Read Hollywood Notorious: A Hollywood Alphabet Thriller Series (A Hollywood Alphabet Series Thriller Book 14) for Free Online Page A

work tomorrow? I’ll make things up to you.”
    His offer didn’t surprise me. Despite our differences, I knew that he was still attracted to me. “I’m sure that will help with the rumors Darby’s probably already circulated about us.”
    “There’s a deck up on the roof of my apartment building. Nobody ever goes there. One drink is all I’m asking, just for old times.”
    My relationship with Noah flashed through my mind. We were in love and had made a commitment to one another. Despite that, Buck and I did have some history, and I decided getting together might help us move past that. “One drink, that’s all.”
    “See you then, if not before.”
    A half hour later, Leo and I were in the car headed for UCLA Medical Center to talk to Harold Gooseberry, when he mentioned his chat with the lieutenant. “Ozzie’s a little concerned about you. He’s a pretty good judge of character and thinks something’s on your mind.”
    I glanced over at my partner. While we’d only been working together for a few weeks, I knew I could trust Leo with my life. Whether I could trust him to keep quiet about the photograph I’d found of Oz with my love-dad was another matter. My dad had been a cop before he was murdered in a local park. Leo and Ozzie Powell knew him back when they’d began their careers with the department. I knew their loyalty to one another ran deep and I didn’t think I was ready to test that allegiance.
    “I’m dealing with a lot of things in my personal life that Oz probably picked up on,” I said. “My friends and I just moved and we’re already having problems with our neighbors.” I took a couple of minutes and filled him in on our possible eviction from the Starlight and our legal troubles. “To make matters worse, Natalie and Mo’s boss, Jimmy Sweets, has a cousin who passed the bar not too long ago. They want him to represent us against the mobile home park’s attorney, Mean Gene, the suing machine.”
    Leo laughed. “That guy who’s on TV with the little dog?”
    “It’s called a Chiweenie.” Bernie took the opportunity to poke his big head up from the back seat. Maybe he was worried about being replaced by a designer dog. I nuzzled him and went on. “Mo once told me that my life is one big shit magnet. I’m beginning to think she’s right.”
    He chuckled. “We all end up knee deep in it a time or two. Lil and I lived in a trailer when we were first married, just to save a few bucks.”
    I stared at him. “Really?” I said, playing dumb. “I wonder what it would be like to live in a trailer.”
    He chuckled. “Sorry, I forgot about your living quarters for a minute.”
    I shook my head in disgust and mumbled, “Hermes Krump.”
    “What?”
    “He’s the guy who could be our lawyer. Hermes Krump. Can you believe that?”
    “Maybe Mr. Krump’s a bulldog in disguise.”
    “With my luck, he’s probably more like a designer dog.” Inspiration struck. “Maybe he’s a cross between a Shih Tzu and a Husky breed.”
    Leo did his best to suppress his laughter but failed. “I’m almost afraid to ask what you call that.”
    I looked at him. “A Shitski.”
    ***
    Leo and I met up with Buck and his partner in the parking lot of the hospital. Darby’s usually pasty face was flushed, and I wondered if they’d had some kind of dust-up. Buck agreed to wait downstairs with Bernie, while the rest of us took an elevator to the tenth floor. We met with a nurse there who led us to our interview subject. Harold Gooseberry, aka the Godfather, was hooked up to several machines and had tubes running to the lower part of his anatomy.
    When he saw us, Gooseberry rolled his eyes and said, “I got nothing to say to you.”
    As we’d discussed earlier, Leo took the lead. “All we want to do is ask you a few questions. So far, you’re not under arrest.”
    “‘So far’. What the fuck does that mean?”
    “It means,” Darby said, “that you cooperate, or we’re dragging that biggest