Two-Faced (18 page)

She shrugged and looked up to see Lars nodding, attem
pting to appear dispassionate. But his jaw was clenched and the tension was obvious in his face.

She swallowed and continued on. "I mean…
I
thought
he was great ...it turns out he taped us...having sex...and then he blackmailed me. He convinced me that you hired him to do it. To use in court against me. To try to get Danny.”

"And you believed him?"

She nodded sadly. "I just thought...I mean…you were trying to get Danny from me and..."

Lars looked away and sighed, then he looked at Jess with something akin
to shame in his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Jess, for the way I must have treated you for you to have believed that of me."

"I didn
’t know what to think, and I just didn’t see how Zach would have known about our custody case and all." 

Lars
’ eyes narrowed as he studied her. "So that’s why you were acting so strange all those times.”

Jess looked down guilitily. "Of course it turned out that it wasn
’t you. It was Ally. She’s the one who hired him.”

Lars leaned back and shook his head. "But why would Ally want
to tape you that way?"

"So that I'd come to her for help. I tried everything else. I even asked my father for the money. Then  Maddy ran into Ally and she seemed like she had money, and she wanted to see me. So I went to her for help. But then I owed her.
..which was just what she wanted. She wanted me to owe her a favor."

“
What kind of favor?”

Jess swallowed hard. “
I went to Mexico for her, on an errand. I thought it was smuggling, but it wasn’t. While I was there, Ally killed my father and she set it up to look like I did it."

Lars stared at her silently, taking it all in. "Jesus. She really set you up. But there must be some way to prove what really happened. That you weren
’t even in town when he was killed.”

Jess shrugged miserably. “
No. She videotaped my every move. She knew exactly what I did in Mexico so she could pretend she was there. While I was here doing the murder."

Lars frowned thoughtfully. "Still," he said, thinking aloud, “
There must be some way, some little thing that..."

“
No, I've gone over and over it in my head. Besides, I'm the one with the motive."

"The money," he nodded.

Jess blinked back tears. "I can’t believe I'm in this mess. Ally predicted my every stupid move. I don’t even know why she did it all—she must hate me so much.”

“
It’s for the money," Lars said.

Jess looked at him confused, "But I get the money, not Ally.”

"Not if you
’re convicted of killing your father. You can't profit from a crime. If you're found guilty of murder, the will becomes invalid. As if it were never written. As next of kin, Ally would inherit almost everything."

Jess looked at him helplessly. "I feel like I'm trapped. Like there's no way out of this. Whatever I do, just ends up making everything worse. And worse and worse."

Lars took Jess’s hand. "No, it’s going to be okay. I promise you that. We're going to find a way out of this." He looked at her intently. "Jess, is there anything, anything at all that could help your case? . You need to think."

She took a deep breath. "There is one thing, but I d
on’t know how big a help it will be. That guy, Zach, he had a cassette tape. It was the blackmail tape from the park.”

Lars nodded. “
It was from before the murder?”

"Yeah. That
’s the thing. It doesn’t really say anything about the murder. But it does prove that whole blackmail thing happened. According to Sykes, Ally denied all of that. She denied there ever was any favor. Or any return favor. This shows that she helped me out."

Lars frowned, thoughtful. "Hmn. it could be something. It would at least pr
ove to the police that she's a liar,” he said.

"That
’s what I thought,” Jess said eagerly. “Maddy has it. I left it at her house by mistake."

Jess paused when she saw the look on
Lars’ face. "What?" she asked, suddenly filled with a gnawing sense of panic.

"Nothing...”
Lars said. He looked down as if debating with himself then looked back into her eyes. “Look Jess, I could be wrong but, it sounds from your story, like every step of the way, Maddy was there, pushing you to fall into Ally's trap. To have the affair with the guy, to go to Ally for help, to ask your father for the money. To go to Ally for a favor. It just seems that to have done all this so successfully, that Ally would have had to have had someone in on it with her. Someone who knows you pretty well."

"Not Maddy!" Jess said, stunned at the suggestion.

"Can you be sure?"

"Yes. Of course I
’m sure," Jess said emphatically.  "It wasn’t Maddy, it couldn’t have been." She shook her head, refusing to even consider the idea. “Zach said that there was someone else in on it with Ally. But there’s no way. No way it was Maddy.”

"Okay, look we'll figure it all out, the important thing is to get you out of here. Tomorrow's your arraignment and I
’m going to reach LaGrange and have him there to represent you, come hell or high water.

Jess looked at him, near tears. “
Thank you, Lars.”

