mention of that profile. “Yes, I read it. Your profiler claims Jared could be killing in an attempt to punish his mother. She couldn’t be more wrong. Jared loved our mother.”
Rush’s eyes came up, locking with his. “You’re too close to the situation.”
“I am a fully trained psychologist and I’m perfectly capable of divorcing myself from the situation long enough to seek out the truth. Jared is many things, but he’s also the kid who brought home every stray he could—animals, people. He collected them.”
“And the violence in his background?” Rush challenged.
“He was arrested twice for fighting when he was in high school. Both times the charges were dropped because it was self-defense. He hasn’t been in legal trouble since.”
Rush shrugged. “Perhaps because he has people around him who take care of the situation. Look, Ferguson, if I could have left you off this case I would have. I don’t like bringing in family to situations like this, but it was the only way to get close to this guy.”
“There’s another way,” Kai shot back. “You man up and bring him in for questioning. We can do it right now. I’ll call him in and we can settle this without all the spy shit.”
“But the spy shit is so much fun,” Big Tag drawled. “And have you thought about what would happen to Jared’s career if the feds brought him in for questioning? The tabloids would be all over him. His endorsement deals would dry up. He could be proven innocent, but that taint never goes away.”
“Mr. Taggart is correct.” Rush began shuffling through papers, straightening and organizing. “If we brought the suspect in for questioning, the press would be all over him and us. The last thing the FBI needs is bad press, so we’re working this quietly. I like Johns for the killings, but he wasn’t the only one at each site. He has an entourage and they go with him everywhere. Our in-house analyst has offered profiles of each of them. We’ll be watching Johns and the rest of the team very carefully.”
Charlotte whistled as she looked through the reports. “Wow. This could fill a book of bad behavior. The publicist has a drug problem. His agent’s ex-wife accused him of assault and battery. Nice one. Why would anyone go by Squirrel?”
“He’s like a puppy, always chasing after something new and shiny,” Kai explained. He hated the fact that his life was spread out on a piece of paper like some fiction for everyone to read. It was Jared’s file, but Kai had lived it, too. “Or at least he was as a kid. He struggled in school. The nickname stuck.”
“He’s got a nasty background,” Eve murmured. “His father went to jail for beating his mother and he was left behind. It says here he spent some time in your home.”
“He was one of the strays Jared brought home. He lived at our place for a while. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s still living close to Jared.”
“The trainer’s been accused of selling steroids,” Big Tag pointed out. “There’s not a single one of these guys with clean hands. And I can tell from this picture that the assistant has crazy eyes. We should look into her. It’s always the chick with the crazy eyes.”
“Unfortunately, he’s often right.” Charlotte closed the file. “I’ll very quietly look into these guys. I don’t buy that it’s Kai’s brother for several reasons. He’s too hot to be a killer.”
“Yes, because a man’s ability to do pull-ups while wearing three pounds of makeup means he couldn’t possibly be a murderer,” Big Tag shot back.
Charlotte’s eyes sparkled in the low light of the conference room as she obviously baited her husband. “He’s the real deal, Ian. He was on that Ninja warrior show as a celebrity guest and he got all the way through the course.”
Watching Ian and Charlotte mix it up sometimes made Kai long for a partner he could spar with. Like he and Kori sometimes did. That woman didn’t bother to temper herself around him any more than Ian did around his wife.
“Those aren’t ninjas, baby,” Ian replied. “Those are dudes who spend a lot of time in the gym. When they can do all that shit while someone’s shooting at them, I’ll call them special. When they can do all that shit while someone’s shooting and be invisible and stab someone at the end, then I’ll call them ninjas. Jared Johns is a meathead who trains fourteen hours