If Hooks Could Kill

CHAPTER 36


Detective Heather walked across the backyard while the film crew and actors watched. “I don’t understand,” the director said. “It’s a piece of garbage. A broken plastic bottle.”

“Do you want to explain or should I?” I said to Detective Heather.

“I’ll handle this,” she said stepping in front of me. “This piece of garbage proves that Stone Thomasville shot his sister. She pointed out the label, which though damaged still clearly showed that it was the coconut water energy drink, Stone was touting. “It wasn’t available for sale anywhere, so the only way the bottle could have gotten there was if he’d brought it.” She pointed to the missing bottom and explained he’d used the juice bottle to make a homemade silencer, which was why nobody heard the shot. It must have flown off the gun and gone out through the open sliding glass door and lodged in the row of poplar trees.

“If I hadn’t seen a photo from a murder book,” I said, “I wouldn’t have know what it was.”

Detective Heather stepped in again. “Since he probably was drinking from it, we’ll be able to get DNA evidence to back it up. Through ballistic fingerprinting we were able to ascertain that the gun used to kill Kelly Donahue was also used to kill the liquor store employee. If we can tie Stone Thomasville to Kelly’s murder, we can tie him to the other as well.” Then Heather did something that completely surprised me. She gave me a high five. “With this piece of evidence, I am sure the charges will stick.”

“Is this scene ever going to get finished?” Nanci said. Detective Heather bagged the evidence and stepped out of the way. The whole process of settling the crowd started again and the director yelled for action. This time it went through without a hitch. At the end of the scene, Jeffrey rode his bike across the driveway as North took off down the street.

“That’s a wrap,” the director called with relief in his voice.

Mrs. Shedd was so excited about all the business the production had brought to the bookstore, she was more than happy to have them throw the wrap party there. It was late, well after our regular closing time. Bob had made treats and they even brought in my son Samuel to work as a second barista.

When the party began to break up, my cell phone went off in my pocket and for once I heard it. It was my son Peter. “You have to take North home with you,” he ordered.

I went over into a corner. “I’m not doing it unless you tell me what’s going on.”

Peter groaned and then finally spilled the story. It seemed North had a bunch of phobias connected with cars. He didn’t drive and he only could ride on certain streets. Anything with too much traffic sent him into a panic. Good luck on that one in L.A., even in the Valley. He was always driven to and from the set in a limo, but he would only ride with a certain driver who knew his problems. Every now and then, there was a screwup and that driver didn’t show up.

“Then he calls me,” Peter said. “So, now you know. Please take him home with you and I’ll pick him up.”

The drive home with North gave me a chance to ask him why he had lied about knowing Kelly. His answer floored me. He hadn’t lied. It was almost worse. He had no memory of their relationship. All he said was something to the effect that there were so many women, it was hard to keep track.