Yelena rolled her eyes. “I wish we could, but Blake wouldn’t do it no matter what, saying he would easily reject me if we got too close.”
Blake is so chaste, huh… Wait a minute, is he really that chaste? Elspeth suddenly recalled the warm and passionate kiss Blake had planted on her forehead at his concert last time, which surprised her inwardly.
Yelena blinked her eyes with a groveling expression. “Elspeth, can you help me talk him into doing it? You and Blake are close, after all.”
“I got it. I’ll go to him in a moment.”
Keeping her promise, Elspeth went to Blake shortly after that.
Blake was sitting by the lake to keep his mind off things. When he saw Elspeth come over, his face turned red. “What’s the matter?”
“I heard you’re gonna do a kissing scene with Yelena?”
Blake nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t feel like doing it.”
Elspeth didn’t know how to persuade the man into doing it either. After all, anyone would feel nervous and ill at ease at having to kiss a stranger whom they didn’t know very well. She said, “Blake, such a day will come sooner or later. You’re an actor, you know.”
Blake hung his head. “But I don’t feel like doing it for the time being.” He still had a complex that he had yet to overcome. The smiling young lady with wavy hair was still standing in his memory, making him unable to make up his mind no matter what.
“Can you tell me the reason for that?”
Blake stared at Elspeth’s face. His lips parted, and he almost blurted out what was on his mind; he wanted to tell her the truth. However, before he could say anything, Timothy suddenly ran toward them in a great hurry. Seeing that both of them were present, he heaved a sigh of relief, but he still sounded anxious. “Bad news, Elspeth! Someone just came down with food poisoning!”
“What?!” Elspeth’s brows furrowed at once.
Timothy took Elspeth and Blake to the scene of the incident.
Elspeth glanced at the floor, the person lying on which was an actress playing a relatively important supporting role whose part in the show was almost as big as that of the lead supporting actress.
Seeing that Yelena was safe and sound despite her pale face, Elspeth was glad that she didn’t get poisoned.
The next second, however, what Yelena said instantly left her with her heart in her mouth. “Elspeth, I really have no idea what happened. She took a bite of my snack and suddenly collapsed to the floor. They say that she got poisoned and that I poisoned her on purpose for fear that she’d upstage me, but I-I didn’t…”
Elspeth knew Yelena’s character; she wasn’t jealous of anyone, nor would she poison anyone on a whim. From her explanation, it sounded like she had just taken a snack out of her bag and was about to eat it when the female costar came over and took a bite of it. The next instant, the female costar felt unwell and passed out soon afterward with her lips turning black and her face turning pale as if she had been poisoned.
Aiden was standing aside while looking all worried. “What should we do now? Don’t tell me the filming has to be postponed again after all the trouble it took to get it started?” The second supporting actress has to be hospitalized for food poisoning, with the lead actress being the prime suspect at the moment. If word gets out about this, I can forget about filming the show!
Soon afterward, the cops arrived and took Yelena away immediately.
Seeing Yelena’s tearful eyes, Elspeth eventually couldn’t bring herself to leave her alone, so she followed her to the police station.
Naturally, Blake insisted on tagging along out of his concern for Elspeth.
Before leaving the filming set, Elspeth turned to look at Timothy and whispered, “Help me check the surveillance footage.”
Timothy’s eyes flickered slightly. “Roger that.”
Elspeth followed Yelena to the police station to get their statements recorded. Looking at her gorgeous face, the cop couldn’t bring himself to say anything that would put her on the spot, so he began to interrogate Yelena instead. “Since you say you didn’t do it on purpose, do you have any evidence to back that up?”
Yelena shook her head. “I don’t know. Perhaps the snack got poison in it, but I really didn’t poison the snack. I wanted to eat the snack at first.”
The cop frowned. “Such an explanation isn’t convincing enough.”
Seeing how Yelena turned pale as though she were about to burst into tears in fright, Elspeth chimed in, “I have something to say, sir.”
“Shoot.”
“I suspect that she was set up by someone.”
The cop became interested at once. “Why do you say that?”
Elspeth explained, “First of all, if Yelena were intent on poisoning that lady, she wouldn’t have waited for that lady to come to her of her own accord. Instead, she would bring the snack to that lady. If it were someone other than that lady who asked Yelena for the snack, she would end up poisoning that person without knowing. No clever person would do this.”
The cop nodded thoughtfully. “What you say does make sense.”
Elspeth continued, “Secondly, that lady is pretty, but she’s far less pretty compared to Yelena. Yelena has a pretty good reputation on the filming set, so you can get someone to ask around about it. There’s no way she would hurt anyone out of jealousy.”
A faint smile played on the cop’s lips after he listened to Elspeth’s explanation. “Miss Lynwood, there’s nothing wrong with your explanation, but I’d still like to say that you’ve got no evidence to back it up.”
Elspeth clenched her fists. “I know I have no proof of it. I’ll do my best to find proof of it, but I hope you can refrain from holding Yelena in custody before that.”
The cop was surprised. “But this is against the rules.”
Elspeth argued, “Yelena is a public figure. If people learn that she’s been held at the police station, it’ll greatly affect her career as an actress.”
“That’s none of our business.”
The cop admired Elspeth’s gift of the gab, but he insisted on playing it by the book and wouldn’t listen to her at all.
Blake’s face was grim as he sat beside them. “What’s the matter? Don’t tell me that the Winthrops have no say in this anymore?”
“Mr. Winthrop, we’re just judging the case as it stands. And besides, the Winthrop Family’s influence doesn’t extend into the police department.”
Naturally, the cop knew who Blake was. Even so, seeing the man’s surly expression, he merely smiled without attempting to grovel at him. If it were Blake who had been taken into custody, he would consider releasing the man. After all, nobody would want to offend the Winthrops. Yelena Sullivan, huh? Never mind about her.
Just when the three were burning with anxiety, a voice suddenly rang in the police station. “What about the Carrs? Do the Carrs have a say in this?” Jordan came in with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
Seeing that Jordan had arrived, Elspeth asked, “Why are you here?”
“I heard about what happened from the crew members, of course. I invested in the screenplay, so I have to voice my concern about it, no?”
Those in the police station turned pale instantly. They could brush off the Winthrops, who had been merely a bunch of businessmen, but the Carrs had served in the military for generations and happened to have great power over the army. “The Carrs do have a say in this, of course. What brings you here, Mr. Carr?”
Elspeth was inwardly revolted by the look on the cops’ faces.
Jordan let out a soft chuckle. “I invested in a TV show, but the show’s lead actress is being held at the police station. Say…”
Slick as he was, the cop was immediately all smiles upon hearing this. “We’ll release her right away!” After all, who wouldn’t do the Carrs the favor?
It wasn’t until she had left the police station that Yelena thanked Jordan as if awakening from her daydream. “Thank you, Mr. Carr.”
Jordan threw a meaningful look at Elspeth before letting out a soft chuckle. “You should thank Elspeth instead.”
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