High Risk 15.2

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[Continuing chapter fifteen]

“What I propose to give the D.A. is this: Buckley was overheard discussing the screen test with Eve.” He smiled at Straebo. “Overheard, incidentally, by Belinda Moore—the actress you fired in order to bring Lily into your bed. Miss Moore’s testimony alone might be impeachable, but since the meeting took place in a restaurant”—Straebo blanched at this, then slowly shook his head—“there will undoubtedly be other witnesses.”



Casey smiled at Desiree, remembering the panic and excitement of their incursion into Neal’s office. “Then there’s the matter of Lily Cross’s diary.”

“What?” Neal started upright from his slouch. “What are you talking about? I burned—”

“There was no diary,” McMahon interrupted, and Neal flushed.

“Not any more, no,” Casey agreed. “A cynical man might be inclined to wonder what you offered those of Lily’s house-mates who knew about the diary to deny its existence. Miss London, Lily’s close friend, is quite anxious to have a movie career, I understand.” He flexed his fingers, cracked his knuckles. I’m enjoying this, he realized. I just hope Grey meant it when he said he’d be at my back.

“From your point of view, McMahon, the big problem is that Desiree and I have both seen—and read—Lily’s diary. And Desiree copied bits of it.”

“God damn it!” Now it was McMahon’s turn to explode. Eyes blazing, he turned on his head of security. “Neal, you ass, you were supposed to destroy that thing immediately!”

“I had to get the information from it myself, Mr. McMahon.” Neal’s face went from red to near-white, and for a second Casey wondered if he was going to have to call to Grey for help. This, he realized, could be a very dangerous enemy indeed. And I’ve just made him look both stupid and sloppy. In front of his boss. “I burned it within a couple of days of getting it. You said that was fine.”

“Well, obviously we were both wrong.” McMahon turned to Casey. “Does this mean that in addition to a libel suit I can have you charged with breaking and entering?”

“You’ll have to charge both us, Ben,” Desiree said. “Getting into Neal’s office was my idea. In fact”—she smiled proudly—“it was me who did the actual breaking and entering. Boy, Neal, you sure keep a sloppy office.”

“Desiree was with me the first time,” Casey said, not giving Neal a chance to respond to Desiree’s dig. “The second time—last night, in fact—I was on my own.” Desiree turned to him, eyebrows raised. He nodded to her and smiled. “That’s how I know that Straebo wasn’t actually with Lily when she was killed. I’d originally intended to look at the diary to confirm my suspicions that what Desiree thought was a reference to Straebo as a ‘cad’ was actually a reference to her second test for Caddo Productions.” Desiree nodded; she’d figured that out as they were chasing Eve.

“Of course, the diary was gone by then. But however sloppily Neal organizes himself, Monarch does keep good records. I was able to find the list of license plates of the vehicles on the lot the Saturday night and Sunday morning Lily was killed. You didn’t go home after the party at Marshall’s place, did you, Straebo? The guard’s record shows you arriving at three in the morning, and not leaving again until noon. You must have been looking at film or something, which explains why you looked so god-awful when I arrived for my test last Sunday morning.”

“I was trying to find a way to insert a new character into the picture,” Straebo said, “while still making my deadline. My unrealistic deadline,” he added, shooting a glare at McMahon.

“So unless you coerced the guard into recording you as at the studio when you weren’t—and I don’t think you did that,” Casey added, “then you were in Hollywood when Lily was killed.” He shook his head. “Unfortunately, that also meant that you weren’t home when Michael Buckley came to your house to tell you that Eve had strangled Lily. So Buckley drove to the studio to find you. And the guard let him in—presumably on your instruction. I doubt that you ordered the guard to record both the time and the license plate number when he did so. But you didn’t tell him not to, either, and so that information is also in the report for the overnight shift last Saturday. Which means that Grey’s investigation will undoubtedly establish that Lily was killed sometime between two—which is the last time anyone saw her at the party—and four-thirty, which is when Buckley came to see you.”

“Wait a minute,” Desiree said. “I see a problem with your time-line.”

Next     Prologue    Chapter One    Chapter Two    Chapter Three    Chapter Four    Chapter Five
Chapter Six    Chapter Seven    Chapter Eight    Chapter Nine     Chapter Ten    Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve    Chapter Thirteen    Chapter Fourteen    Chapter Fifteen