Crash Into Me - L.A. Fiore Page 0,18
Milton’s focus shifted to the line of grapevines as he remembered. “I won’t lie. I was surprised by her suicide because Katrina had just gotten the role of a lifetime, one that screamed Academy Award.” Zac glanced my way, as Milton continued, “But Katrina did have mental health issues. She’d suffered her whole life, and back then, doctors weren’t as good with identifying mental illness. A new role that brought with it added pressure and anxiety, not to mention her pending marriage, I guess it was just too much for her.”
Zac jumped on that tidbit. “What was the name of her fiancé?”
“Jason Benjamin.” Milton’s face twisted a bit. “Don’t know what happened to him. After Katrina died, he kind of fell off the face of the earth.”
My cop senses perked up with that bit of knowledge. “What did Jason do?” I asked.
“He was very involved with Katrina’s career, but before that, I don’t know.”
“And they lived in LA?” Zac asked.
“Katrina was from Brooklyn, but when she hit fame, they moved to LA.”
“And Jason?”
“I don’t know very much about him, which is unusual, considering I represented Katrina.”
“I wonder if the investigating officer knows more about Jason Benjamin?” I was thinking out loud.
“Well, he might, but he isn’t in law enforcement anymore,” Milton offered. “He’s a senator now. Still lives in LA, though.”
“I wonder if we can get his files on the case,” Zac said, pulling out his phone to have someone at the station make the request. Frank had them, so I didn’t see a reason for us not to.
“May I ask why you think what happened to Samantha is related to Katrina?”
Maybe Milton knew Frank. Frank had certainly been interested in Milton. “Do you know a man name Frank Harris?” I asked.
Milton thought on it before he said, “No.”
“Frank Harris was working on a story, Katrina Dent’s story. He was convinced she was murdered. He took Samantha to lunch to pepper her with questions because of her link to you.”
“Okay.”
“Frank Harris was murdered last night, as was his friend,” Zac stated.
Milton paled, but he was following the logic. “Which makes Katrina’s death of interest.”
“Yes.”
Shock shifted to anger. “So you’re thinking Samantha was murdered because she’d been out with this Harris fella?”
“We had no motive for her death. Frank showing up dead, his friend’s death—the only other person who could possibly have known about the story he was working on. Knowing that Frank met with Samantha, her death on the same day of that meeting. It’s weak, but it’s motive.”
“Poor Samantha,” Milton whispered. His voice grew stronger when he asked, “You will find who did this?”
“Yes.”
“Anything I can do,” he offered.
“Thank you,” Zac replied.
My feet were up on my desk. Tossing coins into a cup, as I rolled the facts around in my head.
“Samantha meets Frank for lunch. That night, she ends up dead. Frank Harris then shows up dead a couple of days later. Emily too. If Katrina Dent’s murder plays into this, why didn’t they take out Frank before he met up with Samantha?”
“That’s bothering you, too?” Zac asked.
I stood and started to pace. “Okay, so let’s say Katrina Dent was murdered. The killer got away with it for three decades.” I stopped pacing. “Samantha worked for Milton Teller, Katrina’s publicist. She comes to Manhattan and has lunch with Frank Harris.” I rustled through the case file. “Frank Harris’ cell records. Look up this number.” Zac got on his computer. I gave him the number. “New York Times.”
“And this one?”
“Huntington Post.”
We went through the last eight calls Frank made, and all of them were for news outlets. My gaze collided with Zac’s, just as he said, “He figured it out.”
“Yeah, he got his story,” I added.
“And someone is watching him closely. He goes to lunch with Samantha. They look into who she is and discover she works for Milton. The killer doesn’t think it’s a coincidence,” Zac says.
My heart dropped. “They thought she was Frank’s source.”
“Yeah. Take her out. Days later, Frank starts calling around, preparing for his story to hit. Confirmation to the killer they were right about Samantha. But they wait to see what he knows. If they were watching him, and you know they were, he was very hushed about his story. He clammed up on us. But maybe not the girl across the hall he watches movies with,” Zac reasoned.
“So the killer wasn’t worried the story would go any farther than Emily,” I added.
“Exactly. The only way that story was getting out was Frank’s article,