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Plot Summary[]

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is no party girl, but she’s managing to have a reasonably good time at the celebrity-packed bash celebrating The Icove Agenda, a film based on one of her famous cases. It’s a little spooky seeing the actress playing her, who looks almost like her long-lost twin. Not as unsettling, though, as seeing the actress who plays Peabody — drowned in the lap pool on the roof of the director’s luxury building. Talented but rude, and widely disliked, K. T. Harris had made an embarrassing scene during dinner. Now she’s at the center of a crime scene — and Eve is more than ready to get out of her high heels and strap on her holster, to step into the role she was born to play: cop.

- Amazon.com

Map[]

Please reference the Celebrity in Death Map for locations or approximate locations of sites listed here.

Timeline[]

Spoiler warning!
This article contains plot details about an upcoming episode.

Approximate Story Start Date: early October, 2060[1][2]

Day 1[]

Chapter 1[]

  • Eve and Peabody visit the set of The Icove Agenda. Eve is weirded out by how much Marlo Durn looks like her, and also how much she’s smiling, while Peabody fangirls all over her. Marlo tells Eve she’s never had a role she wanted so much to do justice to.
  • K.T. Harris, who plays Peabody, comes over to meet Peabody, looking annoyed, and Marlo takes Eve back to see the rest of the set.
  • As Marlo is telling Eve they want to get publicity pictures with her and Peabody, her communicator signals with a homicide.
  • On the way, Peabody tells her the assistant director, Preston Stykes, said she could do a cameo, and also that Harris is a bitch who suggested Peabody take an assertiveness course or else she will always be an underling, or sidekick at best.
  • The murder turns out to be open and shut – one husband bashed the other husband in the head with a cast iron skillet because dead husband wanted a divorce.

Chapter 2[]

  • As hard as she tries, Eve can’t come up with a good excuse to skip the evening’s party with the cast and others from the movie, so she goes home.
  • When she arrives home, Summerset calls her out on not being able “to formulate an excuse to miss tonight’s festivities,” Eve says there’s still time for murder, maybe even here and now, and Summerset tells her Trina left her a message with detailed instructions on getting ready for the party.
  • As Eve gets ready she resents Roarke for not needing to do anything to improve his face. Roarke points out that he has to shave, not at all placating Eve. He picks out clothes and jewelry for her and they head out.
  • The party is hosted by the director, Mason Roundtree, and his wife, actress Connie Burkette, and is attended by the actors playing Roarke (Julian Cross), Eve, Peabody, McNab (Matthew Zank), and Mira (Andrea Smythe), the producer, Joel Steinburger, the publicist, Valerie Xavier, and the AD, Stykes, along with the people being portrayed, Mavis, Leonardo, Nadine, and Mr. Mira, looking adorable with mismatched socks.
  • Steinburger calls Eve ‘honey’ after she turns down his offer/request/demand that she do publicity for the vid and interviews for the extras. Roarke whisks him away before she can punch him.
  • Marlo dishes on everybody, with Matthew adding that they’re shallow and gossip passes the time between takes:
    • Connie is the classiest actor, and woman, she knows, and she and Roundtree have been married for 25 years, which is a miracle in Hollywood.
    • Andi’s got the pottiest of potty mouths; it’s part of her charm, which she has in spades.
    • Xavier and Steinburger used to bang like hydrohammers (Matthew confirms that rather than calling him 'Mr. Steinburger" during sex, as she did a minute ago, she called him "God," as in "Oh God, oh God, oh God, yes!"), and now she’s the Publicity Chief.
  • Julian arrives, kisses Eve hard on the lips, with a bit of tongue, thus risking damage to his face from both Eve and Roarke, then he kisses Peabody and McNab on the lips.
  • Matthew says, “Hollywood, we’re a bunch of assholes.” K.T. arrives, and Marlo says “some of us more than others.”

Chapter 3[]

  • Over dinner, Harris tells Julian to give the ass-kissing a rest when he’s talking to Roarke and Eve, and then snaps her fingers at a server to bring her a refill so we know she’s a despicable human being, in case there was any doubt.
  • Eve asks Peabody if she wants to watch her give fake Peabody an ass-kicking and then tells Harris to let the grown-ups talk. Marlo asks if she can watch the ass-kicking.
  • Burkette takes Harris aside for a talking to, and Harris drinks even more, because that’s working so well for her.
  • Roundtree plays a gag reel for the gang, with front row seats for Eve and Roarke.
  • After it ends, Eve and Roarke start to leave, Marlo and Matthew come downstairs and say that Harris is dead – they had gone up to the rooftop pool and found her dead. Matthew, who's soaking wet, pulled her out of the pool and gave her CPR but she was already gone.
  • Eve tells Connie to make sure nobody leaves, and has McNab confiscate all ‘links.
  • She and Roarke take the elevator to the rooftop terrace to confirm Harris’s death. When Peabody joins Eve, Eve tells her to take a few minutes before assisting because of the resemblance to Harris.
  • Harris’s TOD puts her as dying shortly after the gag reel started, but since Eve was sitting in the front, she doesn’t know who left during the show.
  • McNab joins them and freaks out a little, so Eve points out all of the differences – Harris is older, her bottom lip is thinner, her eyes are rounder, her feet are longer and narrower than Peabody.
  • Eve goes downstairs, tells everybody Harris is dead but the ME will need to determine the COD, and she and Peabody need to interview everybody who’s still there (Mavis and Leonardo left early). She asks Dr. Mira to sit in on the interviews.

