Chapter Twenty-One
Waking up late the next morning, I stumbled to the bathroom to get some painkillers. My face was throbbing painfully and I just wanted to get back in my bed and sleep the pain away. Knowing that wasn't a real possibility, I showered and got ready for the day. I walked out of the bathroom. Sean looked up at me and winced.
"Really," I said. "I can't look that bad."
"No, of course not," he said. "You look fine."
I looked at him sourly. "Little hint that will help you with all future dealings with women. You do not lie well. Either be completely honest or don't say anything."
"I'll take that advice on board," he said seriously.
"You do that," I chuckled.
Sean looked nervous.
"Okay buddy," I said. "Talk to me. There's obviously something you want to say."
"What you did for me yesterday, I don't know how to thank you. I feel like I should do something but I don't know what to do."
"Sean, I don't know what to say," I said. "Can't we just forget about it?"
"You don't understand," said Sean. "My mom would have left me to face that alone. She even told them when I walked in that they had me now, they should let her go. My mom did that. When he pointed that gun at my head, I figured who would care if I died if my own mom didn't. Then you walked in and saved my life by putting yours in danger. No one has ever done anything like that for me before. I don't know how to deal with it."
"Then don't," I said, as I started rattling plates and getting breakfast organized. "It's part of the past now. Look at this as your second chance. What I want is for you to work out what you want to do with your life and chase after it. Live every moment of your life because now you know how amazing it is to be alive."
"You sound like you're talking from experience."
"I am," I said.
Sean got up and gave me a hug. "You're pretty awesome."
"Even though I'm not hot?" I teased.
"You are never going to let me forget that are you?" he said.
"No way, I am going to have that hanging over your head for the rest of your life."
The ringing of my phone interrupted us.
"Yes," I answered, still smiling at Sean.
"I need you to come and pick me up now. I am not staying in this place for one moment longer," the dulcet tones of Eleanor Channing came screeching down the phone.
I winced. I know that I hadn't held out much hope for her staying at the relaxation center for very long, but I had hoped she'd last longer than a couple of days.
"I'll be there as soon as I can," I said resignedly and hung up before she could start complaining. "Work's calling," I said to Sean. "I'll probably be out the rest of the day. If you need anything ask Miss Betsy."
"You're trusting me to stay alone in your home," said Sean.
"Sure, you've got a reason why I shouldn't?"
"No, just not many people would."
I shrugged as I stuck a piece of toast in my mouth.
Hurrying out, I knocked on Miss Betsy's door.
"I have to go to work," I said. "Could you please give Sean a hand if he needs it."
"Of course, sugar," she said smiling.
Driving up to the Happy Valley Relaxation Center, I found myself smiling. Sure I was driving to pick up one of the more annoying human beings on the planet and the chances that she had some illicit substances in her system were kind of high. Hopefully she was going to be mellow. Unfortunately, the way that my luck had been going lately, I wasn't thinking my chances were too good. Getting through security proved to be fun and by the time I actually got inside the center, I have to say my patience had been stretched as far as it could go.
This was not helped when Eleanor's first words to me were, "what took you so long?"
"Traffic," I snapped at her.
I organized the paperwork with a very grateful staff member and hustled Eleanor into the car.
"I need you to take me to Jennifer Saunders' house," she directed.
"Why on earth do you need to go there?" I asked.
"She contacted me and asked me to visit so we could sort out the lawsuit."
"Don't you think it would be better if you just left it to the lawyers?" I said.
"No, I heard that I missed out on getting a reading for that movie script I wanted because of my situation with Emily and Ryan. Emily's father is pulling some strings to screw me over."
"And you think suing his other daughter is the way to fix this." Sometimes I really wondered about people.
"No, but if I point out that I'm willing to drop the lawsuit if she has a word with her father..." she trailed off.
"Miss Channing, there is a reason that you pay a lot of money to your lawyers and manager. Don't you think that this kind of negotiation would be better left to them?"
"No, Jennifer wants to talk to me. Besides it'll do that family good to have to beg for once."
I concentrated on the road. Sometimes I seriously dislike the people that I work for and this would be one of those moments. I liked Jennifer Saunders. I didn't want to have to watch her beg to an entitled diva like Eleanor Channing.
Jennifer greeted us at the front door with an effusive smile.
"Thank you so much for coming, I'm really hoping that we can work this situation out and put the unpleasantness behind us."
"There wouldn't be any unpleasantness if your father and sister would put aside the situation with Ryan," Eleanor said sweetly.
I was beginning to feel ill. I felt sorry for Jennifer. With Eleanor's star power, she could crush Jennifer's business with one Twitter rant.
"I think we can work this out," I said, trying to be the peacemaker yet again.
Eleanor didn't look convinced.
"Maybe a business collaboration," Jennifer ventured. "We are currently releasing an organic fruit and vegetable detox cleansing diet. I'm sure we could work out a campaign between us that puts you front and center. All natural, all organic. In fact why don't you try some?"
Jennifer busied herself in the kitchen juicing the vegetables and I sat next to Eleanor.
"I'm bored," she complained. I struggled not to roll my eyes.
"You are the one who wanted to come here," I said, exasperated at this sudden change in mood.
"Only because I wanted to see what Ryan saw in her," she said as she picked at the fabric on the couch.
