Geoffrey set his jaw. “We were never a couple. I was just a friend.”
Yes. Like they say, I’d rather be lucky than good. “What did she tell you about Dale?”
“Just that he was a pain in the ass. She kind of liked the idea of dating a cop; it was a change of pace for her. But she said he gave her a lot of shit.”
“About what?”
A defiant look crossed his face. “I don’t know. She didn’t really say.”
“Bullshit. It was about using. She was back on the needle.”
Geoffrey stared at me for a long moment, then slowly nodded. “I was actually on his side about that.” He looked out the window, his expression bleak. “I couldn’t believe it when I found out. She went through hell to get clean and put her life back together. Watching her slide back down, inch by inch… it killed me.”
“You tried to get her to stop?”
He sighed. “It was maddening. She’d promise, I’d believe her. And then I’d catch her on the nod.” Geoffrey shook his head. “The day she died, I heard she’d had to leave the set. I found her in her trailer. Getting sick.” He looked at me. “I knew that meant she’d just shot up. But this time she didn’t try to deny it. She said she knew she was out of control.” He swallowed hard. “She asked me for help. She’d never done that before.”
“Then her source had to be on the lot.” She wouldn’t have waited to shoot up in her trailer if she’d scored before she got to work.
Geoffrey’s eyes moved from me to Alex, then back again. “I’m pretty sure I know who it is. But if I tell you, you’ll have to cover me.”
Studio lots were little Peyton Places, and Geoffrey didn’t want to get branded as a snitch. “If we can’t find anything to link him up to Chloe’s murder, this goes nowhere.”
Geoffrey looked behind him, then spoke in a low voice. “It’s not a ‘him,’ it’s a ‘her.’ Jaylene Thomas. She’s a PA-uh, production assistant.”
Low on the totem pole, it was a job that involved running around the lot all day. A great gig for a dealer. We got a description: five foot six, medium build, short black hair, and a nose ring. “Do you know whether Chloe saw her after you two talked in her trailer?”
“No, but she could have. Chloe was scheduled to do the last shot of the day, so she was here pretty late.”
Geoffrey told us we could probably find Jaylene somewhere between Building 26 and the trailers. I thanked him. He gave me a curt nod and headed back to the writers’ room. We went out to see if we could head Jaylene off at the pass.
“You crossing him off the list?” Alex asked.
“For now. He doesn’t feel right to me. You?”
“Agreed. I think he probably did want to be more than a friend, but I don’t buy him as a killer. You really think a five-foot-six girl could’ve killed two women?” Alex asked.
“I can’t afford to be picky-or sexist-right now. I need suspects.”
But as it turned out, Jaylene was a better prospect than I’d anticipated. We found her coming out of Building 26 with a cigarette behind her ear and a lighter in her hand. Perfect.
I stepped up to her, just out of swinging range. “Jaylene?”
She turned and peered at me. “Angus is up now; I’m on break.” She pulled out the cigarette and lit it.
“I’m not on the show. I just wanted to talk to you for a minute. We’re looking into Chloe’s death and-”
Jaylene blew out a stream of smoke. “You a cop?”
“No. I’m Samantha Brinkman-”
Jaylene stared for a moment, then moved closer and poked a finger at my chest. “You’re that fucker’s lawyer, aren’t you? Well, you can go screw yourself.”
I pushed her hand away. “Yeah, ’cause you were such a good friend to her.”
Jaylene dropped her cigarette and came at me, her right fist cocked. Alex jumped between us and pushed her back, saving me from a trip to the hospital. He held on to her, his back to me.
Safe now, with Alex holding her in check, I got in her face. “You’re the one who was ruining her life, selling her that-”
“You’re full of crap!” Jaylene spit her words at me over Alex’s shoulder. “She was about to have a nervous breakdown, but no one cared. They just wanted to use her. I was the only one who gave a shit about her. I don’t care what anyone says. She couldn’t have made it through one fucking day without me!”
She threw Alex’s arm off her shoulder and stomped away. I watched her go.
“I get the feeling Chloe was more than just a customer to our buddy Jaylene,” Alex said.
I nodded. “Let’s find out if Jaylene has an alibi.”
“I’m on it.”
THIRTY-FIVE
When we got back to the office, Michelle greeted us with an announcement. “The grand jury just handed down a true bill. Dale’s been indicted.”
I just nodded. It was a measure of how shitty things were that this almost qualified as good news. At this point, any news that didn’t include yet another dead woman in Dale’s life was cause for celebration.
“And I actually got somewhere on Marc Palmer-the guy who did some modeling gigs with Paige. He was pretty active on Facebook, and his friends are still posting on his page. I got some background.” Michelle read from her monitor. “He moved out to LA from Blencoe, Iowa, three years ago, but he just started modeling last year. Seems like he met Paige at his first modeling gig.”
“Did you find any articles about his death? Any indication how he wound up in Malibu?”
Michelle shook her head. “It was just a local news story. The coroner couldn’t be sure how long he’d been in the water. Said it was more than a day, maybe as long as ten days. There were signs of blunt-force trauma, but that might’ve happened after he fell into the water.”
“Any information on whether he was drinking or drugging?”
“Both. He had a.13 blood alcohol level and a pretty high level of cocaine. Plus, he was nude. It sounds to me like he was partying on the beach and went for a swim, or maybe fell off a boat.”
“But no one reported it.”
“Maybe because everyone else was high, too, and didn’t notice he was gone until it was too late,” Alex said. “And then they were afraid to get involved.”
That sounded sadly plausible. “When did they find his body?”
Michelle looked back at her monitor. “March fifteenth.”
“Six days after Paige died,” Alex said.
What had been just a vague notion now seemed to be solidifying into a real possibility. I might actually be able to sell a connection between Marc’s and Paige’s deaths. “I want to talk to Marc’s buddies. Michy, do you have enough there to track them down?”
“Sure, if they’re in the mood to cooperate. If not… all I have are Facebook handles.”
Alex smiled. “I can probably work with that.”
I put my hands on my hips. “You’re on probation, remember? I can’t afford to lose you.”
“They’ll never catch me.”
I didn’t like the idea of him taking any risks, but I knew he was that good. And besides, we needed to see where this led. “Okay. But if anyone bitches about how you got their number, have a good cover story ready.”
Alex put his hands on his hips. “Please. I started social engineering when I was eleven.”
Of course he had. “Okay, but keep it tight. It’s not about Marc per se. It’s about Marc’s connection to Paige. So we only want people who knew Paige.”
Michelle stood up and rolled her shoulders. “How’d you guys do today?”
I didn’t feel like talking about Dale, so I just told her about Geoffrey and Jaylene. When I threw out the possibility that Jaylene might be the killer, Michelle raised an eyebrow. “You’re saying a woman stabbed both of them?”