Chapter 4[]

  • Interview 1 is with Matthew, who says he’s been arrested for D&D and underage drinking when he was 17, but had never seen an actual dead person before. He and Marlo went up to the roof for some air, her feet hurt, she took off her shoes, they were going to sit on the edge of the pool, and then they saw Harris floating facedown in the pool. Matthew jumped in to drag her out, then did CPR, but it was too late, so they ran down and got Eve. Matthew and Harris dated for a few weeks but stopped after he got the part for McNab, which Harris took as he was using her, but Matthew said was because she started drinking too much and got possessive. He said she’d trashed his trailer the prior week, and they didn’t have any more scenes together to film. Eve dismisses him, but he says he’ll wait in the house for a few minutes before heading home. Mira’s take: he feels guilty because even though he doesn’t think he got the role from sleeping with her, he’ll never know for sure now.
  • Interview 2 is with Marlo, who confirms Matthew’s details. She says Harris hated her because she had an Oscar nomination, and let Marlo know she thinks she slept her way to that role since she dated the screenwriter before the script was written and cast, even though they stayed friends after they dated. Harris also threatened to go to the media to say Marlo was blowing Roundtree, Matthew, and Julian; Harris said Connie knew and Nadine would lead off Now with that story. Marlo told her to go f herself because nobody else would, and that was the last thing she said to her. Eve dismisses her. Mira’s take: she didn’t like her, and feels bad that the last thing she said to her was hateful, but she considers Harris beneath her. Eve says Marlo is sleeping with Matthew, which Mira missed.
  • Interview 3 is with Connie, who told Harris she’d watch her mouth and behavior in her home or she’d be removed and never welcome there again. Since Harris refused to apologize, Connie added that she’d see to it that she never worked with her husband again, or with anybody else she had influence with. Harris told her Marlo was giving Mason blowjobs between scenes, but she didn’t believe that. K.T. was jealous of Marlo, because of her looks, talent, charm, and popularity, and she took a swipe at Eve because Marlo is playing her. She only noticed that Harris was no longer in the theater when the gag reel finished because she was keeping an eye on her, but not who else left or was still there. Eve dismisses Connie.
  • Eve has Peabody take Roundtree, Dennis, and Valerie, while she takes Andi, Joel, and Nadine, and then they will take Julian together after he’s taken Sober-Up.
  • Interview 4 is with Andi, who says Harris was a c-word, and she disliked her for the part because she found Peabody so appealing, while water was never wet enough for Harris.
  • Interview 5 is with Joel, who starts off by telling Eve all the things he needs before she sets him straight about how murder investigations work. Joel admitted she was difficult, but said he was able to control her. Mira’s take: a position of power and politics, which he uses and enjoys.
  • Eve tells Mira Mr. Mira’s socks don’t match and it’s sweet. Mira says “people who expect perfection in a mate miss a lot of fun – and sweetness” and leaves to begin detoxifying Julian. Roarke brings Eve a giant mug of coffee, she tells him he’s not perfect, and before he can get offended, she tells him that makes him just exactly right.
  • Interview 6 is with Nadine, who is pissed that her ‘link and PPC were taken from her. She’s worried about being scooped on the story and as she and Eve butt heads, Roarke begins smiling, saying he’s having cookies and coffee while two beautiful women snarl at each other, which requires him to wonder if there will be physical contact, possibly with clothing ripped away, so why wouldn’t he smile?
  • Eve tells Nadine she will give her the scoop, but she needs to question her first.

Chapter 5[]

  • Nadine confirms that she and Julian are not sleeping together, she didn’t know Marlo and Matthew were, and everybody hated K.T.
  • Peabody comes in, Nadine leaves, taking the cookies with her, and Peabody tells Eve they found blood and the charred remains of a cloth in the fireplace. The morgue team confirmed contusion and laceration on the back of Harris’s head. Eve gives Nadine most of this, requesting she wait thirty minutes so Julian can get home before the media frenzy.
  • Julian says he went up to the roof and talked to K.T. but she was mean and he doesn’t like mean people, or arguing, so he went back downstairs and passed out drunk.
  • Eve and Roarke have the limo drop Peabody and McNab home after Roarke’s house; Peabody says if it wasn’t for the dead body and the two hours of interviews, it would have been a mag evening.
  • Roarke says it will generate a lot of good publicity for the vid, but he and Eve agree that it’s a side benefit, not the reason. Roarke rubs her feet, they have sex, and the night ends.

