Hollywood Games: A Hollywood Alphabet Series Thriller Page 23

  He sighed. “I don’t want to believe that, but at this point I’m just not sure.”

  “Have you had any luck tracking her down?”

  He waited for a moment before responding. I had the sense he was choosing his words carefully. “I checked the passenger manifests for the ferry lines serving the island. She took a boat to the mainland the day after you left here.”

  My heart pounded. “Then it must be her, she’s stalking me.”

  “I think maybe you’re jumping to conclusions…”

  “What? How can you say that?” My anger was suddenly on overload, my head throbbing again. “Do you have any idea how I feel, how this is impacting my life after everything that’s happened to me?” My anger now unleashed an emotional tidal wave. There were tears in my eyes. “I can’t believe any of this is happening.”

  “I’m sorry…why don’t I come to the mainland tomorrow. We can talk…”

  I brushed my tears. “No. If your ex-wife is stalking me I don’t want to add…” My tears came again until I had a complete breakdown. I finally managed to say, “I’ve got to go. I’m not doing well with any of this.”

  I ended the call and got into bed. Bernie came over and put his muzzle on the covers, whining. I took a moment and nuzzled him before telling him it was time for bed. After he trotted off to his blanket my tears came again as I thought about my life and relationships.

  Two years ago I’d gone through a devastating divorce after my ex had cheated on me. It had shattered my self-esteem, leaving me an emotional wreck. After recovering I’d finally gotten together with Jack, but we had some trust issue when he moved away to be near his ex-wife who had medical problems. In the meantime, I’d hooked up with Mack McKenzie, a private investigator. Our brief relationship ended when he realized I still had unresolved feelings for Jack.

  Jack and I had eventually gotten back together and had fallen in love before he was murdered. Now there was Buck. He had rekindled something in me that I thought had been lost forever. I’d even begun to realize that those timeless moments of perfection I’d felt when we were together where the initial stirrings of love.

  Now everything had been lost. The feelings I’d had as a little girl after my father had been murdered returned. After his death I’d lived my entire life in the shadows of deep loss that had impacted my life and relationships. Now on this dark night, those shadows were closing in around me again until I thought I might never see the light again.

  CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

  The next morning I dragged myself out of bed and took Bernie for a walk. It was early and, thankfully, I didn’t see any SID vans, press, squatters, or stalkers anywhere. Bernie was sniffing along the fence line and I was admiring the sunrise over Hollywood when I heard a small voice behind me.

  “I like Bernie.” I turned and saw Brie’s five year-old daughter, Lily. “He’s fluffy.”

  I came over to her with my big dog and bent down, feeling only a slight twinge in my ankle from yesterday’s fall. “Yes, he’s kind of like a big furry pillow. Maybe I’ll let him spend the night with you and your mom one of these days. Would you like that?”

  As if he approved of the plan, Bernie sniffed the little girl and she giggled.

  The light in Lily’s eyes grew brighter. “Maybe we could have a slumber party.”

  “Great idea.” I studied her beautiful little face for a moment. “How do you like your new home?”

  “It’s nice. Phyllis and me are best friends. We had a tea party yesterday.”

  I smiled at the thought of the gentle giant sharing tea with her. “He’s a nice man.”

  Lily nodded. I watched as her gaze took in the rolling grounds of the estate. “It’s beautiful here.” Her eyes found me again. “I think mommy and me are lucky.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because there’s so much love in the world. Mommy told me that even if we can’t live with daddy they both still love me very much. She said the world is full of love, you just have to let it find you.”

  I nodded at the same time I saw Brie was calling to her. I waved to my friend as her daughter skipped back to the carriage house. As I walked back to the house Lily’s words came back to me.

  The world is full of love, you just have to let it find you.

  Maybe what she’d said was a message meant for me. Despite my job, my troubled relationships, and all the problems in the world I had a sense that what she’d said was true. I took a deep breath and forced myself to shake off my earlier depression. If a five year-old child whose parents were going through a divorce could see the love in the world, maybe I could too. I decided that I needed to keep that in mind as I faced the day.

