CHAPTER SIX
The apartment building in Koreatown was a three-story stucco box painted the color of old mustard, wedged between a nail salon and a restaurant with a menu Kari couldn't read. Fire escapes zigzagged down the front facade, and window-unit air conditioners hummed and dripped onto the sidewalk below.
The hallway inside was narrow and dim, lit by flickering fluorescent tubes that cast everything in a sickly yellow glow. The carpet was worn down to the backing in places, and the walls bore the scuffs and stains of decades of tenants. A far cry from the glossy images on Tayen's Glimmer.
"Who is it?" A woman's voice, young and wary.
"My name is Kari Blackhorse. I'm looking for Tayen Stern. Her family sent me."
A long silence. Then the sound of locks disengaging, three of them in sequence.
The door opened to reveal a young woman in her early twenties with dyed-black hair and smudged eyeliner.
She was pretty in a tired, worn-down way, her features sharp beneath skin that looked like it hadn't seen sunlight in weeks.
"Tayen's not here," the woman said. "And she doesn't have family."
"She does. Her aunt Lola has been looking for her for two years." Kari kept her voice gentle, non-threatening. "I'm a detective back in Arizona. Lola asked me to make sure Tayen's okay."
The woman's expression softened a little. She glanced down the hallway, then stepped back from the door.
"You should come in."
The apartment was small, just a single room that served as living room and bedroom, with a tiny kitchen alcove and a door that presumably led to a bathroom.
Two mattresses lay on the floor, separated by a curtain that had been pushed aside.
Clothes spilled from cardboard boxes that served as makeshift dressers.
The only decoration was a string of fairy lights tacked above one of the mattresses and a few photos pinned to the wall.
This was the reality behind Tayen's carefully curated Glimmer life. Kari felt a familiar sadness rise in her chest, the same sadness she felt whenever she saw the gap between how people presented themselves and how they actually lived.
"I'm Jade," the woman said, settling onto one of the mattresses. "Tayen's roommate. We're both with Elite Vision."
"How long have you known Tayen?"
"Since she started at the agency. About a year and a half.
" Jade pulled her knees up to her chest, making herself small.
"We moved in together because neither of us could afford a place on our own.
The agency takes a cut of everything, and the jobs don't pay as much as they make it sound like they will. "
"When did you last see her?"
"Day before yesterday. She came home from a shoot, seemed normal. We talked for a while, then she went out to meet someone. Said she'd be back late."
"But she didn't come back?"
Jade shook her head.
Kari felt the familiar tightening in her chest that came when a missing persons case turned into something more serious. "She's been gone for two days and you didn't report it?"
"Report it to who? The cops don't care about girls like us." Jade's laugh was bitter. "Besides, Tayen sometimes stays out. Crashes with friends, goes to parties. I figured she'd show up eventually."
"But you're worried now."
"I tried calling her yesterday. But her phone's off." Jade hugged herself tighter. "And then this morning I saw her Glimmer was gone. Tayen would never delete her Glimmer. That account was everything to her. It was her whole career."
"When this morning?"
"Maybe an hour before you showed up. I went to tag her in a throwback post and—nothing. The whole account, just gone." Jade's voice cracked. "That's when I knew something was really wrong. I've been sitting here trying to figure out what to do. And then you knocked on the door."
It was clear from Jade's face and body language that she felt helpless. She'd realized something was wrong but hadn't known what to do about it.
"You said she was meeting someone yesterday," Kari said. "Any idea who it was?"
Jade shook her head. "She didn't say. But she was dressed up, like it was something important. A nice dress, heels, makeup done perfect." She paused. "She seemed nervous. Excited, but nervous."
"Did she mention anyone she'd been spending time with lately? Anyone new in her life?"
Jade shook her head. "Not that I recall."
"Did Tayen ever mention getting a message from her aunt? From anyone in her family?"
"No. She told me she didn't have any family. Said her mom died and there was no one else." Jade looked at Kari, puzzled. "If she has an aunt who's been looking for her, why didn't she ever mention it to me?"
"I'm not sure." Kari leaned forward. "Jade, this is important. Did Tayen ever mention anyone who made her uncomfortable? Anyone she was afraid of?"
Jade was quiet for a moment, her eyes fixed on the fairy lights above her mattress. When she spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.
"There's something wrong at the agency. I don't know what exactly, but something. Girls leave and don't come back. Not like they quit, just... they're there one day and gone the next. No goodbye, no forwarding address."