Day 2[]

Chapter 6[]

  • Peabody does her usual food argument with herself – bagel and a schmear or fruity yogurt, definitely not both, and extra definitely not the cherry Danish she could pick up on the way to Central. McNab pokes at his Crispy Crunchie Charms, tells Peabody that he loves her, and then asks if she wants to get married. She says eventually, and yes, to him, then he admits he was up all night freaked about seeing Harris looking like Peabody dead. Peabody tells him she wants to get married someday, but not now, but yes, they are it for each other. They realize they have fifteen minutes until Peabody has to be at the morgue, and make the best use of that time.
  • At the morgue, Morris thanks Eve for having Carter do the autopsy since the vic looked so similar to Peabody. The verdict is: Harris was very drunk, with lots of zoner in her, and was alive when she went into the pool, but she had help going in, and then drowned, so homicide.
  • When Peabody arrives, Morris plants a big kiss on her, telling her he’s glad she’s alive. Eve calls her out for being late, and why, and when Peabody tells Eve about her morning, she tells Peabody that she and McNab are good together, and they’re smart to wait.
  • Next stop, Eve’s old apartment, which looks nothing like it used to now that Mavis and Leonardo have taken it and the neighboring apartment over, knocking down the wall between them. Bella has just learned to walk that morning.
  • Mavis reports that on set, Harris was always looking to screw with Marlo, gave Matthew grief every chance she had, treated Preston badly, got on Roundtree’s back but he rolled with it, and she mostly ignored Andi since Andi was good with her mouth and fist. During the party, Mavis saw Harris corner Matthew before dinner, and he gave Harris the finger, Harris argued with Andi during dinner, but after Andi made an anatomically impossible suggestion she backed off. Harris and Julian were talking before the show, but he just looked bored and annoyed.
  • Since nobody mentioned any of those incidents, Eve decides she needs to bring them into Central for follow-ups.

Chapter 7[]

  • A few minutes after Eve gets to work, Whitney stops by to let her know they need to control the media on this, and she and Peabody meet Tibble’s media liaison, Kyung Beaverton, who is not a total a-hole – in fact, he’s really good at his job and likes Eve’s answers. He gets them ready for an afternoon media conference. The plan is to emphasize that though the actors are portraying them, they are NOT actually them. The actors will go on to play other roles, while Eve and Peabody will go on to investigate more homicides.
  • Harris’s parents divorced when she was 13, due to domestic abuse, when her brother, Brice, who was two years older than K.T. was severely beaten by their father, Wendall Harris. Their mother took her maiden name back, and the children also changed their last names after the divorce. Her father died in a bar fight when K.T. was 18, she changed her name back to his, and moved to New L.A. Like her father, K.T. continued the violence/anger cycle, with a string of DUIs, a revoked license, a D&D, and two assaults (charges dropped) by age 22.

Chapter 8[]

  • Uniform Carmichael brings Andi, Julian, and Matthew in for further questioning, since he prefers sports to vids, bringing them in through the secured garage to keep it quiet.
  • Andrea reluctantly admits that Harris threatened to out her godson, who had been in rehab with Harris. Andi said she told her she would go to the press to tell them how Harris came by the information, and to “f off, you ugly c-word”; those were the last words she spoke to Harris.
  • Matthew says Harris found out he and Marlo were a couple about two weeks prior and it didn’t go down well with her. He and Marlo were living together in a loft, and were trying to keep it quiet to see where it would go, and to let the public still believe the movie couples were real couples. Harris stole Matthew’s swipe card and code when she broke into his trailer, then hired a P.I. to plant a camera in their loft. Harris told them she had vids of them in bed, and would put the video on the net if he refused to dump Marlo and get back with her. She ordered him to meet her up on the roof the night of the party to give him a preview. He and Marlo planned to confront Harris together, making a recording, but Harris was already dead when they got there.
  • Matthew does a figurative face palm when he realizes Marlo still has the recording, which will confirm his story.

