The story of Ian Whitestone's life and downfall was tHe stuff of movies, and at least two of them were in the preproduction stages even before the story hit the papers. In the meantime, the report of his having been involved in the porn industry-and perhaps involved in the death, accidental or otherwise, of a young porno starlet-was dripping red meat for the tabloid wolf packs. The story was surely being readied for publication and broadcast all around the world. How it would affect the box office of his next picture, along with his personal and professional life, was yet to be seen.
But that might not be the worst of it for the man. The district attorney's office was looking into opening a criminal investigation into exactly what had caused the death of Angelika Butler three years earlier, and what role in her death Ian Whitestone might have played.
Mark underwood had been seeing Angelika Butler for almost a year when she had drifted into the life. The photo albums found at Nigel Butler's house depicted a number of photographs of the two of them at family functions. When Underwood had kidnapped Nigel Butler, he had defaced the photos in the albums, as well as gluing all those photographs of movie stars onto Angelika's body.
They would never know exactly what drove Underwood to do what he did, but it was clear that he knew from the start who was involved in the making of Philadelphia Skin, and whom he held responsible for Angelika's death.
It was also clear that he blamed Nigel Butler for what he had done to Angelika.
There was a good chance that Underwood had been stalking Julian Matisse the night Matisse killed Gracie Devlin. I secured a crime scene for him and his partner in South Philly a couple of years ago, Underwood had said of Kevin Byrne at Finnigan's Wake. On that night, Underwood had taken Jimmy Purify's glove, soaked it in the blood, and held it, perhaps not knowing at the time what he would do with it. Then Matisse went away for twenty-five to life, Ian Whitestone became an international celebrity, and everything changed.
A year ago Underwood broke into Matisse's mother's house, stealing the gun and the blue jacket, putting his strange and terrible plan in motion.
When he learned that Phil Kessler was dying, he knew it was time to act. He had reached out to Phil Kessler, knowing the man was strapped for money to pay his medical bills. Underwood's only chance of getting Julian Matisse out of prison was to trump a charge against Jimmy Purify. Kessler had jumped on the opportunity.
Jessica learned that Mark Underwood had volunteered to work the film shoot, knowing it would put him close to Seth Goldman, Erin Halli- well, and Ian Whitestone.
Erin Halliwell was Ian's mistress, Seth Goldman was his confidant and co-conspirator, Declan was his son, White Light Pictures was a multimillion-dollar enterprise. Mark Underwood tried to take away everything that Ian Whitestone cared about.
He had come very close.