Blonde Ambition (26 page)

   Tas unenthusiastically agreed to stay.

   According to information gathered by Seminole Police, the men went directly from the hotel to the boat and back.

Howard, Moe, King Eric and the first mate exited Room 609 together. Moe left to do errands. King Eric and Howard headed to the Royal Palms Yacht Basin, leaving Tas and Brigitte in the suite with Anna in the bed. A hotel employee, who is familiar with the couple, told me that Howard had not left her side all week. The employee thought it was very "unusual" that Howard would not even be in the hotel when Anna was found dead, especially after her being so sick.

   Tas also thought it was unusual that the room was so messy. The official scene investigation written later after Anna's body had been removed, described the mess like this: "Several white towels were strewn around on the bathroom floor and around the sinks. One of the sinks had what appeared to be caked yellow/brown residue of emesis [vomit] . . . The night table has various items, including cold medicine; and opened and non opened cans of sodas; SlimFast; empty packs of gum and Nicorette; and an open box of Tamiflu tablets. The table on the right of the bed also contains a partly covered transparent glass jar containing a brownish liquid. There is a closet full of men's and women's clothes with multiple pairs of shoes littering the floor located to the left of the bedroom entrance. There was a pearl necklace on the foot of the bed and a Louis Vuitton purse on the chair by the window. Opposite the foot of the bed was an armoire-type of furniture against the wall with several drawers at the bottom, and a television set in the top portion. Some of the drawers were open and contained various articles of clothing."

Howard made his second call to Mark Dekema. Though Dekema doesn't recall specifically what Howard asked during which phone conversation, he does remember Howard calling incessantly to discuss various things right before the appointment. Howard asked for directions, saying he was coming from the Hard Rock. He also asked if the work on the boat had been completed and Dekema says he gave Howard some ideas for where they could get boat supplies.

   Howard called Mark Dekema five times between twelve and one o'clock.

Moe called his wife Tas who was in the suite with Brigitte Neven.

12:44 p.m.
Tas called Moe. The call lasted one minute.

Tas called Moe again immediately. This call lasted four minutes.

Howard called boat broker Mark Dekema while he was with the boat handyman and King Eric at Royal Palms Yacht Basin. Dekema says Howard ended the call abruptly saying, "I have another call, I gotta take this." According to Dekema, he sounded a little urgent, a little desperate. But we now know that at that time, Howard didn't click over to another call. He would first check his voice mail (at 1:23 p.m.), and then he'd receive a call from Moe at 1:24.

Tas called Moe back again. The call also lasted one minute.

1:22 p.m.
Moe called Tas. Their call lasted one minute.

1:23 p.m.
Howard called his voicemail.

Moe called Howard. It was a one-minute call. Moe says that he told Howard to "get over there right away." Moe says Howard's response was "Oh, okay," then a few words more and then he clicked off.

So far, all parties involved have publicly suggested there was only one call from Moe to Howard. In fact, here's how Moe described the sequence of events. Moe said: His wife called him, he called Howard, he called the hotel liaison, and "then I rushed back."

For seven minutes Howard does not use his phone. The boat handyman says after Moe's call, Howard did not seem upset at all. He answered several questions, including the fact that he forgot to bring the handyman his few hundred dollars for the repairs. He then said in a monotone voice, "I have an emergency and have to leave."

   The handyman said Howard "seemed very nonchalant when he said it. He didn't seem distressed . . . acted like it was a minor business issue versus a personal crisis." He walked back to his car. He didn't rush. Given what he knows now, the handyman said Howard's behavior was "extremely odd."

Moe called his wife again. They spoke for four minutes. Tas said she had been trying in vain to resuscitate Anna.

Moe called the hotel liaison on her cell. Almost simultaneously she was also calling him.

Moe called the hotel liaison on her cell. The game of phone tag was on.

Moe called the Hard Rock Gaming Commission Office, where the hotel liaison works.

Howard, now en route back to the hotel, called Moe over and over again.

Moe called his wife Tas who was still in the room. 911 still has not been called.

The hotel liaison called her boss, the Director of Operations. The Hard Rock Hotel was in a delicate situation.

Howard made two calls to the hotel liaison back to back.

911 cannot be called directly from a Hard Rock Hotel room phone, so Tas called a hotel operator, who in turn notified hotel security of the emergency.

The hotel liaison called the Director of Operations, again.

The hotel liaison called the office of the hotel's Director of Purchasing.

Seminole Police dispatch received an emergency call from Hard Rock security.

Moe entered Anna's room. Although Moe claimed he was in the room when 911 was initially called, he actually arrived two minutes later. He removed the covers and pulled Anna's naked body from the bed, and then he put her on the floor and began futile attempts at CPR.

1:44 p.m.
The Seminole Police arrived to Room 607.

1:44 p.m.
The hotel liaison called Howard.

Seminole Fire Rescue arrived to Room 607, as does Hollywood, Florida, Fire and Rescue.

The hotel liaison called Howard's cell phone again.

Howard entered the room. Tas said, "He had no reaction at first, he was unemotional."

   Paramedics asked Howard, "How long has she been like this?" and "What was she taking?" According to Tas, Howard answered, "I don't know. I don't know."

   Howard then called Dr. Khris, who was back in California.