Chapter 9[]

  • Peabody asks Marlo to come into Central, while Matthew waits.
  • Eve interviews a very hungover Julian, who reluctantly admits that he and Harris fought the prior day on set – she wanted him to tell Matthew he and Marlo were hooking up behind his back. That was the first he learned that Marlo and Matthew were a couple. Peabody talks him into revealing what Harris had over him – when he was 23 and just landed the lead in a movie, he was out celebrating at a sex club, and unknowingly had sex with a couple of 16-year-olds – he thought they were 21, but one of their fathers came to his place yelling that he’s going to kill Julian. One of Julian’s friends is a lawyer and told the father how the girls were going to end up in juvie, and the father would go up for assault, and Julian paid them a lot of money to make it go away.
  • Harris found out, Julian contacted his lawyer friend, who told him to stall, Harris confronted him at the party, and he drank a lot and told her to leave him alone.
  • Marlo was already at Central, waiting for Matthew to finish up, so Eve sums up what she knows and asks where the recording she made is. Another face palm follows, and two officers escort her back to the loft to retrieve the recording.
  • The media conference begins with Eve saying she will take questions pertaining to the investigation “as long as said questions aren’t shouted at us by a roomful of reporters behaving like bratty children on a school field trip.” It went smoothly, with Peabody making a comment about standing for K.T. Harris, ending with “Those of you only looking for gossip are wasting our time. Time we need to spend doing our job.”

Chapter 10[]

  • Eve and Peabody watch the recording Marlo made, which confirms their story. Eve sends the recording to EDD to verify it hasn’t been tampered with, but she and Peabody believe Marlo and Matthew.
  • At Harris’s hotel, they find nothing personal out in the open, and a tell on the safe – a single hair loosely taped to the lower corner. Peabody finds a picture of Matthew buried in her underwear drawer, and when she takes it out of the frame, finds a safe deposit box key. The safe has cash, jewelry, a notebook, illegals, and an envelope with photos from the P.I., along with a small lockbox.
  • Inside the lockbox is another notebook, a business card from A.A. Asner, Private Investigations and Security, and a sealed recording. The notebook was passcoded with “MATTHEW” and had her snarky comments and nicknames (Skinny Bitch and Pleasebody for Eve and Peabody), along with a notation about paying the P.I. 100 grand over two payments and a code that turns out to be a lock code and box number at a bank, under Peabody’s name.

Chapter 11[]

  • The receptionist at Asner’s office hasn’t seen or heard from Asner and he wasn’t answering his ‘link. She’d heard of Harris, but didn’t have a client by that name, but did have one named Delia Peabody, who was a “beyotch” and ordered her around, snapping her fingers at her. Barbie told them the contract was for domestic surveillance, but “Ms. I’m-Too-Good-to-Pee-Body” just came in the one time.
  • At the bank, they found another recording, more cash, and two receipts from Asner for $50,000 each.
  • At EDD, McNab found a large charge at I Spy in Times Square – she bought two high-end, micromini spy cams a couple of weeks ago. She also put a hefty deposit down on a villa at the Olympus Resort, for two weeks beginning December 23, as well as a private shuttle under her name and Matthew’s.
  • Eve and Feeney watch Harris’s recording of Marlo and Matthew to determine if either copy is the original and are beyond embarrassed. Feeney stops the vids before the end, telling Eve there are no cuts, but they are both copies. Eve figures Asner kept the original.
  • Eve tags Roarke to meet her at Harris’s trailer, which is between actor Nadine and actor Feeney. The only things of note she finds are vodka bottles and drugs. The two cameras are in Matthew’s trailer, so they take them and go to dinner.

Chapter 12[]

  • Over pizza and beer along the river, Roarke tells Eve he doesn’t want a boat, he’s spent enough time on the sea and relates a story from his smuggling days, where a severe storm raged through the night and they lost five men.
  • At home, Roarke gives her the magic coat, with body armor lining. He says it’s been in R&D for about 2 1/2 years, since he fell for her, but he pushed it up after McQueen. He knows she wouldn’t have been wearing it then but he wants to protect her. She tells him she’s been having dreams, but not nightmares, since they got back, but she’s not ready to talk to Mira about it yet.
  • Eve decides they need to have sex before she watches the Marlo and Matthew sex tape or else it will be weird.
  • Eve eliminates Marlo, Matthew, and Roundtree, and the list of possibles in descending order is Julian, Steinburger, Valerie, Andrea, Connie, and Preston.

Day 3[]

Chapter 13[]

  • Eve has a dream about dead and bleeding Stella and McQueen. She goes for her weapon, but it’s not there and then she wakes up, afraid. She agrees to tell Roarke about the dreams if he stops altering his morning routine to stay in bed with her.
  • Peabody and Eve meet at Asner’s apartment, Peabody in her bright pink boots from Texas, and Eve in her magic coat, which Peabody loves (of course). She says it’s like the DLE – it looks ordinary but is special on the inside, and says Roarke totally gets her.
  • Asner isn’t home and his neighbor/gym buddy says he missed game night, so he figured Asner stayed in his office all night.
  • At Asner’s office they see that the light isn’t on, and the door isn’t secured. The reception area is trashed, with the computer missing. The inner office was in the same condition, with the addition of a dead body.
  • Asner was bashed in the back of his head multiple times with a replica of the Maltese Falcon, and his wrist unit and wallet were missing, along with all of his electronics. Since there was no sign of forced entry, Eve figures he knew his killer, and had arranged to meet him.
  • Barbie and her date, Bobbie, an attorney who works in the office next to Asner’s, arrive. Barbie goes next door and Bobbie calls his assistant in to stay with her since they’re friends, so he can speak with Eve.

