Chapter 10
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Sam wandered down the hallway carrying an iced coffee in each hand. She thought she would stop by Martin's office before Kelly arrived to look at the sketch Bruce had given them of the man last seen with Monica. She was still feeling cheerful from their earlier conversation. She missed being flirty with her husband and him being flirty back.
As she neared Martin's office she spotted his entire team and several other agents lingering outside his closed door, chattering and whispering. Curious, she glanced at his window to see that all of the blinds were pulled shut. This did not please her at all. She strode up to his office and everyone stopped to look at her. Oh, this was not making her the least bit happy.
"Hey Sam," Dawson greeted her with overzealous cheer. "What's up?"
She glanced at the closed door and replied, "You tell me."
Dawson stiffened up nervously as he stammered, "Oh, uh, Martin's talking to someone involved in your missing person case. Kelly something…"
Sam narrowed her eyes at the tall agent and as she pushed past him she replied, "Dawson, it's a damn good thing you don't do undercover work. You're an awful liar."
She knocked on the office door but didn't wait for him to reply before she entered. She opened the door to find Martin and Kelly sitting on his sofa laughing. Sitting close together and laughing.
"I can't believe you're a Lakers fan now," Martin said, a look of shock on his face. "That's sacrilegious."
"You make it sound like I cheated on the Knicks," she joked. "I couldn't help it, I lived in Los Angeles for over thirteen years. I was having a long distance relationship with them while the Lakers were so close. They drew me in with their bright yellow and purple uniforms, aggressive defense, and courtside seats…"
"Yeah, well, if you put it that way then yes, you were stepping out on our New York boys and cheating is wrong," Martin accused.
"I couldn't agree more," Sam interjected. Both Martin and Kelly turned to look at her with surprised expressions. She plastered a smile on her face and replied, "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt this little reunion."
"Hey," Martin said as he stood up quickly and walked over to where she stood. "I didn't even hear you come in."
She could tell by the way he was looking at her he was try to gauge if she was angry or not. She decided to play it cool and let him wonder. "Sorry, I didn't think to knock." She looked at Kelly and said, "I just wander into my husbands office so much I sometimes forget." She handed Martin his coffee and wandered over to the seating area, sitting directly opposite of Kelly. "I'm surprised to see you. When I spoke with you earlier you said you didn't think you'd make it here until later this afternoon."
Kelly at least had the decency to look a little guilty as she explained, "The photo shoot wrapped up early so I thought I'd come by." She motioned towards Martin who was taking the seat alongside Sam and added, "Since you and Agent Malone weren't around I thought I'd catch up with Martin. He's been showing me pictures of Grace and Nate. You have beautiful children."
Sam wondered just how big a scandal it would cause if punched a movie star in the nose. Knowing the tabloids, it would just increase Kelly's popularity and the last thing she wanted to do is help the movie stars career. So she forced her lips to curve up into a grin and replied, "Thank you."
They sat there quietly for a long few seconds when outside the office they heard Danny's voice shout, "Get back to work already." Suddenly the door swung open and he appeared, holding a large manila folder. He spotted the three of them seated around the small coffee table. "Hi, sorry I didn't knock but Dawson said that you were all in here so I figured I wouldn't be interrupting." He strode directly up to Kelly and introduced himself, "Ms. Grant, I'm Danny Taylor. I'm working the case with Sam and Martin."
Kelly reached out to shake his hand. "Hello."
"Hello," he replied. He sat down next to Kelly, his eyes darting back and forth between Sam and Martin. "So, Ms. Grant…"
"Call me Kelly, please," she politely corrected.
"Kelly," he began again. Sam noticed the pleased smile on his face. Clearly, he was bitten by the celebrity bug as well. "I have the sketch of the man Bruce said left with Monica after she met with him." He pulled the sketch out of the manila envelope and showed it to her. "Do you recognize this man?"
Kelly took the sheet of paper and looked at it. "He sort of looks like Arthur Wyndorf."
"You know him?" Martin asked.
