Eleventh Hour

  Delion said, “You mean DeLoach’s father is a retired cop?”

  Franken said, “Yeah, I guess so. I do know his dad’s been there a long time. Once Weldon told me that his father was confused most of the time.”

  Flynn said, “We already knew Weldon didn’t ask the people here at the studio or anyone else to make him any airline reservations. If he did fly somewhere, we would have found a record, what with all the security.”

  “Bear Lake,” Delion said thoughtfully. “That’s up in the Los Padres National Forest, isn’t it? In Ventura County?”

  “That’s right,” Flynn said. “Just an hour north on I-5, over the Tejon Pass. Well, maybe more, what with our godawful traffic.”

  “And that means, of course, that DeLoach could have easily driven up to San Francisco anytime he wanted. And Pasadena,” Nick said.

  “Yeah, that’s right,” Flynn said.

  “Thank you, Mr. Franken,” Delion said, rising. “Detective Flynn’s people have interviewed all the other writers and employees of The Consultant. Everyone checks out, at least on the first pass, which is admittedly shallow. Oh yes, Mr. Franken, where were you last week?”

  Jon Franken was gently swinging his foot with its Italian loafer tassel falling to one side, then to the other. He raised an eyebrow, but answered readily enough, and with good humor, “I was right here, Inspector Delion. I’m working on Buffy the Vampire Slayer at present. Very long days.”

  Delion nodded, then turned away, saying over his shoulder, “Oh yes, what’s the name of Mr. Frank Pauley’s wife? You know, the one who plays the girlfriend on The Consultant?”

  “Belinda Gates.”

  “We’d like to speak to her. And the star of the show, Joe Kleypas.”

  “Of course. Watch it with him, Inspector. Joe isn’t always mellow, particularly when he drinks. He’s got quite a temper, actually. If you accuse him of being a murderer, his smile might just drop off his face.” He looked Savich and Dane up and down, smiled to himself, and said, “Of course, it would be interesting to see what would happen if he went at it with you guys.”

  Jon Franken took Savich and Sherlock to the commissary for lunch. “Belinda’s working a soap this week,” he said as he chewed slowly on a single french fry. “A guest slot. There were some problems, so I know they were shooting today. Maybe she’ll be here. If she doesn’t show, I’ll take you to her trailer. It’s pretty rare that the bigger stars come in here. They hang out in their trailers most of the time. You probably noticed trailers scattered all over the lot.” He shook his head. “What a life, not much glamour sitting in a trailer.”

  Sherlock said, looking around the big rectangular room, “I guess I expected a big buffet, cafeteria-style. I do like all those 1930s murals on the walls.”

  “I like all the ape characters from the new Planet of the Apes you’ve got set around this big room,” Savich said. “They’re really lifelike.”

  “This is Hollywood,” Jon said. “We never stop advertising or patting ourselves on the back. Actually, though, this commissary doesn’t compare to the one over at Universal. You can catch some really big stars over there because the place is so opulent.”

  Belinda Gates walked in some ten minutes later. Sherlock said, “Goodness, she’s got rollers in her hair, Dillon, those big heat rollers. Do you remember the last time I used them to straighten my hair? You helped me roll them in?”

  He said as he wrapped a long red curl around his finger, “Let’s do it again. It was fun.”

  Sherlock paused a moment, remembering very clearly what they’d done just after pulling the rollers out. She said to Franken, “That’s really Belinda Gates? She’s very beautiful.”

  “Yes, that’s her,” Franken said, and smiled as he chewed another french fry. “She is beautiful, and most important, the camera loves her face.”

  Both Savich and Sherlock realized in that instant that Jon Franken had slept with her.

  Sherlock said, “Tell us a bit about her, Jon.”

