Read Online Shooting for the Stars by R. G. Belsky - Free Book Online Page A

that first day on the serial killer angle.
    â€œSo how come you’re still a newspaper reporter?” she asked me at one point. “You’re a talented guy. Don’t you want to do something better than that?”
    â€œSome of us think of it as a noble calling.”
    â€œNewspapers are dying.”
    â€œSo I hear.”
    â€œTV, the web, social media—that’s how people are getting their news these days.”
    â€œGee, you sound like my city editor.”
    â€œHave you ever thought about going into television?”
    â€œI don’t think it would be a good idea.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI’ve got a big mouth and I annoy people.”
    â€œSounds like you’d be perfect for TV,” she laughed.
    I wasn’t sure if I would ever see her again. I mean I didn’t know if this was supposed to be a date or a business meeting or what. But, before we left, she said to me, “We should do this again, Gil.”
    â€œDefinitely,” I said.
    â€œDinner soon?”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œIt’s a date then,” she said.
    On my way home, I couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened that evening.
    I mean I’d just had dinner with TV celebrity Abbie Kincaid.
    And she wanted to see me again.
    Me and Abbie Kincaid.
    Zowie!

Chapter 10
    I SAW Abbie a few more times after that.
    Once, she simply called me up unexpectedly and asked me if I’d like to hang out with her again. I asked her where she wanted to go, and she said nowhere. Told me she just wanted to kick back and relax for a night without being out in public. She asked if she could come over to my place.
    We ordered pizza and watched a Laura Marlowe movie on TV. The first one, Lucky Lady . I found it on Netflix and thought it might be fun to watch a few minutes of it with Abbie. We wound up watching the whole thing. Neither of us talked a lot during the movie, we just kept watching Laura Marlowe on the screen. She was simply mesmerizing. So young, so beautiful, so talented. She had the whole world, her entire future ahead of her then. Instead, it would end too soon in tragedy.
    When the movie was over, Abbie made a call on her cell phone and a few minutes later Vincent showed up. She hugged me and gave me a kiss on the cheek before she left. Vincent stared at me the entire time. I gave him my best hard stare back. I don’t think he liked me any better than the first time we met. But that was okay. I was getting used to it.
    The next time I saw Abbie was completely different. She took me to some fancy restaurant on the Upper East Side that alwaysgot written up in the gossip columns. There was a constant parade of fans and other celebrities coming to our table to greet her. She signed autographs, let people take pictures with her—she was playing the star again. Me, I just watched it all unfold and wondered how this could be the same Abbie Kincaid I’d eaten pizza with in my apartment a few nights earlier.
    After the restaurant, we went to some private club where she was again given the star treatment. She exchanged meaningless chatter with all sorts of beautiful people, drank a lot, and even put on a show out on the dance floor. She pretty much ignored me the entire evening. I was just window dressing for her, not anyone important in her life that night. I understood. I guess. I mean I never knew why she wanted to spend time with me anyway. I figured she’d just gotten bored with me and this was the real Abbie Kincaid I was seeing.
    At the end of the night, Vincent dropped me off first. He didn’t speak to me during the ride to my apartment. Neither did Abbie. She just looked out the windows of the limo at the lights of Manhattan buildings and passing cars as we made our way downtown to my place in Chelsea. When we got there, she gave me a peck on the cheek, Vincent opened the door of the limo, and I walked inside my building without looking back, confused