Hollywood Homicide: A Hollywood Alphabet Series Thriller

by M. Z. Kelly

  My eyes shifted from him to Jankowitz. The deputy chief was in his forties and still bore a few scars from playing hockey as a kid back east. He had even features but a serious expression. I nodded at both men and held my breath, waiting for what was to follow.

  Dembowski looked at Jankowitz who said, “It’s come to our attention there have been some indiscretions in Section One, behavior that’s completely unacceptable.”

  I pushed down my anger and said, “I don’t know what Lieutenant Conrad has told you but I haven’t violated policy. I did what…”

  “Wait…” The deputy chief glanced at Dembowski, back to me. “This has nothing to do with you.”

  I regarded him for a moment and said, “Then I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Jankowitz went on, “A few days ago, our Professional Standards Bureau received an anonymous phone call. The caller informed them that there’s been some unprofessional conduct in your unit.”

  My gaze shifted between the two men. “I’m still at a loss as to what you’re referring to.”

  “Sex,” Dembowski said, taking over. “With prostitutes to be exact.”

  “What? Who are you talking about?”

  They exchanged glances again. The captain lowered his voice and said, “Lieutenant Conrad.”

  “Are you kidding?” I almost laughed out loud at the thought of the lieutenant having sex with anyone, let alone a prostitute.

  “According to the caller, your lieutenant has been meeting girls during his lunch hour at the Marquee Manor Hotel.”

  I couldn’t help myself and chuckled. “I don’t believe this.”

  Jankowitz took over. “We’ve had him followed and it appears to be true.”

  “Why are you telling me this? Why isn’t it being handled by IAD?”

  “We believe that you can help us with our investigation, using one of your sources.” The deputy chief lowered his voice, even though the door was closed. “I know from having worked at Hollywood Station that you’re friends with a woman named Mo Simpson, who worked out of the Marquee Manor at one time. I’m wondering if she could supply us with the names and details of the women Lieutenant Conrad has been seeing.”

  I suddenly made a connection. Mo and Natalie had said something to me about Conrad needing to get laid. Had Mo arranged for one of the working girls to hook up with the lieutenant? I had trouble believing it, but, even if she had, it wouldn’t excuse Conrad’s conduct. I’d also heard through the grapevine that my boss was married and had a couple of children.

  I sighed. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Just talk to your friend,” Jankowitz said. “See what she knows about Conrad, the girls he’s been seeing. All we want is some information so we can set up a sting operation. We’ll take it from there.”

  I brushed a hand through my hair. “As you probably know, the lieutenant isn’t my favorite person, but I don’t like the idea of working for IAD.”

  “You’re working directly for me on this, not IAD,” Jankowitz said. “And, as I said before, you would only be gathering information. We’ll take it from there.”

  If the request had come from anyone besides Brian Jankowitz I wasn’t sure how I’d respond, but I knew the deputy chief was an honorable person who always tried to do the right thing.

  I nodded and stood up. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

  We shook hands. I started to leave with Bernie but then turned back to them. “As you probably know, Lieutenant Conrad made a referral to IAD on me. Can you tell me the status of that investigation?”

  The deputy chief’s lips turned up. “We’re aware that in the short time since his promotion, the lieutenant has demonstrated a certain lack of objectivity when it comes to you.”

  “He hates my guts.”

  He nodded. “The referral is going nowhere. You have my word on that.”

  I felt the tension in my shoulders ease for the first time in days. “Thanks.”

  “One other thing,” Jankowitz said as I started to turn and leave again. I met his eyes. “Please remember, this conversation never happened. That means absolutely no one is to know about it.”

  I nodded and walked away. As I drove back to Hollywood Station, I struggled, weighing the pros and cons of what they were asking of me. I had to admit that seeing Lieutenant Conrad taken down for unprofessional conduct would be the ultimate payback. But I also knew that I didn’t want to play a part in the process. I finally decided that I would talk to Mo and see what she knew. After that I would make a decision about what to do with the information.

