The Dead and the Beautiful (15 page)

Nikki exhaled and turned to Jeremy. “Sit down.”

“I don't want to sit down.”

“Jeremy—” Nikki started.

“I made a mistake, okay?” Alison surprised them both with the strength of her voice. “I did a lot of stupid things in my early twenties. You already knew that.”

“What did you do?”

Nikki felt so bad. For both of them.

“What'd you do, Alison? And I want the truth.”

She looked down at the floor. “I made an X-rated film.”

“You what?”

“Jeremy, please.” Nikki reached for his arm. They were all standing in the relatively small space between the kitchen counter and the island. “Let's sit down and talk about this.”

“You made pornography?” Jeremy asked his sister.

She pressed her lips together, tears running down her cheeks. But she didn't fall apart.

Good for you,
Nikki thought.
Hang in there, sweetie.

“When? This year?” Jeremy demanded. He wasn't shouting, but there was no doubt about his anger.

“No, of course not. A long time ago. Before I met Farid. It was a small production company. We made it out in the desert. They only printed a few copies. It was a bad film. Even for porn. I never thought anyone would ever see it, or make the connection between me and . . . and that girl in the film,” Alison said, speaking quickly but clearly.

Jeremy just stood next to them. Silent. Angry. Staring at his sister.

“I'll move out,” Alison said.

Nikki didn't know what to say, to either of them. She understood why Jeremy was upset, obviously, even if this had nothing to do with Ryan Melton. But she also knew that Jeremy was already aware that Alison had done some foolish things when she was younger. That didn't really change who she was now, did it?

“Jeremy,” Nikki said. “I think you need to be calm and think about this. It happened a long time ago.”

“Pornography?” he said to Nikki. “She made pornography? Why are you defending her?”

“You know why.” Nikki heard her voice crack. “Because someone needs to. Because someone stuck by me when I needed her most. Because Alison is not who she was and someone needs to defend her. It ought to be you. You're her brother, Jeremy.”

“I need a minute.” He held up his hand. Took a breath. “Excuse me.”

Nikki watched him walk out the back door. She didn't know where he was going. Just to cool off, she hoped. He was always so sensible. He'd come to his senses. Wouldn't he?

“I think I . . . we
should
go,” Alison said. “Jocelyn and I. And stay somewhere else. Get our own place.” She reached for her coffee cup. Her hand was shaking. “It would be best. If this gets out . . . it could hurt Jeremy. His business. His kids.”

“He didn't say you had to leave.”

Alison met her gaze. “He didn't tell me to stay, did he?”

“I don't think you're in a position to buy a place right now, are you?” Nikki asked. As far as she knew, Alison hadn't even been looking at properties before Ryan was murdered.

She shrugged. She wasn't drinking her coffee, just holding it. “I guess I could rent. I hate to use my house savings right now, but—”

“You could come to my house,” Nikki blurted. “I have two spare bedrooms. One's full of junk, but we can clean it up.”

“Are you serious?”

“Completely. Maybe it
would
be better,” Nikki said. “To separate the two of you. Give you both a little space.”

“I don't know what to say.” Alison set her cup down. “I don't get it. You and I . . . we were never friends. I . . . I didn't even think you liked me.”

“Well, it's not true. You're a good mother, Alison. You're a good person. I can see that. I know you didn't do this. Kill Ryan Melton, I mean.”

Alison stared at her with those big, brown, teary eyes.

“I want to help you,” Nikki said.

“Lillie says—”

“How do you know you can trust Lillie? How do you know you can trust whoever is paying for your defense? I'm serious, Alison. What if the killer is footing your bill and it turns out not to be an altruistic act? What if the person paying your bill is who really killed Ryan?”

Alison was silent.

Nikki could see that she was teetering on the edge of tears again. “I'm going to prove to Jeremy that you didn't do this, Alison. But you have to start talking to me. And you can't just keep saying that Lillie Lambert told you to be quiet.” She hesitated. “I won't tell anyone what you tell me. Not even Jeremy. Okay?”

