Chapter 16
ALISON
Bikram yoga was my favorite way to work off a long night, but thanks to a crazy work schedule over the last two months, I'd fallen off the wagon. Going this morning reinvigorated my soul and made everything look brighter. I couldn't miss it ever again.
Sarah collapsed next to me, panting. "God, that sucked."
"Or was amazing."
"It was so hot. Why was it so hot?" She groaned and grabbed for her phone. "I'm never doing this hungover ever again."
"Sure you will," I teased. She may have felt miserable, but I felt amazing. And later, I would meet up with Jack for a real date and we would make real plans. That alone made the day extra special.
"Oh, fuck."
"You'll survive." I rolled my head over to look at her. "This is just a few minutes of temporary anguish to reset your entire soul, Sarah."
"No. This." Sarah shoved her phone at me.
I had to read the headline twice to process it. "What? This...this can't be real."
I pulled out my own phone and searched for Jack’s name. The story was picked up by all the usual garbage sites, but also places like CNN and NBC, which meant he really was detained and there really was a problem.
"There's no way he did this." I pictured how tortured his face was when he told me about his time in prison, and what got him there. The Jack that I knew, the Jack that bared his soul to me last night, would never do this. "I need to go see him."
"Go," Sarah urged. "I'll grab an Uber. He needs you."
"I'm sorry." I grabbed my things and shoved them into my bag, already halfway out the door. "I'll call you!"
Bobby was my first call. "Tell me you know where he is."
"This is the biggest pile of bullshit. Were you at the party last night?" Bobby sounded pissed. "I need as many character witnesses as I can get. I need your help."
"Whatever you need. Just tell me where to find him."
I was there in twenty minutes because Los Angeles traffic was a goddamn nightmare, but I went as fast as I could, calling everyone I could from the set to ask about last night. No one saw anything. Half of them didn't even remember seeing Holly there. The whole thing was painfully suspicious, but I didn't want to leap to any conclusions until I saw him and heard his side of the story.
Walking into a police station was something I never felt comfortable doing, and they certainly didn't make the process welcoming. I was on edge enough as it was, but my heart sank when I finally got to see Jack. He looked awful.
"I know you didn't do it," I told him, passion dripping from my voice. "I know you didn't do this."
He flashed me a bright smile, but I could see the hurt underneath it. "I was worried you'd never talk to me again."
"I came as soon as I heard. Bobby and I are working with your lawyer to clear all this up. We'll fight this, okay? We'll do this together. It won't be like last time. It won't."
All I wanted to do was hug him. He squeezed my hand. "Thank you, Alison, for believing in me, even when you don't have a reason to."
"I have every reason to," I promised. "What happened last night?"
His head dropped to his chest and his voice went quiet. "I don't know. After you left, it's a total blur. I sort of remember pissing on a car in the parking lot, but after that...nothing. I think I talked to Josh, but it's all fuzzy as fuck. I didn't even think I drank that much, Alison. I have no idea what happened."
"Josh, eh?" Of course. Of fucking course. "No one seems to remember even really seeing Holly there. I guess she came in late or something, and no one saw you two together."
He just shrugged and looked at the door, like all he wanted was to escape.
"Look, I'm not saying this is for certain, but..." I frowned. "A few weeks ago, after you and Josh had that last big fight, I came across Holly and Josh talking in his trailer. He made Holly promise to do something when I walked in. I didn't hear what. After that, he went on a tirade about the script and…you. Did they do anything to you after that?"
"No, nothing. We got our shit together and finished filming. What would he make her promise?"
I chewed on my lip. "I don't know, but I wonder if it had something to do with this. What if he set this up with Holly to tank your reputation, and only pretended to play nice with you last night? He could’ve somehow forced her to go along with it. Convinced her she’d never work in Hollywood again if she didn’t. After all, his dad has that kind of power. And if he got you convicted, you wouldn't be able to go on the promo tour. He'd step up. He'd be given an opportunity to save everything that you allegedly ruined.”
“I dunno.”
I pressed on. “What were you guys talking about last night when I got there?"
"He was showing me stupid dog videos. We both like Huskies and he found a whole series. He didn't look at all like he was going to fuck me over. Why would Holly even do this?" His eyes were wet. "We were always cool, you know? She never really hit on me, I treated her like a little sister. I never...I would never..."
"You know, maybe Josh has something on Holly that he threatened to leak. That girl is pushing hard to be taken seriously and if she felt like her opportunities could be ruined... maybe it was self-preservation. I don't know. But I really feel like Josh has something to do with this. He never liked you, and all of a sudden, he's trying to be pals? It doesn't add up."
