Hollywood Lust by M. Z. Kelly Page A

long and winding road for me, but, just like with your injury, everything that’s happened to me has defined my life. It’s given me a greater understanding and appreciation of everything.”
    Noah’s compassionate eyes held on me. “You’re a pretty amazing woman.”
    I shook my head. “I’m just someone who’s trying to find my way in life, like everyone else. And, believe me, I’m still a work in progress.”
    He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Thanks for sharing. I’d say, so far, it’s pretty terrific progress.”
    After eating, we finished off our second bottle of wine. The conversation turned casual as we talked about Bernie, and Noah mentioned his work with a therapy dog group called Rafi’s Rescue.
    “We’re taking the dogs to a fundraiser for autism at Will Rogers State Park this weekend, if you’d like to come along. Shaq’s going to be there and he told me he misses you.”
    Shaq was a reference to one of the biggest, hairiest dogs I’d ever seen, who we’d taken to Children’s Hospital on our previous outing. I chuckled and said, “I would love to go. Let me check my schedule and I’ll let you know.”
    “Great. We can also ride horses. There’s some pretty amazing trails around the park.”
    After leaving the restaurant, Noah walked me to my car, an ancient Ford Escort that I call Olive.
    He scratched his head, taking in my ride. “I wouldn’t exactly call it a classic.”
    I laughed. “I’ve been in financial recovery ever since my divorce. Someday I’ll get it painted and pimped out with seventeen inch tires and fancy rims.”
    He nodded slowly and smiled. “Now that’s something I’d like to see.”
    After I again assured him that I’d let him know about the therapy dog outing, we shared a goodbye kiss. When our lips met, I felt my heart racing, and, for the first time in a long time, I felt something stirring deep inside of me. As we parted and I looked into his eyes, his words and those of my father about life being a gift born in the shadow of loss came back to me again. And then I had another thought: Noah Fraser just might be the gift that I’d been waiting a lifetime to receive.

TWELVE
     
    The next morning Oz called us all into his office. He’d bought us some muffins, along with a container of coffee, something that I was grateful for because I hadn’t slept well. My date with Noah had been on my mind most of the night. I realized that I was developing feelings for him, and, if we continued to see one another, I would need to call things off with Hud. I dreaded having to do that, since our previous relationship hadn’t ended well.
    As I sipped my coffee, I wondered if it would always be like this, me trying to sort out a personal life that seemed to be in a perpetual state of chaos. The more I thought about that, I realized that I’d lived my entire life with those feelings of instability. I sighed, deciding that I needed to put everything out of my mind and concentrate on our cases.
    “Molly and I are going over to Bernstein Studios this morning,” Selfie told us as Leo ran a big hand over Bernie’s fur. “Based on the photos for the three years that Bruce Reeder worked there, it looks like there’s more than a couple hundred people we’re going to need to identify, and try to determine if there’s any link to him.”
    Molly tucked her auburn hair behind one ear and said, “I think we should begin by trying to check out the people closest to him in each of the photographs. Maybe he had some connection to one of those subjects and it didn’t end well.”
    “Maybe you should just go ask people on the street if they murdered Reeder,” Alex said. “It would be about as useful.”
    My lack of sleep had left me with no patience for the little pork chop. “It might be a long shot, but it’s worth looking at.”
    “Doesn’t hurt to check it out,” Leo agreed.
    Alex gave him a hard stare. “Would Cold Case do the same thing?”
    “No,