nvolving that multibillion-dollar cult of his. Both Madeline and the FBI are hoping our case will discredit him with the public and his followers, and witnesses will start to come forward as things begin to crumble around McClarin,” Charles explained, referring to Madeline Harrington, his boss, the Los Angeles County district attorney. “But we haven’t nailed McClarin yet. There’s a little matter of the trial. And if you’ve been reading the papers or caught the news, you must realize what a media frenzy it’s turning into.”
“Thanks to your high-profile witness,” Seth said, frowning.
Charles’s gaze flickered up to meet his. “Exactly. The darling and icon of young adults across the globe, Gia Harris.” Charles flourished his hand drolly before he took a sip of coffee. “McClarin sure screwed himself big time by giving in to temptation with Harris in his vicinity.”
There. Her name had been said out loud. This was about Gia. Seth took a long draw on his water.
“Have you ever worked with her on a movie?” Charles asked.
“No,” Seth replied shortly.
He had suspected the day would arise when he came face-to-face with Gia again. She was an actress—a truth she’d glaringly omitted on that single electrical night they’d spent together two years ago. Since then she’d made the leap from Broadway to Hollywood and rocketed to the top of the A-list after her debut role in a legendary blockbuster young adult film. She’d rapidly moved on to more adult roles and huge stardom. He’d wondered if he would ever run into her again. He’d assumed if he did, it would be on a movie set or a chance meeting at a party or something. Not that Seth partied with the Hollywood elite much. He tended to avoid glamorous bashes like the plague.
He would never have guessed in a million years that he would run up against the vivid memory of Gia under these bizarre circumstances.
“Did you hear what happened yesterday?” Charles asked.
Seth nodded soberly. “She’s had a mob of reporters and photographers hounding her ever since the news broke about her being your star witness against Sterling McClarin. A high-profile young movie star testifying in a lurid trial involving the forty-year-old charismatic leader of a modern day ‘religion’ raping the fourteen-year-old daughter of two of his followers? It’s got all the makings of a media frenzy. Gia can’t go into hiding because she began filming this week on a blockbuster Joshua Cabot movie. Yesterday, a couple of overeager members of the press drove her car off the road.”
Charles nodded grimly.
“Is she okay?” Seth asked quietly.
“Yeah. Her driver was a little beat up, but Gia wasn’t hurt physically. Whether it got to her mentally is another matter. She’s been through a lot in the past few months. I’m glad you’ve been following the case. Saves me the effort of explaining the background.”
Seth quirked his brows in sarcastic amusement. “Everybody in the country is following it. This thing is bigger than the O.J. Simpson spectacle. It’s being shoved down our throat by the media everywhere we turn. You’d have to live in a hole not to know about the New Temple and Sterling McClarin and how Hollywood’s sweetheart is taking part in his downfall.”
Charles nodded. “Therein lies the problem. Everybody in the country is following it. What’s worse, my boss is concerned that an ‘accident’ like what occurred yesterday could potentially be more than what it seems.”
Seth sat forward. “You suspect Gia Harris was run off the road intentionally?”
“We don’t have any proof of that. But the New Temple has some avid followers and a long reach,” he said, referring to McClarin’s pseudoreligious organization.
Seth scowled. Didn’t he know it?
“Can’t you get Harris into protective custody or something?” Seth asked.
“She has police protection, something she’s really starting to resent now that she started shooting a film. She’s not really a candidate for the U.S. Marshall’s Witness Security Program. There isn’t any kind of tangible threat to her life. Even if she were a candidate, she’d never agree to leaving her career and starting over again in Boise, Idaho, or Amarillo, Texas.”
“And give up all her fame and fortune?” Seth asked with grim amusement. “Not likely.”
“Exactly. And Sterling McClarin is no godfather of organized crime or a gangbanger. More like a spider. He’s not going to whack a witness, especially when it’s someone as high profile as Gia Harris, and the world has both of them under a microscope right now. He knows as well as anyone how bad that’d make him look. Sterling McClarin and the New Temple have a lot of tentacles in the show business community, though. A disturbing amount. The DA—and the FBI on a more-removed level—is more concerned about one of McClarin’s minions ‘influencing’ our witness in some way to change her testimony than actually eliminating her altogether.”
“Either that, or engineer some scenario to make Gia look bad in the public eye,” Seth said.
“You’ve got it. You probably know that circumstances being what they are, there were huge challenges for jury selection. Judge Halloran has already selected a jury and alternates, although the trial probably won’t begin for three to five weeks. The jury has repeatedly been instructed by Halloran about avoiding media and any queries about the case, but with a furor this loud, we’re worried a juror would have to be a hermit not to be influenced.”
“It seems to me McClarin and his followers were hard at work trying to defame Gia before jury selection,” Seth said with a sharp look, referring to a recent rumor that had been circulated in the tabloids about Gia having a drug problem. It’d died out quickly enough.
“You caught that, huh?”
Seth nodded. “There’s no truth to the rumors, right?” he asked. He somehow doubted that fresh, beautiful girl could ever succumb to drug addiction, but who knew? Hollywood was a cruel, ruthless place to exist. Many couldn’t survive it.
“No. We’ve been fortunate in that. Harris has a squeaky-clean record. Even the smallest smudge on it might have been fuel for the defense team.”
Seth took a sip of water, considering. “McClarin is a spider. A big, nasty, dangerous one,” Seth stated unequivocally. He noticed Charles’s upraised brows at his venom. “One of McClarin’s ‘knights’ tried to recruit Joy’s husband.”
“Everett Hughes?” Charles asked, looking startled by the news. Seth nodded, distractedly studying his water glass.