Chapter 14[]

  • Asner asked Bobbie some “hypothetical” questions about something coming into his possession, if he could sell it to an interested party, and it wasn’t exactly stolen property. Bobbie told him he should give the idea a little more thought. Then the previous day, Asner told him current events had changed and he was rethinking his position, thinking he would just pass the memento over to the interested party.
  • Eve and Peabody visit the set, where Roundtree is pissed that he has to pause the filming.
  • Connie is on set to calm people down, and Eve interviews her first. M&M came to her with what Harris had done, so she knew there was a P.I. involved, just not the name. She and Roundtree don’t have alibis for the time Asner was murdered, but Connie says it wouldn’t have mattered if the media had gotten the sex vid – “they’re two young, gorgeous, happy, talented people” and Valerie would spin it.
  • Roundtree was especially upset that Harris was killed in the lap pool, which he installed for Connie as a surprise, and which she used every morning before the murder. He didn’t know about M&M, but also thought they were idiots for letting Harris bully them, that it wouldn’t have mattered if it got out.
  • Valerie had a holo conference until 10:10 pm, then a meeting with Joel from 10:30-1 a.m. in his pied-á-terre to discuss the “situation,” and she stayed in the guest quarters the rest of the night. Although she’s plugged into everything that’s happening on the set, she claimed not to know about M&M.
  • Eve interviews the super busy and super important Steinburger in his office, and dismisses Valerie, saying it isn’t a business meeting, but a police investigation. He confirms Valerie’s alibi, saying they discussed the memorials (one for each coast). Eve asked him if the meeting with Valerie included talking about the M&M situation, and he said, “You mean Marlo and Julian?” and as the flashing lights over his head spelled “LIAR,” Eve snuck in a question about his car, and then left.
  • Peabody reported that neither Andi nor Julian had an alibi, and Julian dropped his ‘link, broke it, and threw it into the recycler. Eve reported that Valerie and Steinburger are terrible actors.

Chapter 15[]

  • Asner’s apartment was ransacked, with no electronics left. Eve realizes the killer took Asner’s car to remove all of the electronics, and she puts out a BOLO on it.
  • Asner’s car turns up at the Battery Park Marina, so Eve and Peabody start a search for who has a boat or a friend with a boat.
  • Eve is sure it’s about more than a sex vid – it’s about blackmail and power.
  • Brice comes in to talk to Eve about his sister, who he calls Katie, and gives her some of the background of their childhood, and how Katie was all about impressing their father, throwing their mother under the bus for scraps of attention and small rewards. Eve tells him she thinks she knows who killed her, but can’t prove it yet.
  • He says when he was fifteen he tried to fight back, but his father beat him so badly he was peeing blood, and was in the hospital for almost a week. That was when their mother left, called the law. Katie claimed their father didn’t touch Brice, but the town knew him, and his hands were raw from beating Brice, so Katie claimed he was defending her because Brice was trying to rape her. They didn’t believe her, but they had to do tests, and then finally they locked up their dad, and the rest of the family moved to Iowa.
  • K.T. blamed their mother and him for losing her father’s love, and started drinking, using drugs, stealing, and getting in trouble in high school. She changed her name back to Harris and went to California when she was 18.
  • Eve recommends that he find Tiko and buy scarves for his wife and mother, and souvenirs for his kids, that Tiko will tell him where to go for good deals.
  • Mira’s waiting in Eve’s office, and sums up Harris’s behavior as: lie, blame, lie to shift blame and protect your status quo. Eve wonders what kind of environment Stella came from, if she was just perpetuating the cycle of selfishness and violence, like Harris was with her father. She tells Mira Roarke is worried about her and wants her to talk to Mira, that she’s been having dreams about Stella, that she knows she had a hand in both of her parents’ deaths, one directly, one indirectly. Mira points out that although Eve calls her mother Stella, she still refers to Troy as her father. Mira tells her to think about that and to tell Roarke they talked.

