We'll see how far we have got by then.
 
If you can get any more concrete
evidence for me before then, maybe I can convince him.
 
In the meantime, watch Jonathan, and
we’ll put our other plan of operation into effect if if doesn’t get us too many
results.”

Jimmy left the room to make a few
phone calls, and Zaira said, “Look, all I’ve got is five thousand at the
minute, but I’ll phone New York for more.
 
I don’t care what it takes, Brad has to be cleared.”

“That will be plenty for
now," Kelly reassured her.
 
"Don’t worry.
 
But if I
might make a suggestion?
 
You don’t
know LA, and we need to keep in close contact.
 
Would you like to stay
 
here with us?
 
We have a
spare room upstairs, nothing fancy, but at least we can get hold of each other
whenever we need to."

Zaira was gratefull for the offer.
“That's really kind of you. If you don't mind, I'd be very grateful, and I’ll
pay you rent."

“We’ll settle on a fair sum for
the work and everything later, all right?” Kelly grinned.

“No, really, I’ll pay whatever the
normal rate is,” Zaira insisted.

“Don’t worry, you'll get an
itemized bill. And for the bargain rate, you’ll get Jonathan Wyman’s head
served on a platter, I promise,” Kelly said with a steely look in her eye.

"I can't wait. So let me just
get my things from the motel, get settled here, and then the hard work
starts."

"You're the boss."

"Cormac is for the moment. I
hope we can get our proof by the end of the week, but if we can't, well, we'll
go to plan B."

"We'll all do our best. Try
not to worry. Your man will be home before you know it."

Zaira sighed. "I sure hope
so. I just hate to think what we're going to have to do to in the meantime to
get him cleared."

Kelly eyed her closely.
 
"Just how far are you willing to
go?"

"As far as it takes to clear
Brad, even if it means I never see him again."

"Whoa,
it may not come to that—"

"I know Jonathan. He'll try
to mix me up in this somehow, I'm sure.
 
He's too damned clever for his own good.
 
But I've never cheated anyone in my life, nor used drugs. I
know I have nothing to hide. I just hope Cormac believes me."

"Well, I do," Kelly said
firmly.
 
"All of us.
 
Trust me, it will be fine."

"I just hope Brad can trust
me once all of this is over. I should have told him—"

"You didn't want to lose him,
stir up trouble in your life by exposing Jonathan just when things were
starting to fall into place in your life again for the first time. No one can
really blame you for that."

Zaira sighed. "I just didn't
have time to think—"

"Well, with any luck,
Jonathan didn't either."

Zaira turned her anguished grey
gaze up to her new friend's perky freckled face.
 
"What do you mean?"

"Just that I think, judging
from the bad quality of the photos, that Jonathan panicked, set his plan in motion
a bit too soon. He was probably afraid you were going to tell Brad sooner or
later, and made his move before you could warn him and his father who he really
was.
 
Trust me, honey, if he's
slipped up anywhere else, we'll make the most of it.
 
Then your Brad will be back and you guys are going to get
the happily ever after all you writers dream about."

Zaira smiled wanly.
 
"The Dark Lady is a tragedy, not a
romance."

"Then write a new script,
honey. Because I sure as hell don't want some creep like Jonathan to ruin your
life any more than he ever has."

Zaira stood up from the sofa and
nodded. "You're right. No sense in feeling sorry for myself.
 
There's too much to do, and I'm damned
if I'm going to let Jonathan gain the upper hand again.
 

"I love Brad, and he needs my
help. I'll worry about what happens to me later. Tragedy or romance, what
difference does it make if he isn't a free man shown to be truly innocent.
 
So let me get my stuff, and then we
don't stop til Jonathan is behind bars where he belongs."

Zaira drove over to her motel with
Kelly to pack up her things, and that evening she settled into her room and
went down for dinner to meet Sheila, the mother of the house.

The old brick house was
comfortable and homey, and the Tremaines all warm and welcoming.
 
Sheila was a bustling little woman, an
older version of Kelly, and a superb cook.
 
Zaira was glad she had accepted the offer to stay
there.
 
It made her feel less
lonely, and so many people coming and going in the house distracted her from
brooding and longing for Brad.
 

That night, several other private
investigators joined them for a drink after their meal, and Dave gave them all
copies of the new photos of Jonathan and a rota for surveillance.

Then he gave them a list of all
the people who had been talking to the press, to see if they could lean on them
to tell the truth, as to whether or not Jonathan had bribed them to tell their
lies to the papers.
 

A few of the detectives would also
go through modelling agency books to see if they could find any of the people
in the snaps, including the elusive Brad lookalike.

After they had gone, Zaira
sighed.
 
She knew it would be
difficult to prove Brad’s innocence and Jonathan’s guilt, and there was a
gnawing fear inside of her that no matter how it all turned out, she had lost
Brad forever.
 
How could he forgive
her for not having told him the truth about Jonathan while she had the chance?

And what would happen when
Jonathan was caught?
 
Would she go
to prison with him, as an accomplice?
 
Would he lie to get revenge upon her, and say she had been in on it all,
both now and in the past when he had fleeced the advertising agency?

Zaira confided her fears to Kelly,
who patted her on the shoulder and said, “There is no way of knowing, is
there?
 
You just have to be
patient.
 
But the important thing
for everyone concerned is that you are helping Brad now.
 
And, you paid back all the money that
Jonathan ever stole in New York.
 
How could they possibly think you were a willing party in all this, when
you've behaved honestly throughout?”

“Well, not always honestly.
 
I didn’t tell them about Jonathan when
we were all sitting around having that cozy meal at Tavern on the Green.
 
I should have gone to the police
then.
 
If I had, maybe none of this
would have happened.”

“But they can hardly blame you for
that!
 
All you wanted was a quick
divorce, freedom from the monster you had married.
 
Believe me, they’ll understand.”
 

Kelly continued, “Zaira, for what
it is worth, I honestly don’t think your telling them then would have made any
difference.
 
Jonathan would have
had to spend months setting up this whole campaign against Brad, so even if you
had told them the truth, he probably would have gone ahead with it anyway.