The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 479

Bzzz! Bzzz!

The cell phone on the coffee table vibrated, then broke into the signature Nokia ringtone. Matthew paused his packing and stepped out of the bedroom to take a look.

He walked over to the coffee table, but as his hand reached the phone, he hesitated. After a brief pause, he decided to let Maria's call go unanswered.

Matthew returned to the bedroom to finish packing. About five minutes later, the Nokia ringtone started up again, only to fall silent after half a minute.

A moment later, a text message alert sounded.

Matthew waited until he had finished packing before stepping out to check the phone again. He picked it up and saw the missed call was from Maria, and so was the text.

The text was an invitation from Maria to the US Open dinner tonight.

Matthew had already received an invitation to the dinner from Rolex, but an urgent matter required him to return to Los Angeles, so he'd asked Helen to get in touch with them.

The LAPD had found his stolen camera, though it was damaged, and he needed to go identify it.

There was still no word on the underwear and photos.The case of the underwear thief was far more pressing than the US Open dinner. Matthew needed to get back to Los Angeles to identify the evidence as soon as possible so the police could pursue their lead.

A staff member took his luggage, and a Mercedes-Benz limousine chauffeured him to Kennedy Airport.

He replied to Maria, telling her he had an urgent matter to attend to in Los Angeles and couldn't make the US Open dinner. He added that he was about to board a flight and would have to turn off his phone.

After sending the text, he called Helen, then switched off his phone and left without giving Maria another thought.

As far as he was concerned, it was over the moment he saw her into her car.

****

Back in Los Angeles, a driver was waiting for them at the international airport, so Matthew and Brown got in the car and had the driver take them straight to the Beverly Hills Police Department.

At the station, Matthew met with Sergeant Bernard, the officer directly handling his case.

After a brief exchange of greetings, Sergeant Bernard led Matthew straight to the evidence storage room, where Matthew finally laid eyes on his long-lost compact camera.

"Here." Sergeant Bernard handed Matthew a pair of gloves before walking over to the shelf where the camera was stored. "A sanitation worker called in a while back," he explained. "Reported seeing the camera from the reward poster in a dumpster."

Matthew pulled on the gloves, leaned forward to examine it, and asked, "Can I turn it on?"

Sergeant Bernard cautioned him, "It's no use. There's nothing on it—the memory card is missing."

The only sure way to verify it was to turn it on and check for the video he'd made with Britney, but without a memory card, that was impossible.

It was a very common model of compact camera, and as Matthew considered this, he suddenly remembered something: Britney had used a knife to carve their initials into the base.

"I want to see the base," Matthew told Sergeant Bernard.

The sergeant nodded, and a detective came over and carefully lifted the camera.

"This is my camera," Matthew declared. As Sergeant Bernard leaned in for a look, Matthew pointed to the carving on the base. "My ex-girlfriend did that."

Once the camera was identified, the group left the evidence room, and Matthew followed Sergeant Bernard to his office to get an update on the case.

"Aside from the camera itself, we haven't found anything of value. The only prints on it belonged to the sanitation worker who reported it. The culprit obviously wiped it down."

The police had made little progress in the case, as had the private investigator Matthew hired.

It was as if someone with no criminal history had, on a whim, decided to hop the fence into his backyard, sneak into the bedroom, and steal something intriguing. They'd then discarded what they didn't want and kept the rest as a private souvenir, never showing it to anyone.

According to Sergeant Bernard, it was a genuinely difficult case to investigate.

Now that Matthew had positively identified the camera, the police were preparing to disassemble it, hoping to find some useful forensic evidence within the device itself.

Matthew had just gotten back to the Horner Estate after leaving the Beverly Hills police station when Ilana arrived.

"Word travels fast. I just got back."

"Of course."

Ilana accepted a cup of coffee from the maid, thanked her, and said to Matthew, "Don't forget where I work."

She took a sip of her coffee. "The press snapped photos of you at Kennedy Airport. Didn't you see the entertainment reporters swarming the terminal?"

Matthew shrugged. "I didn't notice. What brings you here?"

"I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by for dinner... and ask what's going on with you and Maria."

Matthew thought of TMZ, the organization Ilana worked for. He mulled over the recent media buzz about him courting Maria. It all stemmed from a misunderstanding; he'd asked his assistant, Bella, to check Maria's blog, and she'd apparently interpreted it as him making a grand romantic overture.

Perhaps he could use TMZ to set the record straight. A minor scandal like this didn't faze him.

As for getting tied down with Maria just to avoid disappointing her, that was completely out of the question.

He knew many people, especially Maria's fans, would probably lash out at him for it, but he had never pretended to be a nice guy. He always kept his primary motivations for coming to Hollywood at the forefront of his mind.

"No comment?" Ilana tilted her head, studying him. "It can't actually be true, can it?"

Her expression was one of someone discovering a new world. "You're not actually planning to make things official with Maria, are you?"

Matthew answered, "She might have misunderstood. What happened between us was no different from what happened with Jessica Alba or Scarlett Johansson."

"So it was a one-night stand."

Matthew carefully selected what to share and gave her a brief rundown of his encounter with Maria. When he finished, he gave her an instruction: "You'll write the story from the tone of an informed third party."

Ilana gave a slight nod.

***

Amanda had been busy lately. Matthew's two charitable foundations were preparing their second major shipment of aid to Africa. It was scheduled to be sent to the war-torn region right after the promotional campaign for 300 officially kicked off.

While the foundations set aside over fifty percent of all donations for "operating expenses," Matthew's public appeals and influence still allowed them to raise substantial funds and purchase a mountain of relief supplies.

A send-off ceremony was planned, and the visual of a mountain of supplies would make a far greater impression on the media and the public than a simple dollar amount.

This was precisely the effect Matthew was aiming for.

Most Hollywood celebrities were all talk, making grand speeches to the media and patting themselves on the back when it suited them.

Of course, he was also putting on a show—a much grander one, in fact—but no one could deny that the aid he was sending to Africa would genuinely reach people in need.

Amanda had everything under control, so he had little to worry about.

Three days later, Helen returned to Los Angeles after the first round of negotiations with Marvel Entertainment in New York. Over the next few weeks, the Angel Agency would continue to represent Matthew in further discussions with Marvel in Los Angeles.

Helen had returned to assist Matthew with his new deal with Mercedes-Benz.