Hollywood Murder Read Free

saying my hellos and greeting Bernie, Nana wasted no time irritating me. “I heard you’ve been acting like a foolish schoolgirl in heat with your new boyfriend.”
    Natalie, who also had little patience when it came to Nana, said, “Kate’s finally found the man of her dreams. There’s nuthin’ wrong with that.”
    “Yeah,” Mo chimed in. My heavyset friend was fond of wigs and was sporting a shoulder length chartreuse headpiece. “Long as she’s gettin’ what the doctor ordered, it ain’t nobody’s business.”
    “I’ll bet that doggy doctor is hornier than Bernie,” Nana added. “How many times did you do it when you were with him in Hawaii?”
    I took a breath and released it slowly. Noah and I had gone to Maui together and had been back less than a week. “Sorry, but I didn’t count.”
    “No matter. I hold the Guinness Book of World Records for continuous coitus anyway. Me and a guy I once dated did it fifty-seven times in one night.”
    Mo regarded Nana with one eye, in that way she had when she disapproved of something. “I knew a lot of working girls when I was a pimp. Some of ’em worked all night, but what you’re suggesting ain’t even possible.”
    “Unless you had ’bout twenty guys in the room,” Natalie added.
    Nana straightened her lime green blouse. “Believe what you will. It was an extremely vigorous night. I plan to use some of my personal experiences in my upcoming show.”
    I shouldn’t have asked, but I’ve always had a problem keeping my big mouth shut. “What kind of show?”
    “It’s a talk show I’m working on with the studios called Bedtime Stories . I’m going to have guests show up and talk about their sex lives, kind of like Howard Stern.” She regarded me. “Since you were a born again virgin until recently, I could save a spot for you.”
    Nana was talking about the fact that, before I met Noah, I’d been on a relationship hiatus, trying to sort out my personal life. Neither she nor my friends understood my decision not to be involved with anyone until I was sure it was the right relationship. “Thanks, but I’ll pass on the show.”
    Nana grimaced. “That figures. You’ve probably got nothing worth talking about anyway, unless people want to hear about fake orgasms and the missionary position.”
    I bit my tongue, doing my best to ignore her.
    Nana stood and said, “I’ve got to be going. My posse is waiting for me.”
    “What posse?” Natalie asked.
    Nana’s oversized dentures gleamed in the ceiling lights. “My entourage is waiting in my limo. I don’t go anywhere without them. I have a certain image to maintain.”
    After she was gone, Mo shook her big head and said, “Nuthin’ like maintaining your image as a crazy old woman in heat.”
    “I was thinking ’bout Lindsay today,” Natalie said to me, changing the subject, and, no doubt, happy that Nana was gone. “Is there anything new on her whereabouts?”
    I sighed, thinking about my half-sister. Lindsay had been taken in by a group of killers that called themselves The Swarm. What had started out as a kidnapping had turned into Lindsay apparently suffering Stockholm syndrome. She’d willingly become part of the group that had gone underground. I had no idea where she was or what she was planning.
    “I haven’t heard a thing,” I said. “I’m worried that she’s going to surface one of these days and do something we’ll all regret.”
    “We haven’t given up on finding her,” Mo said, maybe just to try and bolster my spirits. “I got my sources on the streets keeping their eyes open.”
    In Mo’s prior life as a pimp, she’d specialized in getting girls off the streets. I knew that she still had a lot of contacts and said, “I appreciate that.”
    “So tell us ’bout your meeting with Collin Russell,” Natalie said, moving the conversation in a new direction. “We wanna hear what he knows ’bout that Kellen Malone bloke.”
    My friends knew all about my mother’s