"Maybe."
"I hate actors." I rubbed my eyes. "I'm meeting with Bobby after this. I'll tell him what I know and see if there's anything your lawyer can do." I took his hand again. "Jack, I'm not leaving you, okay? I'm staying here with you. I'm going to work to prove your innocence."
His smile lacked warmth, full of sharp teeth. "We can't even say I didn't do it, Alison. They have pictures. They have proof."
"Don't you know, Jack? This is Hollywood. If they can make a dog talk, they can make a photo look incriminating."
His tough guy act finally broke. I could only see it in his eyes, but it was there, that warmth I missed. "Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you for believing in me."
"You mean so much to me, Jack," I whispered back. "We'll get through this."
Bobby and I decided to help dig up as much dirt as we could on Josh. His involvement was written all over it, we just needed to figure out how. What I really needed, more than anything, was to talk to Holly. Unfortunately, she was constantly surrounded by paparazzi and press, the vultures desperate to get more dirt for their story.
I didn't trust her as far as I could throw her, but I needed to find out what Josh had on her and see if she'd be willing to confess the whole thing was bullshit. The fact that no one at the party saw or heard anything, or saw them go off together, really made me think this was heavily orchestrated. I just couldn't prove it outside of a gut feeling.
So that’s what I needed to work on—I needed to find real proof.
But god knows how long that would take…
***
I visited Jack as often as I could over the next couple of months, trying to lift his spirits, but not much seemed to work. He looked completely broken and there was nothing I could do but keep trying as the trial date approached. I did my best to keep his spirits up, but it got harder as the weeks passed.
Finally, Holly agreed to meet me. She’d picked up a small guest appearance on a TV show on the lot, so I hurried over to meet her on a break.
"Thanks for meeting me." I hugged her. "I'm sure this has been really difficult for you."
"So hard." Holly looked distressed. "I just want to forget it, but everyone keeps bringing it up."
"Unfortunately, I'm going to have to do the same." I tried to look apologetic. "The studio is trying to deal with liability, you know, for the film. What happened?"
She almost looked annoyed, but instead took a sip of water and gave me a rundown of the exact same story she'd been telling all the news outlets. She stopped by, was fed a few drinks, and wanted to go home. On the way out, she spotted Jack and he offered to take her home, but instead took her back to his trailer and tried to have his way with her. She was too terrified to say no for fear of her career.
"It was so scary, Alison. I just want to do my job, you know? I've heard stories about people getting propositioned like that for roles and stuff, but I never thought it would happen to me."
Oh, she was good. Very good. Except I didn't believe a single thing that came out of her mouth.
"I don't know if you remember, but there was a day on set when filming was temporarily shut down because of a fight between Josh and Jack. I found you and Josh running lines in his trailer afterwards."
"Oh, I remember. I guess we should have seen this coming after that fight they had. I just... you vouched for him, you know? And I trusted you. But please don't think this is your fault! The show ended and your job was done. He waited to take advantage of me when he was free. It's not your fault."
She looked at me with big, wet eyes, and I had never felt so murderous in my life. I swallowed it all down, though. I needed her on my side. "Thank you so much. I've just felt terrible. Look, this might be a weird thing to ask, but it's one of those silly things I couldn't forget about. When you were with Josh that afternoon, I heard him make you promise something, but when I walked in, he started ranting about Jack. What was it that you guys were talking about? What did he make you promise to do for him, Holly?”
Holly kept her expression carefully blank, but there was a very slight tremor in her lower lip that I didn’t miss. Ha. I knew it. I knew there was something.
"I…I don't think I remember a conversation like that. I mean, we were running lines, so are you sure you didn't just hear us doing that?" she said in a small voice.
"You know, that's what I thought, but I don't remember that being in the script."
She cast her eyes down, almost whispering now. "Josh was always looking to improvise. He didn't like the script much."
"I thought about that, but I couldn't figure out what he would be referring to, either. I mean, it's not really something his character would say, you know?"
She looked up. "Well, that's why he's the actor and not you, right?"
“Holly, what does Josh have on you?” I asked, narrowing my eyes and cutting right to the chase. “I know he threatened you, made you claim Jack did this. Just tell me how he threatened you. I can help.”
Holly ignored my question, offered a tight smile and slid off her chair. "I’m sorry. I have to go. It was good to see you again, Alison, but I'm afraid my break is over. Thanks…um…thanks for coming to say hi."
Holly left before I could stop her, and in that moment, I felt completely and utterly powerless. I desperately wanted to help Jack, more than anything. An innocent man going to jail once was horrible. But twice?
Things had never looked so terribly bleak.