Kait smiled at Ronald as they hurried inside the building to catch up with the rest of the contestants. She couldn’t believe François had stopped by—or that Dan had taken him down like he was John Cena or something. It would’ve been thrilling to watch him in action if it hadn’t been her sweet, sensitive friend suffering the brunt of his wrath. Poor François would definitely be sporting a multi-colored bruise.
And then Dan had to go and kiss the living daylights out of her. She’d forgotten where they were, why she was there, even her own name. He could’ve tugged her behind the building to ravish her and she’d have let him. Gladly. She fanned herself, trying to cool down after he’d set her on fire.
“I wonder if he would consider relocating here so we could open a restaurant, serve French cuisine?” Ronald continued. “I can’t move there and leave my mother all alone. She needs me and I’m a momma’s boy. It would be so perfect if he’d come here.” Ronald clapped his hands together, caught up in the excitement.
She was happy for her friends. François recently ended a bad relationship and he deserved someone who would treat him right. She didn’t know Ronald all that well, but she thought he might be the one for the job. And she would be so happy to have François close where she could see him often.
However, she was a little distressed now that the cat was out of the bag. Dan knew that she and François weren’t dating, had never been a couple. François had been her fail-safe, the armor protecting her heart. Dan couldn’t hurt her if he knew she was taken. It might’ve worked in theory, but in reality, he left a scar on her heart every time she spotted him with another woman. A little part of her died. In an effort to protect the bruised organ, she pasted on a smile and threw François’s name out as much as possible. But now that shield was gone. Her heart was completely open and vulnerable to him.
“Gather around,” Lanie called out. “We’re going to do some one-on-one interviews. I’m going to ask questions and you’ll answer to the cameras. Head to the green room and you’ll be called when it’s your turn.”
The green room was a misnomer since it was in fact painted yellow. It was the place they gathered for meetings and before the show for any last minute details. The room was furnished with comfortable couches and chairs. A fridge held cold water and beverages and coffee brewed on a counter against the wall. Assorted snacks filled a basket along with fruit and cookies. Two televisions were mounted in the corners but they were currently turned off. Soft music played from speakers high up on the wall.
Pam, Lanie’s assistant, called them one at a time for their interviews. Several of the others munched on snacks but Kait was too nervous before the show to eat. Keisei was on his fifth cup of coffee. The guy was already wired enough without adding caffeine to the mix.
Lanie opened the door and stepped inside as she checked her iPad. She looked up and smiled. “I think that’s everyone. Are you all ready?”
“Shandee isn’t here,” Ronald said.
Lanie glanced around the room. “Did she run to the restroom?”
“She never came back from her interview,” Darrin said.
“What?” Lanie cried, deflated. “I hope I didn’t upset her asking how she felt about the negative comments.”
“Joy would have been the last to see her,” Keisei piped up. “Her interview was right after Shandee.”
Joy gaped at Keisei. “I most certainly did not see her.”
“You had to have,” Ronald insisted. “We all passed each other in the hall.”
“Well, I didn’t,” she sniffed.
A technician stuck his head in the door. “Five minutes.”
Lanie turned to her assistant. “Pam, check the hallway and the bathroom. She may be in there.”
The woman scurried out.
“If she’s not back when it’s time to film, we’ll have no choice but to go on without her.”
“She wouldn’t just leave without telling anyone,” Ronald protested. “I’ve gotten to know her and she’s very sweet and sincere.” He shook his head. “Something’s wrong.”
Pam returned with Kendall in tow. “What’s this about Shandee?”
“She didn’t return from her interview,” Lanie told her.
“Joy saw her last,” Keisei offered.
“I did not.”
“I checked the bathrooms and even her work station. I didn’t see her anywhere,” Pam said. “I’ll keep looking.” She hurried outside.
Kendall sighed, her iPad slapping against her thigh. “Just what we need, another obstacle to filming. I’m beginning to think there’s a voodoo hex on the show or something.”
