The Missing Juliet Read online

  “Bahama Village. Four blocks away. If he hasn’t gotten pissed off and left.”

  Steven hadn’t left. He was sitting in his truck, ball cap pulled low as he watched a small apartment building and flipped through the pages of a military magazine.

  “You always say no multitasking on the job,” Sean said at the open driver’s window.

  “I always say you can’t multitask,” Steven replied without looking up. “I can multitask. I’m a trained professional.”

  Robin asked, “How do you know he’s here?”

  “You said he has a mermaid tattoo?” Steven asked. “We went to the tattoo shops in town and asked around. He was in the other night, wanted to get one that said ‘Juliet.’ Manager lives down the street, recognized him as someone who just moved in. The landlord says his last name is Montell. For a kidnapper, your guy’s not very bright.”

  “I don’t think she’s kidnapped,” Robin said.

  “I knew it,” Sean said triumphantly.

  She explained about the daily calls between Karen and Juliet.

  “So maybe your AWOL movie star’s up there, hanging out of her own free will,” Steven said. “Is that it?”

  “Pretty much,” Robin admitted.

  “We should recon the place just in case,” Sean said. “I could shimmy up that drainpipe, swing onto that ledge—”

  “I have a better plan,” Steven said. “How about we knock on the door?”

  He got out of his truck and headed for the stairs. Robin warned, “The last thing he said to me was that he was going to make me eat my phone.”

  Steven smirked. “Don’t worry. We’ll protect you.”

  Robin wanted to kick that smirk off him. Egotist. But Sean was already following him, eager as a puppy.

  Not for the first time this week, she regretted ever trespassing on Juliet’s movie set.

  The boys reached the second floor door. Steven knocked loudly and asked, “Jake? Jake Montell and Juliet Francine, come out, come out wherever you are.”

  The door swung open a few seconds later. Jake the Mermaid glared at them with a broom ready to swing like a bat. He was absolutely the same guy who had punched Melanie Sweet-Love and taken the cell phone, but he looked a lot less menacing in plain white boxer shorts and no shirt on.

  “Who the hell are you?” he demanded.

  “Neighborhood Watch,” Steven said. “We heard you have a kidnapped movie star inside.”

  “Kidnapped!” Jake exclaimed. “She’s telling people that? That bitch!”

  He spun around and stormed inside the apartment. Steven and Sean followed. Inside was a bunch of old but clean furniture and a TV that had probably been made the year Robin was born. The kitchenette was spotless, with clean dishes drying in the rack. For a short-term rental, it was in surprisingly nice shape.

  Jake put aside his broom. He picked up his cell phone.

  “Take a look,” he said. “Does that look like a kidnapping?”

  He showed them a picture of him and Juliet snuggled close on the sofa. Both of them were smiling the goofy smiles of people who thought they were in love. Another picture showed them in bed, their heads mashed into the pillows.

  A third picture had been taken in the shower, with lots of naked wet skin and a shot of Jake’s—

  “Too much information,” Robin said.

  “Not nearly enough,” Sean retorted and looked down at Jake’s boxer shorts.

  “Whatever she said, she’s lying.” Jake thrust the phone into Steven’s hands and threw himself dramatically onto the sofa. “She thought it would be funny. Leave a note, she says. They’re always playing jokes like that on each other, she tells me.”

  Steven gave the phone to Sean. Sean admired the shower picture some more. Robin looked past the open bedroom door to a neatly made bed. The door to the bathroom, also open, showed an empty shower stall. Unless she was crouched under the sink or hiding in the sink, Juliet had gone out.

  “Where is she?” Robin asked.

  “Said she was tired of being cooped up and wanted some fresh air,” Jake said. He rubbed his bare belly. “She’s giving me an ulcer. I can’t stand it anymore. She says she’s tired of the rich life, and then she complains that normal life is too boring. She hates the movie, thinks it’s going to be a bomb, but the minute she found out they were putting her sister into it, you’d think someone had knifed her in the heart.”

