CHAPTER SIX
2006
I parked in front of the apartment building in Pasadena and got out of my car, seeing no sign of Hayden. He’d asked me to meet him here without offering any further details. We parted ways yesterday after I’d opened up about my past, but I hadn’t gotten to the heart of what happened all those years ago. Hayden hadn’t pushed, but I knew his patience wouldn’t last.
Since he’d yet to arrive, I walked to a nearby Starbucks and bought a caramel Frappuccino. By the time I got back, Hayden was leaning against my car. He raised his aviator sunglasses when I approached, wearing his familiar brown leather jacket. Even though I’d come here to meet him, his presence managed to catch me off guard.
“That crap will kill you.”
“I need the sugar.”
“Didn’t sleep well?”
About an hour, and even that had been restless. “I slept enough.”
“You look nice.”
He wasn’t acting very professionally, but I wasn’t sure I wanted him to. Pretending we were two strangers would have made it harder. “Thanks, but these are my usual clothes.”
“They’re not, but I won’t embarrass you.”
I was reminded of how perceptive he could be. “Why did you want to meet here?”
“A guy who used to work with my department lives here. I want him to have a look at your leg.”
I bit down on my anger. He should have told me that before I drove all the way over. “That’s a bad idea. I don’t want anyone messing around with it. For all I know, it might explode.”
“It won’t explode, Jonah. I don’t want him to mess with anything, just see what we can learn. If this device can record what we say, I need to know.”
I couldn’t imagine them listening to me for all those years, but since I didn’t know for sure, arguing felt redundant. “Fine.”
“Thank you. I spoke with the Chief last night about my involvement in this case considering our history.”
Our history. I drank my Frappuccino, which indeed tasted too sugary. “What did he say?”
“He doesn’t think it’s ideal, but we’re short on staff. With the high crime rate in the city, one missing person won’t stay relevant for much longer.”
A selfish part of me was relieved. My carefully balanced world was unraveling, and it would likely get worse. I had little belief Hayden would ever solve this case, but I didn’t want to get in his way—he’d give up eventually on his own, without me being at fault.
“I’m going to start looking into other missing persons reports,” Hayden said. “Maybe more cases have similar patterns.”
I was sure he’d find more, though I dreaded knowing how many. “They didn’t only take actors,” I said. “They wanted men whose disappearance wasn’t likely to draw attention.” There had been one exception I couldn’t bring myself to ever talk about.
“Nick has a big family and lots of friends,” Hayden said with a frown. “He doesn’t fit the mold.”
I waited for him to imply that Nick had likely been taken because of his connection to me, but he ended up saying, “If it is also not like them to post videos of their captives online, they might’ve changed their ways, or maybe they’re just feeling too confident. Anyway, you’re ready to go inside?”
“Can I finish my coffee first?”
He glanced at my cup. “That isn’t coffee, but go ahead.”
We leaned with our backs against my car, keeping a safe distance, but his presence made me self-conscious.
“You’re going to the studio later?”
“I need to meet with suppliers downtown.”
“Does Jenny know what happened to you?”
“Nobody knows.” Hayden had been the only one I’d planned on eventually telling.
“How are your bruises?”
“Better. Are you going to speak with Eliot again?”
“Yes, once I’m done here.”
I held his gaze. “You’ll have backup, right?”
“No need. I’m meeting him in a public place.”
“Don’t underestimate him.”
“I won’t, and I won’t mention you. Last thing I need is for him to get suspicious. Are you done absorbing sugar?”
“Yes.”
We climbed to the second floor, and Hayden knocked on one of the doors. The man who greeted us was short and stocky, wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
“Damn, I forgot how tall you are,” he told Hayden, gesturing for us to come inside. His apartment was clean yet smelled of weed.
“Hal, this is Jonah.”
He shook my hand. “Nice to meet you, man. I heard about your bionic leg.”
“I did not call it a bionic leg.”
“I don’t want you to try anything dangerous,” I said, maybe a bit too firmly. “Hayden said this was just about gathering information.”
“Sure sure, don’t worry. Strictly for information. But if you want me to take your leg off, I can—”
“Hal…”
He laughed, making me worry he was as high as a kite. He waved for me to follow him. “Let’s have you drop your pants so I can see the goods.”
“It’s on his calf,” Hayden said as we followed Hal to the back of the apartment. “Pants stay on.”
The room he led us to had electronic devices scattered all over.
“Sit over there.”
