Hollywood Lust by M. Z. Kelly

title of one of the actress’s old movies. “Some like it hot, baby sis. But you like it boiling over.”
    Natalie turned to me. “Why don’t you give it a go, Kate? I always wondered what you’d look like as a blonde.”
    “I don’t think the world is ready for that.”
    Mo put her hands on her wide hips and eyeballed me. “You need to loosen up. What you got to lose, anyway?”
    I sighed and caved into their pressure. In a moment I was staring at my face as Marilyn on the movie screen and said, “I look ridiculous.”
    Mo made a humming sound that was full of disapproval and then said, “Guess some people just don’t fit the Marilyn mold.”
    “I think it’s her hair,” Natalie offered. She regarded me. “We’re used to your hair being…sorta on the wild side.”
    I hit a switch, killing the wannabe Marilyn image. Even though my brother had recently worked on my hair, it sometimes had its own zip code. I made a mental note to make another appointment at Robin’s salon.
    “Let’s take a look at the storage room,” Mo said, turning to Gladys. “That’s where the stuff was stolen the other night.”
    Gladys led the way, and in a moment we were in a massive storage room full of shelves and memorabilia. Movie props, posters, costumes, and an assortment of odds and ends were stacked to the rafters. There was even a robot standing in a corner that Natalie went over to and hammed it up with, saying, “Take me to your leader.”
    “The fucking thieves stole the stuff from over here,” Gladys said, motioning us over to a corner of the room.
    We saw there was an antique dressing table with drawers overflowing with jewelry.
    “They didn’t touch the costume jewelry but took a brooch that was worn in the movie Diamond Jim. It was worth a damned fortune.”
    While Natalie and Mo commented on the mounds of jewelry, I glanced around the storage room. I said to Gladys, “Do you have security cameras?”
    She shook her head. “Too busy keeping things going on the main floor. I should have put them in years ago.”
    “How many exits are there from the main building ?”
    “Just two. They have to open from the inside due to the fucking fire regulations, but they’re always locked from the outside.”
    She led me over to the exits where we tested them and found, just as she’d said, they opened from the inside but were securely locked from the outside. After walking through the building with Bernie a final time, I gave my friends and Gladys my best guess as to what happened.
    “There’s no way into the building unless someone is allowed in. That means that an exit door was left open, or it was purposely opened by someone on the inside of the building.”
    “What are you saying?” The elderly woman said.
    “I’m saying this was an inside job. Somebody who works here either stole your property or let someone inside after hours who took it. They also knew enough about your jewelry to take something of great value.”
    Gladys shook her head and sighed. “You’re probably right. Most of my employees have worked here for years. I’ve even got a cousin on my staff. I’ll have to do some thinking about which one of the fuckers might have done it.”
    We were on our way out of the storage room when I passed a shelf with a photograph that caught my eye. It was a group picture taken in front of Bernstein Studios. I stopped, picked up the photo, and asked Gladys about it.
    “I think it was taken just after the big war. Every year the studio has all their employees get together for a group shot at the front gate.”
    “Do you happen to know if they still take the photos?”
    She nodded. “I think so. It’s a tradition. Lou Bernstein inherited the place from his father a few years back. You might check with him.”
    I followed Gladys back into the main portion of the museum with my friends. I knew it was a long shot, but it occurred to me that the person who murdered Bruce Reeder could have worked at Bernstein