Hollywood Outlaw: A Hollywood Alphabet SeriesThriller (A Hollywood Alphabet Series Thriller Book 15) (27 page)

Three days later, I managed to pull myself together and go into the station. Joe Dawson’s words, remembering what Ted Grady had once said about finding justice for the victims of crime, resonated with me. I also remembered some of Buck’s last words about never giving up on life and him telling me when the road turns and all seems lost, you have to keep moving forward.

I still felt like I was stuck in molasses, but I decided I would find a way to keep moving forward, at least until we solved our cases. After that, I knew it was time to try the other thing that Buck and I had talked about. It was time for me to put my foot in a different stream. I knew that both the stream and the woman I’d become had changed, but it was time to try another course. I would find justice one more time for the victims in our cases, then I was planning to quit my job.

The only good news the past week had brought was that my sister had made affirmative contact with the feds. Joe Dawson was now convinced that she had gone undercover to expose those working for the Swarm. They had decided to give her some more time, before hopefully moving in and taking down the terrorist organization and extracting her.

The other positive news was that Brie was now out of the hospital and being considered for a clinical drug trial. She had regained some of her strength and hoped to hear something in the next week about whether or not she would be accepted into the program.

As for Nicolai Asimov, the feds were convinced that he’d gone to deep cover. They’d vetted everyone connected to both the Prince and Abrams cases, but hadn’t come up with anyone who they suspected was an operative working for the terrorist. Their official line was that Paulina Kristoff was working for Asimov and must have also been working with Marisha Dole in the embezzlement scheme. Their theory was that Asimov’s people, or Kristoff herself, had murdered both Bert Prince and Cole Abrams to keep the thefts covered up, before Kristoff planted the murder weapon in Addison Blaine’s car to frame her.

I didn’t believe a word of it and was happy when Molly Wingate had called, telling me that she and Selfie had come up with something interesting. Breaking our cases was my top priority as I walked into the stationhouse with Bernie and took a seat across from Leo.

“Welcome back,” he said. His eyes lingered on my furry partner. “Has Bernie been medically cleared?”

“Back on duty and ready for action.”

“With the acting chief’s blessing?”

“Let’s just say that I had a few words with Dunbar before Buck’s funeral. I explained to him the wisdom of keeping Bernie on duty.”

“Did that wisdom have anything to do with Dunbar’s past issues in vice?”

I smiled. “I’m sworn to secrecy.”

His gaze remained on me as he also smiled. “How are you doing with everything?”

“Just between you and me, I came back to finish our cases, then I’m done.”

His smile was gone and his forehead tightened. “What do you mean?”

“I’m turning in my resignation once we close our cases.” I exhaled. “I’m empty, Leo. I have nothing left to give.”

His lungs deflated. “You sure?”

I nodded. “I’ve never been more sure about anything.”

He took a moment, then said, “I understand, and I’ll miss you.” He blinked several times. “A lot.”

“I appreciate you saying that, and the feeling’s mutual.”

Twenty minutes later, the remaining original members of our taskforce on both the Prince and Abrams cases had gathered in Lieutenant Edna’s office. After everyone said they were happy Bernie was back on the job, a little small talk, and lots of platitudes about honoring the memory of Buck, Edna got down to business.

“Despite what the feds have decided about Kristoff being good for both murders, Dunbar has authorized us to take another look at everything.” His gaze found me and lingered. “He seems to have suddenly become a man with an open mind and a changed attitude about a lot of things.”

I kept quiet, not wanting to give up any details about the meeting I’d had with Dunbar. Agreeing to let Bernie return to duty was part of the package deal I’d struck with him. The other part of the deal was that I would resign and take Bernie with me into retirement once our cases were closed. Neither Edna, nor my co-workers, knew I was working my last case.

As Bernie ambled off to a corner of the office, Edna looked at Selfie and Molly. “It’s my understanding that you’ve come up with something on Prince that’s worth telling everyone about.”

Selfie brushed yellow hair from her eyes and put on a pair of pink glasses with rhinestones on the frames. “As we all know, Carlyle Waggoner is the producer of
The Princes of Beverly Hills
, along with dozens of other TV shows and movies. Molly and I were going through the call history on Bert Prince’s cell phone the other day and realized that he had lots of contacts with Waggoner through his assistant, Morgan Hathaway.”

“That’s no surprise,” Darby said. The pudgy detective had on a red and white plaid shirt that reminded me of a tablecloth at a picnic. “Waggoner was the money behind the TV show.”

