Dying to Have Her by Heather Graham Read Free Book Online Page A

checked and double-checked when it’s mounted. The lighting cords are also tied in a safety knot.”
    Liam admitted it did sound suspicious.
    “Both Emilio and Dayton swear that their routine never changes,” Joe Penny said. “Although, frankly, it’s hard to believe that this is anything other than a bizarre accident.”
    Joe sounded sincere. He was a man Liam had come to know during the investigation into the Hitchcock killings, which had taken place more than a year ago now. Joe had been among the suspects, so Liam had done some serious looking into the man’s life. He was a womanizer, beyond a doubt. He was fifty-something with ash-blond—almost platinum—hair, a tightly muscled body, and a dignified look. He was doing his best to age gracefully, but Hollywood was a young town. Joe meant to survive. He had definitely been somewhat touched up. His surgeon had done an excellent job.
    “There’s something else that’s bothering you,” Liam said, eyeing the lieutenant, with whom he’d worked closely for years. No matter how far police science progressed, the old adage still applied: Sometimes a cop’s best tool is his gut feeling. Liam realized there was also something that George hadn’t yet told him.
    “Serena McCormack reported seeing an ashtray in the dressing room—no, a saucer used as an ashtray. She thought that she saw a half-burned piece of paper in the saucer. We’d looked in the dressing room before we interviewed her, and I sent Bill Hutchens back to look again after she made the statement. No such saucer or piece of burned paper was there, and no one else saw it, or mentioned it.”
    Liam set his hands on the desk. “Maybe someone hid it, knowing that Jennifer would be upset about people smoking in her dressing room.”
    “Maybe. Maybe it’s nothing. I just don’t like a dangling thread like that.” He cast a sidelong glance at Joe Penny. “In any case, Joe here is convinced that he should err on the side of caution. Serena McCormack is important to Valentine Valley. Hell, the whole soap-following, magazine-buying, television-watching population of America loves that evil woman.”
    “You’ll take the job?” Joe asked.
    “You know what I’ve asked for, right?” Liam said.
    “Yeah, highway robbery. They should lock you up,” Joe said.
    Liam grinned. ‘Take it or leave it.”
    “If you’ll do it, you’re hired.”
    Olsen cleared his throat. “Hutchens seems to think that you and Serena had some kind of a volatile past. I know the kind of work you do. You’re professional to a fault. But if you think that a disagreement between you two is going to hamper your work in any way—”
    “It won’t,” Liam said flatly. “I have one question, though.”
    “Shoot.”
    “What if Serena says no way to a bodyguard?”
    “We won’t let her,” Joe told him.
    “Last I heard, it’s a free country.”
    “It’s an expensive free country, especially in California,” Joe said gruffly. “Andy and I are convinced that we’ve a lot more at stake than what we’re paying you. And hell, we both know you, like you, the cast knows you … you won’t have much of a problem from that end.”
    You don’t really know Serena, Liam thought.
    “Just one other small detail,” Liam said, leaning forward and staring hard at Joe.
    “Go on,” Joe told him.
    “If it wasn’t an accident, then someone on that set was behind the death.”
    “Obviously,” Olsen said.
    “When do I see the set?”
    “Now,” Olsen told him. “Right now. And as to watching out for Miss McCormack …”
    “Don’t worry,” Liam said. “I’m on it.”
    “Subtly, right?” Joe said anxiously.
    Liam shook his head. “No way.”
    “But she hasn’t been told yet—” Joe protested.
    “Okay, Joe. I’ll give you the weekend to tell her. She won’t know I’m anywhere near. But after that … if you haven’t told her, I sure as hell will.”

Chapter 5
    T HE FUNERAL WAS HUGE. When Serena arrived, it was