Chapter 16[]

  • There were fingerprints at Asner’s apartment from an LC, Della McGrue, so Eve visits her. They were friends, although Della says she charged (a discounted rate) when they had sex, but a lot of times they just hung out together. A stopped by the previous day, said he got a big payoff from a client, and wanted a good-luck bang before he bought into a game. He said he didn’t like the client, that she had a nasty streak, but her money was good. He said he had decided to play it straight and then he would be able to retire. Somebody tagged him to set up a 10 p.m. meet at his office.
  • Eve returns to Roundtree and Burkette’s home theater to get a feel for who was sitting where, and who/what they would have been able to see from their seats. She also goes back up to the roof and remembers that the dome had been partially opened when Harris’s body was found. The house droid says Connie keeps the dome closed while she swims so she can keep it heated, and the mechanism has been sticking – it doesn’t close completely unless you turn it off and then on again.
  • On her way home, Eve thinks the killer opened the dome to let the smoke out, then closed it when he left, but didn’t know it would only close partway. She heads for the gym, where Roarke is already working out, and they test a new VR running/obstacle course program. Eve picks rural, and wins the first half by three points, but then loses the second half when she’s attacked by a boar.
  • Eve lays it all out for Roarke, and thinks Steinburger is the killer – he and Valerie are the only ones who lied about not knowing about M&M, he went on the offensive during the first interview, and it’s all about power and control, and he has the most in this project.

Chapter 17[]

  • Roarke notices that Eve seems more relaxed, and she tells him she spoke with Mira. She asks him to look at Steinburger and Valerie for money, saying Valerie looked too damn smug that morning, like she just got laid and/or a big bonus. She thinks both murders were on the spot rather than planned, because the killer didn’t bring a weapon either time, and if it was Steinburger then Valerie was covering for him and he’ll have to kill her next. Roarke suggests maybe he’s killed before, so Eve decides to dig – Roarke says he’s sex and money and she’s dead bodies – what a team they are.
  • Eve does a deep search on deaths associated with him or Big Bang Productions, including unsolved murders, accidental deaths, and self-terminations where he was detained or questioned. She finds seven deaths where Steinburger could have helped the victim along, beginning when he was in college and Eve thinks there are probably more:
    • Bryson Kane – was providing academic help for him, fell down a flight of stairs in college, presumably after he wanted to stop cheating for Steinburger or wanted more money
    • Marlin Dressler – Steinburger was engaged to his great-granddaughter and working at the studio where Dressler was a bigwig, fell off a cliff – Steinburger married the now considerably wealthier fiancée and moved up a couple of rungs at the studio
    • Angelica Caulfield – actress who was 5 weeks pregnant, with rumors that Steinburger was the father, overdose
    • Jacoby Miles – paparazzo who was hounding him; beaten to death with a dumbbell in his home, made to look like an interrupted robbery
    • Sherri Wendall – ex-wife #2, drowned in France, ruled accidental
    • Buster Pearlman – business partner, accused of embezzling, overdosed, and they couldn’t find most of the missing money
    • Allys Beaker – 22 year old intern who thought Steinburger was going to leave his wife for her, slipped in the shower and fractured her skull
  • Meanwhile, Roarke found a $50,000 transfer from Steinburger to Valerie the previous night, and Eve figures Harris had Asner tracing the deaths and went to Steinburger with the list.
  • Eve starts with Pearlman’s death. The detective assigned to that case says Pearlman's wife was adamant that it wasn’t a self-termination, and that he would never have stolen anything. DS McHone said he would check if they still had his electronics, which had been wiped with a virus.
  • Roarke finds an account under the name B. B. Joel, with several withdrawals that coincided with the timing of the deaths, including a $20,000 transfer into an account opened by Violet Holmes the day of Caulfield’s death. Holmes had been an up-and-coming actress at the time, now lives in New York, and owns a boat, moored at the marina where Asner’s car was found.
  • Eve wakes Peabody up and tells her to locate Violet Holmes and her boat and book a conference room for 8 a.m. She sends the rest of the invitations by messages rather than waking everybody else up.

Day 4[]

Chapter 18[]

  • More dreams for Eve, Roarke keeps her in bed, they have sex, and she is able to go back to sleep.
  • When she wakes up again Roarke has resumed his practice of waking early and watching the financial reports. Roarke picks out clothes for her, including the new boots the boot elves have brought her, since she will be presenting her case to Commander Whitney and others.
  • At Central, Marlo drops by to see if Eve is any closer to identifying the killer, and mentions that Joel is the smoking gestapo – he can’t stand any trace of smoke.
  • Reo doesn’t think there’s enough evidence to get a warrant, so Eve settles for a trace on his ‘links, which is the way she figured it would go. Mira thinks he won’t wait years or months to kill Valerie, and she thinks he will have shown violence with previous wives and lovers – likely rough sex or rape roleplay.

