Read Online Jaine Austen 1 - This Pen for Hire by Laura Levine - Free Book Online Page A

up half my drink in a single gulp, “tell me about Stacy. Did you like her?”
    “Sure. Stacy was great.” It was Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate all over again. “I liked her a lot.”
    “In spite of the fact that she stole your boyfriend?”
    Jasmine stirred her smoothie cautiously.
    “Who told you that?”
    “I have my sources.”
    “Okay, so I didn’t like her. Nobody did. She was an arrogant, self-centered bitch. But that doesn’t mean I killed her.”
    “Of course not. I don’t for a minute think you had anything to do with her death,” I lied.
    Jasmine took a mini-sip of her smoothie, somewhat mollified.
    “But just for the record, where were you the night of the murder?”
    “If you must know,” she sniffed, huffy again, “I was home alone, exfoliating.”
    “Exfoliating?”
    “Leg wax, bikini wax, eyebrow shaping. Once a month I devote an evening to getting rid of unwanted hair.”
    My mind boggled. If a stunner like Jasmine was home waxing her loins on Valentine’s Day, what hope was there for mere mortals like me and Elaine Zimmer?
    “Do you have any idea who might have killed Stacy?”
    She took a deep breath, clearly reluctant to speak.
    “I probably shouldn’t be talking to you like this, but I could really use that hundred thousand.”
    “Go on,” I urged.
    “Well,” she sighed, “it could be Andy.”
    “Andy?”
    “Andy Bruckner. Stacy’s boyfriend. My ex.”
    Ah, the hotshot agent Cameron had told me about. I recognized his name. Andy Bruckner was a major player in Hollywood, a partner at Creative Talent, one of the most powerful agencies in town. CTA represented an impressive roster of directors and writers, the kind of people who earn more money in a year than your average third-world country.
    “I think Stacy may have been blackmailing Andy,” Jasmine said.
    “What makes you say that?”
    “It’s just a feeling I have. These past few months, Stacy seemed to be buying a lot of expensive things. Diamond earrings. A new stereo. She even bragged that Andy was going to buy her a BMW.”
    “How do you know Andy didn’t give those to her as gifts?”
    “Hey, I dated the guy. Andy will spring for dinner and an occasional cashmere sweater. But that’s about it. You don’t date a guy like Andy Bruckner for gifts.”
    “What do you date him for?”
    All of you out there who think she’s about to say “love” or “affection” or “intellectual stimulation,” go straight to the back of the class and put on your dunce caps.
    “You date him for contacts. Andy knows every producer on every lot in Hollywood.”
    “But what did Stacy have on Andy to blackmail him with?”
    “She probably threatened to tell his wife about their affair.”
    “Andy’s married?”
    “Of course. They all are,” she said plaintively. “Before Andy was cheating on me with Stacy, he was cheating on his wife with me. Of course, he was still cheating on his wife when he was cheating on me with Stacy….”
    Ah, what a tangled web we weave when we’re a lecherous agent with a penchant for pretty young things.
    “Isn’t it possible that Andy might have decided to leave his wife for Stacy? Or that his wife knew about his cheating, and didn’t care?”
    “No, it’s not possible,” Jasmine said firmly. “Andy likes to fool around, but he’d never give up his wife.”
    “Why?”
    “Catherine Owens Bruckner is old L.A. money. Tall, cool, beautiful. Very WASPier-than-thou. She’s a Jewish-boy-from-Brooklyn’s dream come true. The perfect trophy wife. He’d never give her up.”
    “He wouldn’t trade her in for someone younger and firmer?”
    “No way. Andy likes being part of Catherine’s Old Money world. Besides, the alimony payments would kill him.”
    “How touching,” I said, slurping down the last of my Banana Blast.
    “So maybe Andy killed Stacy to shut her up,” Jasmine opined.
    Maybe, indeed.
    “Well, I’d better go,” she said, sliding down from her stool.