A Death In Beverly Hills Read Online Free PDF

plan or direction. The air filled with the musty smell of paper and old toner and the stink of his recently cleaned vomit.
    Steve took another sip then laid his head back and closed his eyes. When he opened them again he had no idea which file he was holding and he squinted at the header on the first page: "Interview by Katz, S. (Det.) and Furley, J. (Det.) with Thomas Travis" followed by a date in late January, a bit over three weeks after Marian Travis had disappeared. Steve was surprised to see that Tom Travis had come in without a lawyer. More ego than brains , Steve muttered and flipped to the transcript's first page.

    * * *

    "Thanks for coming down, Mr. Travis," Katz began. "We appreciate your help."
    "No, I appreciate your help. And call me Tom."
    Katz forced a weak smile and plowed on.
    "We here hoping, Tom, that you might have remembered something new about the day Marian disappeared."
    "Gee, guys, I've told you everything I know. You've seen the poster, right?"
    Thousands of eleven by fourteen inch placards with the heading:

    HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WOMAN?

    followed by a picture of Marian Travis in her wedding dress holding a glass of Dom had been scattered all over Southern California. The phone number in red at the bottom was 1-800-MISSING. Travis was reported to have paid someone $25,000 for the number. Katz suspected that he had gotten it in exchange for an autographed head shot and a lunch at Ivy.
    "Yeah, Tom, we sure have," Furley assured him.
    "We've already gotten over five thousand tips. Most of them are whackos," Travis smirked and fluttered his hands like flapping cuckoo birds, "but we've gotten some good leads too. Turned them over to you guys, of course."
    Katz shot Furley an embarrassed glance and turned back to Travis. "Yeah, we're checking them out. But, back to the day she disappeared, were you able to remember anything else she said about where she was going?"
    "All a blank, sorry," Travis said, shrugging.
    "Your maid, Delfina Angelinez, said Mrs. Travis was planning on spending the day at home with her daughter. Does that ring any bells?"
    "Delfina would know better than me." Travis sneaked a peek at his watch, a Patek Philippe, no thicker than a business card, all done in silver and gold and secured to his tanned wrist with a silver strap. "I figure that since you found her car at the Beverly Center, someone probably grabbed them from there."
    "That's a possibility--"
    "You know, I did a film once, Against The Grain , you remember it?" he asked Furley. "I played this private detective hired to find a missing rich girl. Daddy was worried about her but my character thought she had set up her own kidnapping to get daddy's money. But Razor, that was my character, Razor Sands, he was wrong. Her step mother had really grabbed the girl so that the Old Man would leave all his money to her. So--" Travis held up his hand, "so, anyway," he continued speaking faster, "the way they kidnapped her in the movie, they let the air out of one of her tires at the mall and when she bent over to look at it, two guys jumped out of the van parked next to her and grabbed her up."
    Travis paused for a quick breath and studied Katz and Furley for some sign that they were following him. "So, I was thinking, you found Marian's Escalade at the mall, what if . . . ." Travis paused theatrically, "the bad guys had studied me, you know checked out my films, and copied that scene. Marian's about to get into the car and bang, the van door flies open, two guys grab her, throw her in, the door slides closed. Ten seconds later, they're gone. Nobody's seen anything." Travis looked expectantly at Furley.
    "What about the little girl?"
    "Sarah?"
    "Yeah, what about little Sarah?"
    "Okay, well, after they get Marian in the van, one of them ties her up, tape or something, while the other one grabs Sarah." Travis spread his hands palms up. "Five more seconds is all it would take."
    "We'll take another look at the security tapes for any vans