Its been over 50 years now so I don’t think anyone will be harmed by me telling this story. Anabelle Ross was a beautiful young woman, professional dancer and actress. When I say professional dancer I don’t mean exotic dance well back in the day I guess it was considered exotic.
She was a chorus girl or showgirl I guess you would say now she worked in vaudeville. She was also a magician’s assistant for a few weeks and she was an up and coming actress. I had heard rumors that she slept with some of the producers and directors but at that time, and well maybe even today, you did what you had to do to get the job and start your career. I never believed any of the rumors but if she did I am sure it wasn’t really her choice.
Anyway back to the story, Anabelle Ross went to a party one night. It was a Hollywood A-list Party. She must have been a guest of someone because she never made the A-list. The party was at Orson Well’s mansion. I was there too and I was not an A-lister either, I was there as part of the entertainment.
She went missing and never made it home. The last person that we spoke to that saw her alive was a valet that was parking cars that night who saw her running away into the night like all the demons of hell were chasing her. Oh wait — that was not the last person to see her alive. I think that would have been Aedan. Aden saw her near Dread Gate Cemetery still fleeing in terror. Aedan was the owner of Bright Raven Books in what was known as Venice at the time it was down near the bay, where Anabelle was a regular customer. Maybe he followed her because she was a regular or maybe he had a some sort of vision. I didn’t know he had psychic powers, at the time I thought he was a kook and the rest were gullible fools.
Dottie was an FBI agent at the time young and trying to make a name for herself. When her friend went missing and the police didn’t seem to be doing anything she stepped in and started her own investigation. I was contacted by her and she asked me to meet at a diner in Compton where a ring Anabelle was never seen without was found near the back door. Since I was at the party and knew Anabelle, she asked if I was would be willing to answer a few questions. It was there that I met for the first time Henry Steel and Aedan whom Dottie had also called in, and Kasumi Karisawa who was at that time a waitress . I am a little fuzzy on the details it was over 50 years ago. I remember leaving a tip and pulling a flower from behind Kasumi’s ear and giving it to her. I think it was also around this time that I found out that Henry was Anabelle’s high school sweetheart. I had seen Henry around the studios before I think he was a stuntman or something like that but our paths never really crossed before this.
The long and the short it was that Aedan led us to a canyon where we tracked Anabelle’s footsteps, and the thing chasing her, to a massacre. Judging by the size of the footprints I didn’t know how everyone could have missed seeing this thing but at the time I was Mr. Know-it-all. We followed them to a scene from a Hollywood horror flick. I think pretty much everyone was sick. I know it hit Henry the hardest because he knew some of the bodies and said he would have been here too if he hadn’t been pulling bodyguard duty. We almost lost the trail. Then we searched and searched but finally picked it up again. I think that was when Kasumi stepped out of nowhere and scared the bejesus out of us. I am not sure why she followed us but it was nice to have her along. We tracked the new set of tracks to a cave and because it was getting dark we decided to call it a night and try to pick up the trail again in the morning.