  SIXTY TWO

  When I got back to the station Lieutenant Conrad called me into his office and grilled me about my meeting at Homicide Special.

  I sat there for a moment, trying to come up with a cover story.

  “Well, I’m waiting.”

  “Dembowski just wanted to talk about your IAD referral,” I lied. “He wasn’t happy about one of his Section One detectives being accused of misconduct.”

  Conrad smiled. It was ugly and made me forget about my earlier reservations about burning him. “If you engage in unprofessional conduct and violate policy you pay the price.”

  I sat there for a moment, not believing what I was hearing. I finally just said, “I guess we’ll have to see about that.”

  The lieutenant then called Ted, Selfie, and Molly into the office. After they all took seats, he said, “Pearce Landon is still in the wind, so until something breaks we concentrate on the Van Drake case. I want an update.”

  I took a moment, summarizing what he knew about the actor, telling Conrad how he’d disappeared three days after Shirley Welch had also gone missing, and that the actress’ body had recently been found buried on the grounds of Ravenswood Manor.

  “We know that Van Drake and Welch had been in a relationship for about a year before they both went missing,” I said. “I talked to the cold case detectives at the time Welch’s body was found. They had some audio recordings found at Van Drake‘s estate, showing that he and Welch had been in a heated argument shortly before she disappeared.”

  “So they both went missing about the same time,” the lieutenant said, processing what I’d said.

  “According to Cold Case, Welch talked to her mother the day before she disappeared. Van Drake was on a hiatus from the film he was working on, went to the Santa Barbara area, and shortly thereafter also went missing.”

  “So maybe the key to what happened is up north,” Ted speculated. “Do we know what Van Drake was doing in Santa Barbara?”

  “I’ve done a little digging,” Selfie said, brushing a hand through hair that, this morning, had green highlights. “He was staying in Montecito, just south of Santa Barbara, at the Mirasol Hotel on the beach.”

  Conrad made a vague sound in his throat, making me think he was already bored with the discussion. “You all go work out the details on this. I want some solid leads before the day’s out. Maybe a couple of you can demonstrate that you actually belong in Section One.”

  Ted, Selfie, Molly, and I reconvened in a smaller conference room a few minutes later. Bernie took the opportunity to nap in the corner.

  “Our lieutenant never misses a chance to demonstrate that he’s a jerk,” Molly said.

  Selfie agreed. “Maybe there’s a class they give you when you get promoted—Idiot 101.”

  I laughed and said, “It might even be that our lieutenant teaches the class.”

  Ted got us back on track, saying, “Maybe we should talk to Shirley Welch’s mother again about her daughter’s relationship with Van Drake.”

  I agreed with him and turned to Selfie and Molly. “What do we know about the hotel where Van Drake was staying before he went missing?”

  Selfie opened her laptop and made some keystrokes as she said, “The Mirasol is now out of business. The property was bought by a wealthy investor with plans to turn it into a modern upscale resort. He got into some kind of dispute with the board of supervisors and
the county regarding permit issues, so it’s set vacant for a number of years.”

  Selfie turned her laptop so we could all see the screen. I realized she had Google Earth up. “As you can see, it’s abandoned and all fenced off. Too bad. It’s on some of the most prime beachfront real estate in the area. There’s even a twenty acre park next door.”

  “Are there any plans to reopen the hotel?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Selfie said. “But at the time Van Drake stayed there, the resort was open and fully operational.”

  I turned to Ted. “I think we need to have a little chat with Shirley Welch’s mother and then take a little road trip.”

  ***

  That afternoon Ted, Bernie, and I drove to Hidden Hills, a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles, to interview Shirley Welch’s mother, Vanessa Clark. After being allowed into the exclusive enclave of homes, we met with Clark in a rambling ranch style home with a sparkling swimming pool. After she gave Bernie lots of attention, we took seats on the patio. The afternoon was clear and cool, one of those rare smog-free days in Southern California.