She squinted and studied it carefully, "He looks older than I remember but yeah I know him. He's…sort of a fan."
"Sort of?" Sam asked.
"My agent would call him an fanatic," Kelly replied, dropping the sketch on the table. She clasped her hands on her lap and said, "I actually placed a restraining order against him about six years ago."
"Why?" Sam asked, reaching into her jacket pocket to get her notepad.
"I thought he was just a devoted fan. I'd see him a publicity events, fundraisers, etc. He set up an unofficial website, sent me gifts, birthday cards, and long letters. He seemed relatively harmless so we didn't worry about it. And then we found out that his posts went from being basic updates to these long rants that bordered on stalking. My manager checks in on those sites from time to time and after reading some posts, we all agreed that it was time to hire a bodyguard…"
XXX
"Do you think you might be overreacting?" Kelly argued as she plucked apart some fresh basil. She was at her house in Malibu preparing dinner while her agent, Sal Kahn, and her manager, Curtis Metcalf, were standing around the island in her kitchen trying to convince her to hire a permanent bodyguard. "It's bad enough that I have to hire them for publicity events. I don't want to have one hovering around me everywhere I go like some muscular shadow."
"Kelly, you are a highly recognizable celebrity now, more and more nut jobs are out there wanting to be your best friend," Sal replied as he moved around the island to snag a few pine nuts she had in a small bowl on the counter.
"I just think that having somebody follow me around would attract even more attention," she rebutted as she placed the basil on some salad plates. Sal sighed heavily and cast a knowing look at Curtis. She noticed it immediately and asked, "What aren't you guys telling me?"
Curtis turned around and flipped open his briefcase. He pulled out a small sheath of printouts and said, "We were hoping we wouldn't have to show these to you but if you are going to be a stubborn redhead about it…" he handed her the papers.
She wiped her hands on a towel before accepting them. "What are they? Death threats?"
"Not exactly," Sal replied as he opened the refrigerator and pulled out three bottles of beer. He twisted the cap off the first one and placed it in front of where Kelly stood reading. He then handed one to Curtis and kept the final one for himself.
She read the web address on top and said, "I know this site. It's run by…um, Arthur something or other."
"Arthur Wyndorf," Curtis provided. "He's had the site for a few years and up until recently there was no problem with it."
"What do you mean 'up until recently'?" she asked.
"Look for yourself," Sal said, motioning to the papers in her hand.
They stood there drinking and waiting while she read through pages upon pages of blogs where Arthur had posted long detailed descriptions of her day-to-day activities; including the shopping trip she made to Trader Joe's that very morning. His described in exact detail what she was wearing, what she purchased and even the items she looked at but didn't buy. She glanced at the basil, tomatoes and fresh mozzarella sitting on her counter and felt a chill up her spine that she was being watched so closely without even realizing it. She looked over at Curtis and asked, "Who…when...I don't even know where to begin."
Curtis walked over and handed her the beer. "From what we can gather he has had the site for over three years but the blogs didn't start getting that descriptive until a few months ago." She took a long drink and he continued, "I hired a private detective to look into his background and it seems that he was originally running his website out of Kansas City but moved to Los Angeles two months ago which is when the site got a lot more personal." He fiddled with his bottle cap in his hands as he talked. "He was fired from his previous job for illegally using the company's internet account to update his site. He's been living off his unemployment."
She took another swig and said, "Okay, I am officially creeped out but don't you think that maybe we are overreacting?"
"Right now he seems harmless enough but we think it would be better to nip this in the bud right now." Curtis pulled another sheet of paper out of his briefcase and said, "So Sal and I agreed and we had an attorney draw up a petition to file a restraining order against him."
"Don't you think that will just make him angrier?" she asked, not liking the idea of having the media attention that this would invite.
"It would be better to do something about him now than risk him escalating," Curtis explained.
