Scandal:The Complete Series(7)
Typical of Madison to refuse to attach herself. She’d been that way since her mother died when she was ten. She was even proud of the fact.
I follow Mr. Jameson and Detective Esposito to the dressing rooms. I’m lost in my private thoughts and fall behind. I realize I would not make a great detective as I hurry to catch up to them.
When they come to an abrupt halt, I barely manage to keep myself from bumping into their backs.
The elegant Elaine Parker has blocked our way and is now leaning in to whisper into Donald Jameson’s ear.
“This cannot wait,” he says, immediately excusing himself. “My assistant, Miss Parker, will help you with anything you need.”
His assistant turns out to be friendlier than I would have guessed. She folds one arm around my elbow while she speaks to Detective Esposito. “This was such a shock to all the girls here,” she says. “It’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to kill a wonderful girl like Madison. One glance at her should have calmed the most savage heart.” She turns to me, squeezing my arm. “I’m sorry, honey. This must be so incredibly hard on you.”
Her sincerity is refreshing.
We come to a dimly-lit hallway with a warning sign that only authorized personnel should enter as everyone else might be at high risk.
“Our little joke,” Miss Parker explains. “This is just where the dressing rooms begin. Madison occupied number seven, sharing with Rita.”
“Rita?” Esposito says, raising an eyebrow.
“Rita North, one of Madison’s closest friends.”
“I will need to talk to her,” Esposito says, entering the hallway.
Maddy and I could have been total strangers. I did not even know the name of her best friend. Our lives stopped crossing paths seven years ago when I was barely fifteen. I feel partially guilty when everybody gushes their condolences at me as if I’m a devastated first-degree relative.
When we reach dressing room seven, I pause, overcome with a sudden sense of doom. My feet refuse to move and my breathing gets faster.
I grab Esposito’s wrist as he’s about to push the door open. “Would you mind if I waited out here?”
Rick Esposito isn’t one to coddle. He says exactly what he’s thinking. “I’m sure I can manage without you.”
He vanishes into the dressing room with Miss Parker.
I rummage through my purse to find a forgotten piece of gum. My nerves are getting the better of me and pretty soon everyone will know. “Hold it together, Ella,” I mumble under my breath.
“Do you like lingering in dark corners?”
Jaxson Cole’s voice makes me jump out of my skin. The gum falls out of my mouth and onto the floor.
“Shit,” I say without thinking. My cheeks burn a bit when Jaxson picks up my chewed gum and then takes the wrapper from my fingers. When his fingers touch mine, every cell in my body tingles.
“Didn’t mean to startle you,” he says as he squeezes the wrapper around the chewed gum and places it in his pocket for later disposal. “We just need to grab a few things from my dressing room.”
We? I only now realize there’s a man in a suit standing behind Jaxson.
“Is this Madison’s sister?” the man says with a pained expression on his face, which makes me assume there’ll be another demonstration of sympathy.
Jaxson nods and the man takes a step closer, extending his hand.
“Ed Thurman,” he says. “I was the scout who discovered Madison and helped her through her early days in the business.”
His reputation precedes him. Jim and Maddy told my Mom and me all about Ed Thurman. His reputation as a sleazy womanizer and corporate leach has only grown since then.
I wonder if he ever managed to get into Maddy’s bed. He’s not bad-looking and has plenty of money and connections to make a young model’s efforts to please him worth their while. I want to give Madison more credit than that, but I honestly have no idea what kind of woman she became.
This Thurman guy is annoying. How do you discover a person? What does that even mean? Madison wasn’t exactly a lost continent or a rare species on the Galapagos Islands.
To my horror, Thurman brushes a thumb against my cheek. “You are so pretty,” he says. “Exquisite.”
Lord! This dude must think I’m as dumb as a rock. I’m far from being considered an exquisite beauty, especially among all these beauty freaks that walk these halls. “Right,” I say. “Sounds like you’re losing your magic touch.”
“Not at all,” he says. “You could be my next great discovery. The genes in your family are shining through.”
Genes? What’s this antipode of all intelligent life saying now? The only thing shining through is his line of bullshit. Madison was my stepsister. No shared gene pool, dickwad.