Killing Lucas by Dominique Eastwick

my groceries.”
    “Anyone else?”
    “No.”
    Lucas ran through the list of people she would have let into her house and into her confidence. “What about Nancy?”
    “Nancy?”
    “Nancy April, her assistant.”
    “No, she has the code to my home in LA but as I’m so out of the way here, I haven’t needed her to come and get anything for me, so I haven’t given it to her.”
    “Your agent or manager?”
    “Murray might know it, but I doubt it. He negotiated the house into my rider with the studio but didn’t have anything to do with the actually picking out the place.”
    “What about your director, Daniel Ivan?”
    “No, Danny wouldn’t have it either.”
    “Ms. O’Connor, is there anyone you can think of who could have done this? Maybe someone you beat out for a role? Perhaps Mr. Sherman has a jilted lover in his past?”
    “No to both.”
    While a police officer pulled Vassar aside, Lucas refilled Kiloran’s glass for lack of anything else to do. When Vassar turned back to them, his face held no hint of what was going on. “The alarm company said that between the times you both left at six a.m. and set the alarm and the time you got home at eight p.m., the system had been disarmed two other times. Once at nine, which I presume was the housekeeper, and again at quarter to four this evening for about thirty minutes, before it was rearmed. That must be when he came into the house. Somehow he had the code.”
    “Can they change it?”
    “They’re doing that while we speak. I would ask that you not tell anyone what the code is for the rest of your stay, or at the very least until we catch the unsub. I will have an officer go and speak with the housekeeper in the morning and explain that, for the time being, she doesn’t need to come and clean. To be honest, it’s as much for her safety as it is for our investigation.”
    “Please do. I would hate to have her hurt.”
    “I have a team coming in and they will go over that bathroom with a fine-tooth comb. We can put you both up in a hotel.”
    “No,” Kiloran said, placing her glass down on the end table with a thump , “We’re staying put. If we leave, he wins.”
    “Very well. I can’t tell you how late they will be working.”
    Kiloran looked at the officer and shook her head again. “I don’t have to be at the set tomorrow until late. It doesn’t matter.”
    But it did matter. Lucas could see she was barely holding it together. And although they tried not to, the local police were staring, and at any moment one might just be stupid enough to ask for an autograph. Yet when he looked at Kiloran, he could see a vulnerability he had never witnessed before. He wanted nothing more than to whisk her away, but knew they needed to stand their ground. With a sigh he gave up the inner battle and nodded “He’s right. We both need rest and it isn’t going to happen here tonight. You said you could get us a hotel room?”
    “Yes, it’s all arranged. There is a little bed and breakfast about fifteen minutes from here. They’re expecting you. They’ll even let you bring the mutt with you.”

Chapter Six
    “Please don’t leave me.”—Kiloran to Lucas
    O ne room, damn it. One fucking room. With one queen-size bed and the only chair in the room a wooden, antique number that wouldn’t even hold Lucas’s weight. But what could he do? And honestly, looking at Kiloran, what else was there to do? She stood there numbly holding the puppy as Lucas placed the travel crate down and put the whimpering dog in for the night.
    “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”
    “Please don’t leave me.” Her voice was so small.
    Breathing out a heavy sigh, he mumbled something close to he wouldn’t leave her and focused on getting her into bed. A female officer had packed a bag for her, complete with a nightgown. Handing it to her, he watched as she walked silently into the bathroom. It didn’t pass his notice that she left the bathroom door cracked just a bit