Sunset West-Guns, Grit and Gossip

Penny Pence Smith

Description

In this sequel to The Last Legwoman-A Novel of Hollywood, Murder and Gossip!, Hollywood columnist Meredith Ogden finds herself, before dawn, aboard a private plane enroute to a New Mexico movie location where the son of the film's star has died of an overdose. The film's director, Meredith's old friend and former lover,  has implored her to come to the location, write a "fair, truthful and straight forward" story ahead of rumor and innuendo. Against her better judgment she agrees. Her unfolding journey of drugs, danger and drama makes for juicy news stories but threatens day-to-day life of everyone around her including T.K. Raymond, detective specializing in high profile celebrity crimes with whom she lives. Pulled into the gossip columnist's web of international drugs and deceit he also deals with his own shadowed journey in a criminal world.  Through it all, traditional Hollywood gossip sparkles along-and evolves as Meredith and her colleagues strive to stay alive, and vital in the "new" Hollywood.

Sujets

• Women Sleuths
• Detective
• Mystery
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Penny Pence Smith
• Date de parution: 20 juillet 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781737208419
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

What readers say about Penny Pence Smith’s The Last Legwoman: A Novel of Hollywood, Murder…and Gossip!
“I enjoyed Last Legwoman ! I really liked your book’s loving depiction of our beloved journalistic endeavors back in the day, as well as the Hollywood syndicated columnist intrigues. Good job hunting advice in there, too…really good story…writing was beautiful….”
—Don Wallace, author of The French House and four other books, the documentary Those Who Came Before: The Musical Journey of Eddie Kamae , Contributing Editor of Honolulu Magazine and Editor of The Hawaii Review of Books .
“What a fun read! Interesting characters in a vivid setting should appeal to those who love the glamour of Hollywood and the stylish old-school gossip columns….”
“Anyone who has ever followed the goings and comings in Hollywood will enjoy this tale. Such an adventure and well written, too….”
“The most striking feature of this book is the beauty of the language… a joy to read…. The clues are all there, but the killer is difficult to identify….”
“Can’t wait for the sequel….”
“This book is too good not to have a sequel….”
SUNSET WEST
GUNS, GRIT AND GOSSIP!
A M EREDITH O GDEN H OLLYWOOD L EGWOMAN M YSTERY
PENNY PENCE SMITH -->
SUNSET WEST: GUNS, GRIT AND GOSSIP! Copyright © 2021 by Penny Pence Smith
ISBN 978-1-7372084-1-9
Cover image: BDFC/Shutterstock Cover design: Cynthia Gunn Author photograph: Malia Leinau Myers Interior design: Elizabeth Beeton
150 Hamakua Dr. #357 Kailua, HI 96734
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owners and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners. Smashwords Edition License Notes This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work. -->
eab:20210613
For Frank Baron, Ed and Cheryl Crane, Betty Lam, John James, Stan Brossette and Regina Gruss, Stan Rosenfield, David Brokaw, Booker and Maria McClay—and all those behind the headlines who shined up Hollywood’s stars and made gossip go ’round. Hooray for Hollywood!
Contents
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 • 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50 • 51 • 52 • 53 • 54 • 55 • 56 • 57 • 58 • 59 • 60 • 61 • 62 • 63 • 64 • 65 • 66 • 67 • 68
Acknowledgments About the Author
CHAPTER 1 August 1986 Los Angeles, California Thursday morning
“Where the hell is Meredith?” Cassie O’Connell glanced at the empty desk sitting in the glare of the studio lights. The backdrop was emblazoned with the logo “Hollywood Newsroom.” She ran a hand through her short, curly dark hair, turned and rushed to the phone on the wall nearby.
“Where’s Meredith?” she barked into the receiver, “It’s eight-thirty and we only have a half hour to get this segment shot. Is she still in the office?”
“No—didn’t she reach you?” puzzled Sonia, the assistant in the small Los Angeles editorial offices headed by Cassie and her news partner Meredith Ogden. “She called me at five-thirty this morning from the Santa Monica Airport’s private terminal! Told me something dire had happened on the set of the movie Sunset West and she was catching a private plane the studio already had parked at the private terminal. Some execs had flown in a day or so earlier. Told me to prepare to put a breaking story on the wire this morning, and to cancel other appointments for the day. She was going to call you right after she hung up!”