  He sounded like the wounded party here. Robin wasn’t quite ready to believe that. “Why did you steal your phone back from Melanie the waitress? You punched her.”

  “That bitch!” Jake exclaimed. He didn’t seem to have much of a vocabulary when it came to women he disliked. “She was trying to blackmail me. Said she was going to sell the pictures of us to someone online if Juliet didn’t pay the money. Juliet said go ahead. She’s not worried. But I’m worried. I’ve got other stuff on that phone.”

  Sean perked up. “What stuff?”

  Jake stood and took it away from him. “My stuff.”

  “So you punched a girl?” Steven asked, his voice hard.

  “She pulled a gun,” Jake insisted. “Bet she didn’t tell you that part, huh?”

  Steven raised his eyebrows at Robin. She shrugged. It wasn’t as if she knew much more about Melanie Sweet-Love. Maybe she was entirely capable of blackmail and threats.

  Robin told Jake, “She filed a police complaint. They’re looking for you.”

  “I was defending myself!”

  “Try that in front of the judge,” Steven said.

  “Juliet is a big disaster who makes other people’s lives into disasters, too,” Jake grumbled.

  Robin felt the need to stick up for Juliet. “Those pictures don’t look like a disaster.”

  “She’s good in bed,” Jake admitted begrudgingly. “But too high maintenance for me.”

  “I think our work here is done,” Steven said.

  Jake sat up, alarmed. “Wait. What am I supposed to do about the cops?”

  “Hire a good lawyer,” Robin suggested.

  Outside, at the hood of Steven’s truck, Steven said, “Dumber than a rock.”

  Sean said, “But sexy.”

  Robin gazed down the darkening street. Sunset had come and gone while they were inside. She was abruptly weary of all things related to Hollywood.

  “We’ve got to get back to Fisher Key.” Steven opened his door. “I’ve got to work, Sean’s got to work, Denny’s got to take the day off, and there are a thousand wannabe pirates coming to town. You coming?”

  “I have to stick around,” she said. “One more day of shooting.”

  Sean squinted at her. “You’re not telling us everything.”

  “It’s an internship. I said I’d stay until the end. Besides, Juliet’s still missing. Technically.”

  “You promised me Liam’s autograph,” Sean said. “Don’t let me down.”

  They gave her a lift back to her car. Only then did she check the message on her phone.

  Need you, please come, said the message from Karen.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Karen opened the door to her bungalow wearing a pale blue silk bathrobe and very little else. Robin’s gaze immediately traveled down her high breasts and narrow waist to her slim legs. So pretty, so tempting. She forced her gaze up again and steeled herself for whatever manipulations were to come.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” Karen said somberly. “I need you to meet someone.”

  “Someone like who?” Robin asked.

  Karen had already retreated down the small foyer to the bungalow’s sitting room. The first thing Robin noticed was the very nice décor—expensive furniture, tasteful watercolor paintings, a television and entertainment system sleekly incorporated into one wall. The place reeked of luxury and money.

  Of much more interest was the young woman sitting on a long green sofa, wearing a pink silk top, a floral skirt, and gold sandals.

  Juliet Francine.

  “This is Robin
,” Karen said. “I asked her to look for you back when I thought you were in danger.”

  Juliet didn’t rise off the sofa. She didn’t drink from the tall glass of water in her hand, or do anything with the cigarette burning in an ashtray beside her glass. She was too busy texting someone to even look up.

  “I wasn’t in danger,” she said in a clipped voice. “You totally overreacted.”

  “You left a ransom note!” Karen yelled.

  “It was a joke!” Juliet yelled back, still not looking up.

  Robin couldn’t believe that she was standing in the same room as Juliet. The real-life, amazingly talented, devastatingly beautiful Juliet Francine. Robin felt incredibly ugly and dorky just sharing the same breathing air. What do you say to the girl whose picture has been plastered to your bedroom wall for five years? Juliet’s smiling face had been her computer screensaver, her phone wallpaper, the secret charm hidden in the pages of her boring calculus book. Robin could recite the title of every episode of Rhoda Dakota and every one of Juliet’s movies. She owned every DVD.