Chapter 19[]

  • Eve asks Kyung to set up another media conference for that day, after the traces are in place for Steinburger’s ‘links. She also wants to give Nadine off-record info and have her interview him. Eve thinks he will throw dirt on someone else to make himself feel safe.
  • Eve calls Nadine, who’s setting up interviews with McQueen, the Jones twins, and others associated with that case, and tells Nadine to meet her at the marina.
  • McHone calls to let Eve know they still have Pearlman’s electronics, and wants to be able to tell Mrs. Pearlman that her husband wasn’t a coward and a thief. Eve calls Summerset to set up transpo to bring the electronics to New York, realizing that she doesn’t need to bother Roarke every time she wants something like that. Summerset tells her the shuttles are always at her disposal, and she ponders her previously unknown power.
  • Reo gets the warrant for traces on Steinburger’s ‘links, questioning Eve being able to get evidence for all of the murders instead of just for the current two, with Eve telling her she can focus on more than one murder at a time, and which one would Reo like her to omit?
  • Violet meets Eve and Peabody at the marina, and confirms the $20,000 payment, which she says was for a consultant to work with her for her first role. She and the consultant lied and said Steinburger was with them the afternoon Caulfield was killed – he told them he was flying down to his Mexican villa to prepare it for a surprise party for his newly pregnant wife.
  • Violet hasn’t been out on Simone for a couple of weeks, but somebody has, and that person didn’t know about the brand new digi-log she had put in, a gift from her cohab. It shows when and where it was taken: the previous morning, at 1:16 a.m. for just over an hour. Eve confirms that Steinburger had taken the boat out recently to entertain some investors and therefore had the codes.
  • Eve gets Violet’s corrected statement about Steinburger’s whereabouts during Caulfield’s death on record, while Peabody makes a copy of the log and sends it the water police to search the destination for electronics.

Chapter 20[]

  • Nadine meets Eve at the marina, where Eve apprehends a would-be purse snatcher, and Nadine agrees to go off-record. Eve tells her she can tie Steinburger to nine murders, although there are probably more, and she wants Nadine to interview him after the media conference, wearing a wire in case Steinburger thinks Nadine should take the fall for Harris’s death and then conveniently off herself. In return, Eve will do an hour exclusive on Now about the murders.
  • Eve has Valerie brought in for further questioning, and Baxter and Trueheart will stay on Steinburger if he leaves the studio. Peabody learns that she has a line in her cameo: “It’s the police.” Peabody lets it slip to Valerie that they have a media conference coming up, where they will announce that they have new information and expect to make an arrest soon. Eve cuts her off, since she’s bad cop.
  • Eve has Valerie review where she was sitting in the theater during the gag reel, and why she didn’t notice people coming and going, since her seat would have been in the line of light whenever the door opened. Then she hits her with the $50,000 bonus the night after Asner’s murder, and also that Valerie moved to a VIP suite. Valerie is indignant, and Eve figures she’ll be on the ‘link to Steinburger before she leaves the station.
  • Peabody thinks Eve put Valerie’s head on the block, so Eve calls Connie and asks her to keep Valerie busy and within her sight that afternoon. Feeney tagged Eve to tell her Valerie called Steinburger complaining about the NYPSD poking into her financials, and he reassured her she did just right and was grateful for her discretion and loyalty, and he had another call, which he did not, and then came back to her and said he would show his appreciation when everything settles down.
  • With a huge grin, Peabody reports that the divers recovered a lot of electronics and also a ‘link engraved “K.T.H.” and will contact Reo for search warrants.

Chapter 21[]

  • After the media conference, Eve gets warrants to search Steinburger’s home, office, and car, and confiscate electronics, and Roarke stops by to join her for that.
  • Nadine interviews Steinburger in his office, brings up his second ex-wife’s drowning death, Caulfield, Pearlman, Dressler, and his old college housemate.
  • Steinburger says he refuses to believe that one of them killed K.T., that it’s an outsider – a caterer or valet. Then, he goes off the record to tell her he thinks he knows who did it but hopes he’s wrong and doesn’t want to name names yet. As Nadine leaves, Julian comes in, looking a mess.
  • Steinburger had convinced Julian that he (Julian) killed K.T., and then blacked out drunk, but told him not to go to the police because it would ruin his career and wouldn’t bring Harris back. He tells Julian to go back to his hotel room, drink some of the wine he brought over the night before, and then relax in the whirlpool.
  • During the search of Steinburger’s apartment, Roarke finds a hidden compartment containing pass codes, swipe cards, and keys, all labeled, including Asner’s vehicle code.
  • They are about to head to Ce Soir to interrupt Steinburger’s dinner, when Nadine calls, worried about Julian. She’s closer to his hotel, so Eve tells her she needs to have security escort her to his room, and she and Roarke are on their way.

