From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(112)

So Erin or someone else was likely with her. He could breathe a bit easier. Still, he wanted to know what the hell Jared’s friend wanted with Kori. Squirrel didn’t need to be running around trying to do the cops’ jobs.

The door opened again and Jared walked back in, an odd smile on his face. “That was Janice. I told you about her. She was my publicist when I first started out. She’s in LA with Bernie, my old agent. They called to say I wasn’t alone and they’ll take over now. She’s fielding calls and Bernie talked to the production company for my TV show. I still have a job for now. He’s going to put in a call about the movie, but he’s optimistic.”

Ah, there it was. Sweet karma at work. “I’m glad. I really am. But I think I’m going to head over to Kori’s. She said she’s coming to the office, but I would feel better if I could see her.”

“Of course.” Jared crossed his arms over his chest and seemed to come to some decision. “I like Kori, but you’re my brother so I’m going to tell you some things I know about her.”

“What things?”

“There were rumors back in the day that she was involved in a Master/slave relationship with a producer who used her.”

“She told me.” Thank god. For a moment he thought his brother was going to bring some dirt up on her.

“She likely didn’t tell you how bad it got. Morgan King is still an exec on Dart. He’s an * of the highest level, and I deal with Hollywood *s so let me tell you it’s a whole new level. What everyone talks about behind his back is the fact that without his former writing partner, he’s useless as anything but a moneyman. Kori was the brains of that operation and he basically traded her in for a thinner, more acceptable model. Kori was a good business partner, but not wife material. He never took her on the red carpet, not even when they were together. He would walk it alone rather than hold her hand. He lied to her about pretty much everything, and the rumor is that he stole her last script and gave it to his new wife.”

Kai would really like to meet this man. Preferably in a dark alley. “How can he do that?”

“He had all the power and she chose not to fight him. I’ll be honest, at the time she likely would have been crushed. She could have gone to her union, but he was too powerful. No one wanted to take him on because he was involved in so many hot productions. He could have lawyered her to death and she wouldn’t have been able to find work. I’m only telling you this because she was brilliant. She wrote stuff you would never watch, but there was such humanity in them. You don’t expect that out of horror films or action films, but she put it in there. She should be writing. It’s a gift, and her not using it makes me sad. I don’t know what went down between the two of you last night, but she’s got reason to be distrustful. You need to be open and honest with her.”

And there was the problem. “And what if I can’t?”

“Why wouldn’t you?”

He couldn’t be completely honest with Jared either. “What if I made promises to other people?”

“Are those other people more important than she is?” Jared asked.

“No, but I promised.”

“And you wouldn’t be Kai if you broke that. I understand. I guess we have to hope she does, too. I’ve got a meeting with Harrison in an hour or so. Maybe he’s figured out who spread those rumors about me. I’d like to know if it was Brad or Tad.”

“Or Squirrel.” He wasn’t willing to eliminate anyone.

“It’s not Squirrel. Of all the people in the world, he’s the least likely to be a serial killer. Come on. I’ve practically lived with the man since we were teens. Wouldn’t I have seen something? Wouldn’t there have been a rash of girls being murdered back in high school?”

An idea started to play around in Kai’s brain. “Serial killers tend to start small. They often start by torturing small animals.” And around the time they were teens, there had been a rash of small animals reported as missing in their neighborhood. Kai and Jared’s, not Squirrel’s. And they’d lived in a poor neighborhood. Pets went missing. They got out of crappy fences and got lost.

Or they got caught by the blossoming killer.

Kai stood up, the hair on his arms standing on end as he remembered some of the things Jared’s best friend had said. Not to him but to Kori. She’d mentioned it because she’d thought it was odd and she’d been annoyed at the time. He’d asked about Kori’s car, saying something about how he’d been surprised that it hadn’t been Kai’s. That had been the day after Kori’s tires had been slashed. She’d told Kai she’d wished it had been his car, too.

“What are you doing?” Jared moved in behind him as he started to pull up his search engine.

He typed in the name of his neighborhood and the years between Jared’s last year of high school and the time he got signed on for Dart and the words missing girls. “Following my instincts.”

He waited for a minute while the screen whirled, pulling up stats and news stories. He had to move around because there were years of data but he came up with two names. “Do you know these women? Emily Glass and Patsy Huss?”

Jared leaned over. “I went to school with Emily, and Patsy was a model in the first agency I signed with. I lost touch with Emily, and Patsy left the agency.”