Read Model Mystery Trilogy 01: Model Crime for Free Online Page A

I’m the most neurotic person she knows.”
    “Not at all,” Bess said. “She has only great things to say about you. Like how you helped her learn her way around New York, and how much she enjoys being your roommate…”
    We all made polite small talk for a few minutes after that, mostly about Sydney and the wedding. Then I noticed Hans Eberhart winding his way toward us through the crowd.
    “Hello, everyone,” he said when he reached our little group. Bowing toward the two models, he added, “Ladies, it is wonderful to have you involved in this production. Please, enjoy the party, and do feel free to circulate.” He waved his hand around the room. More people had arrived, though I didn’t recognize most of them. I wondered if some of them were TV people dressed up to look like guests.
    George was grinning like a fool. “Hi, Mr. Eberhart!” she said, her voice oddly high-pitched and breathy. “It’s so awesome to meet you! I’m probably your biggest fan. I’ve seen your first film, Fall from Grace , like, a million times—I even had the opening scene as my computer wallpaper for a while. And of course I watch Daredevils every week, and…”
    Bess and I traded an amused look as she rattled on. George generally likes to play the world-weary cynic. It was rare—and sort of entertaining—to see her go all fangirly.
    She was still chattering eagerly at the director when I saw someone else approaching the group. I recognized him as one of those anonymous extra people who’d emerged from the plane behind the celebrities.
    “Ah, there you are, darling,” Akinyi greeted the newcomer fondly, leaning down to kiss him on the forehead. She had to lean way down. The guy was at least six inches shorter than she was, and maybe four or five years older. He was thin and stoop-shouldered, with receding mouse-brown hair, round rimless glasses, and skin so pasty it looked as if it had never seen sunlight. Akinyi took his arm and glanced around the group. “Please let me introduce my boyfriend, Josh Kochman, everybody,” she said proudly. “He’s a very talented screenwriter.”
    Whatever I might have expected a fashion model’s boyfriend to look like, Josh wasn’t it. Akinyi introduced all of us, but Josh did little more than nod hello before turning all his attention toward Eberhart.
    “It’s an honor to meet you, sir,” he said. “As Akinyi said, I’m a screenwriter, and I was really hoping to talk to you about my latest project. It’s a sort of horror-humor-suspense-love story with a twist, totally retro in an art-punk kind of way. The story begins with a beautiful woman who turns to a wisecracking scientist for help after nearly being killed by a swarm of genetically altered beetles….”
    “Come on,” Bess murmured in my ear. “I think it’s time to take his advice and circulate. Otherwise I have a feeling we’ll be hearing the whole screenplay.”
    I nodded. Dragging along the rather reluctant George, we excused ourselves and wandered off, leaving the models and Josh with the director.
    “Now what?” George said.
    “Now I call Tonya and see what she knows,” I said. “Can I borrow a phone?”
    Bess pulled hers out of her handbag. “Do you really think there’s a mystery here, Nancy?” she asked. “I mean, the police tip is a little weird, and so is that RSVP. But these Daredevils guys do seem pretty wild—what if they really are the ones behind this?”
    “Then I’m going to bust them so Syd can relax a little,” I said, already dialing.
    Unfortunately, the person who answered told me that Tonya had the day off. I left a message for her to call me the next day, then returned Bess’s phone.
    “So much for that,” I told my friends. “Come on, let’s go find Sydney. I want to ask her if she and Vic have any enemies that they know of.”
    Finding Sydney in the airport-hangar-turned-fake-nightclub proved to be easier said than done. We swam through the crowds of people, but there was no