Kari walked to her rental car, her mind churning through possibilities.Image Management.The recruitment company that funneled vulnerable young women to Elite Vision.Montgomery had mentioned it like it was common knowledge, but it was the first Kari had heard of it.Diana Shepherd had talked about Elite Vision as if it were independent, not connected to some larger pipeline of talent acquisition.
Another thread to pull.Another layer of this industry that seemed designed to obscure who was responsible for what.
She checked her phone.It was getting late, the afternoon sun starting its descent toward the Pacific.She needed to eat something, needed to find a place to stay for the night, needed to call Lola and update her on what she'd found.
But first, Image Management.If that was where Tayen had been recruited, it was another piece of the puzzle.
She searched for the company on her phone.The website was professional but less slick than Elite Vision's, featuring testimonials from successful models and promises of life-changing opportunities.The founder and CEO was listed as Vanessa Caldwell, a former model herself, with a bio that emphasized her commitment to discovering talent in underserved communities.
Kari tapped the contact number.It rang four times, then clicked over to a recorded message: "You've reached Image Management.Our office hours are Monday through Friday, nine AM to five PM.Please leave a message and we'll return your call as soon as possible."
She checked the time.Nearly six-thirty.She'd missed them.
Kari left a brief message identifying herself and asking Vanessa Caldwell to call her back, then hung up and sat for a moment, thinking.
She still had a more pressing question she couldn't seem to shake: Why had Elite Vision lied to their own models about Amanda's death?
Jade had been told Amanda went home, that she'd decided modeling wasn't for her.A deliberate lie, delivered while Amanda's body was barely cold.That wasn't a miscommunication or a delay in sharing bad news.That was a cover-up.And cover-ups meant someone had something to hide.
Tomorrow she'd go back to Elite Vision.She'd confront Jessica Vance about the lie and see how the agency head responded when she learned that Kari knew the truth about Amanda Escalante.
Kari started the engine and pulled into traffic, heading toward the motel she'd spotted earlier near the freeway.Somewhere in this web of agencies and photographers and carefully constructed lies, Tayen had disappeared.And somewhere, possibly, was the answer to what had really happened to Amanda.
Kari just had to find it before anyone else vanished.
CHAPTER TEN
Ruth Chee's mutton stew was exactly what Ben needed, though he hadn't realized it until the first spoonful hit his tongue.
The flavors were deep and familiar, the kind of food that connected you to generations of people who'd eaten the same meal in the same landscape, finding sustenance in the same simple ingredients.He ate without speaking, and Ruth let him, sitting across the table with her own bowl and watching him with eyes that seemed to see more than they should.
When he finally pushed the empty bowl aside, Ruth refilled his coffee cup without being asked.
"Now," she said."Tell me what brought you here."
Ben told her about the Naalnish investigation.The inconclusive ruling.The claim that the skull trauma could have been natural.The refusal to pursue the investigation further despite the obvious evidence of murder.Ruth listened without interrupting, her weathered hands wrapped around her own coffee cup, her expression revealing nothing.
When he finished, she was quiet for a long moment.Outside, the sun was beginning to set, painting the desert in shades of orange and red.The light through the window caught the silver in Ruth's hair, making it glow like a halo.
"My daughter believed Evan Naalnish was murdered," Ruth said finally."She spent months researching his disappearance, talking to people who remembered him, piecing together what happened in the weeks before he vanished."
"I know.I've read her files."
"You've read what she wrote down.That's not the same as knowing what she believed."Ruth set down her cup and fixed Ben with a look that made him feel like a student who'd given an incomplete answer."Anna was careful about what she put on paper.She knew that some things, once written, take on a life of their own.Some things are safer kept in the mind, where only the thinker can access them."
"Are you saying she knew more than what's in the files?"
"Anna was my daughter, and I knew her better than anyone except perhaps herself.She came to me, in the months before she died, with questions about old stories.Stories about the land where Evan disappeared.Stories that had been passed down through generations but rarely spoken aloud."
Ben leaned forward."Can you be more specific?"
Ruth rose from the table and walked to a wooden cabinet against the far wall.She opened it and removed a bundle wrapped in faded cloth, then carried it reverently back to the table.When she unwrapped it, Ben saw a collection of old photographs, handwritten letters, and what looked like a hand-drawn map on yellowed paper.
"Before the land was sold, before Devco Holdings built their fences and put up their signs, that area was sacred to our people.Not sacred in the way the tourists understand, with ceremonies and gatherings.Sacred in a different way."Ruth spread the map on the table, her fingers tracing the faded lines."It was a place of power."
Ben nodded, listening intently.
"The elders," Ruth continued, "knew that some places hold more than what can be seen.More than rock and sand and the bones of the earth."She tapped a spot on the map."This is where they found Evan's truck.And this, not far away, is where your government tested nuclear weapons in the 1950s."
