From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(20)

Rather like this serial killer.

He forced himself to focus. This was serious business. “Have you filled in the rest of the group?”

“Mr. Taggart and Mr. McKay understand the situation, but I was asked to explain it to the rest of the group,” Rush said, nodding toward Eve, Charlotte, and Case. “Approximately six months ago, an analyst came to me with a theory about a cluster of murders occurring over a three-year period of time.”

“A serial working over long periods of time isn’t unusual,” Eve said. “I take it this killer is a drifter or someone who travels. Obviously, since this has something to do with the movie that’s about to start filming here in Dallas, I would suspect you think the killer is involved in the film industry. They move around a lot if they’re working on location.”

Charlotte frowned, her eyes narrowing on her husband. “You didn’t say anything about this to me. I thought you were allowing the film crew in because Serena asked you to.”

Big Tag sat back. “I didn’t tell you because you would have talked to Serena. I need you to understand that this has to look good. I know the club runs on gossip, but I can’t have anyone talking about this. I love Serena like a sister, but she can’t keep her mouth shut. You can. You kept it shut for five years when you could have called me and said, ‘hey, I’m alive, baby.’ I’m calling that in here and now and you know why.”

Charlotte softened, her hand moving to cover his. “I do and I won’t breathe a word. I promise. You know I want this to work as much as you do.”

Kai looked over and saw Case’s jaw tighten. There was an underlying current he didn’t quite understand. Every line and expression on Case’s face told Kai that he wanted to say something, but couldn’t.

The question was why.

Charlotte looked back to Special Agent Rush. “All right, so you’ve been tracking a serial killer. What exactly makes you think he’s involved with this particular film crew?”

It was Kai’s turn to lean in. “He doesn’t actually think it’s a film crew member. If you’ll look in the information folders, you’ll see that there’s only one true pattern. The murders have taken place over the course of three years. We have victims in Vancouver, Los Angeles, New Mexico, Australia, London, Croatia, and New York. Every single killing coincides with a film crew being in the city. More specifically, they coincide with a movie or television show starring Jared Johns being filmed in the area.”

“The first victim we know of is a woman named Carrie Reynolds,” Rush explained, his voice altogether too academic. He pressed a button that lowered the lights and started the slide presentation. A brown-haired woman was smiling on the screen. “She was a production assistant on the set of the TV series Polly’s Practice. It filmed in and around LA.”

Kai couldn’t help but groan. It had been Jared’s first big television role. He’d played a secondary character, an EMT who had a relationship with the much older psychologist, Polly. Kai had not watched that show. Nope. Even reading a single synopsis had made him want to pull his hair out. He would never watch a show where all the doctors slept together and with their patients and with the pizza delivery people and probably their dogs. Definitely not one where the lead slept with his brother. Though sometimes he caught Jared’s various commercials for whatever he happened to be hawking that week.

“Is there confirmation that Johns knew her?” Charlotte asked. She looked up from the photos in the folder. “You know, Kai, this guy looks a lot like you. A little younger, more muscular version of you. And look at those dimples.”

Naturally Charlotte picked up on that. “Not that much older, and I would have those muscles if I spent all my time in a gym and had a personal trainer on me twenty-four seven. Forgive me for having actual work to do.”

Alex nodded Charlotte’s way. “The actor in question’s legal name is Jared John Ferguson. He’s Kai’s younger brother.”

“Whoa,” Charlotte said, leaning back. “I did not see that coming. I’ve watched that show religiously and I didn’t see the resemblance until I was looking at a photo of him and sitting in the same room with you. Wow. You have a ridiculously attractive brother.”

“So I’ve been told and yes, there’s proof that Jared knew Carrie, though according to all reports, they were only coworkers.” It was time to bring this back to the discussion at hand. “There’s nothing that states he had a relationship with her that went past the set.”

“Well, there were rumors afterward,” Rush said. “I didn’t put them in the packets because they can’t be confirmed, but there was talk that she’d been seen coming out of Jared Johns’s trailer late one night. However, she was the production assistant. They tend to do things like fetch and carry for the stars. We couldn’t find any of her friends who would say she’d had a relationship with him. They did say she’d spent a lot of time on set and was seeing someone, but she wouldn’t give them a name. She was a quiet girl and she seemed to keep mostly to herself. She was found in her apartment with multiple stab wounds. No sign of forced entry and no prints to be found.”

“Did my brother have an alibi for the night of her murder?” He had to. It was ridiculous to think that Jared would stab someone.