She gave him a reluctant look and read another post where Arthur wrote in long detail about her jogging around the Hollywood Ravine. When she was done she dropped the papers on the counter and said, "Okay, let's do it." She pulled out her cutting board and started slicing the Roma tomatoes. "But as far as the bodyguard goes I want the kind that dresses in civilian clothes and stays ten feet behind me."
"Whatever you say," Sal agreed.
XXX
Kelly leaned forward and finished, "We were able to get the restraining order against him and it seemed to lessen the blogs. He still got some information because of telephoto lenses but he never got too close." She fingered the edge of the sketch and said, "And once I moved to New York they stopped altogether. I thought he grew tired of me."
"Not likely. People with these kinds of obsessions don't easily give them up." Martin shook his head and said, "My best guess is that since Monica was staying at your place he was watching your apartment and mistook her for you."
"When he saw Bruce arguing with Monica he thought he was coming to your defense," Sam said. "Seeing an opportunity to come to your rescue was probably the only thing that compelled him to come forward and expose himself."
Danny nodded in agreement. "Did you have the restraining extended since you've moved to New York?"
"We didn't think it was necessary," Kelly replied. "Arthur disabled the website a few years ago and I haven't seen or heard from him since."
"How much did Monica know about Arthur?" Martin asked, jotting down notes of his own.
"She knew about him but she wasn't involved in any of the court proceedings," Kelly replied. "I felt silly enough doing it to begin with, I didn't want to make it more dramatic by talking about with everyone I know."
"Considering how alike you and Monica look didn't it ever occur to you that she might be mistook by stalkers as well?" Sam asked. It bothered her that the tone of the question sounded entirely too snippy even to her own ears.
"I'm sorry, it honestly didn't," Kelly replied, sounding hurt. She looked over at Martin and with her voice cracking with emotion she said, "Do you really think Arthur might have taken her thinking it was me?" She lowered her head and cradled it in her hands. "What have I done? This is all my fault."
"No one is saying it's your fault," Martin replied pointedly. Sam noticed that when he said it he was looking directly at her.
"We just have to cover all the possible avenues," Danny contributed. "But I can assure you that we're going to do everything we can to find her."
Kelly looked up, a worried expression on her face and gave a tense smile of gratitude.
"We're going to need you to give us all the information you can on Arthur," Martin said as he walked over and picked up a legal pad from his desk. He handed it to Kelly and added, "The date of the original restraining order, the website, etc."
"I don't really know that much. Sal and Curtis handled almost all the details," she replied, placing the pad on her lap.
"Then we're going to need their contact information as well," Sam replied, standing up. She tossed her half-empty cup into the wastebasket and started out of the office. "I'll go get started on his background check."
Danny remained on the sofa with Kelly reviewing what sort of information they would need while Martin stood up and followed Sam out. Thankfully the gathering outside his office had dissipated and it was just the two of them.
"Are we going to talk about this?" he asked, his voice low and soft so only she could hear.
"About what?" she asked as she strode purposefully down the hall.
He gently but firmly grabbed her elbow, stopping her. "About the way you were behaving back there."
She spun around on her heels and in the most casual tone she could muster she said, "Okay, should we start with the closed blinds? Or how about the cozy little way you were both sitting on the sofa laughing?"
"I thought we already had this fight?" he asked.
"So did I." She mirrored his casual stance and said, "But I do not like the way she is acting with you. She has something else going on then just a missing friend."
She saw him working his jaw the way he did when he was annoyed but trying his best to not let his emotions take over. "First of all, the only thing going in my office before you got there was me reminiscing with an old friend. And for your information, I was bragging about our family the whole time." He leaned into her, invading her personal space. "And second of all, as far as the cause for my little reunion with Kelly it was strictly professional. She is involved with a missing person case after all. It's not like I called her up for personal reasons."
Sam knew in her heart she was being irrational but there was a vibe coming from Kelly that her feminine intuition did not trust. She gave him a confident but warning smile as she said, "Just be sure you keep…" she glanced at his trousers, "your professionalism in your pants."
He had a smirk on his face as he shook his head bemusedly. With that said, she waggled her eyebrows at him before walking away.