FALLING FOR SHAWN

Chapter 27 - Lonely Girl

Shawn stared at Barry, stunned. "When did this happen?"

"I sent a couple of my guys to get her, the paramedics were there, but it had happened some hours ago they say. They won't know all the details until they do a post-mortem but they are expecting it to be a drug overdose. The evidence points to it. The police will also want your CCTV footage from earlier this morning, or so my lawyers are saying.

"They don't think Camila and I are involved?"

"No, but it will help establish her mental and physical state and set a timeline. There are no signs of foul play, and it doesn't look deliberate. She had her clothes laid out for the morning, a pilates class booked and a car ordered to bring her to the studio, and she had tickets to Cabo leaving in four days. She had fed her cat and left a half tin covered in plastic wrap in the fridge, and had a shopping list on the fridge of things she needed. The lawyers say this all points to an accidental overdose rather than deliberate."

"I can't believe she's dead. Has anyone let her parents know?"

"She was emancipated from her parents when she was fourteen. She lived with her Grandmother until she was nineteen when the old lady passed on, and it's just been her since then. She has no other family that we know of."

Shawn thought how sad it was that there was nobody to mourn her. She was only about his age, and had been alone for about five years, seeking love and probably father figures in the long line of older men she had been involved with.

"It's not your fault, Shawn, or Camila's. She was a troubled girl, and had been for a very long time."

"I know," he said. "I regret letting her leave like that this morning, knowing she was high and erratic, but I also know we are all responsible for our own behaviours, and it's easy in hindsight to say if I'd done this or done that, but who knows? It probably would have made no difference at all."

"I've been sitting here thinking of all the things I did to make it worse, cutting back her role, taking the scenes away from her today...."

"She didn't even know that yet, Barry. And yeah, you cut her role, but you gave her an amazing scene, better than the whole lot that was cut, and she smashed it yesterday. And you sent her to rehab, you tried everything to get her better."

"The lawyers told me to do it, it was best for the film," he said.

"I know that's not entirely true. You did what you could, man."

"Look, we're going to finish up, nobody is in the mood to continue today, let's take a day's break and come back and finish the last scene the day after." He stood and they hugged, holding a little tighter, feeling a little more grateful for their own lives in that moment. "You know you're going to get dragged into the whole sordid story, the gossip sites will speculate all sorts of things. I'm so sorry."

"I'd better get home to Camila, she has a show tonight, I don't know how she'll take the stage with all this."

Jake was waiting at the car when he made it to the carpark after changing out of his costume and getting an express make-up removal. He was on the phone and came toward him after ending his call, walking the rest of the way by his side.

"That was Pete," he said. He and Camila's bodyguard had developed a good relationship. "Nothing to panic about, but Camila gave an impromptu press conference today to explain this morning's drama and while she was doing that the news of Ms. Fontaine's death came through. She was pretty shaken."

"Fuck," Shawn said. "How long ago was that?"

"About half an hour ago," he said. "Pete is taking her home now, they should be there before us."