  “Let me begin by saying how sorry we are about your daughter’s death,” Ted began. “And our apologies for making you go over what happened again.”

  She exhaled and appeared to be controlling her emotions. “I’m just glad they finally found her. The not knowing…”

  “I understand,” Ted told her, at the same time giving her a moment to compose herself.

  Vanessa Clark looked to be about sixty. She was short and wiry. Her face was tanned and heavily lined. Shirley Welch’s mother reminded me of a woman who’d worked hard all her life, maybe outdoors on a ranch somewhere.

  After she brushed a tear, I said, “We’ve reopened the case on Russell Van Drake’s disappearance. We think there may be a link between what happened to your daughter and him.”

  “Shirley was in love with him,” Clark said. “Although, their relationship was up and down.” Her dark eyes met me. “As you probably know, he was involved with a lot of women.”

  “Did Shirley ever mention anyone who might have been angry with him, maybe someone who might have taken out their anger on both of them?”

  “I gave the previous investigators the names of all the women Shirley told me about before she went missing. I don’t think they ever came up with anything.”

  I had a list of the women’s names in my briefcase that the cold case detectives had cleared.

  “What about Russell,” Ted asked. “Do you think he could have…” My partner took a breath. “Could he have harmed Shirley.”

  “I’ve thought about that a lot, especially since Shirley’s body was found. Like I said, they had their problems and argued a lot, but I don’t think he had it in him to killer her.” Clark brushed another tear. “In fact, the night before Shirley…the last time I last saw her, she told me that she and Russell had shared a wonderful weekend together.”

  I’d checked the murder files earlier and learned that Shirley had gone up north with Van Drake before her disappearance. “That would have been at the Mirasol, near Santa Barbara?”

  She nodded, a wistful smile finding her lips. “My daughter was a bit of a romantic. She said it was one of the best weekends of her life.”

  “I understand that Shirley came back to Hollywood three days before Russell went missing. Any idea why that was the case?”

  “She had an audition scheduled for the day after she came back from the Marisol, otherwise she would have never left him.”

  We spent another hour with Vanessa Clark, going over her daughter’s friends and acquaintances, as well as the actors she’d worked with on her films. Everyone she mentioned had already been looked at when Shirley had gone missing and later by the cold case detectives working Van Drake’s case.

  It was getting late, so we decided to go to the Mirasol Hotel in the morning. As Ted and I drove back to Hollywood, I thought about Shirley Welch. She had been a beautiful, young actress on her way up whose life had been taken way too soon. The more I thought about what happened, the more it seemed unlikely that Russell Van Drake would have driven all the way back to Hollywood to murder her.

  Her death also brought Scarlett Endicott to mind. Both women had been young, beautiful actresses victimized in the worst way possible. I made a silent vow to find both their killers and bring them to justice, despite working for a lieutenant that, if he had his way, would end my career.

  SIXTY THREE

  When Ted and I got back to the office I got a call from my sister asking me if I wanted to meet her for a drink. I was tired and needed to talk to Mo about what Deputy Chief Jankowitz had discussed, but I sensed that Lindsay needed to talk so I agreed to get together.

  Bernie and I met my sister at Yamashiro’s, an Asian inspired restaurant, in Hollywood. Lindsay and I found seats on a heated outdoor terrace, the peaceful site made even more tranquil by a nearby pond full of Koi.

  While I loved the restaurant’s magnificent location and great food, the eatery brought back memories of the last time I’d been there with my other sister. Amanda had gone on a rant after our brother had recently come out as being gay and then had a meltdown when I supported his lifestyle and choices. The result was that we’d only spoken a couple of times since then, mainly about Mom’s psychological problems.