  Okay, the smoking thing was a disappointment. Juliet would pay for that eventually with damaged skin and ruined lungs.

  But still. Juliet Ann Francine. Right there on the sofa. Yelling at her sister and being yelled at right back.

  Karen stomped around the glass coffee table and snatched the phone from Juliet.

  “Stop and pay attention,” she snapped. “This is important.”

  Juliet tried to grab the phone back. The two sisters wrestled over it on the sofa. Karen was stronger, but Juliet fought dirty.

  “You are always bossing me around!” Juliet said spitefully.

  Karen pulled her hair. “You’re always acting like a child!”

  Juliet tried to bite her arm. “Because you treat me like one!”

  Robin was appalled. And thirsty. She went to the kitchen area, opened the refrigerator, and pulled out an apple juice for herself. Too much sugar. She settled for some unsweet iced tea and drank straight from the bottle without bothering with a glass. There was a fruit tray on the counter filled with fresh grapes. She plucked a few and watched until Karen won final possession of the phone and retreated to the end of the sofa. Juliet fell back, gasping and scowling.

  “I hate you,” Juliet said.

  “I hate you back,” Karen retorted. She cast her attention to Robin. “Do you see what I have to put up with? She fakes her own kidnapping, scares me to death, leaves that note, then calls me up and says she needed a break. Her own personal vacation. While she’s supposed to be shooting the last five days of the most important film in her career.”

  “You’re not my boss,” Juliet shot back. “I don’t need your permission.”

  “Permission to ruin your whole life!” Karen said.

  Robin didn’t know if it was possible to untangle their lies and accusations, but figured she might as well try. “Karen, when did you know the kidnapping was a hoax?”

  “After we met on the set yesterday morning,” Karen said. “I was on my way to the video conference with the studio heads when she texted me because she heard she might be recast.”

  Juliet took a drag from her cigarette. “Why are you telling her things? This is our personal business.”

  Robin tried to tell herself that Juliet was under a lot of pressure. Was not normally so self-absorbed and rude and ugly.

  “Because she volunteered to help before she knew how selfish you are,” Karen said, suddenly weary. “She’s got a good heart and doesn’t deserve your deceptions anymore.”

  Juliet scoffed. “Oh, another martyr on the Karen Francine pity train?”

  “You’ve left a long line of us,” Karen said.

  Robin knew that nothing she said would make a difference here. She was the outsider. But she felt compelled to tell the truth anyway.

  “Juliet never lied to me,” Robin pointed out. “You did, Karen.”

  For the first time, Juliet gazed at Robin directly. The power of her gaze was like an ocean wave that could knock Robin backward.

  “You’re right. I’m not the one who lied,” Juliet said. “Everyone’s always blaming me for doing what they want me to do or say. How fair is that?”

  “Oh, please.” Karen slid down to a cushion and demurely arranged the hem of her robe. “Always the victim. Poor Juliet.”

  Cautiously, Robin said, “So the note was a joke?”

  “I didn’t even know Jake had left it,” Juliet said, wide-eyed and earnest. “We were going away for the day. I was exhausted. Everyone deserves one day off, right?”

  “And now it’s Thursday,” Robin pointed out.

  Juliet waved her cigarette around. “Everything spiraled out of control.”

  “Because you made it spiral,” Karen said.

  “Next thing I know, my own sister’s replacing me on my own film.” Juliet’s tone was wounded, aggrieved. “What kind of loyalty is that?”

  The two of them started bickering again.

  Robin sighed. She could deal with disillusionment. She’d experienced it in high school when friends or teachers who said they were on your side turned out not to be. When online friends turned nasty or vindictive because they needed to be the star of their own personal dramas. But somehow she’d never thought Juliet Francine would be the source of the freefalling disappointment in Robin’s gut. This was not the girl of her pinup dreams.

  Abruptly, she stood up. “I have to go.”

  Karen rose, too. “Wait. I didn’t ask you here to watch us fight. I wanted to apologize for dragging you into this. I honestly didn’t know it was a hoax until she called me. By then the producers were already going to fire her, and I was trying to save the movie, and I didn’t know how to tell you the truth. I didn’t want you to think I was part of it, or to hate me.”