"How many girls?"
"Three that I know of. In the year and a half I've been there. Amanda was the most recent. She was Tayen's friend. One day she just... vanished. Diana said she went back home, but Amanda hated where she came from. She'd never go back there."
Amanda. Kari made a mental note of the name. "Did you tell anyone about this? The police, anyone at the agency?"
"I asked Diana about Amanda once. She said Amanda had decided modeling wasn't for her, that she'd moved on to other opportunities." Jade's voice hardened. "But I saw Amanda's face before she left. She wasn't moving on to other opportunities. She was scared."
"Scared of what?"
"I don't know. She wouldn't tell me." Jade uncurled from her defensive position, her eyes meeting Kari's directly. "Tayen was scared too, in the last few weeks. She tried to hide it, but I could tell. Something was bothering her. And now she's gone, just like Amanda."
Kari pulled out her phone and brought up a photo of Tayen from the screenshots she'd saved. "Do you have any other pictures of her? Ones that weren't on Glimmer?"
Jade nodded and retrieved a battered smartphone from beneath her pillow. She scrolled through photos and handed it to Kari. "These are from a party a few weeks ago. Before things got weird."
The photos showed Tayen laughing, genuinely laughing, surrounded by other young women in a crowded room.
"Can you send these to me?" she asked.
"Sure." Jade took the phone back and tapped at the screen. "I want to help find her. Tayen's the closest thing I have to a friend in this city."
Kari's phone buzzed with the incoming photos. She stood, pulling a business card from her wallet. "Call me if you hear anything. If Tayen comes back, if you remember something, anything at all."
Jade took the card and stared at it. "You're really a cop? A real detective?"
"Yes."
"And you came all the way from Arizona just to find Tayen?"
"She's family." Kari paused at the door. "Jade, do you have somewhere else you can stay? Somewhere away from here?"
The question seemed to catch Jade off guard. "Why?"
"Because if something happened to Tayen, and if you've been asking questions about Amanda, you might not be as invisible as you think."
Jade's face paled. "I... I have a friend in Venice. I could probably crash there for a few days."
"That might be smart."
Outside, the Koreatown evening was coming to life. Neon signs flickered on above restaurants and karaoke bars, and the streets filled with people heading out for dinner and drinks. Kari stood on the sidewalk and let the noise wash over her, her mind racing through what she'd learned.
Tayen had been missing for two days. Her phone was off, her Glimmer deleted, her roommate frightened. And according to Jade, she wasn't the first model to vanish from Elite Vision's roster.
Amanda. Three other girls. All gone without explanation.
Kari thought about the pattern her mother had documented in her files.
Seventeen deaths over five decades, all ruled accidents or natural causes, all involving people who had stumbled onto something dangerous.
Indigenous people killed to protect corporate secrets, their deaths disguised and dismissed.
This was different. This was Los Angeles, not the reservation. These were models, not activists or researchers. But the shape of it felt familiar. People disappearing when they became inconvenient. A trail of missing women that no one seemed to notice or care about.
She needed more information. She needed to know who Amanda was, and what had happened to the other missing models. And she needed to find Tayen before she became another name on a list of vanished women that no one was looking for.
Kari pulled out her phone and dialed Ben's number. He answered on the second ring.
"How's L.A.?" he asked.
"Complicated." Kari started walking toward her rental car. "I need you to run some names for me. See if anything pops."
"You found something."
"Maybe. Probably. I don't know yet." She unlocked the car and slid into the driver's seat. "The agency Tayen works for, Elite Vision Modeling. I need to know everything about it. Who owns it, who runs it, any complaints or lawsuits. And a woman named Diana Shepherd, their talent coordinator."
"I'll see what I can find. Anything else?"
"A model named Amanda. Last name unknown. She disappeared from the agency a few weeks ago. And there might be others."
Ben was quiet for a moment. "Kari, what exactly are you getting into out there?"
"I'm not sure yet. But it's bigger than one missing girl." She started the engine. "I'll call you tomorrow. And Ben? Check on Ruth for me."
"Yes, ma'am."
Kari ended the call and pulled into the stream of traffic, the lights of Koreatown reflecting off her windshield like scattered stars. Somewhere in this city of angels, Tayen Chee was either hiding or being hidden.
Either way, Kari was going to find her. And to do that, she was going to need help from someone who actually had jurisdiction here.