Free Hollywood Blood: A Hollywood Alphabet Series Thriller by M.Z. Kelly Page A

Pearl asked Karma.
    “Trevon brought her to a party once . That was before I knew…I could tell right away there was something going on. She was all over him. I told him never to bring her back here.”
    “I also talked to her the night of the party,” Vee offered. “She was a real freak. Very scary.”
    “Can you give us a description of her?” I asked, directing the question to all three of them.
    I got back: “A little above average height, dark, strangely beautiful, exotic,” and Karma added, “A slut.” Good for you, superstar!
    Porter added another element. “She was…I’m not sure how to put this delicately. Her outfits showed a lot of skin. Her body was…” He took a breath. “Something men would desire.”
    I got the picture, a hot, dark, vampire slut. It met the description of half the women in Hollywood. Maybe she lived next to the prince of darkness. Maybe they both worked for a law firm.
    “What about the video Myra was in?” I asked. “Does anyone have a copy?”
    “It’s on YouTube,” Porter said. “It’s called, Sex Down .”
    Vee got her iPad while Karma went into the kitchen. We watched as Love Dawg sang and danced, and Porter pointed out Myra in the background. “It’s kind of hard to see what she looks like.”
    That was an understatement. Myra was dancing and twirling around. She was one of the background singers, but there weren’t any close-ups of her.
    “Can you get us the original video from the production company, including any outtakes?” I asked Porter.
    “No problem. I’ll call you as soon as they’re available.”
    “I’m going to have a sketch artist with the department work with you all,” I said, then turned to Karma’s business manager who hadn’t said a word. “Is there anything you would like to add to the discussion, Miss…”
    “It’s Mrs., actually, ” Barbara Collins said. “I’m afraid I never met the woman you’ve been talking about. So no, I don’t think I know anything that would help.”
    Karma’s business manager seemed too normal for this group. She probably had a close relationship to the singer, but I decided that we’d covered enough ground for now.
    On the way to our cars, we stopped for a minute . I let Bernie sniff around some flowers.
    Pearl said, “I’m going back into the house for a minute and talk to Porter about the production company that made the video. The actors should have provided a social security number, birthdate, and other identifiers for employment purposes.”
    We asked Pearl to let us know what he found out. After he left, I said to Charlie, “I still think Karma’s the key to everything that’s been happening.”
    “If you’re thinking it’s some kind of revenge killing because Jackson cheated on her, it doesn’t explain Nordquist’s death.”
    We began walking to our cars. “If there is a revenge angle, maybe it has something to do with jealousy over Karma’s fame or some kind of payback for something she did in the past.” I then remembered Jackson’s housekeeper telling us about the masked intruders. “Of course, none of that explains why there were four women at the Jackson crime scene.”
    “Maybe the FFF is involved,” Charlie suggested.
    I shrugged. “She is a high maintenance nut job. I don’t know that she’s the killing type, but I don’t think we should rule her out.”
    I saw Charlie look over at Earl Conners. The head of security stood near the guard shack talking to Mo and Natalie. “How do you suppose he got a moustache like that?” he asked.
    “And you would be asking me because?”
    He turned back to me. “Just asking. Didn’t mean to imply you have a stash or anything.”
    “Well, thanks for that.” I’d called my brother and made an evening appointment for him to see what he could do with my hair. Maybe I also needed to have my lip waxed.
    Charlie went on, “It’s just that I’ve been noticing my hair and even my moustache is getting thinner.” He looked