Hollywood Notorious: A Hollywood Alphabet Thriller Series (A Hollywood Alphabet Series Thriller Book 14) Read Online Free PDF

Mo explained before Natalie could answer.
    “We’re all gonna be livin’ on the street with dog bites on our rear ends,” Natalie whined.
    Mo regarded me. “You gotta find us a lawyer, Kate. One of them guys that’s meaner than a junk yard Chihuahua.”
    I sighed. “I hate lawyers, but I’ll see what I can do.” After telling Harv that we’d see him later, I told my friends, “I’ve got to catch a couple hours sleep. I was up all night.”
    “You musta been working that boneyard case,” Mo said. “I heard it was some bad shit that went down there.”
    Mo had been a pimp in her former life and had lots of street contacts. She and Natalie always seemed to know about my cases almost before I did.
    “I heard her face was painted,” Natalie added, her hazel eyes growing wider. “Maybe the killer went Norman Bates, wanted her to look like his dead mother.”
    I didn’t want to discuss the details and said, “I can’t really talk about it. It’s still early in the investigation.”
    Natalie wasn’t deterred. “What about that Godfather bloke? Maybe he whacked the girl after cappin’ them drug dealers.”
    “I don’t think it fits with what we know about him.” I yawned. “See you both later.”
    “Wait up, there,” Mo said. “What ‘bout gettin’ us a mouthpiece before Mean Gene kicks our sorry asses to the curb?”
    I sighed. “I don’t know how we’re going to afford a lawyer, but, like I said, I’ll see what I can do.”
    “Wait a minute,” Natalie said as I started to leave again. “I just had me a bloody brilliant idea.” She looked at Mo. “Jimmy’s got a cousin, Hermes Krump, who was hanging ‘round his office last week. He passed the bar exam a few weeks back.”
    Jimmy Sweets was their boss in the PI business my friends worked part-time when they weren’t pursuing an acting gig on a sit-com called Hollywood Girlz . He had a reputation for swimming at the bottom of the sleaze pool. It occurred to me that his cousin was probably doing the backstroke in the same pool.
    “You’re not thinking of hiring one of Jimmy’s relatives,” I said.
    “You got a better idea?” Mo said, putting her hands on her wide hips.
    I was exhausted and tired of arguing. “Not really. I guess you can go ahead and give him a call.”
    I sauntered off to bed, pulled the covers up to my neck, and thought about my life. I was living in a mobile home park with an angry horde of eighty-year-olds. If Mean Gene had his way, I would soon be living on the streets, and my fate might end up in the hands of a guy named Hermes Krump.
    I closed my eyes, feeling like I was drowning in the world’s biggest sleaze pool.

SEVEN
     
    Bernie and I got back to the station a little after one. The morning’s battle with Maude and her hanging jury had left me on edge, and I’d only gotten a couple hours of restless sleep. I decided to put it all out of my mind as I settled into Lieutenant Oz’s office, next to Leo. Darby and Buck were also there, along with our crime analysts, Selfie Rogers and Molly Wingate. Bernie took the opportunity to continue to catch up on his sleep in a corner of the room.
    The lieutenant’s office, which we referred to as the bat cave, was loaded with modern crime-fighting equipment, including TV monitors and computers tied to all the national crime databases. Selfie began the summary, using Section One’s monitors to show images of last night’s events. Our crime analyst was in her twenties, and lately had a fondness for gargoyle piercings and either pink or yellow hair, depending on the day of the week.
    “As we all know, our victim was found at the Park Hills Cemetery overlooking Hollywood last night. She was posed and painted in what the detectives believe is a re-creation of a Day of the Dead display. Preliminary analysis revealed all of the skin on her body had been removed, except for her upper torso, arms, and face.”
    “Do we have a COD?” Oz asked. Our lieutenant looked tired