Dial Emmy for Murder Read Online Free Page A

and lukewarm water, and then I tried to get my hair back into some semblance of order. When I finished up I looked like a member of the B-52s. Only not as good.
    I left the ladies’ room and worked my way backstage. Everything was still in chaos there as well as in the front of the house, where the cops were taking names and addresses.
    Connie spotted me and started over.
    “Al, I found Mara. They won’t let her come over here before they finish questioning people. I’ll give her the jewelry.” She held her hand out. I took the earrings and cuff off and gave them to her.
    “Thanks, Connie.” She walked off to the back of the stage. I turned and saw Jakes coming toward me .
    “Hey, you look . . . better.”
    “Thank you.” I tried to muster up a little dignity. “So, what happens now?”
    “This is a crime scene. We’re locked down.”
    “Are you going to let people go home?”
    “Eventually,” he said. “As soon as we get all their particulars.”
    “You could get a complete list of attendees from the producer.”
    “That’ll be helpful,” he admitted, “but there’s bound to be some people who aren’t on the list. Seat fillers. Event crashers. Right?”
    “Yeah, a lot of seat fillers.”
    “Okay, so we’re gonna be here a while.”
    “Do you know how poor Jackson was killed?”
    “They’re taking him down now,” Jakes said. “I didn’t see any obvious wounds. He’s bleeding, but we can’t tell from where. The chain is around his neck. We’ll need the ME to answer your question.”
    “Oh.”
    “Do you have to get home to your daughter?” he asked.
    “No.” I hesitated before I said, “Uh . . . she and my mom are out of town.”
    “Really? I thought you and Sarah were glued at the hip.”
    “Oh, yeah. We are. It’s just that it’s a family reunion back east. I couldn’t get off work so I sent them without me.” I was nodding my head up and down as I said this. Why did this guy make me so nervous?
    “Okay . . . so do you want to leave?” he asked. “I can have somebody take you home. How did you get here?”
    “Limo,” I said. “I can go home the same way.”
    “Well, if your driver’s in the building, he won’t be getting out until late.”
    “I see.”
    He wasn’t looking at me when he asked me the next question. “Do you want to call your boyfriend to come over?”
    “No.” I hesitated just a hair too long. “He’s out of town . . . on location.”
    Then he looked at me. And held my eyes. “So I can have someone drive you home,” he said, “or . . . you can wait around and I’ll drive you myself.”
    “Aren’t you keeping me here as a suspect? Like last time?”
    He smiled. “No, this time I’m not looking at you as a suspect.”
    “Why not?”
    “I don’t think you would have been crawling around up in the rafters in that dress.”
    “Thanks for that.”
    “So, that ride?” he said.
    “Okay.”
    “Okay, what?”
    “I’ll wait around for that ride . . . with you,” I told him. I had a lot of questions to ask about the case. I couldn’t help myself and tried to convince myself my interest in true crime was the only reason I wanted to ride with him.
    “All right, Alex,” he said, lightly touching my arm. It was unnerving and weirdly thrilling all at the same time. “Is there any coffee around here?”
    “Sure,” I said. “There’s craft services back here, for the show’s hosts and presenters. Come with me.”
     
    Gradually people began to leave the auditorium. But behind the scenes, nobody was going anywhere because they had all been close to the body when it fell. Apparently everybody backstage qualified higher on the list of potential suspects than people in front of the house did. If Jakes was telling the truth, I was the exception.
    But based on all of my past dealings with Detective Frank Jakes, I knew he couldn’t be counted on to always tell the truth.
    But then again, who could?

Chapter 6
    “Okay,” Jakes said when we were