Howard called Dr. Khris, who prescribed all nine medications found in Anna's system when she died, including the chloral hydrate, which was prescribed to Howard Stern.

Seminole Police Detectives arrived on the scene. Howard told Seminole Police, "that he did not see her take medication, but believed she was taking her medication."

Howard called Dr. Khris again. The female doctor told paramedics on the phone that Anna had been taking medication since experiencing problems with her breast implants and recently for depression over her son's death.

2:09 p.m.
Dr. Khris called the Hard Rock Hotel liaison.

Anna was wheeled out of the Hard Rock Hotel, Howard followed the gurney to the hallway elevator, but then stayed upstairs as Moe left with Anna to the hospital. Howard was seen crouching down in the hallway, with his hands covering his face.

2:27 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 2:32 p.m.
Howard repeatedly called Moe.

2:31 p.m.
Dr. Khris called the hotel liaison.

2:36 p.m.
The hotel liaison called the hotel's Director of Operations.

Alex Katz called the liaison. He was the other person in the room with them Monday night after they arrived, the night Anna had the 105-degree fever. The same person who an eyewitness says picked up medication for Anna prescribed in his name.

The ambulance carrying Anna Nicole Smith arrived at Memorial Regional Hospital.

3:12 p.m.
Howard called Alex Goen of TrimSpa.

Howard called the Hard Rock Hotel's main number.

3:14 p.m.
Howard called Alex Goen of TrimSpa.

3:17 p.m.
Alex Goen called Howard.

Howard called the Horizons house in the Bahamas.

Howard got a call from the Boesch Law Firm, which handles Anna's case against J. Howard Marshall's family.

Ron Rale was live with me on MSNBC, officially breaking the news that "Anna Nicole is deceased." He said on the air that Howard is "obviously speechless," "unable to speak."

Howard wasn't quite speechless. He called
Entertainment
Tonight
/Paramount and spoke with them first for two minutes, then for four minutes. According to eyewitnesses, he quickly reserved a block of rooms for the
Entertainment Tonight
crew. Host Mark Steines would be flying in that night on the
ET
jet with Dr. Khristine Eroshevich.

4:15 p.m.
Howard got a call from Alex Goen of TrimSpa.

Howard called Ray Martino in California (where Anna's son Daniel used to live).

4:27 p.m.
Howard called the hotel liaison.

4:34 p.m.
Howard called the hotel liaison again.

4:47 p.m.
Hotel liaison called Howard twice.

Howard called a local elementary school and then its aftercare program.

Anna Nicole's body arrived at the Medical Examiner's office and is logged in.

5:38 p.m.
Leon Stern, Howard's father, called Howard.

7:12 p.m. and 7:13 p.m.
Moe called Ron Rale.

8:25 p.m.
Seminole Police Detectives cleared the scene.

• • •

Although the coroner has never given an exact time of death, the last person to see Anna alive was, according to his own comments to police, Howard K. Stern. But Howard is quick to point out that he wasn't the one to discover her body. In fact, he made an unusual comment to a close friend that "He is tormented by Anna's death and felt if he was the one who found her body, after being there during Daniel's death, he would've killed himself too. That the pain of finding her, after what happened with Daniel, would've been too much for Howard."

   Detectives found eleven prescription medications in various places in the suite, including the nightstand, the dresser drawer, and especially in Howard's now infamous duffel bag. The bag was found on the floor and was full of prescription medicine mostly written to Howard. Among the medications found in Howard's duffel bag was chloral hydrate, considered by Dr. Perper to be "the most significant drug implicated in this fatality."

   Moe told private investigators he felt guilty, wondering if what was inside the packages of prescriptions he received at his house and delivered to Howard on that Monday night before her death, was what killed Anna. Moe also told numerous people he was put under intense pressure "not to talk" and to "shut his wife up." Howard and his attorneys were calling Moe, telling him to "stay in our camp." Moe felt so much stress that he was hospitalized at least twice. His tell-all book,
Baby Girl
, which was supposed to give, among other things, a "candid look at Smith's ability to manipulate her men, her depression after the death of her son, and her drug use" was cancelled before publication.

   Howard, Ron Rale, and Larry Birkhead called Moe relentlessly after his book deal was announced. Larry was concerned about what Moe was going to write about him in the book, and Ron Rale and Howard kept telling Moe "to keep Tas quiet." Moe believes Howard's team "played a role in killing his book deal."

   There may be more concerns weighing heavily on Moe. After Anna's death, Moe presented his story on Fox News, and said he had been gone "like fifteen minutes" from the hotel room when he called to check on how Anna was doing. He did call his wife at 12:27 p.m., approximately fifteen minutes after he left the room. But what happened before hotel surveillance cameras have him arriving back at 1:40 p.m., is a bit strange and is still confusing.

   "Initial comments and initial reactions are often the most telling in a case," former New York Police Department squad commander Joe Cardinale told me, speaking about cases in general.

   Indeed, the initial scene investigation as documented by Seminole Detective Marian Bryant, states something both interesting and perplexing. "Around 12:30 p.m., the bodyguard's wife checked on the decedent and observed her to be blue. She immediately called her husband, Maurice Brighthaupt, and informed him of the situation. She also started CPR in her capacity as a registered nurse. As soon as Maurice returned to the hotel, he immediately called the Seminole Emergency Medical Personnel around 1:40 p.m."