  “I’m glad we got to spend this time together,” I said over drinks, while Bernie snoozed at my feet. “It seems like we haven’t really connected since you moved.” My sister had lived at Ravenswood with me and my friends before finding her own apartment in Hollywood.

  “I miss everyone, especially Natalie and Mo.” She laughed. “They’re always involved in…”

  She seemed at a loss to describe my friend’s antics, so I finished the sentence for her. “…one form of nonsense or another. They recently got roles in an Internet sit-com called, Hollywood Girlz, and we’ve all moved into an apartment complex in North Hollywood.

  She laughed. “Your lives are certainly more fun than mine.”

  Fun? Maybe the word she was looking for was odd.

  “How’s the new job?” I asked, knowing that she was working for Jimmy Sweets, a private detective who had a less than stellar reputation.

  “It’s okay…” She pushed her empty wineglass away, twisting the stem between her fingers. “I’m not sure if it’s the line of work for me.”

  Lindsay had expressed a desire to someday go into law enforcement. Knowing how difficult a career choice that was, I’d been hoping that she would change her mind and seized the opening. “Maybe you should think about going back to school and consider a different career path.”

  “I’ve thought about it and Eli thinks it would be a good idea. I’m just not sure what to do.”

  “How are things between you two?” Lindsay and her boyfriend had been together for a couple of months.

  “We’re doing…things are okay, I guess.” She met my eyes. “Sometimes I feel like we’re a little disconnected.” She exhaled. “I’m not really sure that we’re meant to be together.”

  I studied her for a moment. My half-sister had saved my life by killing her own father when he’d stalked and tried to kill me. It was a heavy burden to carry and I had the impression that she wasn’t dealing with things very well. It brought an idea to mind.

  I treaded lightly, unsure how she would respond to what I was considering. I decided that I needed to share some personal information with her first. “As you know, I moved in with my mom for a few weeks because she’s been having some personal problems.”

  “How is she?”

  I shook my head. “Not good.” I controlled my emotions and found her eyes. “Things got so bad that I arranged for us to see a therapist. Mom walked out almost before the session began, saying that she didn’t need help.”

  “Oh wow, that must have been rough.”

  I nodded. “It was, but something happened after Mom left. I stayed around and talked with the therapist for a while—her name is Beve
rly Chan. We discussed my background, what happened to my dad. I even brought up Jack and my recent problems with Buck that I mentioned to you the last time we talked. Dr. Chan was very understanding. She helped me put some things into a new perspective.”

  “That’s good. Eli’s tried to help me with what happened but…”

  She again seemed lost for words. After a moment, I decided to tell her what was on my mind. “I have an appointment with Dr. Chan in a couple of days. I’d like you to go with me.”

  “What?”

  I took her hand, at the same time realizing my eyes were misting over. “We share a bond, Lindsay. What happened to us and our family situation shouldn’t happen to anyone, but we’ve got to find a way to deal with it. I’ve come to realize that I can’t do that alone.” My eyes held on her. “And you can’t either.”

  My sister turned away from me as her eyes now spilled over with tears. After a moment, she looked back at me, brushed the tears from her cheeks, and nodded. “I’d like to go with you. I know I need help.”

  ***

  Bernie and I got home just before nine. I knocked on Natalie and Mo’s door and found them in their tiny living room with Carly Hogg. They’d all been sharing wine, so I accepted a glass.

  “We filmed our first show for Hollywood Girlz today,” Natalie said, her voice overflowing with excitement. “There was talk on the set that it might get picked up by one of the cable stations.”

  “Baby sis and me got some serious acting chops,” Mo said, turning to Carly for confirmation. “We can act like a couple of bozos even though our IQ’s are at the top of the charts.”

  I put a hand over my mouth as Carly said, “Dumb is the new smart.” She looked at my friends. “And these two got dumb nailed.”

  Mo’s brow crinkled up, maybe unsure if she was happy with the compliment. Carly went on, “My ex was so dumb his IQ was the same as his shoe size.”