  Franken ate another french fry, shrugged his elegant shoulders. “Belinda is basically a lightweight. She learns her lines, takes direction well, and has enough talent to keep the wolves at bay—of course, now that she’s nailed Frank Pauley she doesn’t have to worry. She works when she wants to, which probably means that her head’s less screwed up than it was. The thing is, she doesn’t have much fire in the belly; she just doesn’t have it in her to go for the jugular. If you’re looking at her as a suspect in this mess, all disguised and made up to look like a man, I’d say she wouldn’t be able to make it through the first audition. Now, if you’re interested in Frank Pauley as your murderer, maybe Belinda will give you something incriminating. Pauley just might have enough acid in his gut to do something like this. The thing is, I just don’t know why he’d sabotage his own show.”

  “And you could? Make it through the first audition?” Savich said. He ate a carrot out of his huge salad.

  “Oh yes, believe it. Listen, I’d still be sweeping the studio floors if I didn’t have it in me to take out a few jugulars, if I didn’t want to move up in this business more than I wanted to eat, which was in question in those early years.” And then he smiled again, wiped his hands on a napkin. “I’ll introduce you and let you at her. A few years ago, Belinda had some problems with the cops. She might not be all that easy for you.”

  Jon Franken rose. “Forget what I said about Pauley. Even if his worst enemy were backing this show, he still wouldn’t have the guts or the imagination to try to bring it down through this convoluted, god-awful violence. Ah, Belinda is taking her lunch out. This should be a good time. She doesn’t tape for another hour or so; I checked.”

  Sherlock and Savich met with Belinda Gates in a small green room connected to a talk show stage. She didn’t look friendly. She looked suspicious, her lips tightly seamed together.

  A challenge, Sherlock thought, smiling at her, remembering what Franken had said. She introduced herself and Savich, carefully showing Belinda Gates their FBI shields up close.

  “You’re both FBI?”

  “Yes, that’s right,” Savich said, sitting back so he wouldn’t overwhelm, so just maybe she would relax.

  “Partners?”

  “Sometimes,” Sherlock said, sticking out her hand so Belinda Gates was forced to shake it. “Actually, we’re partners all around—we’re married and we’re FBI agents. Isn’t that a kick?”

  Belinda said, looking back and forth between them, “You’re really married? To each other?”

  “Oh yes,” Sherlock said. “We’ve got a little boy, Sean’s his name. He’s nearly a year old now. He’s walking, but he can also crawl as fast as I can walk. Besides being good parents, we’re good agents. We’re here to catch this killer and we need your help. We assume you know all about this, Ms. Gates?”

  Belinda Gates leaned toward Sherlock, less wary and suspicious now. “Oh yes. Your husband—he looks like he could star in that new series Frank just dreamed up. It’s about a sports lawyer who’s a real looker and a hunk, stronger than most of his athlete clients. His clients are always getting him into trouble.” Belinda cleared her throat. “Listen, I’ll do whatever I can to help you find this horrible person. Is your name really Sherlock?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Cool.”

  “Thank you,” Sherlock said. “We really appreciate speaking with someone who knows the ropes and all the players. I was very impressed with your role on The Consultant. I only saw the first two episodes, but you were really good. Your Ellie James character was believable, sympathetic, and beautiful, of course, but you can’t help that.” She paused a moment, and Belinda smiled.

  “It’s unfortunate that the show has to stop, at least until we catch the maniac who’s causing all this grief. We’re hoping you can give us some ideas.”

  EIGHTEEN

  Belinda nodded, said, “I’ll certainly try, but I really don’t know anything. I do know that poor Frank is really upset about t
he show’s cancellation, but what can he do? He told me that DeLoach or some other writer involved in the scripts is killing people to match the murders in the first two episodes. Frank started calling it The Murder Show.”

  “Catchy title,” Sherlock said. “Yes, that’s the essence of it.”

  “Well, I think that actually Weldon DeLoach came up with that title, but the powers-that-be didn’t like it, preferred The Consultant. More uptown, you know what I mean?”

  “Yes,” Sherlock said. “More Manhattan than Brooklyn.”

  “Exactly,” Belinda said, smiling. “That was Frank’s take on it as well. He’s been in the business a long time. He was an actor back in the early eighties, never made it big, and that was okay because he realized he wanted to make shows, not star in them. He didn’t ever want to do movies. He loves TV. He’s at his happiest when he’s the mover behind the scenes, you know, getting scripts actually made into shows, selling the networks, doing the budgets, lining up the actors and directors. Kicking butt to keep everything moving and reasonably on budget.

