Living with the Dead
Page 11

"There was another supernatural there. That's not unusual in a big crowd – especially in L.A., with the Nast Cabal based here. But this felt weird. Wrong."
"What race?"
"That was part of the problem. I got a vision, but it was just random flashes of faces."
"I'd guess necromancer, but you'd recognize that."
Hope put her plate aside, barely touched. "I have no idea what the supernatural type was, but I know he or she was thinking about Portia Kane. Something about pictures. I thought maybe they wanted to get a photo of her, but there was a definite negative vibe there."
Karl eyed her plate. As she passed it to him he said, "I presume someone like that generates a lot of ill will. Perhaps another woman wanted her picture in the papers and was preempted by Portia."
"Maybe. Anyway, for the next twelve hours, we're off duty. Work for me this morning. Then I'm having lunch with Robyn, and afterward you and I are going apartment hunting. I might invite her to help us look. Otherwise, she'll just go home and work." She paused, coffee cup at her lips. "Is that condescending? Trying to get her out and about?"
"That's why we're here."
"But she's got family. Other friends. Am I being arrogant?"
"You got the job offer, so you came. Robyn is a side project."
Project? That did sound arrogant. But at least he was supporting her decision, even if it wouldn't be his. The world had never done Karl any favors, and he saw no need to treat it any differently.
"I'll ask her to come apartment hunting then." She took the L.A. Times and passed him the Wall Street Journal.
"Then, you and I can kick back, maybe take in – "
Hope stopped. There, beneath the fold, was the headline: "Portia Kane Shot Dead." She skimmed the short paragraph on the front page, then flipped to the rest inside.
"Portia's dead."
"Hmmm?"
"Portia Kane. She was murdered last night, after we left."
As Hope reached for the phone, her gaze snagged on Robyn's name in the last paragraph.
She stared at the words. Read. Reread. Then she dropped the paper and scrambled from bed. She pulled out her clothes. The paper rustled behind her as Karl retrieved it.
Robyn was missing. Last seen at the club. Now sought by the police. Hope had caught that vision, known someone in that club had Portia on his mind, and she'd brushed it off, leaving Portia to die and Robyn to be kidnapped. Or worse.
Pants half on, Hope stopped and turned to the nightstand, where her cell phone lay. Karl got to it first.
"I'll call her," he said. "You get ready."
Hope was in the bathroom, brushing her curls back into a ponytail, when she heard him speaking.
"Who is this?" he said, voice sharp.
She threw open the door.
"Where did you get this phone?" he demanded. A pause. "And where is that? What's the nearest intersection?"
Karl finished with a string of curses and punched redial, but his expression said he didn't expect anyone to answer.
They didn't.
"Someone found her phone, didn't they? Where was it?"
"He wouldn't say. Hung up when I asked for a street."
"I mean where? In a bathroom? A coffee shop? On the side of a road?"
He said nothing. Just hit redial again.
 
"Karl?"
"Behind a trash bin," he said after a moment.
Hope was out the door before he could stop her.
 
One advantage to being a tabloid reporter was that Hope knew all the tricks for getting a cop to talk when the department was saying "no comment." It helped that she didn't look like an ambulance chaser... or a hard-hitting journalist. It also helped that she was under thirty, female and relatively easy on the eyes.
Hope wouldn't call herself a natural charmer, but growing up in high society – debutante season and all – gave her the basics, and Karl had taught her the rest. So after twenty minutes nursing a coffee in a shop near the police station, she managed to lure a young officer to her table.
She sized him up and debated her options. She considered the wide-eyed crime groupie routine, but this guy looked like a cop whose intelligence outweighed his ego, so she went for option two. She confessed she was a tabloid reporter.
Even flashed her creds.
"But I'm new and I'm assigned to this Portia Kane murder and, well, it's just not like back home, you know? These guys totally play hardball, and they've buried me already. What I really need is a fresh angle."
A nod, not unsympathetic, but wary. "My best advice would be to attend the press conference. I can give you a few tips on how to get your question answered, but I don't have any inside information on Ms. Kane."
"Oh, I wasn't looking for that." Hope scooted forward in her seat. "I need a totally fresh angle, one they're all ignoring. The other woman. The missing PR rep. Are the police speculating on what happened to her? Kidnapped?"
"Kidnapped?"
"She's missing, right? And you're looking for her."
"Sure, but not as a victim. She's our prime suspect."
 
ROBYN
 
To say that running from two crime scenes was the stupidest thing Robyn had ever done put it at the top of a very short list. Robyn didn't make stupid mistakes. Her father had always said that he'd never had to teach her to take care before crossing the street, because she naturally looked both ways – twice... then reconsidered whether she needed to cross the road at all.
The biggest chance she'd ever taken was Damon. They'd met at the wedding of his sister, a casual friend of Robyn's.
They'd been seated at the same table and talked through dinner. At the end of the night he asked her out, but she'd been seeing someone – Brett, an ad exec she'd been dating since her freshman year. He was a good guy who treated her well, and they had a comfortable relationship that both expected would lead to marriage, a minivan and a house in the suburbs.
When she'd turned Damon down, he'd gone to his sister for details. Was Robyn engaged? Living with her boyfriend? No on both counts. So he sent her an invitation to a club where his band was playing. She didn't go. He sent a card, asking her for coffee – no strings, just coffee. She said no. Then he sent her a CD of him singing "500 Miles."