"Grandma?" Nathaniel asked again when she was near him.
Hugging him, she then slapped him on the shoulder.
"Why did you not call? We had to hear about it on the news!" She shouted resentfully.
"There was no time, I was with the detectives for half an hour and my phone is still in my lodge."
"Half an hour!? Why are you keeping my grandson for so long? Is obviously the victim here!" Diane shouted angrily at the detectives.
"Calm down lady, we are only doing our job here and secondly, who let you pass? This is an active crime scene, I'm going to ask you to leave." Detective Morrison said.
"Yes, we are leaving! Let's go dear."
"Not so fast! We still have questions for you Mister Lyndon. In fact, it would be better if you came with us to the precinct to sort everything out."
"Okay that's it." Nathaniel had enough. "Since you came, you broke eight rules of the code of Police procedure. You didn't even let me be looked at by the paramedic who came which means that everything that you write down is now irrecevable in court."
"You are obviously fine." Detective Ortiz sneered.
"Excuse me, are you a certified medical professional to make that kind of judgement? No? That's what I thought. Now, I don't know if that was a power trip, trying to appear superior to me or just that you don't like my face but I'm warning you. The only way that I will come with you is if you arrest me and if you do, I will have your badges and I will make sure that you never become cops again. Not mentioning me using my 3.1 millions of followers on twitter to make sure that your department has a lot of scrutiny and of course a lawsuit that's going to cost millions to the city. So, what do you want to do?"
Nathaniel was done humoring them and was ready to do his worst. Hearing him, the detective Ortiz looks ready to draw her weapon on him while her colleague gulps visibly, looking everywhere but at him. They had pushed the line a little further than they should and they were out of luck to do it to a law student and a son of a prosecutor.
"I'm sorry if we inconvenience you in any way Mister Lyndon. You are of course free to go. Just make yourself available if we have new questions or information regarding the person who attacked you." Detective Morrison finally said after nudging his partner.
"Don't worry about it, detectives, our lawyer will be in touch, you can count on that." Diane said, gritting her teeth.
Even if Nathaniel was ready to let them off the hook for this time, Diane did not. She was extremely protective of her grandson and she will not tolerate anyone who uses their power to make things difficult for him, especially when he is the victim.
"Well, that was weird." Nathaniel passed a hand in his hair after the cops left.
"Not really, I was on the receiving ends of things like that more than that could count. Even if status and money can open a lot of doors for us, there will always be some who would resent us for having it. Cops especially since they think they can extorque us for money in exchange of silence or worse, thinking that if we succeed, it means we broke the law to do it and so can use us to advance their career."
"Hum, I don't know. It almost seemed like personnel for the detective Ortiz, I saw something in her eyes when I told her my last name. I will look into it. What do you say we get out of here grandma?"
"I would love to."
"Good. First, I need to… Maggie?" He shouted her name to get her attention which it worked. She then walked in his direction, an eyebrow raise.
"What do you want Spider kiddo?"
"I'm going back to my lodge to change and get my thing. Want to get out of here with us?"
"Alright but it's just because no executives want to talk with me anymore and you are marginally better than police officers. Oh hey Diane, I didn���t see you there."
"Maggie." His grandmother nodded in her direction.
Once they leave the studio, Nathaniel could breathe again not wearing makeup and a costume anymore. He was back in his comfortable clothes and shoes. He had used a side exit to leave the studio where his grandmother's limo was waiting. Since the press caught wind of what happened, they had camped in front of the studio demanding answers that Nathaniel did not want to give right now.
The car started to run the moment he was in it and he sat beside his grandmother where Maggie was sitting in front of him looking at her phone with interest. He was just inside when his own phone rang, looking at the caller ID, Nathaniel let out a smile.
"Hello Lina."
"Nathaniel! I know who he is! I know the name of the person who tried to kill you!" Lina shouted excitedly.
"Okay, calm down! And I'm fine, thank you for asking." Nathaniel added sarcastically.
"Oh come on, I know that! How do you think, I called you the moment you were in the limo? I was watching you on the Studio security camera. That's how I found the one who tried to kill you, I found him and used my recognition face software to learn who he was."
"Okay, give it to me."
"His name is Edward Holstorm. Forty two years old ingenior, he was born in the city of Eugene in Oregon. Two years ago, he and his family were coming back from a party when they had an accident. His wife and his two sons died in the car crash and he was found to be intoxicated. When he realized what happened, unable to cope with the guilt, his spirit broke. He was interned in a mental facility in Portland until two weeks ago when he escaped and no information was found about him until now." Lina explained.
"I see." Nathaniel said, deep in thought. "Did you have more information about what his mental status is?"
"Yes, I just hack into his health file. After what happened, he had a split in his personality. I don't understand half of the words in there but it says that he believes he is Harry Osborn, which you know better by the name…"
"Green Goblin." Nathaniel finished for her.
Hearing him say that, Maggie and Diane look at him which he responds by simply waving the remark aside.
"Exactly." Lina confirms.
"Alright, I'm glad to learn that it was not something more nefarious than that. Can I ask you something?"
"Of course." She answers quickly.
"Can you find me everything there is to know about Detective Ortiz from the LAPD?"
"Ortiz, get it and yeah no problem, this is going to be fast, I will send everything I find in the usual place."
"Good, thanks Lina." Nathaniel said before hanging up.
"So, grandma, why are you here in LA?"
"Why? I can't even come to see my lovely grandson?" Diane said with a fake pout.
"Of course and I'm happy to see you, really, but why did you not call to warn me that you were coming to town today?"
"In fact, I was here yesterday. Your grandfather and I talked about something, it's been a week since you were in LA and you stayed at a Hotel the whole time. It's simply not going to do it. We know that you don't care about money or standing but we do and other people do as well. Not mentioning the fact that someone could use your tendency to live sparingly as an admission that we have money problems, which would hurt us and our company stock." Diane explained.
"She's right you know, we talked about it before." Maggie added.
It was true, Nathaniel had chosen a good hotel for the period he was here previously but not a rich or prestigious one. For him, it sounds unnecessarily as while he was in LA, he was passing most of his time between the set, going out with his co-stars and Maggie to eat or drink something and the label studio to work on his music. For him, if his hotel room had a comfortable bed, he did not really care about the rest.
"I don't really see the point of spending money for appearance sake, I'm sorry. This is just not how I was raised." Nathaniel shook his head.
"We know dear, we know. That's why your grandfather and I took the matter into our own hands."
"What did you do?" Nathaniel was starting to have a bad feeling about this.
"We bought a house here, in Santa Monica."