“I remember my friend, Mo Simpson, also saying that Prince and Waggoner had lots of contact,” I said, “According to her, much of it involved heated conversations.” I looked at Selfie. “Go on.”

“Prince and Waggoner’s assistant were on the phone together almost daily, some of the conversations lasting half an hour.” She looked at Molly. “Here’s where things get really interesting. We also found a link between Carlyle Waggoner and Cole Abrams.”

They now had everyone’s interest. Molly picked up some paperwork in front of her and said, “As we know, Cole Abrams was a high tech inventor. After his murder, as part of the investigation, we asked his assistant, Jimmy Dietz, for a list of the projects that he’d been working on. Dietz said Abrams was very secretive and couldn’t really tell us anything specific.

“Dietz called a couple of days ago and said he’d come across some paperwork showing that Abrams had rented some private office space. It was the first Dietz knew about it and he went over there to check it out. He found information about the secret projects Abrams was working on.” Molly held up what I assumed was what Dietz had given them. “Some of this stuff is highly technical and difficult to understand, but one of the items has to do with the way movies are made.”

She now really had my interest. “Can you give us a description of what he was working on?”

“Not really. Most of what I have consists of equations and algorithms. All I really can make of it is that it was some kind of software that was an interface for the digital production process involved in the making of a movies. I think maybe it’s some kind of 3-D process, but much more sophisticated.”

I looked at Darby. “It must be related to the process Morgan Hathaway told us about.”

Darby said to the others, “Waggoner’s assistant told us he was involved in the development of some kind of movie technology. Didn’t make much sense to me.”

“She called it AII, or Augmented Immersive Intelligence,” I said. “It’s supposed to immerse the moviegoer interactively into the film that’s being watched. Hathaway said something about it being like virtual reality. It makes the viewer seem as though they’re on stage with the actors, as part of the action. It’s supposedly state of the art, cutting edge stuff that will change the movie industry.”

We all went on for a moment, speculating about the possible relationship between Carlyle Waggoner and our two murder victims. Neither Selfie nor Molly were able to give us anything further about the technology Abrams had invented, but I now had a feeling that is was central to what happened to both of our victims.

“I’d like to backtrack and summarize what we know about both cases,” I said, after turning everything over in my mind. “Maybe it will help put things into perspective.”

“That’s a waste of time,” Darby groaned. “We all know what happened.”

“I’d like to hear it,” Leo said. “There’s a lot of pieces to this puzzle, and we need to see how they fit together.”

“Lay it out,” Edna said to me, “but let’s not take all fucking day.”

I took a moment to gather my thoughts, forcing myself out of the emotional quagmire that continually threatened to pull me back into an abyss. I then began laying out what we knew.

“More than a week ago, Bert Prince, the patriarch of the reality TV show
The Princes of Beverly Hills,
was murdered. The show featured Bert, his wife Lady, her two daughters, Paris and Monaco, and their adopted daughter, Florence. Bert also had a son named Bruce by a previous marriage. The show was successful, making them all extremely wealthy. But, at some point, Bert and the rest of the family had a falling out about financial matters. His wife and daughters hired an agent named Marisha Dole to handle their money.”

I then went back to what we knew about the murder. “Our victim’s body was found in his den by a maid after he’d been shot. The COD was a .22 caliber round that pierced his aorta. The coroner subsequently determined that Prince had semen on his pajamas. DNA analysis later showed that he’d been engaged in a sexual act with Marisha Dole shortly before his death, something that Dole later admitted to.”

Leo offered to help out with the summary. “Our investigation revealed that our victim had been secretly diverting millions of dollars from his wife and daughters’ accounts, money that was laundered through dummy corporations and put in overseas tax shelters. We eventually realized that Marisha Dole was part of the scam, using her agency to falsify bank statements and financial documents to cover up the theft.”

“But Dole denies that,” I said. “She insists that she was set up by another party.”

“She had GSR on her blouse,” Darby said. “She’s a bigger liar than a politician.”

“Maybe,” Leo said. “But that doesn’t explain how the weapon used to murder Bert Prince ended up in Addison Blaine’s car.”

“We’re getting ahead of things,” Edna said. He looked at me. “Let’s talk about the Abrams case.”

I took a sip of coffee and began laying out that case. “Cole Abrams was found shot to death in his penthouse condo by his assistant, Jimmy Dietz. Abrams was a wealthy inventor, who made about a half a billion dollars from a computer chip he developed and sold to another company several years ago. Dietz said that after discovering Abrams’ body, he told the victim’s girlfriend what happened. Addison Blaine had been asleep in the bedroom next to where the body was discovered.”

