Cheryl found a parking space a block away from the theatre. As she got out and locked the car door she began to look around her, as if Mark would have somehow been able to anticipate where she'd find parking.

With a spring in her step she set off for the famous theatre and its sidewalk of stars hand and foot prints. Turning the corner on the street the theatre was on, Cheryl began to desperately look around her, her head turning left, then right again every few seconds in search of some sign of Mark. She glanced at her watch, she was a bit early. Pacing up and down the sidewalk, she stepped into a crevasse, stumbling just a little. Looking down to see what she'd gotten into, she realized she was standing in John Wayne's footprints, and they engulfed hers. Walking with her face pointed to the ground, like almost everyone else was doing, she didn't see his approach.

"Cheryl?"

Cheryl lifted her head with a flourish, a huge grin already spreading across her face. "Mark" She stopped abruptly. It wasn't him. It wasn't Mark. Before her stood an already balding man with a huge nose and crooked teeth. He could not be more unlike Mark if he'd tried. "Yes?" She asked him.

"You are Cheryl, right? I would have guessed it in a second." The man smiled, showing her more of his crooked teeth. "Mark described you perfectly." He stuck out his hand. "Terrance. Terrance Sutton, I'm a childhood friend of Marks."

"Mark?" Cheryl felt herself relax a little.

"Yes, of course, who else knows you're here?"

"No one." She shook her head reinforcing her answer.

"Ah, see there?" He smiled again, and Cheryl felt herself returning his smile with one of her own. "Mark wanted to be here himself, but he was called to the studio, so he asked me to pick you up and take you to his house to wait on him."

"His house?" Cheryl grinned, totally relaxed now.

"Yeah, you won't believe this house of his.wait till you see it.." he stopped speaking and tilted his head just a little as if he just thought of something. "Where'd you park?"

"Around the corner and up about a block."

"Oh, fine, fine. You're car will be safe there. We'll take my convertible, have you ever been in a convertible?" The first few seconds of his smile sent a cold shiver down Cheryl spine, but then the smile changed, just the tinniest bit, and the chill went away, warmed by the bright California sun.

~~~

"Wow." Cheryl sputtered standing in the middle of the huge entryway. She raised her head and spun around trying to see everything at once. The floor beneath her feet alternated black and white tiles, and a huge crystal chandelier hung over head. A round table stood in the middle of the entryway, and sitting on top of it, was the largest flower arrangement Cheryl had ever seen.

"Wow." She said again.

"Yeah. Something, isn't it?" Terrance said tossing his keys onto the round table top, where they slid and clanked into the glass vase.

"This is like." she paused, searching for the right words. "From a magazine."

Terrance nodded in agreement. "Yeah. He sure has come a long way, this ain't nothing like when we were kids." He started for the large staircase that stood on their right. "Come on, wait till you see the upstairs."

~~

Goren sat in the back seat of the rental car. His arm propped on the windowsill, hand covering his eyes. They were on the way back to LAPD HQ, after leaving the public park where Jamie had been found.

"Can't be helped, man. Sorry." Fearless said from the front seat. His head turned back over his shoulder, toward Goren. When he didn't get a response, Fearless glanced to Alex, in the drivers seat. She saw his glance out of the corner of her eye and returned it with a shrug, as if to say, 'don't worry about it.'

Goren rubbed his eyes then let his hand fall into his lap. He didn't handle frustration well, and a compromised crime scene frustrated him more than just about anything. It had been over a week since Jamie's body had been found. LAPD had gathered all the evidence they could, and removed the crime scene tape, letting the general public wander all through his crime scene.

"We're positive it was just a dump site, she wasn't killed there." Fearless said.

No response from the backseat.

Breaking the silence, Alex asked: "Have you spoken to Mark Price?"

"Not him, his agent." Fearless said the word with a tone that made Alex smile. "Someone saying he's Mark Price on some e-mails doesn't really give us enough to demand an interview."

"You'd think he'd want to clear his name."

"Yeah..well..things work a little differently in Hollywood." Fearless said as he pointed up ahead where Alex needed to turn.

"How so?"

"Well." He thought about the words to use ".an air of mystery is good for a movie stars career. Many a career has been saved by well timed scandal."

"You're not suggesting.." Alex began and Fearless quickly cut her off.

"No, no, not at all." He shook his head, waving his hands back and forth in front of him. "No, my gut says that Mark Price had nothing to do with this. I was just trying to explain why he might not be so quick to try to defend himself."

"People will go see his movies for the same reason they'll rubber neck a car accident." Goren said from the backseat.

"Well, well," Fearless pronounced as he turned in his seat toward Goren. "Another country heard from." Alex smiled, she was usually the only one around to tease Goren, and it was fun to have someone else doing it.

~~

Goren and Eames' body clocks said it was 10pm, and their day was beginning to show in the way they held themselves. Fearless and Stevens offered to go with them to dinner, show them the sights of LA and Hollywood. As much as Alex would have liked that, she knew she wouldn't have much fun, as tired as she was. Both she and Bobby declined the offer, and got directions to the nearest Best Western.

After checking in, Bobby and Alex grabbed a sandwich from the restaurant and headed up to their rooms. In the elevator Bobby said: "Let me borrow your lap top for the night."

"Gonna email your girlfriends?" Alex teased.

Bobby ignored the jibe. "I'm going to join that fan club."

"You're going to join an Internet fan club for a movie star you hadn't even heard of yesterday?"

"Know a better way to figure out how he choose Jamie?"

"We don't even know for sure her death is related to the website."

"I've got nothing better to do, ok?"

Bobby followed Alex to her room and waited at the door while she got the laptop. He took it from her, told her good night, and walked three doors down to his own room.

~~

"I'm having so much fun! When did you say Mark'd be back?" Cheryl was feeling very much at home, and had begun to lounge on the overstuffed dark green sofa.

"He didn't know for sure, but it should be anytime now." Terrance answered, walking over to her with a glass in his hand. "Here, try this."

Cheryl sat up on the sofa, taking the drink from him with a smile and took a sip.

"Ummmm. What is it?"

"Cranberry orange tea. Mark has it specially blended." Terrance took a sip from his own glass and smiled as Cheryl took two long swallows. "I made that glass just for you." The smile that sent shivers down Cheryl's spine returned, only it didn't change this time. She felt her eyes getting heavy, her arms and legs numb, as if they didn't belong to her. Her eyelids began to close, and she had to force them open. Terrance was suddenly at her side, taking her glass from her hand and putting it on the coffee table.

"Don't worry, it's only some sleeping pills." He put her head in the crook of his arm, maneuvering her so she lay flat on the couch.

"Sleep.pills?" Cheryl's eyes shut again, and she had to fight harder this time to get them to reopen. When they did, Terrance was kneeling on the floor in front of her, and what she thought saw, she couldn't be seeing. He was taking out his horrible teeth, straight, white teeth now filled that terrible smile. He ripped off the bulbous nose. Pausing a moment to gage her reaction, Terrance lifted his arm, his fingertips brushing against his forehead, where he grabbed his hair, and pulled it off. Now, instead of balding, he had a full head of brown hair.

As her eyes closed one final time, Cheryl heard him whisper, "Sleep now, my darling. It's my turn to have fun."