Celebrity in Death (In Death 34)

“What?”

“The victim is K.T. Harris, twenty-seven, actress.”

/> “There are some glasses, napkins, on a table in a garden alcove,” Peabody began as she strode back. “I tagged them for the sweepers.”

“Dee.” McNab grabbed her hand.

Peabody gave a little yelp. Eve figured he must have crushed bone against bone before he just pulled her against him, pressed his face to her hair.

“What the—oh. I know. It gave me a major jitter, too. I’m all good. See.” She gave his ass a quick squeeze—something Eve decided, given the circumstances, to ignore.

“McNab, status.” Eve pushed to her feet, and once again angled herself to block the body. “Detective McNab, give me the status.”

“Sir.” He could have passed for a corpse himself under the moody blue lights.

“Eyes on me,” Eve snapped. “Look at me when I’m talking to you. Report.”

“We took the staff—household and the outside catering team—into the kitchen. The rest are in the living area. Two uniforms on each group. They’re asking a lot of questions. Except for Cross. He’s still passed out, and I thought it best to just leave him that way until you advised otherwise.”

“Good enough. Go down, send one of the uniforms on the staff up here to secure this area. You replace him, and start getting names, contacts, and statements. How many have we got?”

“Three household staff on duty tonight, ten catering staff.”

“Okay. Peabody, give him a hand with that. What about security up here?”

“I asked Roundtree. They don’t have cams up here. Security cams on the entrances, but nothing internal or here on the roof.”

“That’s too bad. We’ll want to review what they’ve got, eliminate any possibility of an intruder. Let’s use the dining area for interviewing the owners and guests. Go ahead and get Matthew Zank in there—alone. I’m right behind you.”

Eve waited until they’d gone, with Peabody slipping her hand back in his. “It’s not going to turn out simple.”

“No?”

“It could be an accident. Except the shoe she’s still wearing is scraped up on the back of the heel. And a slight bruise on her right cheekbone.”

“You think she was dragged in?”

“I think it’s possible she was dragged, then rolled in. Or she could’ve scraped it up, bruised her face in a fall.”

“You don’t think so,” Roarke observed.

“No, it looks like drag marks. It looks like her face bumped against the pool coping on a roll. But even if it was an accident, we’ve got a corpse that looks uncomfortably like one of the investigators, a houseful of Hollywood—along with a reporter—and a media machine that’s going to eat it like gooey chocolate.”

“And the primary investigator is the star of the show.”

Eve shook her head, glanced back at the body. “Right now I’d say she has top billing.”

Downstairs she asked Roarke to do a quick review of the security discs, then walked into the living area. Everyone started talking at once.

“Stop. Sit. I’m not going to be able to answer any questions at this time, so don’t waste your breath. I can confirm K.T. Harris is dead.”

“Oh God.” Connie put her hands over her face.

“Until the ME examines the body I can’t give you any more than that. I’ll be talking to each of you individually.”

Andrea held a shot glass. She tossed back the contents, eyed Eve with steady interest. “We’re suspects.”

“I’ll be talking to you,” Eve repeated. “Doctor Mira, if I could have a moment.”