  I went inside and had a cup of coffee with Natalie, Mo, and Lindsay at the kitchen table. Somewhere below us I heard scurrying sounds, probably Claude and Dr. Lester in the basement getting ready for the day and deciding what mischief they could stir up.

  “Sounds like a couple of rats are loose down below,” Mo said. She looked at Natalie. “Maybe we oughta set a couple of traps.”

  “I’m gonna be busy most of the day helping out the coppers,” Natalie said. “I wanna find the rest of Bridget’s jewelry.” She held out the gold necklace she’d found last night.

  “Can I see that for a moment?” I asked.

  She handed it over and I saw it was a small locket. There was nothing inside, but the initials BW were carved on the back.

  I looked back at my friend. “You need to show this to the investigators today and tell them exactly where you found it. It could be a key piece of evidence.”

  “No worries. Before the day’s out Mo and me will have found Bridget’s body, the rest of her jewelry, and we’ll be doing an interview with the press ‘bout everything. You’ll probably see us on the six o’clock news.”

  I did an eye roll. “Great. Just try not to get in the way.” I stood up and got my purse.

  Before I left Lindsay said, “I’ll probably be home late tonight. I’m doing another ride along at the station.”

  I frowned. “I thought maybe you’d decided being a police officer isn’t your calling.”

  “I’m still thinking it over. I’ve also got an interview this afternoon with the PI that I told you about the other day.”

  I remembered her mentioning that Jimmy Sweets, the private investigator, was interviewing for an assistant. I picked up Bernie’s leash and said, “Just remember, he’s a low life.”

  “Don’t forget we’ll be at the open house tonight,” Mo said to me. “We might be home late if the food’s good.” She turned to Natalie. “Maybe they’ll have some of those raspberry poppers or even some buffalo chicken dip.”

  “I thought you were on a diet.” Natalie said.

  “I read somewhere that you can burn up to a hundred calories just by eating a full meal. I figure if I keep shoveling it in I might just burn up what I eat, come out in neutral territory.”

  “Wonderful logic,” I said, heading for the door. “See you both tonight.”

  As I was leaving the estate I saw that the SID teams were arriving and a couple of press vans were parking up the street. As the technicians began setting up I went over and told Bob Woodley about Natalie’s discovery of the necklace. We both then saw Natalie coming out of the house with a shovel.

  I turned back to Woodley and said, “Maybe you should just find a small patch of ground somewhere down the hill and let her spend the day there digging for bodies.”

  ***

  I decided to run a record check on Buck’s ex-wife when I got to the station. I justified the decision by telling myself that I needed to be vigilant.

  I found out that Colleen Melissa McCade had been arrested for creating a disturbance in Santa Monica three years earlier. According to the reports she was homeless and drunk at the time. The booking report included a mug shot of her. While I couldn’t be sure Colleen McCade was the same woman I’d seen on the road last light, there was a resemblance.

  I heave
d out a breath and put the records in a drawer. I then spent the better part of the morning with Harvey, working on paperwork for the Vivian Bundt murder and extortion case. I was confident that we had enough for the DA to file first degree murder charges and send Bundt to death row, but given California’s lengthy appeal process, she was probably looking at spending the rest of her life behind bars. As we worked, I asked Harvey how things were going with his love life.

  He continued to push paper as he said, “Misty and me are history. I’m single and looking to start dating again.” His brown eyes came up to me. “I was wondering about maybe asking your friend out for a drink.”

  “Natalie?” I laughed at the idea of her and Harvey being in the same room, much less dating.

  “No, Brie. I think we got along well the other day.”

  “Oh.” I couldn’t see Harvey and Brie together, either. For that matter, I had trouble seeing Harvey with anyone. “I think she’s still recovering from the breakup of her marriage. I don’t think she’s ready to start a relationship.”

  “Just keep me in mind if you think she might be ready one of these days.”

