The Best Movie Actor In Hollywood!

Chapter 446

Outside Matthew's second-floor bedroom.

"Have you been inside the room? Touched anything?"

The police sergeant from the Beverly Hills department inspected the room and asked, "Has anyone else gone in?"

Matthew slowly shook his head. "No. I opened the door, saw the mess, and immediately backed out and called the police."

In reality, he had called Helen first.

Helen and Amanda had been on their way to the agency but arrived just a few minutes later. After a quick call with Matthew, they agreed that calling the police was the next step.

This was the kind of problem best left to the police.

Another detective was questioning the maid, the same one Matthew had spoken to earlier. She had been on the first floor and hadn't noticed anything unusual upstairs.

Next, the detective moved on to the gatekeeper.

Meanwhile, Police Sergeant Bernard started asking Matthew a few questions."We'll need to conduct a forensic sweep of the scene," he explained. "It might take a while."

Matthew nodded. "Of course."

He then went downstairs to the living room, where Amanda and Helen were sitting on the sofa, deep in conversation.

Seeing Matthew descend the stairs, Helen immediately asked, "Well? Have they found anything?"

Matthew walked over and sank onto the sofa across from them, shaking his head slightly. "The police still need to process the scene. I haven't been inside yet, so I can't be sure what's missing."

Amanda's brow furrowed. "Isn't Beverly Hills supposed to be safe for celebrities?"

"It used to be," Helen said, gesturing toward the world outside the villa. "Over the past few years, as the economy has worsened and more people have lost their jobs, the crime rate in Los Angeles has shot up. It was only a matter of time before it spilled over into Beverly Hills. There have been more burglaries here in the last two years than in the previous decade combined."

Matthew shrugged. "Beverly Hills is where the rich people are. If I were going to steal money or valuables, it's the first place I'd look."

Amanda glanced upstairs. "You need to tighten security at the estate."

"I think whoever did this chose tonight for a reason." Matthew already had a few theories. "Word about the charity auction has been out for a while. The thief knew for a fact I wouldn't be home."

Helen observed, "They've probably been watching you for a while."

After a moment's thought, she added, "You really do need to beef up security."

Matthew nodded. "I'll ask Brown to come over tomorrow and have a look."

Back in his Delta Force days, Brown Williams was trained to both take lives and save them. But ever since he'd started working in private security, his focus was solely on protection. He was an absolute professional.

Despite the intrusion, Matthew wasn't overly concerned. There was very little cash on the property and few portable valuables. Things like the $100,000 custom stone bathtub weren't exactly something a thief could walk away with unnoticed.

His expensive watches, meanwhile, were kept in a safe on the first floor, not in his bedroom.

With that in mind, Matthew stood and walked into the room adjoining the living room. He opened the safe and peered inside.

Helen, who had followed him in, asked, "Is anything missing?"

"No." Matthew closed the safe. "These are the most valuable things on the property."

He walked back out, saying, "I had the maid check everywhere before you got here. No rooms were disturbed except for the master bedroom upstairs."

Back in the living room, Matthew spoke with Amanda and Helen for a while longer. Eventually, the police finished their initial sweep upstairs, and Sergeant Bernard called him up to help identify what had been taken.

Amanda and Helen followed Matthew upstairs and into the enormous master bedroom.

Inside, Matthew saw several areas temporarily cordoned off with police tape. Sergeant Bernard explained, "Those are the primary paths the intruder took through the room. We're collecting trace evidence now; we'll have the tape down soon."

Matthew glanced at the taped-off areas. They were concentrated around the bookshelves, the walk-in closet, and the nightstand—the main storage spots in the bedroom.

Something seemed to be missing from the shelves, the nightstand had been rifled through, and a couple of photos of him with Britney and Charlize, which he kept tucked inside a book, were gone. Everything else, however, seemed to be accounted for.

Matthew then moved to the walk-in closet. It was filled with his custom-tailored suits and casual wear. One dark suit was gone, and a drawer at the far end, previously full, had been completely emptied.

After a quick inspection, Matthew relayed the list of missing items to Sergeant Bernard.

"What was in the drawer?" Sergeant Bernard prompted, noticing Matthew's hesitation.

Matthew shrugged. "My underwear."

"Pfft!"

A strange sound came from behind him. Matthew turned to see Helen looking as composed as ever, but Amanda couldn't stop herself from covering her mouth to stifle a laugh.

Amanda asked curiously, "Why would a thief want your underwear?"

Matthew shook his head. "Who knows."

Helen answered calmly, "A fetish, most likely. Or something along those lines."

Sergeant Bernard scratched the back of his neck.

Eager to change the subject, Matthew asked, "Sergeant, have you found anything?"

Bernard answered immediately. "Only one person entered the bedroom. And judging from the footprints, it was a man."

He turned toward the open window and beckoned Matthew over. "Over here, please."

Matthew, Amanda, and Helen followed him. Sergeant Bernard pointed outside the window. "Judging from the evidence at the scene, the intruder climbed up from the base of the cliff on their own."

The cliff face wasn't sheer—not a ninety-degree vertical—but a visual estimate put the incline at a steep eighty degrees. At over fifty feet high, it would be impossible for an ordinary person to scale.

"He scaled the cliff, broke into the house, came up to the second floor, and entered this bedroom. When he was done, he opened this window and climbed back down the way he came."

The sergeant looked at Matthew. "According to your description, Mr. Horner, the intruder stole four or five photographs, a dark designer suit, and... ahem, a drawer of new underwear."

Bernard continued with the police's assessment, "The intruder was carrying a large backpack, has considerable climbing experience, and escaped the same way he entered."

Gesturing to the massive floor-to-ceiling window, he added, "Climbing down is harder than climbing up. It's very likely we're dealing with an experienced rock climber."

The cliff face outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was one of the features that had sold Matthew on the mansion in the first place. It offered a breathtaking view over Los Angeles and Beverly Hills while also serving as a natural deterrent to intruders.

Even someone as athletic as he was couldn't have scaled that cliff.

Anyone who could scale that rock face and then rappel down with a full pack had to have professional training.

It was one of the few solid leads the police had.

Then, Sergeant Bernard advised, "Mr. Horner, I strongly suggest you reassess your security measures."

Matthew nodded. "I'll upgrade the security as soon as possible."

He didn't want a repeat of this, and when Brown arrived tomorrow, they would need to make some serious adjustments.

The police remained on site for another hour, but unfortunately, they found very little in the way of evidence. Before they left, Sergeant Bernard instructed Matthew to leave the room untouched for two days to allow for a more thorough forensic examination later.

Matthew agreed. Before the police departed, Sergeant Bernard, the lead on the case, had a long talk with Helen. A case involving one of Hollywood's biggest stars could never be kept completely under wraps, but the two of them clearly needed to come to an understanding.

Beverly Hills was home to countless wealthy and famous individuals, so the local police department had plenty of experience—and a well-oiled procedure—for handling these situations.

After seeing the police out, Matthew returned to the living room. Amanda was sipping a coffee on the sofa, while Helen paced back and forth, a hand cupping her chin in thought.

"There won't be any negative fallout from this." Helen had clearly thought it through. "Later, you'll have Bella update your blog. Disclose the break-in yourself, post a few photos of the scene. That way, you don't give the tabloids room to spin their own narrative."

Matthew nodded in agreement with Helen's plan.

"There weren't any... sensitive photos taken, were there?" Helen knew Matthew would understand her meaning.

"No." Matthew was certain. "They were just pictures of me with Charlize and Britney."

Speaking of Britney, however, did make him remember something. Back when he was living north of Burbank, she had filmed a home video of them together.