I sat on the chair in the middle of the room and rested my leg on a stool. Hal pressed on my calf and said, “Yeah, I feel the little bugger. Does it hurt?”
“A bit when you press on it, but not usually.”
“Be careful,” Hayden said, leaning against the doorframe. “I need him in one piece.”
Hal rolled his eyes. “Your pretty boyfriend is in good hands.”
“He’s not my… just get on with it.”
Hal wheeled over a monitor and grabbed what seemed like a transducer probe, different from the one that Samuel had used in my house. Hal pressed the cold probe against my calf and moved it up and down. When the monitor’s black screen began to show gray shapes, Hayden came closer to watch.
“That’s a sneaky little bugger,” Hal said, although I couldn’t make much sense of what I was seeing. “Whoever put it there was careful—there are a lot of tissues and blood vessels they could’ve hit. How long have you been walking with this?”
I hesitated sharing too much with this stranger, but I’d already agreed to this examination. “I’ve had this model for about four years. The one before that was bigger and made it hard to walk fast. I’d sometimes get cramps that made it impossible to walk for a day or two, but I couldn't go to the hospital, so I waited it out.”
Hayden let out a low growl, and I realized I was being insensitive by speaking unfiltered.
“It wasn’t so bad,” I added.
“How complicated would it be to remove it?” Hayden asked.
“Well, I’m no doctor, but it will definitely require surgery. Blood vessels must have grown all around it.” Hal brought another probe; this one had a small screen attached to it. Once he pressed it to my calf, the probe beeped. The further Hal moved it around, the more the beeping grew in speed, reminding me of a ticking bomb.
He took the probe to his desk and connected it with a cable to his computer. His fingers moved on the keyboard like a piano player. “I’m comparing the reading from your tracker to other similar devices to get a better understanding of what we’re dealing with.”
I lowered my pant leg and removed my leg from the stool.
Hayden came closer. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Hal turned around in his chair. “So, the device in your leg definitely tracks your location, but since it needs to use the same source of energy for years, I’m guessing the location is only being tracked once every week or so.”
“So, not constantly?” Hayden asked.
“Nope.”
I let that sink in, feeling that this little piece of information changed so much. It didn’t mean I could go anywhere I wanted without worrying, but it granted me a level of freedom I didn’t even dare to dream of.
“How about voice recording?” Hayden asked.
“Nah, no way. No audio reception.”
“Good news.” Hayden placed his hand on my shoulder, then hurried to move it away. “Is there a way to find out where they are tracking Jonah from?”
Hal pursed his lips. “Interesting, but that will be way above my pay grade. I wouldn’t count on it, though. But if it helps, I doubt it can even track Jonah’s exact location; more likely it can zero in on the street but not the exact house.”
I needed time to process this. “Thank you for checking.”
“No problem, man.”
“Thanks, Hal,” Hayden said. “And maybe smoke a little less, okay?”
“Yeah, I know. They're gonna make it legal one day, just you wait.”
“Don’t hold your breath.”
Back downstairs, Hayden asked, “You thought it was tracking you around the clock?”
“That’s what they told me. Thanks for setting this up.”
He crossed his arms. “I would’ve set it up a long time ago if you had told me what happened to you.”
I expected these sorts of comments from him, and I couldn’t blame him. I had let him into my life, discussed our future, and now he was discovering how much I’d kept from him.
“I better get going,” I said, uncomfortable under the weight of his gaze.
“Okay. Remember to keep this between us. I’ll update you about anything I find.”
“Thanks.” I entered my car and drove away.
*
I waited two more days to fully recover before returning to the studio. Jenny was there when I arrived, her face and clothes smeared with paint. She put her fists on her hips and said, “Jonah Carter, you have a lot of nerve, young man.”
I put my bag on the floor. I’d been expecting this outburst, even though I had texted her that I was okay. “Sorry for making you worried.”
“Oh, sorry, he says, as he bats his long lashes.”
I did no such thing. “I had some things to deal with, but I’m better now.”
Her features softened before she came to hug me. I rested my chin on her shoulder, hoping that the paint was dry.
“If it’s because of a boy, I’ll castrate him.”
I kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”
She returned to her work, and I walked over to my station, breathing in the familiar scent of oil paint and metal. As I arranged my equipment for the day, my annoyance with Hayden overshadowed the joy of being back in the studio. He had sent me just one message since we parted ways, telling me that meeting Eliot hadn’t yielded any results and that he would be talking with his boss about the next steps. He’d promised to let me know how it went.
