Read A Killer Plot (A Books by the Bay Mystery) for Free Online Page A

time!” He rubbed his hands together with relish. “Miss St. Claire is quite lovely in person, most unlike the freshly scrubbed, severely dressed character she plays on television.”
    “She’s only a girl!” Olivia declared. “Really, Camden, she can’t be more than sixteen.”
    “Just eighteen, but this girl, this rising star from Iowa, is about to burst onto the Hollywood scene like a supernova! By this time next year, there’ll be Heidi St. Claire dolls, a Heidi St. Claire clothing line, and a Heidi St. Claire fragrance. I am clair voyant about these things!” He wiggled his eyebrows. “I saw the trailers for her upcoming movie releases. She’s going to win armloads of awards for her role opposite Russell Crowe. Remember this conversation come Oscar night!” Camden eyed the young woman discreetly using the mirror behind the bar. “Oh! Olivia, darling! They’re here to have dinner. Can we please sit down at that little two-seater behind them? We can have coffee and dessert and I can eavesdrop to my heart’s content? Pul-lease!”
    “Don’t they know who you are?” Olivia asked as she nodded at the maître d’. She gestured at the table behind the couple and allowed her suave employee to place a napkin on her lap with a flourish.
    Camden perused the dessert menu. “Of course they don’t know me,” he whispered. “Blake Talbot, like everyone in Hollywood and across our little blue planet, believes that I am a woman named Milano Cruise, remember? Shall we partake of the chocolate crème brûlée?”
    Olivia only needed to raise her eyes and a waiter instantly appeared. She ordered Camden’s dessert along with two decaffeinated cappuccinos.
    “Now the trick,” Camden whispered, “is for us to pretend to be engaged in an important and intimate conversation. We lean in like so, and we move our lips every now and again, and we nod. Nodding’s good. And then, we listen to every word they say.”
    Although she was skeptical of Camden’s plan, Olivia was too interested in discovering more about a member of the Talbot family to offer any dissent. As she concentrated on stirring cinnamon curls into her cappuccino, she overheard Heidi pleading with Blake.
    “But I want this to be official.” Her plaintive tone was distinctly juvenile. “If you come to my screening, then we’ll be in all the magazines. It’ll make a huge statement. My mom and stepdad will see that you’re serious about us , and of course you’ll sell a bunch of CDs just by being in People. Come on, Blakey. Do this for me.”
    “Heidi.” Blake spoke her name with an undercurrent of scorn. “It’s not like I haven’t been in People before. Besides, I told you that I need to keep up the appearance of being single. Girls don’t want to listen to the tunes of some whipped loser. They like to dream, to hope that they’d have a chance with me. I’ve gotta stay a fantasy. Being your boyfriend doesn’t fit with that whole picture. Don’t you get that?”
    Heidi’s disappointed sigh seemed to blow across the room. She raised a flute filled with the restaurant’s finest champagne to her lips but then placed it on the table again. “It’s not fair.” Olivia could imagine her pursing her pretty lips. “But I can’t keep lying to my parents. You know how close my mom and I are. What if she calls Lila’s house? What if—” “Look. I’m going to meet with some people late tonight and then, tomorrow morning, we’re outta here. The Gulf-stream is all gassed up. We’ll climb aboard, pop a bottle of Moët, and...” Blake mercifully lowered his voice to an inaudible whisper, which was followed by a theatrical squeal from Heidi’s side of the table. “After one night in Vegas, we’ll be back in LA. You’ll be home in time for dinner.”
    Olivia leaned toward Camden, whose gaze was fixated on the painting behind her shoulder. He waved a spoonful of crème brûlée in the air with his right hand. “Delicious!” he suddenly