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here and wait,” he said. “This lamb’s hooves are hurting a little.”
    “Where this Little Bo Peep goes,” I said to the girl, “her sheep doesn’t necessarily follow.”
    “That’s funny!” she exclaimed again. “I just love lambs. They’re so cute, aren’t they? White and fluffy! So cute!”
     
    I followed the girl’s flat, skinny butt into the mansion. She could use a little more junk in her trunk, if you know what I mean. A few Twinkies and Ding Dongs would be a good place to start. From the foyer, we turned the corner into the dining room. Hef was sitting with another angel, a devil, a cat and a wood nymph around a grand dining room table. For a second I thought it was the same nymph that took Shana to the photo shoot. Then I realized she was a brunette.
    “You’re Alex?” he asked, taking the pipe from his mouth. “Thanks for coming.” Hef got up to greet me, straightening his silk bathrobe.
    “No problem,” I said. “We can’t leave anyway. You know, we met years ago. In the eighties. I was here a couple of times.”
    “Ahhh. The eighties. Those were good times.” He looked me up and down. “I’m surprised you weren’t in the magazine. Did we ask you to pose?”
    “Uh, yes. It just didn’t feel right at the time. Ha! It’s probably too late now, right?” I said, joking. There was a slightly awkward pause.
    “Can I get you something?” he said, circumventing the question.
    “No, thanks,” I said. “I’m fine. There’s still plenty of food and drink out there.”
    “I thought it best to keep the buffets and bars open,” he said. “People might as well be able to eat and drink if they can’t leave.”
    The eyes of all the girls were on me, and I felt silly in my costume. Unlike George, I did have something on underneath, but it was just a bra and panties.
    “Was there something you wanted to ask me?”
    “I understand you found Shana,” he said.
    “That’s right.”
    “Can you tell me anything?” he asked. “I’m in the dark here. And I can’t say I like it very much.”
    I told him what George and I had found. All the girls around him put their hands over their mouths as I described what I had seen.
    “Poor Shana. She was family.” He wiped a tear from his eye.
    The thing you had to love about Hef was that he considered every girl who ever appeared in Playboy magazine his family. I’m sure he’d felt it deeply when Anna Nicole Smith died, and now he was feeling Shana’s death, as well.
    “Who would do that to her?” he asked. “And why do it here? During the party? Seems to me that was taking a hell of a chance.”
    “Maybe it wasn’t planned,” I said. “Maybe somebody just saw an opportunity to kill her.”
    “But why?”
    “That’s for the police to find out.” Something occurred to me just then. “Did she make it to the photo shoot?”
    “What photo shoot?”
    “A girl came over to us and told Shana that you wanted her for a photo shoot of all the Playmates from the eighties,” I said.
    “I wanted her?” he asked. “I don’t know anything about that.” He looked around at his girls, who all shook their heads.
    “I wonder why someone would want just girls from the eighties?” he asked.
    That question had not occurred to me earlier. Now that I realized Shana had been lured away with a lie, I felt foolish for not having asked it.
    “She didn’t actually mention you,” I said, remembering. “She said a photographer wanted her.”
    “Well, there are plenty of them around,” he said.
    “Can you ask if any of them had that idea?”
    “Of course.”
    “I’ll tell the detective in charge you’re doing that,” I said. But first I had to get rid of my damn petticoats.

Chapter 6
    I took off my crinoline, flattened my skirt, ripped off a few bows and buttons and then went to find Jakes. But I ran into George instead, right where I’d left him.
    “Oh, fine,” he said, jumping to his feet, “Bo Peep’s gone, and now I just look like