Alison stood in front of Nikki, her arms wrapped around herself.

“So come sit down and talk to me.” Nikki took her hand and led her to the kitchen table. She pushed aside a pink bowl with mushy, unidentifiable cereal in the bottom. “Sit down.” She pushed Alison into the chair Jeremy usually sat in. She went back for their cups of coffee, removed Katie's booster seat, and sat down. She slid Alison's cup across the table to her. “Now tell me why Ryan Melton had your porn movie on his laptop.”

Chapter 15

“I
don't know how he found the skin flick,” Alison said in a soft voice. “He had a lot of free time, I guess.” She chewed on her thumbnail. “What with Diara's career taking off the way it has. She was shooting
Casa Capri
, modeling. He didn't have a job. He had no place to be but with her, and she didn't like having him on the set. I guess he sat at home and watched a lot of porn.” She met Nikki's gaze across the table. “I was a bleached blonde then. I don't know how he recognized me. I didn't even use my real name.” She laughed without humor. “Jez Jewel. You know, like Jezebel.” She hesitated. “There's no excuse for what I did. I thought I loved the guy I was with at the time. I was going to make us rich.”

Nikki offered a grim smile. She wouldn't pass judgment. She'd made many a bad decision in her lifetime. “So how did you know Ryan had seen the film?”

“He told me a couple of weeks ago.” She looked away, her eyes tearing up. “Not because he was going to blackmail me or anything. Because he wanted to know if I . . . you know, wanted to have sex with him. He said he liked what he saw in the movie. He didn't care that I'm older now.” It was obvious it was hard for her to talk about it, but she went on. “He said he knew I could be discreet. That it could just be our little secret. He said he was tired of being the good guy when Diara could do whatever she wanted with whomever she wanted.”

This was the second time it was suggested that Diara might have been cheating on Ryan, and from an entirely different source. Maybe there was some truth to it.

“He was angry about money,” Alison continued. “Diara made a lot, but I guess she controlled it all. He said something about her throwing him a few pennies to keep him quiet. To get him to protect her image. They're all about their images, you know. The Fab Four.”

Nikki was trying to absorb everything Alison was saying. “Did you have sex with him?”

She made a face of disgust. “No, of course not.”

“I can understand how that could happen,” Nikki said as diplomatically as possible. “He was really good-looking. And famous . . .”

“I don't sleep around,” Alison answered firmly. “And certainly not with my clients. Besides, he's married.”

“Okay . . . so that day.” Nikki tried to think about what information she'd already gathered. The trick was trying to figure out who was lying and who wasn't. Sadly, her experience had been that there was always someone lying. Sometimes, someone you didn't expect. “You told me you never saw Mars in the house. That you didn't see him until he came outside, after dialing 911.
After
he found Ryan's body by the pool. But that's not true, is it?”

A tear slipped down Alison's cheek. She wiped it off her cheek. “I'm not supposed to tell you anything. Lillie said it could ruin surprises she has for the prosecution.”

“What surprises?” Nikki pressed. She didn't trust Lillie Lambert as far as she could run downhill in the woman's hot pink Jimmy Choo stilettos. She knew that Lillie's job was to get Alison off, but what if she went for a plea bargain instead? The attorney had made her name defending guilty parties. For all Nikki knew, Lillie believed Alison was guilty. So in the end, she didn't really have Alison's best interest at heart.

“I don't know what she wants to keep from the prosecution. We haven't talked that much.”

“So tell me what happened that day. Start from the beginning.” Nikki reached across the table and squeezed Alison's hand. “Tell me the truth. Please.”

Alison took a deep, shuddering breath. “I . . . I arrived at his house about ten-thirty in the morning. I had already picked Stanley and Oliver up at your house.” She gazed off, unseeing. “I left your guys in my van and went into the house to get Muffin.”

“Was Ryan there?”

“He was waiting for me,” she murmured. “He'd just showered. He . . . he was wearing only a towel.”

“Okay.” Nikki drew out the word.