“And its name is Joy,” Darrin cracked under his breath. Joy pinned him with an evil glare.
“We’ll push filming back fifteen minutes,” Kendall decided. “We can’t delay too long with a live audience. I’ll check with security. Maybe she took a smoke break or something.”
“Please, all of you, stay here,” Lanie said before she followed Kendall out the door.
They were all quiet until Joy broke the silence. “I did not see her,” she insisted.
“I’m sure there’s a logical explanation,” Darrin said. “Maybe she got homesick and needed to make a call.”
“Well, I say we keep positive thoughts and focus on something else,” Ronald decided. He entertained them by trying to breakdance. The cameras were rolling so no doubt this footage would make the show.
“Dude, that’s just painful,” Keisei said. “Here’s how it’s done.” He wrapped a bandanna around his head, cracked his knuckles and then dropped to the floor to twist and spin and gyrate. He finished with a pose. They all cheered but stopped abruptly when the door opened.
“No sign of her,” Kendall said. “The show must go on, as they say. Lanie, you can go ahead and give them the ingredients for today. Usually, we’d make you wait until we start filming but I think you all have enough on your minds. I know concentrating will be difficult.”
“Today, we’re asking you to come up with a dish using ground turkey, zucchini and oregano.”
“Those don’t go together,” Joy protested. She seemed to forget this was being filmed.
“Can we vote someone off?” Darrin muttered.
“Head to your stations and suit up and then get backstage,” Lanie said. “Cameras roll in ten.”
Although she was worried for Shandee, Kaitlyn was excited for today’s dish. She’d cook one of her favorite meals: zucchini noodles with turkey meatballs. Yum. She couldn’t wait to get started. Hopefully there was an easy explanation for Shandee’s disappearance. Maybe she truly was homesick.
She followed Ronald out of the room and into the studio next door, her eyes instantly honing in on Dan. He winked and smiled, giving her strength.
A tingle of awareness skittered down her spine, as if eyes were on her other than Dan’s. She glanced around and spotted Dion McArthur speaking with his mother but they weren’t looking her way. She didn’t see anyone else but the sensation followed her all the way to her station.
As she passed Shandee’s kitchenette, she said a quick prayer that she’d find her standing behind the counter with a smile on her Marilyn Monroe face, but the area was empty. She liked the other woman and hoped she was okay. If she had an emergency, surely she’d have said something to someone before she took off. Too many things were happening, none of them good. First Cora Crenshaw. She’d been tasting Kait’s cooking and even though it wasn’t what killed her, that still scarred a person. She shivered, remembering the look on Cora’s face when she slid the fork into her mouth.
And she didn’t even want to think about the poor dog. It broke her heart to think of the suffering it must’ve felt before having its head violently removed from its body.
She glanced down and spotted a smear of something on the floor. It looked like ketchup. One of the crew must have been eating a sandwich and spilled it. She’d have to clean it up so she didn’t slip while she was hurrying to prepare her dish. And ugh, w
hat was that stench? It smelled like someone forgot to refrigerate the ground turkey and it spoiled.
She opened the door under the island to grab her chef’s coat and stopped dead in her tracks. Her brain couldn’t process what she was seeing. The stupid thought kept running through her mind that she’d answered the question of Shandee’s whereabouts. She found her. She was stuffed in a cabinet surrounded by a pool of blood, Kaitlyn’s favorite knife buried deeply in her chest.
Chapter Fifteen
Dan looked up from speaking with the head of security, his eyes automatically finding Kait. A shiver of unease enveloped him and he was hurrying in her direction before he even realized he was moving. She’d gone pale but it was the look of stark horror on her face that sent his heart rate into the triple digits.
“Kaitlyn? Honey, what’s wrong?”
Her eyes slowly rose to his. She was looking at him but not seeing him, clearly in shock.
“Kait, baby, talk to me.” He rounded the island to ease her into his arms. That’s when the odor hit him. It was sharp and pungent and unmistakable. He glanced down to see the Marilyn Monroe lookalike, Shandee Young, stuffed in the cabinet with a knife buried to the hilt in her chest. She was very dead.