“
And I’ll bring you something to wear. I’ll need to get into your house.”

“
Maddy has the key. She can help pick something out for me.”

Lars shrugged. "It
’s going to be okay.” He squeezed her hand. “Just hold on till then."

She heard the reassurance in his voice. The attempts to sound positive but when she looked into his pale blue eyes she could see he was worried.

Jess looked down at the table feeling more alone than ever. She read again,
Mike is inocinnt
and couldn’t help but wonder if Mike, like her, really had been innocent. And if so, had he ever gotten out of there? Or was he, to this day, rotting away somewhere behind bars?

CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR

Maddy ap
peared nervous and tired as she stepped out of her silver grey Porsche, and blinked rapidly in the harsh morning sunlight. “Lars, hi. Sorry I’m late. I couldn’t remember where I put Jess’s key. But thankfully I found it.”

Lars followed Maddy up the walkway
to the house and watched as she slipped the key into the front door. “I still can’t believe they actually arrested her. Have you talked to her this morning?” Maddy asked. ‘“How’s she doing?”

“
I saw her yesterday. She was holding up. Barely.”

They stepped
into the darkened house and Maddy reached over and turned on the light.  She looked around frowning. “What a mess.”

“
The police probably tore it apart while they searched it––before they arrested Jess,” Lars explained.

Maddy sighed and stopped to straight
en up a chair, then she headed into the bedroom. “I suppose she needs something conservative. A black suit?”

“
Nothing too severe,” Lars said. “Maybe a softer color.”

Maddy nodded and searched through Jess
’s closet. “This should do,” she said holding up a pale grey skirt. She paired it with a crisp white button-down shirt and medium black pumps, then she grabbed some underthings and placed them in a shopping bag.

She handed the items to Lars, and took a deep breath. “
This is all so surreal. When you see her, will you tell her I’m thinking of her? And that I’ll be at her bond hearing later.”

“
Of course,” Lars said as he took the bag and the clothes, folding the skirt neatly over his arm. He looked at Maddy, and could see the concern for Jess written on her face.

“
It’s just so hard to believe…this whole thing. I mean Jess, of all people. It’s ridiculous,” she said.

Lars nodded, saying nothing as they headed back outside.

Maddy looked at her watch.  “Well, I have an appointment to get to. So I’ll see you later.” She was about to walk off when Lars stopped her.

“
Maddy. The tape?”

“
Oh, right, of course.”  She searched through her black tote and pulled the tape out of a side pocket. “This whole thing has got me so discombobulated I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.” She held the tape up. “Do you really think this will help her?”

“
I don’t know. Maybe. I hope so. We have to try everything we can.”

Maddy looked worried as she handed the mini cassette to Lars. “
Of course,” she said. “Give Jess my love. Tell her I’ll see her soon.”

*******************************************

Jess stood and paced nervously as Lars was let into the holding room by the guard. “
I brought the clothes for your hearing,” he said, placing them down on the table. “And I have the tape from Maddy. I guess I was wrong about her after all. She really does seem worried about you. She cares about you a lot."

Jess looked up, surprised at his admission, and blinked back tears of relief.

Maddy was her true friend. She’d known it all along. Lars had planted a seed of doubt and ever since, the idea had grown in her mind so that, though she couldn’t bring herself to believe it, she also couldn’t completely discount it either.

She told herself it was just the situation, the jail, the lack of sleep,
the fear, but still…she felt a twinge of guilt. Maddy had been her rock, after all. She'd been there for her the entire time.

Lars pulled a microcassette recorder from his briefcase and popped in the mini tape that Maddy had given him.  He hit
‘play’ and they both sat listening to the sound of static coming from the machine

Jess bit her lip, waiting for the scene in the park to replay itself.

The tape continued to play, but there was only static.

"Fast forward it," she said urgently. “
Maybe it didn’t start till later in the tape.”

Lars nodded and hit the
‘fast forward’
button. Then he again pressed play, but again, as they listened, there was only white noise.

"Turn it up," Jess said, her heart sinking.

Lars turned the sound as high as it would go and the static grew louder.  He frowned and fast forwarded again, then pressed play and still there was nothing.

"Maybe there's something wrong with the tape,”
Jess said, frantically. She took the machine from his hands and pressed ‘fast forward.’ She could feel Lars watching her but she couldn’t look him in the eyes. She sensed his pity but she couldn’t acknowledge it--if she let herself crack now, she might never recover.