“Damn,” snapped Cassie. “I turned the phone off because Bob had to get up early and I didn’t want to wake him last night. I forgot to check the messages this morning. Damn, damn!” What’s going on? What’s the breaking news? Where’s she going?
“Flecha Dorada, New Mexico—apparently private or tiny airfield. Dusty sent the studio plane.”
“New Mexico? Dusty? Wow—That’s a surprise. I thought that was over long ago. But what’s the crisis?”
“I don’t know—she couldn’t really say because she only knew it was ‘dire,’ and had to do with some kid dying on location—as she put it.”
“Where’s Raymond?” asked Cassie, suddenly reminded of a long-ago tug of war between Meredith’s two relationships. Dusty Reed was a newly minted high-ticket movie director on his first big project, and T.K. Raymond was the Beverly Hills “Special Cases” detective who had helped solve the murder of famed Hollywood columnist, Bettina Grant, Meredith and Cassie’s former boss.
“Not sure, but I know he’s out of town at a law enforcement seminar. I think Washington D.C.”
“Not good,” sighed Cassie, “for a lot of reasons, but I need someone in the anchor chair right now. It’s Meredith’s day, but I guess it’ll be me. No alternative.” Cassie hung up the phone and mentally checked off preparations: script on teleprompter, background tape and material ready. She walked quickly to a side table where a production assistant had hung his blue blazer over a chair back. She looked at the jacket, at the man himself, slight, not too tall. She stepped in front of a mirror on a small portable dressing table and took a hard look at her own yellow T-shirt with jeans. She grabbed the blazer, shrugged into it, rolled up the sleeves to look trendy, and went in search of a scarf. A female staffer came running out of the adjacent hallway with a brush in hand.
Five minutes later, Cassie had instructed the technician in the control booth about the order of the stories and graphics to display behind her, then settled at the desk in front of the logo, nodded to the cameraman focusing on her and called, “Roll it.”
☆☆☆
Above the southwestern desert, headed to the easternmost corner of New Mexico, Meredith Ogden sat by herself, the only passenger in the twin-engine aircraft. She gnawed on a thumbnail cuticle and wondered about the wisdom of the emergency trip. She was a widely syndicated Hollywood news columnist, privy to some of the most dynamic stories about movies, TV and music. Her old friend and former lover Dusty Reed had phoned openly frantic at three that morning, begging for her help. “I really need your media expertise and wisdom right now,” he said in a voice she recognized in total stress mode.
He was directing a highly touted contemporary western movie in a remote desert location, his first high-budget, intensely publicized project. His leading lady, Sonora Hutchinson, one of the highest paid actresses in the industry, had returned home after dinner the night before and found her 15-year old son on the bedroom floor, dead from a drug overdose. Dusty instinctively knew that the situation would quickly become high global drama and cause chaotic controversy for the film as well as the star. Before the morning light, the determined director had called Meredith, imploring her to come to New Mexico, write an honest and factual story, before the predatory frenzy of paparazzi and press heard the rumors and descended upon the movie site.
Meredith pondered the situation and wondered how a mother could agree to be interviewed by national press less than six hours after the tragic death of her only son. However, she reminded herself, this is Hollywood, a state of mind with rules of its own. And a celebrity’s brand is all about public image. “I’m not on the studio’s publicity team, Dusty. I’m not managing your press exposure.” Meredith had admonished.
“The studio will take care of that, believe me, and that’s one reason why I’m so worried about an honest and straightforward accounting to start off,” Dusty’s tense voice responded. “The pros will arrive in a few hours and they’re masters of creating a circus and the