Page 60 of Played

“Hey, if I recall correctly you drank two bottles of my twist top wine.”

“That reminds me…” River rushed back inside. When she returned, she had a small box of wine. “This is for you. It’s fancy box wine.”

Mal laughed until she cried as River handed her the little black and green box of wine and a fucking straw. “You bitch.”

“Hey, it’s a step up from twist top. It’s fancy,” she said rolling her eyes.

***

After hours of searching, they found nothing about Laurel except her accolades in the industry. It made River want to throw up. They actually couldn’t find anything on Laurel Canyon except for an area in the Hollywood hills around Santa Monica. Mal kept digging. There were court records listed where Laurel Canyon as owner of the house but that was it. No paperwork had ever been signed to change the deed. The more they dug around, the weirder things got. “Look up Canyon Racing.”

Nothing. Mal couldn’t find a single thing except what the tabloids ran on the company and owner.

“What’s the address listed for the company?”

“The house.”

“Really?” River opened the second bottle of wine as her mind worked things out. Seemed someone was being sneaky. “Look up the insurance policy that was paid out to her. There must be a paper trail.”

They found where a claim for one million dollars had been paid to a policyholder for Cypress Wile. The name of the beneficiary was not one Laurel Canyon. It was River Wile. River choked on her wine as she read her name on the screen. She hit Mal on the arm over and over until Mal slapped her back.

Mal knocked River’s hand from slapping her. “What the hell.”

“I think someone’s busted.” River smiled.

“How? I mean, what the fuck?”

“You need an attorney so you can go after that bitch.”

“I have an attorney through D and T. Damn it, Riot’s in jail. Let’s keep digging.”

The more they dug, the more frustrated they became. There was nothing on Laurel. It was if she was a ghost. Or she wasn’t Laurel Canyon.

***

Riot stepped outside the police station, expecting a spectacle of news crews since Laurel was up to her neck in this shit. He was about to flag down a cab when he saw Michael and Jason waiting for him. He slid into the backseat when their car pulled up to the curb. “Thanks for bailing me out.”

“Couldn’t leave you in jail. We have a business to run.”

“Can I borrow a phone so I can do damage control?”

“We already called River. She was watching the news.”

“I’m sure she was pissed.”

“Actually, she was calm. More worried about you than anything else.”

That made Riot feel better. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with an angry River. “Either of you call Archer and find out where he was in this crap.”

“We did. He was with Mary and C. They saw it on the news as well.”

“Okay then, how did she find out?”

“My fault.”

Riot looked at Jason, waiting for an explanation.

“I added him to the roster for this season under D and T.”

---