Chapter 22[]

  • At the hotel, Julian drinks two glasses of the wine that Joel brought over and doctored, then remembers he is supposed to use the whirlpool but passes out before he can get into it. Nadine is able to convince the hotel manager to open his door, and then Eve comes in and punches Julian in the stomach to make him vomit, making sure she doesn’t get it on her new boots, and saving some in an evidence bag for tox, along with the bottle of wine.
  • Julian says that Joel brought over the wine yesterday but there couldn’t have been anything wrong with it because they each had a glass of it. Eve finds out that he left the room after Steinburger poured the wine, and also that there’s an empty pill bottle with Harris’s name on it for Somnipoton, a type of sleeping pill. Julian takes a different kind, but didn’t take any that night.
  • Julian tells Eve he killed Harris, but as he gives her the details, it becomes clear that although he pushed her down, Steinburger was the one who dragged her body into the water and drowned her. Harris wanted Julian to give Marlo a drink with Rabbit in it so she’d want to have sex with him. He told Harris to go to hell, then she slapped him and shoved him, then he shoved back, causing her to fall. She wouldn’t wake up and Steinburger, who he thinks of as a father, was there. Steinburger told him he had killed K.T., obviously it was an accident, but nobody would believe him, and Eve was all about busting celebrities, not about the truth, so he must not say anything. Julian asks Eve why Steinburger killed Harris and was going to kill him, and she says “It’s kind of his hobby.”
  • Nadine calls Louise to check Julian out so he doesn’t have to go to the hospital, and Eve tells her to give her 30 minutes and then it’s ok to go live with Steinburger’s arrest for murder.
  • Eve and Roarke go to Ce Soir, which Roarke owns. Despite that, Eve badges her way in so she can give diners time to start tagging people and recording, then has uniforms perp-walk Steinburger out of the restaurant, while Roarke orders food to go.

Chapter 23[]

  • Back at Central, surrounded by French food for everybody, Peabody tells Eve that when the uniforms picked Valerie up for Accessory to Murder, she was crying all the way through booking, and Eve says they will take her first, giving Steinburger time to figure out the spin and stew a while.
  • Valerie waives her right to a lawyer so she doesn’t have to go back into the holding cell while she waits, and tells Eve who left the theater when. Steinburger had told Valerie that Julian killed Harris, but it was an accident and they needed to protect the project, that Eve would have made it into a murder to get more play. Valerie also lied about the previous night because Steinburger had a date, and although he was estranged from his wife, he wanted to keep his personal life private. Steinburger said it would be easier to say they were together, otherwise she wouldn’t have an alibi for Asner’s murder either.
  • Peabody softens Steinburger up, telling him there’s been some discrepancies in his statements. He plays up the “I was afraid Julian might try to take his own life” angle, while Peabody says Julian is in a coma, and may not make it. Steinburger gives the version where Julian killed Harris, but it was an accident, and he was just trying to help him, and Peabody asks about the dome, whether it was open or closed, and then when he reluctantly admits he may have opened it and then closed it, Peabody asks if that was before or after he dragged Harris’s unconscious body into the lap pool.
  • Eve enters interview on that cue, bringing a box of evidence, including the sex vid, Harris’s monogrammed ‘link, and the bag of codes and swipe cards. Steinburger is outraged that Eve went through his home. She adds that she also went through his office and car, and that California police are going through his West Coast home as well. He says he’s entitled to have access to go wherever he needs to and asks if she knows who he is, she says he’s a murderer, Peabody exaggerated Julian’s condition, and she has confessions from both Julian and Valerie. He says Valerie would lie because she’s in love with Julian.
  • Eve tells him she will lock him in a cage for every life he ended, Peabody adds that she tried to help him, and they have a witness who saw him entering Asner’s office the night he was murdered and he didn’t wipe the murder bird off carefully enough. His stories fall apart and he mostly confesses to everything, telling Eve he would have made her with this production, and she goads him into more confessions, including killing Asner, that he was just protecting himself because Asner was going to go to the police, and Harris, who would have been nothing without him, but had no loyalty or gratitude, and Julian, who couldn’t even die without being told how, and still messed it up.
  • Eve and Roarke go home to celebrate the fact that they closed nine murders, nobody tried to punch her in the face, stab her, stun her, or blow her up, and she avoided getting puke or blood on her boots for an entire day, with half-drunk sex.

Character List[]

List of Main Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Secondary Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Recurring Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Minor Characters Appearing in this Book[]

List of Peripheral Characters Appearing or Mentioned in this Book[]

Trivia[]

Other Covers[]

Additional covers here

 Celebrity      
       

YANNI[]

Although two mentions are made about Preston Stykes being at the dinner party, he is not interviewed.

Footnotes[]

  1. Celebrity in Death, Pg. 5
  2. Celebrity in Death, Chapter 11: "It's barely October" (and also, "Halloween's weeks off yet").
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