  “The first show he produced was The Delta Force, back in the mid-eighties, ran for about four years. Maybe you’ve seen some reruns?”

  Savich nodded. “It was a good show.”

  Belinda Gates seemed to light up from the inside, gave him a big smile and pulled one of the big rollers out of her hair. A long fat curl flopped out. “I’ll tell him what you said. You know, Frank tells me everything so I know probably as much as he knows about this murderer.”

  Sherlock said, “You’re smart, Ms. Gates, you’re on the inside. We know that you’ve given this some thought. We need your help. Do you have any idea who could have orchestrated all this?”

  Belinda pulled out another roller, gently ran her fingers through the big loop of hair, decided it was cool enough, and nodded to herself as she said, “If I had to guess, I’d say it was the Little Shit, you know, Linus Wolfinger. He’s very smart. But it’s more than that.” She paused a moment, scratched her scalp, and said, “It seems like every single day he has to prove that he’s the smartest guy on the planet, the biggest cheese. It doesn’t matter what it is, he’s got to be the best—the fastest, the smartest—and everyone has to recognize it and praise him endlessly.”

  Savich sat forward, clasped his hands between his knees, and said, “Other than his need for everyone to know how great he is, can you think of a reason why he’d actually follow a TV script to murder people?”

  “Because it’s weird, it’s different, that’s why. The Little Shit really likes to think up things to show his scope, all his abilities that are so much more impressive than, say, yours or mine. A murder would be a different kind of challenge for him. If he is the one killing these people, then he had to know that the police would catch on soon enough. Hey, I bet he even set it up to get the police pretty close to him, and that would put him center stage, right in the spotlight. Does that make sense?”

  “Not really,” Sherlock said.

  Another roller came out and Belinda scratched her scalp. “Of course it doesn’t, I’m just being bitchy. If I really had to vote, though, I’d pick Jon.”

  “Jon Franken?” Savich said, and he knew a moment of real surprise and recognized it for the mistake it was. Everyone in this bloody studio was a suspect. Still, he hadn’t put Jon Franken in the mix, not really, because he was just—what? He was too together, he was focused. He was very Hollywood, yes, that was it; he was normal in that he fit just right into this specific environment. Savich just couldn’t see him at ease in a murderer’s world.

  He said to Belinda Gates, “Why do you think it’s Jon Franken?”

  “Well, Jon is one of the sexiest guys who’s not an actor in LA. He’s slept with more women than even Frank knows about, and believe me, Frank knows just about everything. Jon’s sexual prowess has helped him really plug in to everything in LA that counts. He knows everyone, knows who’s on the A list at any given time for the past ten years, and that’s because he’s slept with them. He knows stuff he probably shouldn’t know, knows all the players, intimately, most of them, including me, not that I’m a big player, mind you. Sex is powerful. Maybe sometimes even more powerful than money.”

  Savich thought that was probably true. The good Lord knew that if he chanced to look at Sherlock—it didn’t matter where they were or what they were doing—the chances were he wanted her right at that very minute. He remembered just the week before they hadn’t even made it into the house. They’d made love against the garage wall. But to have sex color every encounter, to make it the cornerstone of your success, to have sex as a major building block to help you get what you wanted and to get you plugged in—no, he really couldn’t relate to that.

  Belinda said, “I know that all makes it sound like Jon is a real Hollywood predator, and he is, but I’m using ‘predator’ in the good sense.”

  Sherlock laughed. “I’ve never before heard a person described as a predator in a good sense.”

  “As sort of the real insider,” Belinda said, no offense taken. Then she frowned. “But then there’s another side to Jon. He’s got a mean streak, and it’s really deep inside him.”

  Sherlock said, “Tell us about this mean streak. We haven’t seen it.”

  “Well, when I stopped sleeping with him, I was the one to break it off—not him. Normally it’s Jon who wants to move on, but the word is that he does it very smoothly, doesn’t leave a woman wanting to cut his—Well, doesn’t leave a woman wanting revenge. Nope, he manages to keep his women as friends.

