hot water and tea bags, then pushed one across the counter to him.
He set the bag of peas down and swirled the tea bag around in the water.
"Do you have someone who will be worrying about where you are tonight?" she asked. "Are you married? Do you have a girlfriend?"
"No, I'm also very single." He took his mug to the kitchen table and sat down.
After a moment, she did the same. "What about family?" she asked. "Are they local?"
"My parents live in Pasadena."
"Do you come from a big family?"
"No," he said shortly. "Let's get back to your family. What about your grandfather—Natasha's husband? Is he around? What is his position on your movie?"
"He's the one who gave me the journals and encouraged me to find the truth. His health is failing, and he has become obsessed with Natasha's death. He feels like he needs to know the truth before he doesn't know anything."
"He's losing his mind?"
"Slowly, yes."
"I'm sorry."
"It's not easy to watch, and it's not just his mind that's going. He has a lot of medical issues that could jeopardize his life. I want to give him closure if I can."
Jax sipped his tea. "Were your grandparents married when Natasha died?"
"No. Natasha was my grandfather's first wife. They married very young and had my father. Natasha later married Wallace Jagger. That was a short marriage, and he was also her agent."
"He mentioned that. Was she married to him when she died?"
"No. They'd been divorced a few years. She was seeing Constantine Dimitrov in the year before she passed. But I think there was another man as well who she talks about but doesn't name."
"Constantine, huh? Have you talked to him?"
"Not yet, but I asked Sylvia if she could pass on my information to Constantine and Alexander. She said she would."
"You spoke to Sylvia?"
"After she kicked me out, she wanted to chat. It turns out she knew my father when he was a kid."
"That's interesting."
"I guess she worked at the Russia House when she was a teenager."
"I didn't realize. She really has a long history with the club."
"She certainly seems to."
"Okay, let's back up a little. Your grandmother was a huge star. There had to have been a thorough police investigation when she died."
"It wasn't as detailed as you might think, but, yes, there was one. Wallace also hired a private investigator. Nobody could find evidence of foul play. After I got the journals three weeks ago, I hired another PI. He got me the police reports and the first investigator's notes, but after looking through everything, he told me I was on a wild-goose chase and he didn’t want to take my money. But my gut tells me there's more to her story than anyone knows."
"Where does making a movie come into it? Are you a filmmaker?"
"I'm currently an assistant to an assistant producer at Blackwood Studios in Burbank. But I would like to make my own films."
"What does an assistant to an assistant producer do?"
She smiled and gave a helpless shrug. "A lot of errands. I babysit privileged actors and occasionally I get to read scripts and give my opinion. I studied filmmaking in college for the three years that I went, but I knew I needed practical experience, so I quit and started working in the industry. I've had a different job every year since then, but I've learned a lot. I've made connections, and I've been able to watch some of the best in the business. All that has prepared me to make this movie. I already have half the script done. I know how to tell the story of my grandmother's early life, even her first few years in Hollywood, but after that is where it gets murky."
"I would have thought you'd have more information on those later years. She must have been in the news all the time."
"But the tabloid stories weren't real. Most of what they printed about her was a lie. It's difficult to know where the truth is. And the people in her life don't want to talk about her."
"No one?" he queried.
"Very few. Out of the twelve people I've reached out to over the last three weeks, only six have actually spoken to me, and they were, unfortunately, people on the very periphery of my grandmother's life."
"Like who?"
"A former hair stylist, one of her personal assistants, a man who used to drive her from her home to the movie set. He was the most forthcoming but beyond knowing where he would