He cursed and turned Kaitlyn so she wasn’t facing the gruesome sight. He needed to get her someplace safe so she could ease out of shock. She’d started to shake. “Come-on,” he urged, trying to lead her away.
“Dan, wait.”
“What is it, sweetheart?”
She pointed to Shandee. “The knife…it’s mine.”
Dan couldn’t even process the implications of that statement. She was definitely the target of some sick, twisted individual. He glanced around. How could this have happened with so many people around? Shandee hadn’t been killed here. There wasn’t enough blood. She had to have been killed elsewhere and carried to the spot.
Kendall was walking by and Dan called her name.
She noticed Kait and was instantly alert. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“You need to clear the building immediately It’s a crime scene again.”
Kendall’s mouth dropped open. “You’re kidding me? What is—” Her nose wrinkled and she paled. “Oh God, that smell…”
Kendall had been in the same room when three of her college roommates had been gunned down in cold blood. You never forgot that sickly stench.
She started to move around the counter but Dan stopped her with an arm. “You don’t need to see it.”
“It’s Shandee,” Kait whispered.
Kendall’s eyes widened. “Dead?”
“Most definitely—hey.”
Dan made another grab for Kendall but she stepped around him before he could stop her. She gasped and shuddered. “No,” she moaned as tears filled her eyes. “She was so sweet.”
Dan pulled her into his arms, too.
#
“You two promise to stay here and not leave the vehicle?”
“Promise,” Kai Costa repeated.
“Promise, Daddy!” Gracie sang. She called him that, even though technically he was only Kai’s dad at the moment. Kai had mixed feelings about that. He loved Gracie and Taylor, but it’d always been him and his dad against the world. Now there were two more in the mix. He supposed it was okay. He’d never seen his dad happier. Taylor was awesome. She was the kind of mom he dreamed of since he didn’t remember his real one. And Gracie was tolerable for a girl, but she could be a pain, like when she wanted to follow him around constantly. She sometimes had trouble sleeping after her ordeal with Patrick Sweeney. He still couldn’t believe the escaped convict was Gracie’s real dad. Gracie didn’t want her mom to worry, so when she had a nightmare, she’d sneak into his room and crawl into bed with him. He knew it made her feel safe since they’d huddled together for many nights in the dark hole waiting to be rescued.
His dad locked the doors and then he and Taylor made their way across the parking lot holding hands. They spoke to a man at the door and then disappeared inside. Kai’s eyes drifted to the two buildings close together that were being used to film the show. He spotted a half-wall and some metal beams…an industrial parkour course! He’d seen YouTube videos of kids jumping over obstacles just like them. He popped the lock and opened the door.
Gracie pulled earphones from her ears. “What’re you doing? Daddy said to stay here.”
“He meant that for you, not me. So don’t leave. I’m locking you back in.”
‘But—”
Kai closed the door and jogged over to the building. He looked around but the guy standing guard was checking his cell phone. No one else in sight. He made a running jump for the beam but he couldn’t reach it. He climbed up on the half wall and leaped for it but his hands grabbed only air. He landed on all fours. Gravel bit into his palms. He brushed it away and looked around. He needed something to stack on the wall to stand on. He picked up long stick and walked slowly around the perimeter, checking for anything that would work.
A loud screech sounded behind him. Instinct told Kai to hide. He scurried next to a brown dumpster and crouched down. Very carefully, he peeked around. A man was slipping through the opening of a large sliding door. It was rusted and didn’t look like it was used much. The man was bald and covered in tattoos. He was carrying a bag and his hands were red. Blood! Kai ducked back. He was coming this way. He jumped when something thumped into the bin above his head. He waited a few minutes and then chanced a look. The man was gone. Pushing to his feet, he rounded to the front and peered into the container. It was pretty full so the bag was on top. Something was sticking out that looked like hair. He reached inside to grab it when a hand slammed over his mouth.
