Whatever those files were, he’d trusted Lauren enough to hide them with her instead of keeping them himself.
Which meant he’d known he was vulnerable before he died.
Just then, her phone rang.
Both she and Wes jerked their gazes toward it.
The screen showed an unknown number. But it was the same Kentucky area code.
Rowan’s pulse jumped.
Wes looked at her once. “Answer it.”
She swiped the screen. “Hello?”
A man answered. “Someone from this number called Lauren’s phone.”
Rowan straightened, concern rushing through her. “Who is this?”
“Who areyou?” Caution edged the man’s voice.
“This is Rowan King. Lauren emailed me about her brother.”
Silence met that, long enough for Rowan’s grip on the phone to tighten.
Then the man let out a shaky breath. “I’m her boyfriend. Ben. Lauren’s missing.”
Rowan froze. “What do you mean missing?”
“She never showed up at work yesterday.” He swallowed loud enough for her to hear. “Her phone was still at the apartment. Purse too. That’s not like her. Lauren doesn’t go anywhere without her phone.”
Cold spread through Rowan’s chest. “When was the last time you talked to her?”
“Yesterday morning before she was supposed to head into work. She seemed nervous about something, but she wouldn’t tell me what.”
Certainty settled inside Rowan, and she knew Lauren Holt hadn’t vanished by accident.
CHAPTER 39
When the call ended,Rowan lowered the phone into her lap. “Lauren reached out to me. And now she’s gone.”
“Who else can you talk to? Who else might Thayer have confided in?”
Her thoughts raced before stopping on one person.
“Celia Moreno,” Rowan murmured. “She was one of the makeup artists on set.”
“You trust her?”
The answer came fast. “Yes.”
Not because Celia talked much. It was actually the opposite. The woman listened more than she spoke. She remembered details about people. She stayed kind in an industry that slowly sanded kindness off most people.
Rowan remembered long mornings in makeup trailers drinking terrible coffee while Celia quietly fixed imperfections after sleepless nights.
“She and Thayer were friends?” Wes asked.
“I think so.” Rowan thought back. “He used to disappear into her trailer sometimes between setups.” A realization moved through her. “At the time I thought he was flirting with her.”
