“But he’s been dating Tina Rey ever since she saved him from that drunk driver in season two.”
“Yeah, but Tina Rey’s been seeing that undercover detective on the sly.”
“Ooooh. Right. I forgot about that.” God, I loved this show!
“Hey, ” Dana said, elbowing me in the ribs. “Ricky’s alone. Now’s our chance to grill him.”
“Grill him? What is he, a ribeye?” But before I could protest, Dana grabbed my arm and was dragging me across the stage to where Ricky was trying to extract himself from his clip-on mic. She stopped just short of him and did a less-than-subtle throat clearing, accompanied by another shot to my ribs.
“Ow! Okay, geez, ” I mumbled. “Uh, Ricky?”
Ricky looked up. “Oh, hey. Maddie, right?”
“Right.”
“Ah-heh-hem!” Dana cleared her throat again.
“And this is my friend Dana.”
Dana stuck out her hand, doing her best flirty blonde. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Hey.” Ricky shook it, and I swear I saw Dana melt on contact, giggling like a sixth-grader.
“Uh, anyway, I was wondering if I could ask you something.” I said.
“Sure.” Ricky pulled his microphone through his sleeve. “Shoot.”
“You mentioned yesterday that you and Veronika had dated. When was that?”
Ricky pursed his lips. “Um, I’d say about three months ago. Why?”
Alarm bells louder than one of Mrs. Rosenblatt’s muumuus clanged in my head. Three months was exactly how far along Veronika had been. I tried to keep my voice calm even as I asked, “Why was it you two broke up again?”
Ricky bit the inside of his cheek, his eyes doing a slow survey of the soundstage behind me. “We, uh, we just didn’t hit it off.”
“Oh, I totally know how that goes. Compatibility is so important, ” Dana gushed. She laid a hand on Ricky’s arm and batted her eyelashes.
“And Veronika felt the same way?” I asked.
Ricky shrugged again. “I guess. I dunno.”
“You never talked to her about it?”
“Uh, well, um, not really.” Ricky fidgeted with the microphone in his hand, looking about as uncomfortable as when I wore those cheap leatherette pumps from Bargain Barn last summer during that heat wave. Obviously I wasn’t getting the whole story.
“Ricky?” I prodded.
He glanced nervously from side to side. Then sighed. “Okay, fine.” He paused, leaning in closer. “But this stays just between us, okay?”
“Absolutely, ” Dana promised, punctuated by a big, toothy smile.
I held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
“Look, we went out a few times, and then this one time I took her to the movies and dropped her back off at home. Her neighbor was outside watering her lawn. She saw me and recognized me from the show. I mean, she was nice enough, so I signed a couple of autographs for her.”
“Go on, ” I prodded, wondering where all this was going.
“Well, then this lady asks me what I’m doing there, and I told her I was taking Veronika home. Then she kind of got quiet. So, I figured something was up.”
“Such as?”
“Well, she tells me that she’d seen some
I think I heard Dana sigh beside me.
“So, I broke it off.”
“Any idea who this other guy was?”
Ricky shook his head. “Nope. I didn’t ask. Honestly, I kinda didn’t want to know, you know?”
I nodded, disappointed.
“Anyway, please don’t tell anyone, ’kay? I mean, my publicist has worked really hard to make me look like this bad-boy womanizer. If word got out that I’m into monogamy, my image would be toast.”
“I think that’s so sweet, ” Dana said, her eyes glazing over as she stared up at him.
“Remember the chip, ” I mumbled to her.
“Chip, schmip, ” she whispered back.
“Hey, you don’t happen to have Veronika’s address, do you?” I asked Ricky.
“Sure.” He pulled a pen from his pocket and wrote it on the palm of my hand.
“Thanks.”
“Hey, no sweat, ” he said. Then he flashed us both one of his trademark hunky-gardener smiles.
This time I was sure I heard Dana sigh. Though I had to admit, as he walked away the rear view was hot enough to make me sigh a little, too.
“I think I’m in love, ” Dana said, tilting her head to the side for a better angle.
“So, do we believe him?” I asked.
Dana rounded on me. “Of course we believe him! Did you see those tight glutes?”
I rolled my eyes. “All right, what do you say we go pay Veronika’s neighbor a visit?”
Thanks to the shifty-eyed AD, Dana had to wait until lunch to get away. But as soon as Steinman yelled, “Cut, ” we bolted for the parking lot and pointed my Jeep in the direction of the address Ricky had given us: 1342 Coronado Court.
I made a right on Melrose, then a left onto Highland before getting caught at a red light between Santa Monica and Lexington.
As we idled, Dana leaned down to flip on the radio.
Which, as it turned out, was a good thing. Because had she been sitting up in her seat, her head might not have survived the impact as a car slammed into the driver’s side of the Jeep.
“Unh!” I felt my neck jerk to the right like a rag doll’s. Instinctively, I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. I looked up to find a white Range Rover crunched up against the side of my car. I blinked hard, trying to get my bearings as adrenaline surged through me.
“Ohmigod, someone just hit us!” Dana yelled, stating the obvious.
What wasn’t obvious, however, was why the Rover was backing up.
Then surging in for another attack.
Chapter 9
I braced myself against the steering wheel as the SUV slammed into the side of the car again.
“Holy shit! Is this guy nuts or what?” Dana screeched, grabbing onto the dash in a white-knuckled grip.
The light in front of us turned green just as I saw the Range Rover back up for another run.
“Go, go, go!” Dana yelled.
I admit, up until that point I’d been paralyzed with shock. But as I saw the Rover’s tires spin, revving toward us again, adrenaline kicked in full force and I slammed my wedge down on the gas pedal, hard enough to send my Jeep fishtailing through the intersection.
I watched in the rearview mirror with horror as the Rover cut into traffic behind us and sped up to kiss our bumper.
“Ohmigod, who is this creep?” Dana asked, swiveling around in her seat. “What does he want?”
I bit my lip, my eyes ping-ponging between the cars in front of me and the SUV closing in behind us. We were coming up on Sunset and the traffic was three lanes thick. “Hold on, ” I warned, making a sharp right turn onto a side street, just barely missing the curb. The Rover didn’t have quite our turning radius, jumping up on the sidewalk and knocking into a bus stop as it followed.