Darby yawned. “Let’s cut to the chase. Blaine was in a secret room adjacent to the bedroom, screwing Abrams’ prostitute, Paulina Kristoff.”

I confirmed what he’d said, adding, “Both Blaine and Kristoff claim that Kristoff’s relationship with Abrams involved far more than sex. Blaine’s mother, Deidre, operates—for lack of a better word—a companionship service, and arranged for Kristoff to be Abrams’ companion, something that she referred to as a ‘Beta’.”

Leo chimed in. “According to both women, the relationship was mutually satisfying to all parties. Cole Abrams lacked certain social skills that Kristoff assisted with, along with meeting his emotional and physical needs.”

“So she was a sweet-talking call girl,” Darby said. “It doesn’t change what she did for a living.”

I ignored him, moving on. “We found Kristoff dead in her apartment a couple of days later from an overdose of sleeping pills. There was a suicide note on the nightstand, but we all have our suspicions that she didn’t take her own life.”

I then took a moment, summarizing Deidre Blaine’s business, which she called the House of Darwin, and her speculation that a man named Nicolai Asimov, who worked for her at one time, was behind Kristoff’s death.

I then said, “Addison Blaine realized someone was taking money, lots of money, from Cole Abrams’ accounts. Her mother speculated the theft was orchestrated by Paulina Kristoff, who was secretly working for her former employee, Nicolai Asimov. Kristoff was essentially a financial operative, working behind Blaine’s back with Asimov to steal from Abrams.”

“We all know about Asimov’s background,” Edna said. “So let’s save the chit-chat. The feds believe that Kristoff was also somehow linked to the Prince family, stealing money from Lady and her children.”

Leo said, “But we now know that the producer of the Princes’ TV show, Carlyle Waggoner, and our second victim, Cole Abrams, are linked. Abrams was developing the software for Waggoner’s immersive technology that’s supposed to revolutionize the movie industry.”

They all went on for a few minutes, speculating that Waggoner might have murdered Abrams to steal his technology. Darby even brought up the possibility that Waggoner and Asimov were working together. It was all conjecture, not based on anything factual.

As they discussed various scenarios, I took a moment, sifting through what we knew about both cases, and the parties involved. My adrenaline spiked as things began to fall into place.

I thought I knew who killed both Bert Prince and Cole Abrams.

“Do you remember that woman who was at Bert Prince’s funeral—the one who went to pieces during his burial service?” I said to Leo and Darby.

While Darby just shrugged, Leo nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t remember who she was.”

I looked at Selfie and Molly. There must be some video of the graveside service at the memorial park. Can you try and pull something up?” While they worked their laptops, I told the others, “Suppose we’ve got this all wrong?”

“What are you talking about? Edna said.

“What if the woman who was at Bert Prince’s services was working for Asimov to divert money from the Princes’ accounts and also steal Cole Abrams’ immersive technology?”

Darby shook his head. “Dole was Prince’s lover. You ask me, the feds got it wrong. She was the thief working with him. There was nobody else involved.”

“I’ve got something,” Selfie said a moment later. “Somebody posted the burial service on YouTube.”

We all watched as the young woman dressed in black came out of the crowd of mourners and threw herself on Prince’s casket. The scene only lasted for a couple of minutes before the pastor and another man came over and escorted her away.

I looked at Darby. “Does she look familiar to you?” He shook his head. I said to Selfie. “Replay the video.” When it was over, I said to Darby, “Well?”

He sighed. “Maybe it’s that Hathaway woman.”

“It’s Morgan Hathaway,” I said to the others. “Her hair was much darker then, and her face was partially covered by the veil. Darby and I only briefly talked to her at Waggoner’s studio, but I’m sure it’s her.”

“What if it is?” Darby said. “It doesn’t prove anything.”

I said to Selfie and Molly. “Can you pull up everything you can find on Hathaway?”

I then said to Darby and the others. “Maybe what Hathaway did doesn’t prove anything, but it does show that she was deeply distressed, or at least gave the appearance of being upset, by Bert Prince’s death. We also know that she was intimately familiar with the immersive technology her boss was trying to acquire and use in his movies.” I looked at Edna, my heart now racing as things further fell into place for me. “What if there were two financial schemes at work in these cases, along with an attempt to steal technology, and the parties all crossed paths.”

His brow became pinched. “You’re losing me. Spell it out for us.”

