“That hardly narrows it down,” Marta said. “Both my clients are quite common in that regard.”
Ouch!Even if being a common height and build was perfectly okay and convenient at the moment, I still almost got offended.
“Let me just tell your verycommonclients,” Clooney said, and I didn’t appreciate the tone, “that if they decide to share whatever they could have found inside Henry’s car,ifthey were indeed the ones breaking into it, we wouldn’t be pressing any charges. But they only have twenty-four hours to come to their senses about it.”
36
David asked our lawyers to drop us at theLA Gazettenewsroom, which was not far from the Downtown police station. I was going to say he should stop there to talk to his editor or finish his article or whatever he wanted to do, but I needed to get home. But he pleaded with me with his eyes, and I wasn’t able to deny him even if—and I apologize if I’m getting tedious in my basicness—I hadn’t showered in two days, I probably had slept a total of eight hours in as many days, and I was still craving a thorough fuck.
But ten minutes after leaving the LAPD police station and having been reassured for the umpteenth time that Fred Appleton would be in custody at any moment, I was by David’s side at the newsroom of his former newspaper. John Diaz, his editor at theGazette, was flanking him on the other side. We were all going through David’s copy. I negotiated my way into an article bylined by both me and David after writing a few paragraphs. And John demonstrated an iron hand as an editor. He deleted, rearranged, and asked us the right questions. David had always talked about him in stellar terms, saying that good editors are difficult to come by because they needed to be selfless and make someone else’s writing better. I understood what he meant then.
The trepidation was such that I told David it should be him, and not me, who hit the publish button when the article seemed ready. Or as ready as it would ever be. Then I realized John would do it.
In the end, I warmed up a bit to David’s former boss and present editor, especially when I saw them working together and after John offered David his old job back as a freelance contributor at theGazette. David politely thanked him and told him he’d think about it, but I intuited what the answer was going to be. The whole professional scene reminded me that my own career was on the line as I still owed my agent an answer of some sort before that evening. But I gathered, or more precisely I hoped, that the whole kerfuffle with Fred Appleton trying to kill me and still being on the run may buy me some sympathy—and time. After all, there could hardly be aNYC Misconductsshow with the showrunner being accused of murder, no?
Ten minutes after David and I had left the newsroom of theGazetteand a couple of hours after getting there, our article was published on their website.
LA Misconducts Showrunner Fred Appleton Will Be Charged in the Death of Actor Dashing Henry
The LAPD is about to make an imminent arrest of the television writer and producer. Fred Appleton’s Toyota Prius was revealed to be the car that killed Dashing Henry. Appleton tried running over screenwriter Elena Freire Valls early this morning.
By Elena Freire Valls and David Ramos
Don’t believe everything you read in other, less reputable publications. None of the writers involved in the reporting of this story are responsible for the killing of Dashing Henry. And theLA Misconductsstar, while dead, will remain an uncovered sexual predator who made unwanted advances toward several of his colleagues and subordinates.
On the evening of Wednesday, February 21,LA Misconductsshowrunner and producer Fred Appleton followed actor Dashing Henry to the Eastern Columbia, the downtown building where the reporter David Ramos resides. Celebrity superfan Marky Fitzsimmons, also known by the moniker LA Troubelmakr, witnessed a car matching Appleton’s silver Toyota Prius tailing Henry’s car into the building’s parking entrance.
Fitzsimmons had been engaged by Henry to follow Ramos and warn the actor about the journalist’s whereabouts. Henry visited the Eastern Columbia with the intention of confronting Ramos regarding the articles the reporter had written about him that had unveiled him as a predator. The actor sued the journalist for libel and the trial was set to start next week but, according to legal experts, the trial would have in most probability been dismissed. Henry had been recently fired fromLA Misconductsfor his behavior. As a result of that firing, the show was canceled and Appleton was preparing a spin-off set in New York.
Dashing Henry’s Involvement in the Weird Circumstances Around His Death
Henry had been resentful against Ramos reporting and had leaked a series of fake emails pretending the journalist summoned him at the Eastern Columbia the night of his death. Henry’s intention was to get the journalist to look suspicious ahead of the trial. Proof about said emails being fake and written by Henry was found inside of the actor’s car in a USB-C pen drive that has already been surrendered to the LAPD. Henry’s car, a bronze-painted Mercedes-Benz AMG G63, was registered under Henry’s assumed name and left at the parking garage of the Eastern Columbia for a few days before being searched by the police.
In the CCTV material obtained while reporting this article, Henry can be seen outside his car in the parking area of the Eastern Columbia. Appleton lambastes him from inside his silver Toyota Prius. Evidence indicates Appleton would run over Henry, kill him, grab his $80,000 Patek Philippe watch to make it look like a possible robbery, and flee the scene with his car. The motives behind Appleton’s actions were not clear at the time of publication.
After reading several articles that implicated Ramos in the killing of Henry that had been published without reasonable proof, Appleton took advantage of the confusion and decided to further incriminate the journalist. On Friday, February 23rd, and while Ramos was at the Downtown LAPD police station making a statement, Appleton broke into his apartment at the Eastern Columbia and planted Henry’s Patek Philippe.
Ramos was able to obtain CCTV material of the building from that Friday where Appleton can be seen taking the elevator and exiting the Eastern Columbia fifteen minutes later. Both the watch and the CCTV material have already been surrendered to the police with all other pertinent evidence.
Appleton’s Attempt on One of His Former Employees
On the morning of Saturday, February 24th, Appleton demanded the presence of screenwriter Elena Freire Valls for a “walking meeting” in Griffith Park. Freire Valls had been a writer on two seasons ofLA Misconducts. Appleton had offered her a writing position on the staff of his new spin-off TV show,NYC Misconducts.
When the walking meeting was over and after Freire Valls shared with Appleton that she’d been investigating the death of Henry, the showrunner tried running her over with the same Toyota Prius involved in Henry’s death.
Appleton remains at large and was last seen running from the LAPD at Griffith Park shortly after making an attempt on Freire Valls’s life.
After leaving the newspaper, we realized we had been running on fumes and empty stomachs, so we stopped by Cabra for sustenance in the form of Peruvian tapas.
“I can’t believe you brought me to another rooftop restaurant in a swanky Downtown hotel,” David said while we were seated at a tall round green-tiled table with views over Broadway street and its many Art Deco buildings.
“Oh, shush!” I dismissed him and I was immediately reminded why I loved the downtown area of Los Angeles so much. It was inconvenient, at times packed, chaotic, and sometimes even grimy, but no one could dispute its cinematic qualities.
“Try and enjoy the beauty,” I ordered David.
“How do you even find out about these places?” he asked. “It’s not like you can walk around and discover a bar on top of a building.”
“I subscribe to at least three local publications, and they all have a great food section,” I explained as we were served veggie empanadas, avocado dip, and a mango pineapple berry salad.
