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Kat barely got any sleep that night. It didn’t help that Bubbles spent the night whimpering beside her, his obvious distress tearing at her heartstrings. Matty and Tom weren’t immune to the dog’s anguish either. Kat could hear them pawing at the door every now and then as they tried to figure out how to get into the bedroom. For two of the laziest creatures she had ever known, they sure could be persistent.
At six a.m. Kat finally gave up on sleep and flung the covers off for good. She fed the cats in the kitchen before throwing on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. She would have to make a quick run to the store for some dog food this morning, but first she would give Bubbles a chance to relieve himself.
She had only just stepped out of the building when a red sports car swerved into the parking lot. Kat jumped back with a yelp, and Bubbles barked at the tall, dark-haired man climbing out of the car. Clearly Bubbles didn’t appreciate the driver’s reckless disregard for their safety any more than Kat did.
The man jabbed a finger at Bubbles. “That’s Janice’s dog!” he shouted. “What are you doing with Janice’s dog? Where’s Janice?”
The bombardment of questions took Kat aback. She stood there for a moment, struggling to wrap her head around the verbal attack.
The man planted his hands on his hips. “Are you mute? I asked you a question. Where’s Janice?”
“Janice is gone,” Kat told him.
“Gone?” The man wheeled around, his eyes darting from left to right as if Janice might be crouched behind the bushes. When his gaze finally landed back on Kat, he said, “What do you mean gone?”
“I mean she’s missing. She disappeared last night.”
“She’s still out partying then.”
Kat shook her head. “She was supposed to be partying with me, but she never showed up. And her purse was still inside her apartment, and Bubbles”—Kat lifted up the leash—“was running loose in the hallway. Janice never would have left him unattended like that. She had to have been taken involuntarily.”
Bubbles barked as though to confirm he had indeed been abandoned and he wasn’t the least bit happy about it.
“How do you know Janice, anyway?” Kat asked. She didn’t recall seeing this man before. “Are you her boyfriend?”
“Boyfriend?” He scoffed. “I’m her agent.”
“Janice has an agent?” This was the first Kat had heard of any such thing. “What does she need an agent for?”
The man glided toward her and reached into his shirt pocket in one smooth motion. When he removed his hand, he thrust a business card at her. “The name’s Cameron Daily. Showbiz can be a cutthroat business. I help people navigate it.”
Kat perused the card as she took it. “You’re a talent agent?”
“Righty-o. My specialty is finding diamonds in the rough, those unique souls who have untapped star potential.” Cameron no longer seemed concerned about Janice’s disappearance. Instead, he was eyeing Kat with interest, as though to gauge whether she might have some hidden talent he could profit off of.
Kat took a step back before Cameron caught a whiff of her breath. She hadn’t brushed her teeth yet. “I didn’t know Janice had an agent.”
“Your friend Janice is what we call an up-and-comer. She’s got the look. She’s got the talent. She’s got the presence.” He ticked off each asset on his fingers. “Her being African American doesn’t hurt any either. The market, it’s a-changing. There are more films starring women of color now than there ever have been before. The roles are ripe for the picking, and your friend Janice is getting in on the ground floor. You mark my words, that girl is going places. Did you know she just made it to the last round of auditions for a Marjorie Joyner biography scheduled to release next fall? She’s one of the studio’s top three picks for the starring role. You know how rare it is for a new actor to make it this far in the casting process?”
Kat opened her mouth to reply, but apparently Cameron wasn’t really interested in her response. He had already started talking again.
“It’s as rare as a white rhinoceros! And you watch, she’s going to nail this audition and that part will be hers before you can say, ‘And the Academy Award goes to!’ And that’s just the beginning. Once this movie releases and people see what she’s like on the big screen, all the Hollywood moguls are going to want to cast her in their own films. Why, I give her three years before she becomes a household name. Young girls will have posters of her hanging in their rooms. Their mothers are going to go giddy with delight every time they hear her name. And the men!” Cameron clucked his tongue. “Well, let’s just say that ‘gaga’ isn’t just the name of a singing sensation.”
Cameron finally paused for breath, giving Kat a much-needed second to absorb everything he’d thrown at her. She’d had no idea Janice was even interested in an acting career, let alone that she might soon be starring in a movie. The Janice she knew was quiet and unassuming. And although Janice was certainly as pretty as any Hollywood actress, Kat had a hard time picturing her walking the red carpet. She had simply never imagined her neighbor in that context.
Cameron’s excitement dimmed. “So you see, we must find her. A young woman with her gift for drama doesn’t come around every day.”
“Do you have any idea who might have taken her?” Kat asked.
Cameron hunched closer as though to let her in on a secret. “Hollywood junkies,” he whispered. “There are some real crazies out there. And as soon as they heard about this hot young talent climbing up the ranks, one of them undoubtedly wanted her all for themselves.”
“But how would these people even know about Janice?” Kat asked. “I didn’t know she wanted to act, and I’m her friend.”
Cameron folded one arm across his stomach and rested his other elbow on his hand, tapping his chin with one finger. “It must be someone in the business, someone who’s seen one of her audition tapes and knows an actress of her caliber doesn’t stay an unknown for long.”
“Who has access to the audition tapes?”
“Anyone working for the studio.”
“And how many people work for the studio?”
“Hundreds. Thousands.” Cameron wagged one forefinger back and forth. “This is no closet outfit I set her up with. Only the best for my clients.”
So much for narrowing down the list of suspects, Kat thought. Still, it was an angle she’d have to consider.
But if someone in Hollywood had wanted to kidnap Janice, why not do it when she showed up in L.A. next week? Surely even the most impatient kidnapper could see the benefit of waiting until Janice was on his home turf, where he would undoubtedly be better equipped to stash a woman somewhere against her will.
Unless the perpetrator was too far removed from the audition schedule to know anything about Janice’s travel plans.
“Cameron,” Kat said, “who knows about Janice’s trip to L.A. next week?”
“Me, the studio, the airline.” He peered at her. “You know she’s flying first class, don’t you?”
Kat nodded. “I’m guessing the studio paid for that upgrade.”
“The studio? Pay?” He snorted. “Honey, they save the wining and dining for after you sign the contracts.”
Bubbles barked as though to remind Kat that it was about time someone fed him a meal, contract or not.
“So Janice paid for a first-class ticket out of her own pocket?” Kat said.
“Oh, I doubt that,” Cameron replied. “I imagine her backer bought that ticket for her.”
“Her backer? Janice has a backer?”
“Yeah. Some rich, old woman who lives around here took Janice under her wing.”
“A rich, old woman,” Kat mused aloud, her mind drifting to the incoming call that had lit up Janice’s cell phone last night. “Is her backer Dorothy Fairchild by any chance?”
“Who’s that?” Cameron asked.
“She’s a wealthy local woman who lives not too far from here. Janice might have referred to her as Lady Fairchild.”
Cameron shrugged. “Could be. Janice never told me her name.”
Was it possible Lady Fairchild was funding Janice’s acting career? If Lady Fairchild’s generosity toward charities was any indication of her generosity toward individuals, Janice couldn’t have hooked up with a better benefactor.
Kat wondered how close Janice and Lady Fairchild were. Close enough for Janice to tell Lady Fairchild who might be stopping by her apartment on a Friday night?
Kat didn’t know, but she certainly planned to find out.
