Dawn in Vancouver

Chapter 61: "Roses"

2/10 TO THE END

"What if we start to drive, what if we close our eyes. We are speeding through red lights into paradise, 'Cause we've no time for getting old. Mortal bodies, timeless souls cross your fingers, here we go"

"Youth" written by Lauren Jauregui for new album

6/6 MARATHON

IN A PART OF MIAMI:

"Ally," Danielle asked quickly to a woman who sat at her desk frantically dialing a phone number. "Do you have any idea what's going on?" Danielle was coming in and held out a bag with a chocolate muffin to Ally, which, to Danielle's surprise, she set aside.

"I'm as surprised as you are," Ally said as she dialed again. "I'm trying to reach Camila but the phone is out of service."

"Did you have any idea that she was a lesbian or bisexual?" Ally sighed and shook her head at Camila's publicist. "Well, it's just that anyone with that man would prefer someone else. Her husband is a good-for-nothing."

Ally tried again to talk to her friend to no avail. What was going on? The fact that Camila being away on a trip had made the communication between the two of them not good.

"I have no idea what's going on but I need to talk to her. This news that was on that show is important and she also needs to know that a movie producer came to talk to me," Ally said looking at Danielle who was taking off her black coat and putting it on over a wick while she fixed her hair.

The small office was located in one of the buildings in downtown Miami where she had a nice view of the Dolphin Mall where there was a lot of activity at that time of the morning. Ally normally enjoyed those quiet hours with a cup of coffee watching the sky and the sea from her tenth floor apartment. But that day things had been different, so much so that she had had to call Camila's publicist to get there quickly.

"A producer?" Danielle asked and Ally nodded, "A producer from where?"

"From Universal" Danielle's mouth dropped open in surprise as she took a seat. Apparently Camila was meeting with him in Canada and they discussed some details about making a movie based on his book "Back Home".

"A movie about the book?" Ally nodded, "But she didn't tell me anything about a movie."

"But her signature is on a pre-contract," Ally said softly. "And what's worse is that the lion's share of the profits are earmarked for Jason."

"Camila would never do something like that," Danielle said quickly and Ally nodded and they both looked into each other's eyes. "Besides, she would have informed me. It's a great opportunity and I don't think she wouldn't have shared it with us."

"The producer told me that he had had trouble contacting Camila's husband to give him the contract to review since he had to travel to the United States on short notice, so he decided to stop by the office directly for us to fax it to Canada."

"Do you think Jason could have forged Camila's signature and signed the pre-contract?"

"It's very likely," Ally said softly. "The studio has already made a large disbursement to one of Camila's accounts. Now that I was going through her balances I noticed that she had approximately a credit of around fifty thousand dollars. And on each of her cards there was a withdrawal of three thousand dollars from two days ago.

"Then you must contact her immediately," Danielle said. "If Jason has access to her accounts, he can steal her money."

"I've already reported this to the police, but I need Camila back so I can find out what's going on. I've been trying to reach her for three days without success."