  Juliet snatched her phone from where Karen had left it on the coffee table and started messaging again. “I don’t think anyone’s dumb enough to believe that line.”

  Karen gave her an exasperated look and then motioned to the sliding glass doors. “Let’s talk in private.”

  Outside, the lanai was fully screened by fences and trees. Stars dotted the trees above. The air smelled like flowers from the garden and chlorine from the pool.

  Karen stood very close to Robin. The smell of strawberry soap rose from her creamy skin and drifted around Robin.

  “Everything in my life is full of craziness,” Karen said. “I never know who to trust or believe because everyone’s so full of Hollywood insecurities and anxieties. But meeting you was different. You don’t even know how special you are.”

  Few people aside from her parents had ever called Robin “special” and meant it in a positive way. To hear those words from a pretty girl should be a thrill. Robin wanted to believe them, to even cherish them, but how could she believe anything Karen said?

  Karen took Robin’s right hand and lifted it to the cleft between her breasts. Robin could feel the heat of Karen’s body. Her own heart hammered at the lushness of Karen’s lips, so close that only a few inches kept them from a kiss.

  “You’re solid, like a rock,” Karen murmured. “Calm instead of crazy. You know what you want, and you don’t let it stop you.”

  Robin did know. She closed the distance between them and pressed her mouth against Karen’s. It was a miracle she didn’t bash their noses together. Karen made a small happy sound and pushed forward hungrily. Robin backed Karen against the wooden fence and ran her finger fingers through Karen’s fine silken hair. This was what a proper kiss felt like, she thought dizzily. She felt Karen’s hand fondle her left breast and that was an amazing thing, so much better than anything she’d ever done to herself while Juliet’s pictures watched and smiled on the wall.

  Karen murmured, “You should stay,” and Robin’s imagination skipped toward images of them entwined in white linen under a spinning ceiling fan. She’d taste every inch of Karen’s skin, explore every special spot, and make Karen whisper her name, over and
over. Robin had done a lot of research in her life. Now was the time to apply and explore and enjoy—

  The sliding door opened. Cold air blasted out of the bungalow.

  Juliet Francine smirked. “Your other girlfriend is here, Karen. Boy, haven’t you been busy this week?”

  *

  Molly was standing by the door, a paper grocery bag clutched in her arms. She was wearing a white and brown dress and she’d put on makeup. No blush or lipstick could hide the paleness of her face as she stared at Robin and Karen.

  “You said to bring Thai, so I got Thai,” she said. Her voice had an awful uncertainty to it that made Robin’s heart twinge. “You wanted to run lines tonight.”

  Karen adjusted her loose robe and tightened her belt. Her cheeks were pink. “I think you know Robin.”

  Robin couldn’t imagine any words that would ease the awkwardness in the room. She couldn’t figure out what to do with her arms and hands, either. “Hi,” she offered, and it was as inadequate as she thought it would be.

  Juliet picked up a yellow straw purse. “As much as I enjoy a good confrontation, I’ve got to go now. Enjoy my part, Sissy, and remember the best exit is always a dramatic one.”

  She squeezed past Molly, who was standing in the foyer like her legs had turned to stone, and let the door close behind her.

  “I better go, too,” Robin said. This was between Karen and Molly now. They didn’t need her help, and they didn’t need a witness. Besides which, she was hurt that Karen had put her in this position by clearly understating—again, lying—her relationship with Molly. Infatuation, indeed.

  She tried to step around Molly, but Molly moved slightly, blocking her way.

  “Her lipstick is on your face,” Molly said, stricken.

  Robin wiped her face and left Molly and Karen alone.

  Chapter Twenty

  Lina was working overtime at Bar Nothing. Toni was home, her toes up on the coffee table as she gave herself a pedicure.

  “I’m going downtown to sing karaoke,” she said. “Nothing like some bad karaoke after a long day of failing to sell time-shares. How was your day?”