“He . . . he said he'd been watching my movie and that he . . . really wanted to have sex with a porn star.” She shook her head. “I wasn't a star. I wasn't even the lead.”

“What did you tell him?”

“No, of course.”

“Where were you?” Nikki asked. “In his house. Out on the pool deck?”

“No, in the living room. He was sitting on one of the couches when I came in the front door.”

Nikki thought about the layout of the house. There were two steps down into the living room. “You went into his living room?”

“First, I got Muffin's leash from the utility room in the back of the house. Muffin was with Ryan. In the living room. The dog wouldn't come when I called him, so I went into the living room to get him.” She began to chew on her thumbnail again. She didn't look at Nikki. “Ryan, he . . . touched me.” She pressed her hand to her chest. “I shoved him. Hard.”

“Good for you.”

“I wasn't going to let another man do that.” She lifted her lashes. Now she was looking Nikki right in the eye. “Before, I let men manipulate me. I let them hurt me. I can't do that anymore. I can't let Jocelyn think that's okay. No matter how rich they are, like Farid, or how famous.”

“So you pushed Ryan?”

She nodded. “And then I snapped Muffin's leash on his collar and I walked out the door.”

“Where did you go?”

“Runyon Canyon Park. They like it there, Stan and Ollie. And Muffin was learning to get along with the other dogs. That's a good time of day. Not too many people there. Rotties can be really nice dogs. He's just a big clumsy oaf.”

“Okay. Then what?”

“I let the dogs run for a while, and then I took Muffin back to Ryan's house.”

“What time?”

She exhaled. “One, maybe? I had an appointment at three, so I was going to take Stan and Ollie home and be in Bel Air by three. I remember thinking I had enough time, if I didn't hit traffic on the freeway.”

Nikki looked at Alison across the table. “What happened when you got to the Melton/Elliot house?”

“Nothing. I let myself in like I'm supposed to. A lot of my clients don't make me knock. Most of the time, no one's home.”

“Was the door locked?”

Alison shook her head. “The gates have codes, front and back. If the gate's closed, the house is unlocked.”

“But Ryan
was
home.”

“Yeah.” She went on, “I let Muffin loose and I hung the leash on the hook in the utility room.”

“Does he have more than one leash?”

She made a face as if it was a ridiculous question. “Like, ten. Some are designer leashes. He wears a Louis Vuitton collar.”

“You know which one you used that day?”

“Maybe. But I just grab one, any one. I walk him four days a week.”

“So your fingerprints could have been on the leash that killed Ryan?”

“Sure. Ryan's would have been on them, too. He walked Muffin sometimes, too.”

But Ryan didn't strangle himself,
Nikki thought. “Okay. Go on. Did you see Ryan when you dropped Muffin off?”

“Yeah, I was dreading going back in. I even thought about keeping Muffin until Diara got home.”

Nikki noted that Alison was calling Ryan and Diara by their first names. She tried to recall if Alison called all of her star clients by their first names.

“But then, I decided that if I wanted to keep the job, I couldn't be afraid to go into the house. And I needed the job. And I . . . I didn't do anything wrong.”

“Where was Ryan when you dropped Muffin off?”

Alison had pushed her coffee cup aside and now rested her hands on the placemat on the table. “Out by the pool. The French doors were open between the living room and the pool deck.”

The same doors Nikki had walked through that day when she saw Ryan's body.
“Did he speak to you?”

She shook her head. “He just waved as I was on my way out.”

“He was in the pool?”

“No, his lounge chair.” She took a shuddering breath. “Where they found him dead later. When I went through the house, he was sitting in the chair with his back to the house. He didn't even turn around; he just waved. I guess he was just embarrassed by the way he'd behaved.”

“But you definitely saw him when you returned the dog?”

“Definitely.” Alison exhaled. “I can't tell you how relieved I was that he didn't get up and come into the house.”

“And you saw him when you were taking the leash to the utility room, or on your way out of the house?”

“Definitely on my way out.”

Nikki thought for a minute. “So Mars was there then, servicing the fish tanks?”