  “Don’t get me wrong, he would have been the one to move on from me, too, but it just so happened that I met Frank.” Belinda leaned closer. “It still scares me when I think about it. I told Jon the truth. I remember he just stood there, right in front of me, and his hands were fists at his sides. He didn’t hit me. He just said in this really soft voice that I was a bitch and no woman dumped him. I think he slashed my tires, but since I didn’t see him actually do it, I can’t prove it. I’d call that pretty mean.”

  “I would, too,” Sherlock said. “But that isn’t the end of it, is it?”

  “Right. Then there was Marla James, a young, real pretty girl who actually had some talent. I don’t know what went on between them, but whatever happened, Jon saw to it that she was kicked off her show. I heard she was pregnant—by Jon? I don’t know, but she left LA.”

  Sherlock took down all the facts Belinda knew about Marla James.

  “Then there was the guy who aced Jon out of an AD spot—that’s assistant director—on this new show he really wanted. That was Tough Guy, lasted four years. Anyway, the guy ended up with two broken legs, couldn’t do the job. Jon got it. Was he responsible? You betcha, but there wasn’t any proof.”

  Savich said, “Are you upset that The Consultant has been stopped?”

  Belinda smiled, shrugged, pulled out another roller, and scratched her scalp. “Poor Frank, he’s the one who’s really upset. This was his baby. He has a lot of ego on the line here.”

  Sherlock said, “Can you think of anyone who would be pleased to see the show closed down?”

  Belinda pulled out the final roller, dropped it, and all three of them watched it roll across the floor.

  “Pleased enough to murder people according to a pre-written script? Now that’s something I haven’t thought about,” she said, frowned at the fallen roller, then ignored it. All the rollers were arranged like little smokestacks in front of her. She ran her fingers through her hair, over and over again. Her hair, Sherlock decided, didn’t need to be combed. It looked tousled and thick and utterly beautiful, more shades of blond than she could count.

  “You know,” Belinda said, her voice low, all confidential now, “Wolfinger’s bodyguard. He’s this big guy, never says a word. His name’s Arnold Loftus. I think he and Wolfinger sleep together.”

  “You’re saying that Wolfinger is gay?” Savich said.

  Belinda just shrugged.

  A boy with a bad
complexion stuck his head in. “They need you on the set, Ms. Gates.”

  Belinda took one final swipe at her hair, nodded at herself in the mirror, rose, and smiled at them. “Sean’s his name? I’d like to have a little boy,” she said, nodded to both of them, and walked out of the green room.

  Savich said, “I got turned on watching her with those rollers, Sherlock. What do you say we buy some of our own?”

  “Some really big ones?”

  “Oh yes,” he said, “bigger than the ones we used before,” and Sherlock laughed.

  CHICAGO

  “My poor darling, how are you feeling?”

  Nicola looked up at John Rothman, heard three of his aides speaking in the hospital corridor because he’d left the door ajar. His face was ruddy from a stiff Chicago wind and thirty-degree weather, his blue eyes bluer than a summer sky. She thought she’d first fallen in love with his eyes, eyes that could see into people’s souls, at least see deep enough that he always knew the right things to say when he was campaigning.

  “I’m okay now, John, just a sore throat and my stomach feels hollowed out.”

  “I’m here to take you home. I was thinking, Nicola, maybe you should just move in with me now. The wedding is in February, so why not speed some things up a bit?”

  She hadn’t slept with him. The one night she’d decided she was ready, they were caught making out just outside one of John’s favorite clubs—The High Hat—his tongue in her mouth, his hands on her butt, and there’d been photos in the National Enquirer. Very embarrassing.

  He’d only given her light pecks on the cheek after that incident.

  She said, “If I move in with you, people will find out. Don’t forget what happened before.”

  He shrugged. “All right, then. Let’s move up the wedding. How about the end of the month?”

  She was silent.

  “I want us to begin our life together, Nicola, as soon as possible. I want to make love with you.”