“What about Emily, her assistant? Or even Christina, her stylist?” Ryan shifted closer to Aster, and for once, Aster didn’t shrink away. “Then again, I’m not sure why either one of them would do that to her. They seemed pretty loyal.”
“What was she like to work for?” Aster asked, half of her hoping he’d say she was awful, a total diva, a raging bitch, if only to validate some of her growing suspicions about the spoiled celebrity she’d once admired.
“Exacting, demanding.” Ryan shrugged. “But that’s only because she’s a world-class control freak. It was never personal, though. And when she liked something, she was generous with the rewards. Overall, I’d say she was a lot nicer than a lot of celebrities with half the stature.”
“Okay, so, now that we’ve confirmed we have no idea who’s behind this”—Aster shook her head and sighed—“let’s go over what we do know. Madison is missing, and someone went to the trouble of drugging me and setting me up to look responsible. It’s also possible the same person who framed me is trying to smear Madison by trying to scare Layla into posting Madison’s old diary entries. Diary entries that pretty much prove Madison lived a very different life than the one in her bio.”
“What if—” Layla paused as though weighing whether or not to continue. “I mean, I know I may be reading too much into this and it might be far-fetched, but what’s up with those photographs hanging in Madison’s entryway?”
Aster squinted as Ryan shifted beside her.
“I mean, they seemed so odd—so incongruous.” Looking at Tommy, she explained, “She has these oversize black-and-white prints of run-down interiors, guns resting on broken-down coffee tables with sagging couches in the background. Like, seriously low-rent images, when the rest of her house is super high-end. And for some reason, it’s been bugging me for days. It’s like—you know how liars always have a tell? Well, what if that’s Madison’s tell? What if her lie is right out there in the open—hanging on her walls—for anyone to see? Or at least anyone she invites over. What if those pictures are almost like a taunt, or a dare to uncover the truth about her?”
Aster took a moment to consider, then looked at Ryan and said, “Did you ever ask her about them?”
Ryan scrubbed his fingers over the spread of stubble shading his jawline. “I didn’t. But then again, our relationship was superficial at best. Our agents set us up, and we both went along. Though we did our best to play the part of perfect boyfriend and girlfriend for each other, in the end, when we finally came clean, it was the first time I realized just how tough she really is. Aside from her delicate, patrician looks, there’s absolutely nothing fragile about Madison Brooks. Every now and then I’d get a glimpse of the real, less-refined Madison. But it wasn’t often. Mostly she stuck to the role she’d created for herself. But yeah, with that in mind, the pics don’t seem all that out of place.”
“You say she was tough—but do you think she was tough enough to drain her own blood and fake her own abduction?” Aster said. “Because those needles and collection tubes in Paul’s office have me leaning in that direction.”
“But again, why would she frame you?” Layla asked. “According to what Ryan just said, she wasn’t all that upset about you guys hooking up. If anything, she found a way to use it to her advantage.”
“Honestly, I don’t know what to think anymore,” Ryan said. “Madison is definitely
capable of all of it, sure. She may very well be hanging out on some tropical island, laughing at all of us, like we said before. But while I really hate to think she’d be so calculating and vindictive, well, the opposite scenario isn’t much better, because it means she really is in deep trouble.”
He closed his eyes and sighed, and Aster couldn’t help but marvel at how far he’d come from the shallow celebrity she’d first fallen for. Then again, intense public scrutiny and a show cancellation would do that to a person, leaving them with no choice but to grow or fold. After all she’d been through, the old Ryan was someone she couldn’t even imagine falling for now. But this new version was well on his way to earning a place in her heart.
“One more thing about Ira, if I may . . .” Tommy went on to tell them all about the paper with the cartoon cat Tommy had seen in Ira’s office, followed by the fat cash-filled envelope Ira had instructed him to deliver to James. “I don’t know if it means anything, or if it’s even connected, but I’m also not sure we should be so quick to call it a coincidence either.”
A hush fell over them as they took a moment to contemplate and Aster dumped the rest of the papers onto the table, leaving them for everyone to sort through. Aside from occasional shuffling, the room was otherwise silent.
Until Layla said, “Guys—I think I’ve got something.” She waved an old yellowed newspaper clipping before them. “It’s brief—just a piece from the police blotter—but I think it proves Madison wasn’t lying about the fire that killed both her parents and left her an orphan.”
West Virginia—Two people are dead and two injured, one critically, in a house fire that took place early Thursday morning. The fire was called in shortly after four a.m., and by the time firefighters arrived on the scene, the house was completely engulfed.
While the exact cause of the fire remains under investigation, fire officials said they are looking into the possibility of a double homicide and arson.
The identities of the victims are being withheld pending notification of family.
We’ll have more as this story develops.
“It says two are injured.” Ryan frowned. “Madison was for sure one of them, but who was the other?”
“Did she have a sister or brother?” Aster sipped from her water.
“Not that she ever mentioned, though of course that doesn’t mean anything. She wasn’t big on sharing. And what’s this about a double homicide? Does that mean the fire was intentionally set in order to cover the crime?”
“This is giving me the creeps.” Aster pulled a baby alpaca throw from the arm of the couch and wrapped it around herself.
“Is there anything else? Any follow-up articles?” Tommy asked.
Layla flipped quickly through the stack. “Not that I can see, though I’m not sure it matters. I mean, maybe it has nothing to do with Madison.”
“Oh, it’s about Madison,” Ryan said. “It’s from a West Virginia paper, and we’ve already discovered that’s where she’s really from, thanks to those journal entries.”
“So, what do we do—run a Google search on West Virginia trailer park fires dating back to what—2006?” Aster asked.
“Doesn’t say anything about a trailer park,” Layla snapped. “In fact, you may not know this, but there’s a whole world that exists outside of swanky gated communities and luxury condos, and it’s not just relegated to trailer parks. In fact, it’s how most people live.”