“I’m…an author. I’m writing a book about Hollywood stars who have been taken too young in life. I was wondering if I could talk to you about your husband?”

“Jake?” the woman asked, clearly surprised.

“Yep. Jake. I absolutely loved his work in that last Pines film. What a loss to the acting community.”

There was a pause. Then the door shut, and I heard the sound of the chain being slid from the lock before it opened again, this time revealing the occupant behind.

She was taller than me by at least a head, long and lean, and, like 90 percent of Hollywood, her C cups were obviously not natural to her frame. She had green eyes, rimmed in dark circles as if she hadn’t slept much lately. An oversized Van Halen T-shirt hung on her bony shoulders while a yellow robe was draped around her, the sash loosely tied in front. And her blonde frizz rivaled my bed head any day.

I guess it had been a while since she’d flashed her girlish dimples on The Fenton Family.

She gestured toward a futon-slash-sofa thing, and Cal and I sat as she shut the door, sliding the chain back into place behind us.

“Uh, coffee?” she asked. Then shot a furtive glance at her kitchen, as if having second thoughts about whether or not she actually had coffee.

“No thanks,” I quickly said.

“Sorry, I work nights,” she said, gesturing to her pajamas. “At the twenty-four-hour deli near the Sunset Studios? It’s handy when last-minute auditions come up.” She took a seat opposite us on an orange La-Z-Boy chair. It creaked as she tucked her long legs up underneath her.

“You still act?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Here and there. Things have been picking up a bit lately. I’ve got a callback for a cable movie next week, and VH1 has offered to put me in some celebrity reality series. My agent says all the child stars are staging comebacks these days.”

“That’s great,” I said. Though I was having a hard time picturing her doing the red-carpet glamourista thing at the moment.

“So, what do you want to know about Jake?” she asked. “He was a good actor, but it’s not like he’s on the walk of fame, you know? He mostly took bit parts.”

“Except for the Pines movie.”

She nodded. “Yeah. He was stoked about that one.”

“How did he land the job?”

“Bastard got lucky.” She let out a sharp laugh. “Came into the deli to see me one day and sits down next to this guy eating a turkey on rye. Turns out, the guy is casting director for Pines’s latest flick. Jake chats him up, and the next thing I know, he’s got the part.”

“How did he and Pines get along?”

She shrugged. “Great. They palled around on the set.”