  Sure Harvey, how about the turn of the next century.

  Just before noon, Edna scheduled a meeting with us, Pearl, Kyle Gooch, and Eric Glade in the conference room. As I settled Bernie into a corner of the room, the younger of the two detectives was talking about his own relationship issues.

  “I’m starting to think women were sent to earth from another planet,” Glade said. “Snuggie wanted to go for a walk last night and just talk.”

  “Snuggie?” I said, taking a seat at the table. “Does she have bladder control issues?”

  “It’s a nickname that her mother gave her as a kid, something to do with her always wanting to snuggle up.”

  “Snuggling’s not such a bad thing.”

  “See what I mean, bro,” Glade said looking over at Gooch. “Women are all the same.”

  “There must be a planet of snugglers out there somewhere,” Gooch said. He looked at me. “Real men don’t snuggle.”

  I looked at Harvey and Pearl who both had the good sense to remain quiet. I looked back at the brothers and, just to irritate them, said, “Real men snuggle, do housework, and even buy women flowers.”

  Glade looked at Gooch and said, “Kate’s definitely part of the alien invasion, dude. No one is safe.”

  Edna came in, gave the brothers his best stink eye, and began the meeting using his favorite word. “What the fuck’s going on with Biggs and his brother? The Beast is mad as hell because Wayland’s still in the wind. There’s talk out there that Blood Nation could be set loose on the city.”

  “Nothing new on Bobby,” Pearl said. “Other than the fact that we know Gloria Powers was in a relationship with both him and Jiggy.”

  “My soul brother and me spent the night tailing Gloria,” Gooch said. “She was a busy girl, went to the Spotlight before heading over to the Frolic Room.”

  “The perfect place for Horny Henrietta,” Glade said. He must have realized that he’d used the same moniker the press sometimes used for the lieutenant. He looked over at his partner and lowered his eyes.

  Gooch took over. “She hooked up with a guy there and ended up spending the night with him up in the hills.” He yawned. “She didn’t leave his place until about three.”

  “Do we know who the guy was?” I asked.

  “We got the address of his house and ran a property search. It belongs to Parker Rose. We ran a couple of searches on him and found out he’s worth megabucks. Sold an Internet company for six hundred million a few years back.”

  “And his house is for sale, listed by Powers,” Glade said. “According to the website, there’s some big party going on there tonight with all the brokers.”

  “Oh my God, I’m such an idiot,” I said.

  “Kate’s not only an alien, she has self-esteem issues,” Gooch said to his partner.

  I ignored him and turned to Edna. “My friends, Natalie and Mo, are attending the broker’s open house tonight. They got an invite from another realtor.”

  “All we need is for those two troublemakers to stir up some shit,” Edna said. The lieutenant was familiar with some of my friends’ past antics. “I want you and Gluck there. See if you can rein them in and also question Powers about her relationship with Biggs and his brother.”

  “But I haven’t been invited…”

  “You got a badge, that’s your invitation. Be there.”

  ***

  Pearl got a call from JQ late in the day. We agreed to meet him at Plummer Park off of Fountain Avenue in West Hollywood. The area was a popular gathering place for Russian immigrants who had succeeded in erecting a controversial World War II monument to the Soviet army. We found the Blood Nation gangster on a park bench a few yards from the Russian monument.

  “Wassup?” JQ said, full of attitude, as we took a seat across from him.

  “You tell us,” Pearl said.

  “All I got to say is y’all got it wrong ‘bout Rafi. He ain’t behind the smack.”

  “And you would know that because?” I said.

  He cocked his head, regarded me. “Cause I got it from one of the big man’s LT’s. Rafi was against drugs ‘cause of what happened to his bro. He was set up.”

  I looked at Pearl, back at the gangster. “What happened to Wayland’s brother?”

  “He OD’d a few years back. I heard Rafi never got over it.”

  “Tell us about the set up,” Pearl said.

