Diva Las Vegas Read Online Free PDF

a fool in sheep’s clothing.”
    “And now I look like Daisy Mae. Do you still want to barf?”
    “No. I feel a little better. But we’ve got to get out of here, Alex,” George said. “I’m melting.”
    “I’m looking for Jakes now,” I said. “I’ll see what he says.”
    “Thank you.” He sat back down. “I’m going to wait right here.”
    I nodded and headed over to the haunted house. The boys in blue were still keeping the curious away.
    “Is Jakes still inside?” I asked one of them.
    “Detective Jakes? Yeah, he’s in there, wrapping things up. It should be a few more minutes.”

    Not exactly. More than a little while later, I called my mother to tell her what had happened and that I didn’t know when I’d be getting home. As I was disconnecting the call, I saw the ME’s men wheel the body out on a gurney, followed by the ME himself and then, finally, Jakes and Davis. I waved. Jakes said something to Davis and came over.
    “Her throat was cut,” he told me. “ME says she would have bled out in seconds.”
    “Poor Shana.” I grimaced.
    “Where’s Hefner?” Jakes asked. “I should talk to him, since we’ve locked down his party.”
    “He’s up at the manse,” I said, “but I’ve got something to tell you first.”
    “Sounds important.” He took me by the elbow and walked me away from the haunted house. “What is it, Alex?”
    I told him how Shana had invited me to the party so she could talk to me about something, but just as we were going to get into it, a woman came over and called her away. Next time I saw Shana, she was dead.
    “So you have no idea why she wanted to see you?”
    “None,” I said. “All I know is she said she had nobody else she could talk to.”
    “So some girl called her away to a phony photo shoot with a nonexistent photographer?”
    “That’s what I’m having Hef find out,” I said.
    “Okay, so,” Jakes said, “who was the woman?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “What do you mean?” he asked, confused. “Didn’t you talk to her?”
    “Not really. I’ve been looking around for her, but she was dressed as a wood nymph or wood fairy or something. Painted head to toe in green. You’d be surprised how many girls have on a similar costume.”
    “Oh, come on. It can’t be that difficult. How many wood nymphs could there be?”
    “Are you kidding? Have you looked around?”
    Right on cue, a winged fairy walked by. But she was head to toe in blue. I nodded toward her, making a See, I told you so face as she sauntered by.
    “Okay. I get your point. Maybe she’s at the mansion. Let’s go on up. You can introduce me to Mr. Hefner.”

Chapter 7
    Jakes didn’t allow Davis to come into the mansion with us. Instead, Davis was in charge of making sure everyone at the party was interviewed, and collecting names and addresses.
    “He’s not only a soap opera fanatic,” he told me, “he’s a Playboy fanatic, too. I can’t trust him around these girls.”
    “And can you trust yourself?” I asked.
    “Of course,” he said. “I’ve got a girl of my own who puts all of them to shame.”
    I hip bumped him and said, “Good answer, baby.”
    Hef was in the same room where I’d left him, but the ladies were elsewhere. It was just Hef, Jakes and me.
    “Hef, this is Detective Jakes. He’s the man in charge.”
    “Detective,” Hef said, shaking hands with Jakes, “thanks very much for the prompt response.”
    “Just trying to do our job,” Jakes said. “The body has been removed, and we’re questioning guests as we speak.”
    “When can we let people go home?” Hef asked.
    “Not for a while, I’m afraid,” Jakes said. “Everybody who attended the party has to be considered a suspect. We’re also going to need help finding out who left before we arrived and locked the place down. We’re taking everybody’s names and addresses now, and we’ll need your guest list to compare it to.”
    “I’ll have Mary get it to you right away. She’s in