I debated whether to reach out to him, but I worried he’d see it as an invitation to investigate me further. I couldn’t be the catalyst for my own unmasking, not when I could hide in my cocoon a bit longer.
“I forgot to tell you!” Jenny called, making me jolt out of my thoughts.
I turned around. “What is it?”
“A bunch of people came over to see my stuff last week.” She placed her palm over her heart. “Being the amazing friend that I am, I showed them some of your work.” She went to pull out a white envelope from her bag. “I sold one of your pieces! Now, don’t give me that look, Jonah—it was the sea creature you wanted to throw away.”
“No way in hell that somebody paid for that.”
“You bet your perky ass they did. Five hundred bucks.” She handed me the envelope, and the beautiful bills were all inside.
I had a moment of hesitation, wondering if some of those bills had been added by Jenny, but I didn’t want to put her on the spot. “That’s incredible. Thank you!”
She pinched my cheek. “Sure thing, hon. And those people also said what I always tell you—get yourself an agent!”
I went to put the precious envelope in my bag. “Not happening. The last thing I need is an agent to deal with. I used to have one ages ago, and it wasn’t… it wasn’t the best…”
“What is it? Jonah?”
Thoughts spun in my head like a tornado, making my heart race. “I need to go.”
“But you just got here.”
“I’m sorry.” I grabbed my bag. “Thanks again for the sale. You’re the best!”
I bolted down the stairs and jumped into my car.
*
I sat in my car for a long time, numbly staring at the familiar building across the street.
I had first set foot there seventeen years ago, full of hope yet expecting disappointment. That had been my eighth attempt at scoring an agent, and I’d begun contemplating returning to Kentucky with my tail between my legs, fearing I’d end up homeless.
I didn’t like Agatha at first sight; I found her rude and too blunt, even for a showbiz agent. I needed to remind myself I wasn’t there to find a new friend but someone who would fight for my career. Agatha said she saw something in me—a fearless hunger—and she signed me up as a client on the spot. I left her office the happiest man alive, my future brighter than the California sun.
After the hellish months with The Society had ended, I returned to LA with enough money to sustain myself for a while, yet without any friends. Eliot had been the assent of my social world before the nightmare started, leaving a void I didn’t know how to fill. My acting days were done and buried, but since Agatha was one of the few people I knew, I went to see her, wishing to apologize for disappearing. It turned out she didn’t give a fuck. I might as well have been apologizing for spilling her coffee.
When I first learned Nick was Agatha’s client, I dismissed it as a coincidence, but now he was in the hands of The Society, and him being taken because we’d hooked up didn’t add up. The only other thing we had in common was Agatha, who also knew Eliot. I could have been way off, succumbing to paranoia, but every instinct in my body urged me to investigate.
I got out of my car, stepped into the building, and took the elevator to the twentieth floor. I didn’t bother checking if Agatha’s office was still there; I felt it was.
I stepped out into a bright reception area that seemed nicer than the one I remembered. Headshots hung proudly along the walls. I knew I shouldn’t look but couldn’t help it. I recognized some of the faces, though Agatha never had big names in her portfolio. Some of the headshots were from the ‘90s but none were of me. Back in the day, my face hung on this wall, my curls tousled and my smile wide.
The receptionist coughed to get my attention. She was a pretty young thing, eyeing me with suspicion. I glanced down at my plain clothes, which had color stains thanks to Jenny’s hug.
I walked over to the front desk. The words Silver Screen Talent hung with shiny letters behind the receptionist. “Hi there. I’m here to see Agatha.”
She cocked her head. “And you are…?”
“An old friend. Can you please tell her that Jonah Carter is here to see her?”
“She’s super-duper-busy today, and she doesn’t like it when people stop by without an appointment.”
“Yeah, she’s tight like that.” I leaned forward on the high desk. “Agatha and I go way back. I’d love to tell her about what I heard about the new Tarantino movie.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Tarantino?”
“I came here right as I heard. Agatha will die when she hears it.”
She chewed on her lower lip, clearly debating whether I was a charlatan and whether she was willing to risk it if I wasn’t. Eventually, she stood up and said, “Wait here. What did you say your name was?”
“Jonah Carter.”
I waited anxiously as she went into Agatha’s office and closed the door. Never one to cause a scene, I knew I would have to if Agatha refused to see me.
Maybe I should let Hayden know what I’m doing. It hadn’t occurred to me that I might be tampering with an active investigation. I reached for my phone, but the office door opened before I could.
“You can go in,” the receptionist said.