"Ryan was engaged to Emily," I reminded her.
"Well yes, but he was sleeping with Jennifer first."
"But she's married," I said, my jaw dropping.
Eleanor simply looked at me like I was an idiot, and you know what, I kind of had to agree with her. I was an idiot. I was reminded of my visit here and the way Jennifer had spoken about her husband, as if he wasn't really present in the marriage anymore. Lonely, neglected wife with a husband caught up in his activism. I could see why falling for sexy Ryan Hendricks would be easy to do.
"Here we are," announced Jennifer as she walked back in the room. Passing a glass to Eleanor and me, she smiled. "To better understanding," she said and started drinking from her own glass.
Eleanor brought the drink to her lips and took a sip. "That's really not bad," she said, taking a second sip.
As I raised the glass to my lips, my phone rang and I saw that it was Griffin.
Putting the glass down, I said, "I'm sorry, I've got to take this." Stepping through the large doors at the back of the house, I answered the phone as I looked out over the national park that came up to the back of the property.
"Hi," I said, feeling a bit tongue tied.
"Hi," said Griffin.
There was silence.
"Can I help you with something?" I asked.
Griffin cleared his throat. "Uh yeah, I just thought I'd let you know that they've done further testing on Ryan Hendricks and they found something."
"A new drug?" I asked.
"No," he said. "It seems that Ryan Hendricks died of oleander poisoning. Oleander is a plant that grows naturally. It's actually pretty common."
"I know what oleander is," I said. "There was some on the farm when I was growing up and it poisoned some of the sheep. My dad and I had to dig it out."
"Yeah well, this stuff is nasty. It can poison you just by being on your skin. We don't know yet how it got into Ryan."
A sick feeling started in the bottom of my stomach.
"Griffin," I said, lowering my voice. "I am currently standing on the rear porch of a house that backs onto national park. I was here a few days ago and the park has oleander bushes growing near the fence."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"I almost sprained my wrist pulling out those plants at home. Believe me I know what they look like and I am looking at a bush that is about fifteen feet high, growing over the fence just in front of me."
"Trudie, they are everywhere. It's a common plant in LA. What makes you think that these are the oleander bushes that poisoned Ryan?" Griffin asked patiently.
"Because I am standing in Jennifer Saunders' house. Jennifer's company supplies an organic diet juice that I saw in Ryan's refrigerator, which means he was drinking it before his death. Did you know that Jennifer was sleeping with Ryan until he left her for her sister?"
I looked through the door and saw Jennifer pouring more juice into Eleanor's glass.
"Griffin," I said, moving quickly. "I need you to get here right now. I think Jennifer is trying to poison Eleanor Channing."
As Eleanor raised the glass again, I raced inside and grabbed hold of it, put it rather forcefully on the coffee table and grabbed Eleanor's arm.
"I'm sorry," I said, with a forced smile on my lips. "That was just a phone call from Eleanor's manager. We need to get to a meeting with him right away."
"No we don't," Eleanor said.
"Yes we do," I said, forcefully gripping her arm, pulling her towards the front door.
"I don't think you should leave just now," said Jennifer and I heard an ominous click behind us.
Turning around, I saw Jennifer and for the second time in twenty-four hours, I had a gun pointed straight at me.
"Jennifer," I said quietly. "What are you doing?"
"You know, don't you?" she said.
"I don't know anything Jennifer," I said as calmly as I could. "I just need to get Eleanor home."
"Why do you care? She's a horrible person. Just like Emily. They don't care who they hurt."
Eleanor had finally worked out that keeping her mouth shut was the best course of action.
"Ryan loved me," Jennifer said. "He made me happy. Do you know how long it's been since someone made me happy? All Josh cares about is his causes. He doesn't even see me anymore. Ryan saw me."
"What happened?" I asked.
"Emily found out about us and just because I had him, she went after him. She's been like that ever since we were kids. The main reason I married Josh is because he was never interested in Emily. I didn't work out until later that he wasn't really interested in me either. Ryan fell for it, just like every other guy. He left me and got engaged to her."
I nodded. No way did I want to say anything that was going to set the unhinged woman with the gun off. I was ready to elbow Eleanor if she so much as took an intake of breath, because nothing that came out of that mouth was going to help our situation.
"She was always throwing it in my face, that she took him away from me, that he wanted her more. And then he was sleeping with so many other women. Why wasn't I enough?"
Seeing the tears in her eyes, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Of course, feeling sorry for her didn't negate what I thought she'd done to Eleanor.
"You poisoned Ryan didn't you?" I asked as gently as I could.
Jennifer nodded. "I couldn't let Emily have him."
"Jennifer, have you given Eleanor some of that poison?"
Again Jennifer nodded. Eleanor gasped and went to step forward but I used that elbow to good effect.
"I need to get Eleanor to a hospital, Jennifer," I said.
"No," said Jennifer, her resolve suddenly stiffening and the gun which had started to lower was once again pointing at us. "She was trying to steal Ryan away from Emily. She's just as bad as Emily is. I can't hurt Emily, she's my sister, but I can get rid of Eleanor."
"Please, Jennifer, don't do this," I pleaded, my eyes firmly on the gun.
"I have to," she said, and I could see her swing the gun towards Eleanor.
Eleanor screamed and as I went to push her out of the way, I felt a searing pain in my right side and then nothing.