From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(21)

“From what we can tell, he was out all night. He spent the night at a party at a friend’s house. We’ve very quietly investigated this. The people at the party that night were wasted. They remember someone giving Carrie a ride home, but no one can remember who.”

That was unhelpful, but then it reminded him of what Jared’s life had always been like—a never-ending wave of parties he could barely remember and girls whose names he forgot. “Let’s move on to the second victim. She was in London where Jared was filming some science fiction movie.”

“Yeah, something about an alien princess and her warrior,” Rush agreed. “Her name was Veronica Kath. She was not working on the actual production. She was a local who worked at a bakery. She delivered to the set every day for the course of the filming. She was found dead in her apartment two days after filming wrapped. Six stab wounds. Unfortunately, we didn’t put her in as a victim until a few weeks ago. The police in London had an open case file, but it was marked as a homicide committed during a robbery. There was a rash of robberies in that part of London that spring.”

“So we’re not certain she was a victim of the killer we’re pursuing,” Eve said.

Rush shook his head. “The MO is the same and I think the killer is using the same knife. Our best guess is it’s a jackknife. Not the best blade in the world, but when you’re close enough it’ll do the trick. The same types of wounds on each victim. Again, no fingerprints were left but there was a lot of chaos at this scene, which is what threw the police off. There was a struggle.”

“Anything on CCTV?”

“It’s a crowded part of London and there’s no direct camera on her building, but we have a couple of males going past the building at the time who match Johns’s height and general build. I do have confirmation that he stayed in England a week after filming ended. There’s zero indication that he sent flowers, attended the service, or gave any indication that he knows the woman is dead. Or any of them.”

“Do we have anything that links him to the victim?” Charlotte pointed to a picture of Jared in his Dart costume. “Because it’s not a bunch of muffins. This man does not eat carbs.”

Yep, there was a reason he didn’t talk about his brother. “There’s a picture of him talking to her. It was put on the film’s social media site. They did outtakes every day and one of them was a shot of Jared leaning over and talking to a pretty brunette who turns out to be the victim.”

“In each case, it’s the same,” Rush said with a frustrated sigh. “There are no firm links to Johns. There’s rumors and innuendo, and most of the time the victim died and wasn’t acknowledged at all by the crew because they were in the process of moving to the next set.” He clicked through a series of photos, all of them smiling girls. “We have stories that Johns met Mila Maric at a Croatian nightclub he frequented while he was filming there. She was found in a back alley. Leslie Paul was a New York based actress who was an extra on Johns’s last film. Her body was discovered in her apartment. I can go through them all but the information is included in your packets along with our profile of Johns.”

Kai felt his jaw tighten at the mention of that profile. “Yes, I read it. Your profiler claims Jared could be killing in an attempt to punish his mother. She couldn’t be more wrong. Jared loved our mother.”

Rush’s eyes came up, locking with his. “You’re too close to the situation.”

“I am a fully trained psychologist and I’m perfectly capable of divorcing myself from the situation long enough to seek out the truth. Jared is many things, but he’s also the kid who brought home every stray he could—animals, people. He collected them.”

“And the violence in his background?” Rush challenged.

“He was arrested twice for fighting when he was in high school. Both times the charges were dropped because it was self-defense. He hasn’t been in legal trouble since.”

Rush shrugged. “Perhaps because he has people around him who take care of the situation. Look, Ferguson, if I could have left you off this case I would have. I don’t like bringing in family to situations like this, but it was the only way to get close to this guy.”

“There’s another way,” Kai shot back. “You man up and bring him in for questioning. We can do it right now. I’ll call him in and we can settle this without all the spy shit.”

“But the spy shit is so much fun,” Big Tag drawled. “And have you thought about what would happen to Jared’s career if the feds brought him in for questioning? The tabloids would be all over him. His endorsement deals would dry up. He could be proven innocent, but that taint never goes away.”

“Mr. Taggart is correct.” Rush began shuffling through papers, straightening and organizing. “If we brought the suspect in for questioning, the press would be all over him and us. The last thing the FBI needs is bad press, so we’re working this quietly. I like Johns for the killings, but he wasn’t the only one at each site. He has an entourage and they go with him everywhere. Our in-house analyst has offered profiles of each of them. We’ll be watching Johns and the rest of the team very carefully.”

Charlotte whistled as she looked through the reports. “Wow. This could fill a book of bad behavior. The publicist has a drug problem. His agent’s ex-wife accused him of assault and battery. Nice one. Why would anyone go by Squirrel?”