“It’s unfortunate that the show has to stop, at least until we catch the maniac who’s causing all this grief. We’re hoping you can give us some ideas.”

EIGHTEEN

Belinda nodded, said, “I’ll certainly try, but I really don’t know anything. I do know that poor Frank is really upset about the show’s cancellation, but what can he do? He told me that DeLoach or some other writer involved in the scripts is killing people to match the murders in the first two episodes. Frank started calling it The Murder Show.”

“Catchy title,” Sherlock said. “Yes, that’s the essence of it.”

“Well, I think that actually Weldon DeLoach came up with that title, but the powers-that-be didn’t like it, preferred The Consultant. More uptown, you know what I mean?”

“Yes,” Sherlock said. “More Manhattan than Brooklyn.”

“Exactly,” Belinda said, smiling. “That was Frank’s take on it as well. He’s been in the business a long time. He was an actor back in the early eighties, never made it big, and that was okay because he realized he wanted to make shows, not star in them. He didn’t ever want to do movies. He loves TV. He’s at his happiest when he’s the mover behind the scenes, you know, getting scripts actually made into shows, selling the networks, doing the budgets, lining up the actors and directors. Kicking butt to keep everything moving and reasonably on budget.

“The first show he produced was The Delta Force, back in the mid-eighties, ran for about four years. Maybe you’ve seen some reruns?”

Savich nodded. “It was a good show.”

Belinda Gates seemed to light up from the inside, gave him a big smile and pulled one of the big rollers out of her hair. A long fat curl flopped out. “I’ll tell him what you said. You know, Frank tells me everything so I know probably as much as he knows about this murderer.”

Sherlock said, “You’re smart, Ms. Gates, you’re on the inside. We know that you’ve given this some thought. We need your help. Do you have any idea who could have orchestrated all this?”

Belinda pulled out another roller, gently ran her fingers through the big loop of hair, decided it was cool enough, and nodded to herself as she said, “If I had to guess, I’d say it was the Little Shit, you know, Linus Wolfinger. He’s very smart. But it’s more than that.” She paused a moment, scratched her scalp, and said, “It seems like every single day he has to prove that he’s the smartest guy on the planet, the biggest cheese. It doesn’t matter what it is, he’s got to be the best—the fastest, the smartest—and everyone has to recognize it and praise him endlessly.”

Savich sat forward, clasped his hands between his knees, and said, “Other than his need for everyone to know how great he is, can you think of a reason why he’d actually follow a TV script to murder people?”

“Because it’s weird, it’s different, that’s why. The Little Shit really likes to think up things to show his scope, all his abilities that are so much more impressive than, say, yours or mine. A murder would be a different kind of challenge for him. If he is the one killing these people, then he had to know that the police would catch on soon enough. Hey, I bet he even set it up to get the police pretty close to him, and that would put him center stage, right in the spotlight. Does that make sense?”

“Not really,” Sherlock said.

Another roller came out and Belinda scratched her scalp. “Of course it doesn’t, I’m just being bitchy. If I really had to vote, though, I’d pick Jon.”

“Jon Franken?” Savich said, and he knew a moment of real surprise and recognized it for the mistake it was. Everyone in this bloody studio was a suspect. Still, he hadn’t put Jon Franken in the mix, not really, because he was just—what? He was too together, he was focused. He was very Hollywood, yes, that was it; he was normal in that he fit just right into this specific environment. Savich just couldn’t see him at ease in a murderer’s world.

He said to Belinda Gates, “Why do you think it’s Jon Franken?”

“Well, Jon is one of the sexiest guys who’s not an actor in LA. He’s slept with more women than even Frank knows about, and believe me, Frank knows just about everything. Jon’s sexual prowess has helped him really plug in to everything in LA that counts. He knows everyone, knows who’s on the A list at any given time for the past ten years, and that’s because he’s slept with them. He knows stuff he probably shouldn’t know, knows all the players, intimately, most of them, including me, not that I’m a big player, mind you. Sex is powerful. Maybe sometimes even more powerful than money.”