Bright light followed by helicopter.

Stepped out to throw garbage out, heard low humming sound like a distant helicopter.  I looked in direction and saw a helicopter following a very bright light, heading west over hills above Los Altos/Palo Alto.  The bright light then dimmed to gone, then there was a very quick, bright red flash.  
The helicopter that was following stayed on same heading till was gone over mountain range.  That range of mountains no higher than 2000', so I don't think light and helicopter were much higher.  
I'm right under flight pattern for SFO, very familiar with plane lights, and their landing pattern.  We get lots of traffic out of moffet, but again familiar with those aircraft, both military and coast guard.  Coast guard copters have a very distinct whine, not same as the military helicopters, so at first I thought maybe it was CG, but this helicopter had a different sound to it.