“You just made a big mistake, kid.”
Chapter Sixteen
Gracie Hudson watched Kai run across the parking lot, wishing she could go with him, but she’d promised Daddy. She didn’t want him to get mad at her before he officially adopted her. He was the best daddy in the whole wide world and she couldn’t believe he was hers! Some kids got stuck with their fathers but she got to pick hers. Well, her mommy picked him. But he would have been her choice, too.
Kai jumped off a wall and Gracie gasped. What was he doing? Trying to break an arm? If so, she didn’t want to watch. She started to turn her attention back to her game when Kai darted next to a big brown trash thingie. She couldn’t remember what it was called. He crouched down like he was hiding. Maybe Daddy was coming out and Kai didn’t want to get in trouble. A man appeared—definitely not Daddy. This one was bald and scary looking. He tossed something into the bin and walked away. Kai waited and then peeked inside. He reached for something and Gracie gasped. The man was back! He grabbed Kai and pulled him away. “No, no, no…” she chanted, as she fumbled with her buckle and tried to force the door open. She finally popped the lock and left the door wide open as she went racing for the building. She had to get Daddy.
“Hey little girl, what are you doing out here?” It was the man guarding the entry. He bent down to talk to her and she almost ran him over.
“I need to get my daddy,” she cried.
“Who’s your daddy? I’ll help you find him.”
This was taking too long. She closed her eyes and screamed at the top of her lungs. “Daaadddyy!”
#
“Kendall, we need to lock this place down,” Dan said. “I need to call it in. The killer could still be on premises. We can’t let anyone leave the building.”
Kendall visibly pulled herself together and raised her voice. “Everyone, backstage to the holding room now. Staff included. Techs, interns, everyone.”
There were grumblings and questions but Dan helped herd everyone towards the doors at the back of the set. He spotted the head of security and called him over.
“We need to lock down the building immediately.”
“Lock down? What do you mean?”
“A woman has been murdered and the killer could still be on site.”
The man’
s lips firmed. He spoke into a mic, ordering all personnel into action.
“What about cameras in here?”
The man scoffed. “What do you think we’re protecting, the Hope diamond? If someone wants to break in and steal the rosemary,” he made a sweeping gesture, “have at it.”
Smartass. “So there are no inside cameras at all?”
“Nope.”
Dan cursed. If he’d been in charge of security, he would’ve made damn sure to cover the inside, too.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Dorian and Alex strode over. The outer doors opened and Dante and Taylor entered. Dan waited for them to approach before he answered Dorian’s question.
“We have a situation.”
“What kind of situation?”
“One of the contestants has been murdered.”
“What?” Taylor gasped.
“Daaadddyy!”
Dante’s panicked gaze met Taylor’s. “That’s Gracie.”
#
Dante bolted for the door and slammed it open. Grace was standing next to the security guard, bouncing on her feet. He crouched down. “Gracie, baby, what’s wrong?”
“He has him. You have to help him.”
Taylor rushed through the door. When Gracie saw her, she burst into tears and held out her arms. Taylor scooped her up.
“Who has who, Gracie? What happened?”
“Some man grabbed Kai. Behind the building.” She pointed. “Back there. Hurry!”
“Stay here,” Dante ordered Taylor as he took off at a dead run for the back of the warehouse. He withdrew his SIG and thumbed off the safety without breaking stride. How did a man grab Kai? Did he pull him out of the SUV? Last time he left them alone again, in the car or anywhere. Ever.
His first thought was that Patrick Sweeney had somehow escaped and come after Kai. His son had outwitted the serial killer once and rescued Grace after he’d abducted her, but then he remembered that he and Dorian had sent the man straight to hell.
He rounded the structure to find a man tugging a struggling Kai down the alley. Kai was putting up a fight but the man was bigger and stronger. Kai had blood on his face and Dante saw red. He would kill the man. Kai looked up and spotted him.
Killer Cuisine Page 17