“Thank you.”
*
“I never would have guessed you’d stop by, Jonah.”
Agatha sat behind her organized desk while I sat on the other side, trying to ignore the overwhelming sense of déjà vu. Despite her smile, her body language radiated discomfort, but was it because I was a waste of her time or because she suspected what had brought me here?
“Thanks for seeing me.”
“Oh, I always have time for old clients, especially when they have news about the new Tarantino movie.”
“Sorry about that.”
“That’s okay.” She crossed her arms, her hair straight as a ruler and dyed platinum blonde. “So, to what do I owe the honor?”
Neither of us was a fan of small talk, which I always liked about her, even when her blunt words hurt. “I need to ask you something, and I need you to answer honestly.”
“I was always honest with you.”
“I’m here because of Nick.”
She cleared her throat. “Nick?”
“Nick Torres.”
“Oh, right. He did mention you and him were… hanging out.” She smiled coyly and winked. Being in the industry for as long as she had, she must have experienced the shift in acceptance toward gay actors. I’ll drop you faster than a sack of potatoes if you get labeled as a homo actor, Jonah.
By the way she spoke about Nick, I assumed that no one told her about what happened. “Nick is missing. He disappeared a few days ago.”
“I’m aware.”
I frowned. “You are?”
“A sexy detective came over to ask me about that. I wasn’t much help, but I told him it was likely a case of Nick running away to lick his wounds.”
“Why would he need to lick his wounds?”
“Isn’t it obvious? His career wasn’t taking off, and they canceled an audition he was waiting for. Nick can be very … dramatic. Oh, don’t give me that look—I like the kid! I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.” She lowered her voice. “Come on, you and I both know he’ll never make it big. You need more than a pretty face to make it in this town.”
Her words felt personal, as if we were no longer talking about Nick. Had she said similar things about me when she held my hopes and dreams in her hands?
I inhaled to compose myself, reminding myself why I was there. “Agatha, do you know where Nick is?”
“Meaning?”
I wet my lips. The office felt too hot. “I think you might know where Nick is, like you knew where I was all those years ago.”
Something dark flashed in her eyes. A warning? She laughed, but it came out pitchy. “How the hell should I know where you’ve been all those years ago? You had a personal crisis, didn’t you? You said so yourself.”
“You sent me to Pickles, Agatha.”
“Excuse me?”
“You kept bugging me to go there, only there. You said it was the hottest place in town, but it never was. You also didn’t mention you knew the owner. Why wouldn’t you tell me that? And…” I stopped myself from saying that Nick also knew Eliot, because wouldn’t that mean I knew too much? I couldn’t make it known I was involved in a police investigation.
“Jonah, listen to me.” She leaned forward, her gaze colder than ice. “I don’t appreciate your wild accusations. Wherever Nick ran off to, it’s none of my business, and wherever you ran off to is even less. Honestly, Jonah, your career was dead in the water; no one even noticed you were gone. You need to move on before this turns even sadder.”
She meant for her words to cut, but I was no stranger to bleeding. “Eliot knew about most of my failed auditions in advance. I thought it was because he knew a lot of people, but he only needed to know one person— you . Did you feed him information about me for all those months?”
She stood up. “Get out.”
“Not until you tell me the truth.”
“Jonah, get the fuck out!”
I jumped to my feet, worried I might lose control and hit her. “You fucking ruined me! ”
“You are delusional, Jonah, and it’s pathetic. Get out!”
The office door flew open. “A problem, Agatha?”
I turned to see a man by the entrance, filling the space with his massive frame, his smile as sharp as a blade.
“Jonah was just leaving.”
I turned to her. “We can still save him. Just tell me where he is. I won’t tell anyone that you—”
I was yanked back and landed on my back. Sharp pain pulsed up and down my spine.
“The lady told you to get out, friend.” The man offered me his hand, still smiling.
I wanted to wave him away, but I hurt too much. I let him help me up, my face burning from embarrassment.
“Make sure he leaves the building,” Agatha said, the anger in her voice already replaced by boredom.
“Sure thing, ma’am.”
He steered me out of the office until we reached the elevator. From behind, I heard the receptionist say, “Wait, so he didn’t know about the new Tarantino movie?”
The man stepped into the elevator with me, standing too close.
“Are you also with them?” I asked, pain and anger taking over my mouth.
He glanced at me, looking even more massive in the cramped space. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Once we reached the lobby, I hurried out of the elevator and rushed to my car, knowing I had made a huge mistake.