“The Kiss family estate in Spring Valley, DC.”
“DC? Seriously?”
“Yeah, I thought that’d catch your attention.”
Yes, it did. It was the first thing that brought Cyrus’s kidnapping in California and Cami’s home state of Virginia close together. Geographically speaking anyway. “The Kiss family?” That didn’t ring a bell.
“Yeah. I did a little digging, and here’s the interesting thing about the Kiss family. They’re known as professional fixers. But it’s long been rumored that their crisis management operation extends far beyond lawfare and political dirty tricks. In fact, it seems to be something of a well-known secret that they employ methods that, shall we say, wouldn’t be categorized as on the up-and-up.”
“Murder for hire?” he guessed. “Convenient disappearances?”
“All of the above. I’ve only started digging, but I’ve already found some sloppy work that points to at least a few law enforcement payoffs. No legitimate investigation would have missed shit like this. And from what I can tell, things seem to have gotten especially sloppy since Anton Kiss took control of the empire.”
“When was that?”
“Mid-nineties, when his father died and left everything to him, including the business.”
Sloppy work.Botched jobs? It made him think about what Cami had told him about hearing her attackers lament things going afoul. Had this family—the Kisses—been hired by someone to torture and kill the Cortlandts? Was that who’d sent those two men? If so, who was behind it? And how did the call to Cami from the unknown female fit in? Cami had ruminated on whether that someone might have had an attack of conscience because, ultimately, the call had helped Cami get to Cyrus. If so, it’d have to be a person on the inside. “Any women in the Kiss family?” he asked.
“Yeah, actually. Josephine Kiss. Apparently, from the little I could find about her, she’s a bit of a savant, off-the-scale intelligent with numbers and computers but socially impaired. Yet she hasn’t been heard from in decades. She was in an accident where she was flung from the car when she was eighteen and became a quadriplegic.”
“That’s awful.”
“Yeah. Doesn’t get much worse.”
“And she hasn’t been seen since?”
“No public appearances anyway, whereas her brother, Anton, seems to be quite the man about town.”
Interesting.“Anything else?”
“That’s it for now. I’m leaving on a job in a few hours, so that’s all I’ll be able to dig up.”
“It’s very appreciated. I meant it when I said I’d like to—”
“Don’t even. I don’t take money from friends.”
“All right. Next time you need a favor—”
“I know just who to call.” Rex heard the smile in his buddy’s voice.
“Hey, be safe, man.”
“Always.”
Rex hung up and then grabbed a T-shirt from his duffel before heading for the kitchen, where he’d left his laptop on the table. He didn’t bother to look up more on the Kiss family. He knew very well Erik had just given him any and all pertinent information available, at least in a basic search. And he didn’t have time for more than that right now anyway. But he did take a moment to google their name, purely to get a visual.
Like Erik had said, he found a plethora of photos of Anton Kiss at one social event after another, the latest just days before. He was handsome in a hawkish way. Large forehead, sharp nose and cheekbones. Eyes that seemed to challenge the camera even while his mouth was shaped into a smile.
There were far fewer photos of Josephine Kiss, and like Erik had said, they were all from the nineties. She had a direct stare as well, evident even from behind her glasses, but whereas her brother’s appeared mildly threatening, Josephine’s simply looked candid. And almost ... guileless.Almost.
Rex paused on the most recent photo, though it wasn’t very recent at all. Josephine was standing next to an older man, identified in the caption below as her father. His hand was resting on her shoulder protectively, and he was smiling down at her with affection. Rex’s gazeheld on the young woman. She looked like one of those old-fashioned Kewpie dolls. Dark hair to her chin and bangs that stopped just above her arched brows. Round, heavily lashed eyes and full lips but a narrow mouth. There was something very compelling about her face, and Rex lingered on it longer than he’d meant.
Who are you, Josephine Kiss?
And what exactly happened to you?
He truly wanted to know.
