Page 89 of Wild Idol

She was taken down to the station where she’d be processed and printed, which would again give us proof of her identity. All the plastic surgery in the world couldn’t change her fingerprints or DNA.

I walked back up the driveway and talked to Everett. “I think it’s about time you come clean?”

His face wrinkled with confusion. It was an act. He knew damn good and well what was going on. “That’s not Sable. I can prove it, and I think you knew about it the whole time.”

“What!?” he said, feigning ignorance.

“Sable became a problem, and you had her replaced.”

He scoffed. “That’s preposterous.”

“Let me ask you. Did you kill Sable yourself? Or did you hire someone else to do it?” My eyes darted to the two bodyguards.

Guilty looks tensed their faces.

“I’m not saying anything to you without an attorney.”

“I hope you have a good one.”

More officers arrived. We had a warrant to search the property. I led the team inside, and we turned the place upside down, looking for incriminating evidence and anything we could pull the real Sable’s trace DNA from—a hairbrush, cosmetics, anything that would allow us to identify the victim in the Lamborghini.

At this point, we didn’t have anything on Everett or the security staff. But it was only a matter of time. I knew he was the mastermind behind it all.

Paris had a shit-eating grin on her face. She had captured the entire arrest and interaction. When we left the house after the search, she said, “Off the record… are you absolutely certain the real Sable is dead?”

“We have no conclusive proof yet, but it’s just a matter of time,” I replied with a confident smile.

We headed down to the station and filled out after-action reports. We let Emily stew in the interrogation room for a long time.

Her fantasy had collapsed.

Everything she had dreamed about was snatched away. She had fame just long enough to get a taste. It was probably worse than never, having tasted it at all. The woman was a complete basket case by the time we stepped into the interrogation room.

JD and I took a seat across the table from her. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she sobbed uncontrollably.

“The fraud and impersonation charges are the least of your concerns,” I said. “I’d be more concerned about the conspiracy to commit murder charge. That’s going to put you away for life.”

Emily looked up at me with terrified eyes.

51

“Ijust wanted to be famous,” Emily said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Well, I think you achieved that,” I said.

“It’s all gone now,” she cried.

“Think of it this way. You’re famous for a different reason now.”

She frowned and sobbed more.

“Tell me how this whole thing came about.”

Emily was silent for a long moment. “I don’t know. I started doing celebrity appearances, playing parties, that kind of stuff. Everett saw me one night at karaoke. Said I had an amazing voice.” The tears spilled over again. “He said he could make me a star.”

I shared a look with JD.

“Did he tell you he planned to kill Sable?”