I took a breath, my excitement growing. “We know that Paulina Kristoff was working for Nicolai Asimov to steal money from Cole Abrams to fund Asimov’s terrorist activities. Let’s suppose for a moment that while working for Abrams, she also became aware of the technology he was inventing and told Asimov about it. Knowing that the invention would be worth a fortune, Asimov became extremely interested. He became so interested, in fact, that maybe he planted an operative in Waggoner’s studio to assist in stealing the technology. Suppose that Morgan Hathaway’s role was to learn everything she could about the immersive technology, at the same time she was already at work behind the scenes stealing millions from Lady Prince and her children.”

“And, when she had the technology, Abrams was no longer useful,” Leo said, playing along.

I nodded. “Abrams was probably tortured to give up the details of the software he was working on. Once they had everything, Hathaway probably shot and killed him, while Blaine and Kristoff were in the soundproof room next door. She then left before Dietz arrived and found the body.”

“And Kristoff?” Edna said. “How does she later end up dead?”

“We know that she fell in love with Cole Abrams. It could be that Hathaway confided in her that Asimov planned to kill Abrams once he acquired his invention, and Kristoff was so upset that she threatened to go to the authorities. Hathaway told Asimov what she’d said, and it was lights out for Kristoff.”

“I’ve got something,” Molly said. “Morgan Leslie Hathaway was born Leslie Ann Raleigh, in Pittsburgh. She was considered a gifted child and attended college at Princeton, where she majored in accounting and finance.” Her voice pitched higher, as she looked up from the computer screen. “After college, she went to work for a private equity fund, where she was caught and prosecuted for falsifying records and embezzling funds. She spent three years in federal prison before being released.” She looked back at her laptop. “She subsequently moved to California, where she changed her name to Morgan Leslie Hathaway. It looks like she had a couple of jobs here and there, but eventually went to work as an assistant to Carlyle Waggoner.”

“At the same time she was secretly working for Nicolai Asimov,” I said. “Hathaway’s background was perfect for the role of stealing from Lady and her children, at the same time cooking the books behind the scenes to make it look like Bert Prince and Marisha Dole were embezzling their funds. They were both set up for the entire scheme.”

Darby scratched his fleshy chin. “Why didn’t the feds pick up on Hathaway when they did their investigation?”

“She was Carlyle Waggoner’s assistant and had no direct connection to the Princes. She probably wasn’t even a blip on their radar.”

“But how does Addison Blaine fit into all this?” Edna asked. “How does she get set up to take the fall for both murders?”

“Morgan Hathaway had to know that Addison Blaine and Bert Prince had been involved at one time. When Dole walked on the murder charges, Addison was part of the backup plan. She was the perfect candidate to go down for Bert’s murder as a scorned lover, and also for Abrams’ murder, because she was jealous of his involvement with Kristoff.”

Leo took up the story. “With Blaine out of the picture, the plan was probably for both Hathaway and Kristoff to continue to pilfer from Abrams’ accounts, making sure they had everything they needed regarding his movie technology. It could also be that their original plan was to have Blaine take the fall for the theft from Abrams’ accounts, but she became aware of what was happening and told Abrams.”

“And Waggoner’s involvement?” Darby asked, maybe finally coming on board with the theory.

“He’s probably just a greedy producer who was aware of Abrams’ invention and wanted to acquire it,” I said. “When Hathaway went to work for him, she probably told him that she had some insight into the process and could help with the plan to obtain it. She may have even stolen portions of the technology for Asimov while Waggoner was working with Abrams on acquiring it.”

“But why would Hathaway tell us about it?” Darby asked. “If she’d just kept quiet, we might have never made the connection about her and Waggoner’s interest in the technology.”

“I think I might be able to answer that,” Selfie said. “Since we found out about the technology, I found several references to it on the Internet, and about Waggoner’s interest in it. She probably assumed we would eventually find out about it, and thought if she mentioned it to us, there wouldn’t be any suspicions raised.”

“And Hathaway’s histrionics at Prince’s funeral,” Molly asked. “Why do you suppose she acted like she’d lost her lover?”

“Maybe she did,” Leo said. “This
is
Hollywood, and there was no bigger player than Bert.”

I agreed with what he said. “Hathaway might have been sleeping with Bert to facilitate the embezzlement of his family’s funds. If they were involved, everyone probably knew about it and expected that she’d be upset at his death, hence the acting job at his funeral.”

Edna blew out a lungful of air that was peppered with an expletive, then said, “This was one big cluster fuck, with Asimov using Hathaway and Kristoff to steal millions for his fucking terrorist activities. Where do we go from here?”

“We go arrest Morgan Hathaway for the murder of Bert Prince.”