"Jess, it
’s going to be okay," he said, covering her hand with his own. LaGrange is flying in and he’ll be here for your bond hearing. If anyone can help you, he can.”

But even that reassurance sounded false. Nothing was going to be okay. She knew that now. She'd been a fool all along and nothing would ever be okay again.

Lars went to Jess and rubbed her shoulder gently, "I'll see you at the hearing," he said. “Hang in there. For Danny's sake.”

But even the mention of her son failed to rouse her.

CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE

The arraignment was held in a small room in the Beverly Hills Courthouse.

Jess was seated at a table next to her lawyer, Stuart LaGrange, whom she
’d only met a short while before. 

Everyone stood as the judge entered the room.

As they took their seats, Jess looked back at Lars who was sitting in the back of the room. He nodded at her encouragingly and Jess breathed a little more easily. She saw Maddy seated towards the back as well, trying to catch her eye and turned away quickly, refusing to acknowledge her.

She looked up at the judge.  Though she
’d been obsessing about this moment for the last 24 hours, now that it was here, Jess felt strangely detached about the whole thing.

"The People vs. Jessica Parks" the clerk read, and immediately her lawyer was on his feet.

"Stuart LaGrange appearing on behalf of the defendant.”

The judge nodded then looked over at the prosecuting attorney who was now on her feet as well. She was a woman of about Jess's age, with dyed blonde hair and a severely tailored suit, "Melanie Rollins appearing for the people."

Jess couldn’t comprehend it. ‘The people.’ As though it were in
the people's
interest to put her away. It would almost be comical if it weren’t so terrifying.

The judge glanced at the papers on his desk, then he  looked at LaGrange. "Do you have a copy of the complaint
?"

"No, I don't,”
LaGrange replied.

"I have a copy of it here, with the initial police reports."

LaGrange got up to retrieve it and after some more back and forth, LaGrange entered a plea of not guilty. Then the issue of bail was raised. 

Jess was sudd
enly alert with fear--this was it.

She looked at the judge who appeared almost bored with the whole proceeding-- as though he'd done it a thousand times before. She almost laughed, but then caught herself--of course he'd done this a thousand times before.
He was a judge after all.

Was she going crazy? She couldn
’t stop the thoughts racing in her head. She wanted to stand up and shout her innocence, but there was no place for that here. No place for that anywhere it seemed. The wheels of justice would just keep turning and turning until she was crushed completely beneath them.

As she waited to hear if she would have to return to jail, she understood Mike
’s need to scratch his innocence into the table before him. At least someone, somewhere would see it.

"I
'd like to hear from the people first and their position on what bail should be," the judge said.  Jess warily turned to look at Melanie Rollins, who cleared her throat, never once looking back at her––as though Jess were unimportant to the whole process.

"Your honor, though Mrs. Parks has no record of previous offenses, this is considered an egregious crime. She viciously murdered her father in cold blood as he was on his evening stroll, for the sole purpose of inheriting a large estate. We believe she po
ses a great flight risk, as the police, in searching her home came across two passports with phony names. One for her and one for her son. As well as two plane tickets to Brazil."

Shocked, LaGrange looked at Jess who shook her head, "no."  She was being s
et up again. She wanted to tell him so, but LaGrange recovered quickly and put his hand out to calm her down.

"Your honor," LaGrange said. "Mrs. Parks is not a flight risk. She is a loving mother who has ties to the community as well as a full time job."
As he talked on and on about her job and her ties to the community, Jess was barely listening.

She'd been framed again.

Ally had obviously planted those passports in her house at the same time as she planted those bullets. Just so that she would be denied bail. She was an evil vicious woman without any conscience whatsoever. Jess swayed, dizzily. Had Maddy helped her sister? Had she used the spare key Jess had given her, to let Ally into the house to plant the incriminating evidence?

As LaGrange finished
speaking, she looked up, coming back to the present.

The judge appeared ready to make a decision. Jess held tightly to the edge of the desk as the judge made a note on the papers before him.

"Bail is denied," he said.

Jess stared open mouthed.

She glanced back in a panic and saw Lars looking at her in surprise. Then he shook his head in reassurance.

Maddy stepped towards her from the back of the room. “
Jess, I’m so sorry. I’ll come see you as soon as I can,” she said.

Before Jess could think of how to r
espond, she felt LaGrange’s hand on her arm. “Time to go.”

Jess nodded as they began making their way out from behind the table. Before they left the room, Lars came up and squeezed her shoulder. “
It’s going to be okay, Jess. I promise. We’re going to get you out of here.”