not sure yet. I'm still working on that."
"Is it going to be murder or an accidental overdose or a suicide?"
"Those are the choices. What do you think?"
"I honestly have no idea. When it happened, we were all shocked. She was so young. I saw her about two months before it happened. I was home from college. She came over to see my father about a part in a new movie. They had an argument in his study. I'd never really heard him yell at her before, but she had gotten him into a rage. She slammed out of the house and into the patio, where I was having a beer. I asked her if she was all right, and she wound up sitting down with me. There were tears in her eyes. I was shocked. I didn't know what to make of her vulnerability. She'd always been this incredibly beautiful movie star who happened to live next door for a while. I didn't see her as a real person until that night."
"What did you talk about?"
"She rambled, jumping from topic to topic. She seemed like she was on something. She was wired, agitated. I asked her if she wanted to smoke some weed. I thought she needed to relax."
"Did she?"
"No, she said she had to be sharp for another meeting later that night. But she did have some of my beer. She said I was lucky to be young. She told me not to take it for granted." He paused. "She was in a philosophical mood after she calmed down. In retrospect, she was a little fatalistic, saying things like the decisions we make follow us forever. You can't run away from them, so you have to be careful what you choose and who you choose. She also told me to stay away from the movie industry, that nothing was real, except the sharks that preyed on dreams. It's weird how long that conversation has stuck in my head. Or maybe it was because it was the last time we spoke and not long before her death." He took a breath. "What else do you want to know?"
She hesitated, then decided she had no time to waste being coy. "Do you think your father had an affair with Natasha?"
Blake stiffened at the question. "Wait a second. Are you trying to smear my father's reputation?"
"No, I'm just asking a question."
"Why would you think they had an affair?"
"She said he used to run lines with her at night when they were working on a movie."
"So what? That's not an affair."
"The way she spoke about your dad, it sounded like they had a personal relationship, but, of course, I don't know how deep it went."
"My dad didn't cheat. He wasn't that kind of guy. But I can see why you'd ask, because she was definitely that kind of woman." Blake paused. "I wasn't going to say this, but she came on to me that night. She tried to kiss me. I shut it down. I couldn’t handle someone like her. And I was friends with her son. It was bizarre."
"How did she take it?" Jax cut in. "When you turned her down?"
"She got all teary again, like it was one more rejection she couldn’t take, and then she left. That's the last time I saw her. It was sad what happened to her. I felt bad for Rex and for Phillip. They were shattered. They ended up selling the house next door and moving to Laurel Canyon. They didn't want to be in the house that Natasha had picked out all those years ago." He paused. "How is your father?"
"He's good. He runs an accounting company."
"I heard. I'm not surprised he's successful. He was a smart kid. However, I can't believe he's excited about this movie. He was angry with his mother for most of his childhood. At least, that's the way I remember it. She was sweet to him, but she was always disappointing him, not showing up when she'd promised to be there. She missed birthdays and holidays. Even when she had him stay with her, he always said the house was filled with people he didn't care about and who didn't care about him. He was extremely bitter."
"He still is," she admitted. "But my grandfather wants to know what happened to my grandmother, and I'm going to see if I can find out."
"You might not like the truth. I don't know if she was as good a person as you