“No, not then.” Alison hesitated. “I left, but then I got to thinking about the video. I pulled over in the van and I sat for a few minutes. Then I went back.”

“You went back to the house? Why? To talk to Ryan?”

“No, I went back because of the surveillance videos in the house. They have a bunch of cameras. If Diara saw what happened between me and Ryan that morning, I was afraid she would fire me.”

“But
he
propositioned
you.
If you pushed him, she wouldn't have thought you were coming on to him,” Nikki argued. “It would have been obvious what was going on.”

“Would it have mattered? She'd have fired me anyway. So Ryan wouldn't be
tempted
by me.”

“You really think she would have watched the recordings?”

“I was afraid to take the chance. Ryan was smart, but he didn't think things through. I didn't know if he'd think to erase the security recording himself. The thing is, Diara was always reviewing them. She fired two different maids over stuff she saw on the video footage.”

“How does she view them?”

“They had the whole system installed when they moved in. There's a laptop in the kitchen pantry. You can watch the recordings from all of the cameras from there.”

“And erase them?” Nikki said stiffly. “
You
erased the surveillance recordings?”
Which meant the cops also had her fingerprints on the laptop.

She nodded, staring at her hands. “That's when I passed Mars in the hallway. I guess he arrived to work on the fish tanks between the time I dropped Muffin off and went back.”

“Weren't you afraid you'd get fired for doing it?”

“If she saw them, I was going to get fired anyway. I was hoping no one would notice.” Alison pushed hair out of her eyes. “They got erased all the time.”

The back door opened and both turned to see Jeremy walk in.

“Jeremy,” Alison said.

He halted in the middle of the kitchen and hooked his thumb in the direction of the living room. He looked a little lost and obviously still pretty upset. “I'm going to get the girls dressed and take them to the park. Then maybe to a movie. I don't know how late we'll be, so you need to pick up Jocelyn at the high school at two.”

Alison rose from the table. “Jeremy, I feel awful about this.” Her voice quavered. “Can we talk?”

He didn't make eye contact with her. “Not now. I just can't.” He glanced at Nikki. “I know you're going to your mom's. I'll call you later.” The tone of his voice suggested that he was none too happy with Nikki either.

When Jeremy was gone, Nikki and Alison just sat there for a minute. Alison was the first to speak. “I need to talk to Jocelyn, but are you serious about letting us stay with you?”

“I wouldn't offer if I didn't mean it, Alison. You've known me long enough to know that I mean what I say.”

“It's really nice of you. I mean, my own brother . . .” She let her voice fade. “You know, I always wished you and I could be friends. I always admired you so much. You have everything: you're smart, you're beautiful, you've got a great boyfriend, a great career. Your life is so . . . together. I'm not embarrassed to say that I wish I could be more like you.”

She was making Nikki uncomfortable. “You wouldn't say that if you knew the truth,” she said, only half-joking.

Alison closed her eyes and lowered her head for a minute. “Do you really think we can prove to Jeremy that I didn't do this? Because the more I think about it”—she raised her head to look at Nikki again—“the more I realize that even if Lillie gets the charges dropped, that's not going to mean anything to Jeremy. He really thinks I could have murdered someone. What kind of person does he think I am that I could do that to another human being?”

That took Nikki to a place she didn't really want to go to right then. An image of the man she had killed when she was nineteen flashed in her head. She knew Alison knew about it; everyone did. It had been in the papers and on national TV. But so many years had passed, she knew Alison wasn't thinking about Nikki or the incident. She didn't mean anything by her words. She was talking about herself and about her relationship with her brother.

Nikki patted Alison's hand and got up. “Why don't you go to work, and talk to Jocelyn tonight after you pick her up? I don't know that you need to actually
move.
Maybe . . . just stay with me for a few days and give Jeremy some space. You could present it to Jocelyn that way.”

“Give him some space, huh? You think that's all he needs? Space?”

“And a little time,” Nikki said, trying to sound as upbeat as possible. “He'll come to his senses. He's a sensible guy.”