Armed with a search warrant, they wanted to talk to a man there.Something about Ronni Chasen, the publicist for the stars, gunned down in ritzy Beverly Hills. As officers closed in, the man shot himself in the head. Blood sprayed the lobby.

By Thursday morning, the blood, the crime scene tape and flashing police cruisers were gone, but reporters and television news crews lingered on the sidewalk outside the 1930s art deco-style building on Santa Monica Boulevard.T hey wanted answers to this real-life Hollywood whodunit.

Who was the mystery man, and why did the police want him? Was he a suspect? A hit man? Why would he kill himself? All detectives would say was that he was a “person of interest.” Several people at the dreary four-story apartment building knew him as Harold Smith, though authorities would not confirm his identity.