  “Don’t know, man. All I know is that Rafi had a beef with somebody. There was a lot of bad blood involved and my man got paid back with the set up.”

  “Where is Wayland now?”

  He shrugged. “Don’t know and I wouldn’t tell ya if I did ‘cause I’d be dead.”

  “Was Rafi behind what happened to Jiggy Biggs?”

  He shook his head. “No way. From what I heard it might be part of the set up.” The little gangbanger stood. “Wish there was more, but that’s all I got.”

  “One more thing,” Pearl said. “We’ve heard some talk about there being some paybacks, street violence because of what happened to Wayland.”

  JQ chewed on his lower lip for a moment. “If I were y’all I’d watch my back.”

  After he was gone, I said to Pearl, “What’s you’re take?”

  “I’d forgotten about Wayland’s brother dying of an overdose.”

  I remembered that Wayland had produced Jiggy Biggs’ anti-drug song and told Pearl about it. “It only adds to what we discussed before, that Wayland has no history of being involved in the drug scene.”

  Pearl nodded. “Maybe it legitimizes what I’ve been thinking, that King might have set everything up for Wayland to take the fall. The question becomes who else is involved and are they also behind the murders of Biggs and his brother.”

  I tugged on an earlobe and looked at Pearl for a long moment. “Remember that reporter I met with over on Melrose a few days back?”

  “Basheeba?”

  I nodded. “I think it’s time I had a little chat with Edna about her. She thinks she can set up a meeting between me and Wayland.”

  Pearl raised his silver brows. “This could get interesting.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

  Harvey and I got to the broker’s open house a little before nine after I dropped Bernie off with Brie and her daughter. Earlier in the day I’d called my friend and explained about Lily’s request that Bernie do a sleep over. She thought it was a wonderful idea.

  Parker Rose’s house was a sprawling ten thousand square foot Mediterranean villa set on one of the highest parcels in the Hollywood Hills with views of both Los Angeles and the ocean. After arriving, Harvey said he recognized some of the brokers from Hollywood Gold. He told me he was hungry and wandered off to find an appetizer plate, but I wondered if he wasn’t also a little star struck.

  We’d decided beforehand not to show our police ID’s and try to blend in hop
ing to find a way to quietly talk to Powers. I purposely avoided the crowd, including Natalie and Mo, until a woman named Cathy Wendell cornered me. The willowy blonde said she was one of Powers’ assistants.

  After introductions Wendell started making small talk. “Are you a new real estate broker to the area?”

  “Actually, no. I’m working with someone from…out of the area and…I heard about the open house.”

  “Wonderful,” she said, smiling, but at the same time her eyes narrowing on me. “What’s your broker’s name?”

  “Harvey Gluck,” I said, saying the first name that popped into my head and then feeling like an idiot.

  “Can’t say as I’ve ever heard of him.” She looked around the room. “Is he here somewhere?”

  “Yes, but I don’t see him at the moment.”

  No sooner had I said the words than Harvey came over with an appetizer plate. Wendell looked at him and then me.

  “This is Mr. Gluck,” I said, introducing my partner. I looked at Harvey, trying to send an unspoken message. “Harvey’s my broker.”

  “I’m so pleased to meet you,” Wendell said to my partner. “What office to you work out of?”

  Harvey looked at her and then at me, his expression blank. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

  “He works out of Malibu,” I quickly said, looking back at her and making things up. I then looked at Harvey. “I explained that you’re showing me the property tonight.”

  “Oh. I am?” He looked at Wendell. “I mean, yes I am her broker and I’m showing her the property.”

  Nice acting, Harvey.

  “I need to know exactly what’s going on here,” Wendell said, regarding Harvey before her gaze shifted to me. “We’ve had a problem recently with people crashing broker’s opens and I won’t…”

  “Kate, what are you doing here?” I turned as I heard Natalie’s voice interrupting Wendell. My friend said to Harvey, “You here lookin’ for an acting gig? They’re shooting a segment of Hollywood Gold downstairs.”