Hollywood Rage by M. Z. Kelly

Author:M. Z. Kelly [Kelly, M. Z.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kingston Roads Press, LLC
Published: 2017-04-28T16:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-SEVEN

“Let’s begin with a discussion of what the press has been calling the Wonderland murders,” Sherry Miles said, after giving Bernie a treat. My big dog wolfed it down, then wandered back over to me.

We were in the acting chief’s office at the police administration building in Los Angeles the next morning, with Miles and the deputy chief assigned to Section One, David Bronson. It was a command performance that included the entire Section One staff, including our crime analysts.

The meeting had been orchestrated by Bronson, who had told Olivia that he wasn’t satisfied with the progress we were making on both cases. I had little respect for the deputy chief, since he had been instrumental in keeping the murder case on my adoptive father closed for a number of years.

Olivia summarized the facts from both the Wonderland and Highpoint murder scenes, telling them there was little in the way of physical evidence at either location. She then used an iPad to show them the CCTV footage from the convenience store, and the security cameras at Highpoint. She added, “As you know, we’ve released the video to the press, but haven’t gotten anything worthwhile back.”

“I don’t get it,” Bronson said. The deputy chief was a big man in his sixties, with a full head of gray hair. “The video is grainy, but somebody must have recognized her.”

“We’ve followed up on all the calls, but nothing’s panned out so far. It’s possible our suspect has disguised herself.”

“What about the calls she made to the victims?” Chief Miles asked.

“It’s pretty clear that she set up the dates, probably on the Internet, but the calls and texts were from burner phones, so there’s nothing to follow up on.”

Darby spoke up. “I’ve taken a look at all the active on-line prostitution sites. I haven’t seen anything that appears to be our suspect. It’s possible she posted something and took it down once she found the johns.”

“Meaning these were random hookups?” Bronson said.

“That’s our best guess.”

“Then it doesn’t make any sense. There has to be a motive that we’re missing.”

I remembered what Joe had said last night. “It might be that our case has something to do with the suspect’s past.”

Bronson shot daggers at me. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It could be that she’s living out a fantasy or looking for closure for something that happened in her past.”

“Like what?”

I was irritated and made no effort to hide it. “When we know that, we’ll be a lot closer to solving the case.”

“We need progress, not idle conjecture.” He looked at Miles. “Maybe we need other staff on this.”

Miles shook her head. “I’m satisfied with the staff assigned to the cases.” She looked at Olivia. “Let’s get the CCTV footage from Highpoint out to the public. Maybe we’ll catch a break.” She shuffled the paperwork in front of her. “Let’s move on to the Peters case.”

Olivia took a few minutes, updating them on both murders and our discussion with Margaret Ellis. “Her son Jackson is using the name Lazarus.

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