Hollywood Blood: A Hollywood Alphabet Series Thriller Read Online Free PDF Page B

not only my brother, he’s my hairdresser and he’s gay. It was obvious that he was horrified by both my ensemble and my hair, which made me feel like crawling back into a grave with the other zombies.
    “Just a bad combination of murder, fog, and chasing a killer through the neighborhood,” I said.
    He stood there, shaking his head, looking me up and down. “Come by the shop tomorrow and I’ll see what I can do. You ’re a fashion and hair disaster.”
    I tugged at the frizzy mess on my head. “Yeah, maybe I can stick a finger in one of the light sockets at your salon and reverse the polarity.”
    “So how is Miss Daisy doing?” he asked, changing the subject.
    “As good as any psychic who conjures up a murder can be. At least she’s not having orgasms.”
    We’d both been scarred for life by the hallucinations Mom had about having sex with Richard Nixon after a bad reaction to medication for her recent face lift surgery. Yes, Nixon, as in the dead president.
    We chatted for a few minutes more, Robin promising to call me if there were any problems with Mom. The crime scene unit was packing up and I was also ready to call it a night when my cell phone rang.
    “Nobody’s home at the Dawg pound,” Charlie said then chuckled, apparently impressed by his own joke. “Pearl and I were able to get ahold of his manager, guy named Harley Porter. He’s not sure where his client is tonight, but we’re supposed to meet him at the house in the morning.”
    I turned and saw Skully pacing, motioning for me to hurry up.
    “Okay, I’ll meet you there,” I said to Charlie. “By the way, SID has been here and gone. They found a casing in the grass just outside Mom’s window. The shot came from close range, so unless our shooter is nearsighted, it looks like Nordquist was the intended vic.”
    “Doesn’t add up. She and her sister are about as harmless as you can get. Maybe somebody wanted to get to Karma by killing her agent.”
    “Maybe, but Karma gave me nothing to go on.” I turned and saw Skully ’s face flush, a vein popping in his forehead. I’d given up on the stroke prayer. “See you in the morning, Charlie.”
    “I suppose you talked to Woodley,” Skully said, coming over to me and checking his watch. “Since Nordquist was the target, I want you to follow up on her first thing in the morning, interview anyone who knew her, see where it leads.”
    “Winkler and Kramer already talked to her sister. She and Harriett were a couple of spinsters without any enemies. We’re going to interview Love D…”
    “I want Nordquist to be our focus.”
    I want a gun. Wait, I remembered I already had a gun. After the initial impulse to kill Skully, I decided that a double homicide was probably not a good idea. I was exhausted, green, frizzy, and ready to agree to whatever he wanted.
    “Maybe there’s a financial angle,” Skully suggested. “If Nordquist managed the celebrity’s affairs, maybe she was skimming off the top and somebody got wind of it.”
    “W e’ll check. But, according to Charlie, she and her sister lived a pretty frugal lifestyle.”
    “Or, it could be jealousy,” Skully suggested. “Maybe the sister didn’t like the fact that Harriett was Karma’s manager; got all the attention.”
    “Or hormonal.”
    “What?”
    “Maybe Harriett’s sister was having her period, went into an estrogen-induced rage. Finally let her sister have it. Blew her brains out.”
    Skully nodded. Did he actually think what I’d said was plausible?
    “Stranger things have happened,” he finally said.
    Oh my god. Harriett’s sister probably last had her period during the Civil War.
    Skully started to walk away, but came back to me. “You look like hell, Detective. Go home and get some rest.”
    “Why don’t you go find a straight razor and cut off your dick?” Okay, I didn’t actually say it. It was just one of those random, homicidal zombie thoughts that crosses the mind of an exhausted, ugly green