Page 35 of Naughty Nelle

I tell my dad just well enough to know she’s a bitch. Like Pops, I’m a straight shooter. I tell it like it is. Although I can’t say the same when it comes to my feelings about my boss.

He chuckles. “Was she involved with Brandon for a long time before getting engaged to him?”

“To be honest, I met her only once—shortly before Brandon’s accident—and then again at the hospital. Except for having me make restaurant and hotel room reservations for his hook-ups, he’s never shared his social life with me. I’ve usually found out about whom he’s seeing from the tabloids and online celebrity gossip sites.”

“Was Katrina one of his hook-ups?”

I shrug, gazing longingly at the sandwich. “I don’t know. People Magazine said it was love at first sight and a whirlwind romance.”

Pops takes another messy bite of his thick sandwich. “You know, you can’t always believe what you read.”

Pops is right, especially when it comes to the tabloids, which survive on blowing up celebrities’ lives even if it means feeding the gossip-hungry public utter bullshit. People Magazine is different. You can believe what you read in it, and I defend the periodical’s honor to my dad, the penultimate detective.

Pops chuckles again. “Your mom swears by People.”

I smile. That’s Auntie Jo for you. Like my brother Jeffrey, she’s a total celebrity hound. Brandon is number one on her list. She almost fainted when she saw that he was named People’s “Sexiest Man Alive.”

Pops wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, missing a crumb of bread on his upper lip. I reach across the desk and flick it off with a finger.

“Thanks, babycakes.” He washes the sandwich down with more of the root beer. “Have you ever watched her show?”

Opening my mouth, I point my index finger at it and feign barfing. “Once was enough. Ugh! It almost made me throw up. The only talent she has is being famous for being famous. Her spoiled rich girl antics make Paris Hilton look like Goldilocks.”

Pops picks up a piece of greasy pastrami that’s fallen onto his desk and stuffs it into his mouth. I wish I’d gotten to it first. My stomach rumbles.

“You know she’s not actually rich,” he says matter-of-factly.

My salivating eyes widen. “What do you mean?”

“She’s ten million dollars in debt. Maxed out on all her credit cards.”

“Wow! But aren’t her parents rich?”

“They used to be, but they’ve recently gone through tough times. Her father is serving time in prison for tax evasion and fraud. All his assets were seized by the feds. And his ex-wife Enid recently declared bankruptcy.”

I didn’t know this. “Did you learn anything more about Katrina?”

“Yes. She was sent to a mental institution right after high school.”

I’m surprised and not surprised. She is after all a psycho bitch. “What for?”

The hospital wouldn’t release any information to me. They gave me that damn doctor-patient privilege bullshit.”

“Maybe Chaz can give you some info. He told me Katrina stalked Blake Burns, the television executive, and drugged him.”

My father’s burly brows shoot up. He grabs a pen and writes himself a note on a yellow pad of paper. “I didn’t know that. I’ll definitely talk to him.”

“I’m sorry, Pops. I should have told you this earlier. I just found it out today.”

He scratches his full head of ebony hair. Lucky Pops, with his Irish ancestry, has not a single gray hair among them and he hasn’t lost a single strand. “So maybe she’s crazy enough to murder someone?”

“Honestly, Pops, I kind of hate her, but she’s definitely not a murderer. She’s totally in love with Brandon Taylor.”

“Do they fight?”

“I suppose they fight. All couples fight. And if you read the tabloids, celebrity couples seem to fight more than others.”

“Has she ever assaulted him?”

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