Page 47 of The Burnt
“You bet. I never missed that show, although I thought his character was a bit of a dick.”
Declan had no idea what she was talking about.
“It’s one of the kids fromBeverly Hills 90210, isn’t it? Do you know the guy?”
Declan took a deep breath. “The question is, do you? Have you seen this person anywhere around Archie’s place?”
“Why would a guy fromBeverly Hills 90210hang around Archie’s place?”
“Never mind,” he said. While he was tucking his phone back into his pocket he glanced over at the kitchen counter. There were two things that hadn’t been there before—a framed photograph and a stuffed bear. He recognised both.
“Katherine…the picture and the bear over there,” he said pointing to the counter. “Didn’t they used to be in Archie’s place?”
She glanced in their direction and cautiously answered, “Well…yeah.”
“Why did you bring them over here?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me,” he said.
Katherine walked over and gently picked the objects up, bringing them back to the table. “I know you don’t believe there was a thread of humanity in Archie, but he really missed Freddy. That picture meant a lot to him. It was the only one where the boy’s laughin’. I don’t even know who was behind the camera the day this was taken. Archie said he found it tucked under the boy’s mattress after he died. He framed the photo and kept it where he could see it.”
Declan nodded. “And the teddy bear?”
“Well, who could leave that sweet little thing alone in that cold, dark house? I mean, really? It didn’t seem right.”
Declan looked at both objects—the photo and the teddy bear. He remembered the first had been in Archie’s room. The second, in Freddy’s.
The bear had been sitting on the bed propped up on the pillows. It had a necklace of shiny plastic beads strung together on an elastic cord. Dangling from it was a little silver plastic heart with a heart-shaped paper sticker on it. There had beensomething written in pencil on the heart but it had been worn down to a ghostly shadow.
Katherine stared at the teddy bear fondly. “Funny thing with fathers and sons… When Freddy was alive, they never got along, and I never saw Archie say ‘I love you’ to the boy. But after Freddy died, Archie regretted that he hadn’t made an effort to get along better and tell Freddy how he felt. Men are so stubborn!”
“Would you mind if I borrowed these?” he asked. “I just want to show them to my partner and see if he has any thoughts.”
Katherine looked at the photo and the bear, then up at Declan. “You promise to bring them back as soon as you can?”
Declan gave a gentle smile. “I promise.”
He left Katherine’s house and carefully placed the photograph and the teddy bear in the cardboard box behind his seat. He’d show them to Charlie later and see if he had any ideas as to why Archie would have kept them for all these years.
Chapter Twenty
Charlie had been sitting at his desk for hours. He’d run internet image searches on the aged-up photos of Milo and so far he’d come up with nothing useful, unless Milo was a plumber in Iceland or a real estate agent in California. Neither was the right age, but they did share similar facial characteristics.
“Where are you, Milo?” he asked his computer.
Charlie looked at the search results and his gaze settled on the real estate agent from California. Milo’s mother had moved back to California, maybe there was a link. Charlie pulled up his notes from Simon.
“Okay, time to move on. Michelle Coleman—let’s see what we can find out about you.”
The contact information that Simon had given Charlie was of no use. The phone number was disconnected and the address was now registered to a Tyrone Jennings.
The results of an internet search on ‘Michelle Coleman movie star’ came up quickly, though.
Michelle Hoffman, former glamour queen and starlet turned environmental activist, shares her trailer home with her two dogs, Dizzy and Bubs. They live in the off-grid “settlement” of Slab City, three hours east of San Diego in the Salton Trough area of the Sonoran Desert. The one-time up-and-coming movie actress, known as Michelle Coleman, was featured in such films asThe Mountainand the ill-fated remake ofBus Stopin which she recreated the role of Chérie, made famousby Marilyn Monroe. After the breakup of her third marriage with writer Mark Hoffman, she found her purpose in life—the promotion of a sustainable lifestyle.
That was definitely her. Charlie decided to send an email to the writer of the internet piece and see if he had any way of getting in touch with Michelle.
