Nancy Grace - Death on the D-List

“My. I’ve never seen a bedroom quite like it.” At least Hailey was honest.

“ Really? I just love it! It’s so… romantic! ”

Sookie led her across the bedroom to a closet that was at least the size of Hailey’s family’s living room back home in Georgia. For a closet, it was massive. What first struck Hailey was that it looked like an ad for California Closets. The closet was designed to look exactly like a high-end dressing room with a cushioned seating area and several full-view multi-paneled mirrors.

“Oh…” Sookie laughed girlishly “… my private dressing room for my clothes and shoe collection! It’s designed exactly like a Gucci changing room I once visited in Paris! Isn’t it fabulous ? Julian just hated it!”

Was Hailey supposed to know who Julian was?

Hailey stopped briefly to examine Sookie’s shoe collection. Once again, she’d never seen anything like it. There had to be hundreds of pairs of shoes, all stacked in lines. There were shoes in every color of the rainbow, and then some. They were perfectly preserved, each with a shoe tree inserted and a pink sachet cushion wedged down onto every sole. There were evening slippers, boots, stilettos… even some lined in mink from what Hailey could surmise. Hailey recognized some of the labels from fashion magazines. A single pair, Hailey knew, could cost over a thousand dollars, and there had to be two to three hundred of them.

“Julian… He’s in yachts. That’s my ex… but that’s another story.” Sookie now responded to Hailey’s unspoken question. But Hailey wasn’t about to touch that one with a ten-foot pole, though she had a feeling Sookie was going to tell her anyway.

She was right.

“He ruined my life and the lives of our children over some tramp from Barbados. She’s in college, for Pete’s sake… college! She’s a co-ed !”

“Oh, dear…” It was all Hailey could get out before Sookie began a tirade about Julian, walking out of the room and assuming Hailey would trail along behind her.

And of course she did. What else could she do? Had she really traveled all the way out here to look at a ridiculous shoe collection?

Along the hallway were framed articles and news stories. Even if Sookie’s name was only mentioned once in the entire article, her name was highlighted with yellow marker, and the article was set in an ornate frame. Many of the articles were in fact about Harry Todd and only mentioned Sookie as being his executive producer, yet they were all mounted and framed as if each and every article was about Sookie herself. Lighting inlaid flush with the ceiling shone down on the articles and photos.

Sookie turned left and started down a grand, curving set of stairs, covered in yet another thick runner. The hand railings, like the staircase Hailey had climbed up, were of rounded mahogany, shined to a dull sheen. They went back through the main foyer and down yet another staircase headed toward, as Sookie described it, her absolutely fabulous wine cellar.

By now, Hailey was pretty sure this was not the first time Sookie had given a tour of her home. Opening a tall door with a key hanging obviously around the doorknob, Sookie led Hailey down another wide set of stairs with the same mahogany rails on either side. The steps were steep and on the walls on both sides was an expansive display of more photos of Sookie’s dad. Also hanging on the walls were various mementoes he’d brought back, obviously from time spent overseas in the military.

There were multiple shots of him in Burma, placing him in the Burma Campaign during World War Two.

Along the stairwell walls were animal horns of some sort, multiple black-and-white photos of Burma itself, postcards in frames, even a saber and its leather sheath encased in glass. One of the few color shots showed him posed, standing behind the wheel of a jeep wearing no shirt, deeply tanned, with a red-handled pistol stuck down the waist of his military fatigues. He must have been some dad. Whatever his fathering skills, his military prowess had helped catapult his daughter into the upper echelon of society and politics. Hence, her job at GNE.

What followed was nearly a full hour, an excruciating fifty minutes of Sookie waxing on about wine. As they trudged back up the stairs, Sookie finally came to the point.

“So, I was thinking… you must get terribly bored in your little psych practice down in the Village. All those patients, all their miserable problems, it must be awful! We’d love to have you join our show as a regular contributor… taking the police or prosecution side of course.”

Hailey was stunned at her rudeness. But Sookie was apparently so extremely self-absorbed, she clearly didn’t realize how insulting she truly was.

What a boor… was Hailey’s first thought.

“Actually, they’re neither miserable nor boring. They are all fairly wonderful people. I’ve grown very attached to them and it would be extremely difficult for me to leave them or even cut back on their sessions.”

The guided tour of her mansion was clearly over. Apparently, it was time to get down to business. Sookie turned, quite clearly stunned someone wouldn’t jump at the chance to appear regularly on The Harry Todd Show .

“But, darling, you’d get paid. Certainly another paycheck wouldn’t hurt anything…”

Hailey looked around the monstrosity of a home Sookie held out on display. “I don’t need the money that bad. And if you’re suggesting that I get paid to take a certain position, even if it is the side of the state, my opinion is not for sale. But thank you so much for your kind offer. I’m extremely flattered, Sookie.”

“But we could make you a star. Don’t you understand? I could make you a TV star, Hailey.” Sookie’s gray eyes were widened and fixed on Hailey’s face.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of fun appearing on the show. But I don’t want to peddle my opinions. I think we should just keep it as it is. When you need me, call me and I will do my very best to make it happen.”

They were now standing exactly before the front door. Out of nowhere, Consuela appeared with Hailey’s coat.

“Well, you certainly have your principles! But I’m not giving up so easily.” Sookie’s smile was fixed.

“Thank you for the tea and the lovely tour of your home. It’s unique!” Hailey continued to try not to lie.

Sookie awkwardly leaned forward and gave a sort of air-kiss to the side of Hailey’s head. An air-kiss was something Hailey would absolutely not do under any circumstances, so she just smiled again as best she could. Consuela ushered Hailey out. But, just before she made it down the front steps to the driveway, Hailey heard a loud crash on the other side of the front door, inside the foyer. It sounded like glass smashing.

“Little bitch! I can’t believe she turned me down!” She heard Sookie yell it out, apparently to no one in particular. There were a few seconds of silence, followed by a door slamming somewhere in the bowels of the house.

Hailey looked up and saw Conseula at the corner of one of the front windows. She smiled apologetically at Hailey.

Hailey turned and made her way toward the limo, waiting there in Sookie’s circular front driveway.

“Poor kids…” It was all Hailey could think. “ They don’t have a chance…”

MIKE WALKER OF SNOOP KICKED BACK IN HIS BRAND-NEW Longhorn. It was a Barcalounger power recliner with generous proportions and soft, rounded arms. They were the “motion furniture” specialists and every single one of their products either reclined, swiveled, rocked, glided, or had some special combo of moving features. Walker’s Longhorn was spectacularly comfy and fully automated. After the fat paycheck from the Leather Stockton murder photos, he couldn’t help but splurge.