Page 153 of Head Room
Diana cut to the core, “Who?Who’s behind this?”
“I don’t know.Yet.I’m working on it.Nance would know how to pull it off.Maybe he used his own name, then got the idea to expand.But I also found, a little earlier, a batch of companies registered to Jay Haus and—”
That drew short sounds best translated asit figures.
“—I already tracked most of those companies.Nasty, definitely nasty.I’ve started the guys tracking the companies listed under the vets’ names.As for the address used—”
Mike’s curse under his breath stopped her.
“Listen, there’s something...I wanted to check first.Make sure.”
He had our attention.
“I told Elizabeth a while back about our head advertising guy being excited about a potential client.An account with a lot of potential, he said.It didn’t feel right.I don’t know why, because our guy’s okay.I know he is.But there was something...The account has to do with registered agents.”
“Oh,” came from Jennifer.
“As I said, I wasn’t sure.He was vague the first time.Don’t think he even knew himself.But what Elizabeth shared from Needham about registered agents made me go back and ask our guy to find out...Upshot is, the potential client is—”
“Nance?”I asked.
“Nope.Kam Droemi.”
****
“Kam Droemi?”Dianarepeated.
“Ineverliked her.”Jennifer was having all kinds of triumph today.
She was up and commandeering Mike’s keyboard, typing away.She turned the screen to us.“It’s her address.The address used for all the companies listed under vets’ names.”
I was busy rearranging pieces I’d thought were creating one jigsaw puzzle into an entirely different picture.
All the pieces hadn’t fallen into their new places, but I could see its general form, like a figure coming toward me out of the mist.
“Nance wasn’t part of the scam,” I said.“He figured it out.He stayed in the separate camp so he wasn’t as associated with the others while he researched.”
“Trying to protect his fellow vets?”Jennifer looked around at the rest of us.“Or blackmailing Kam and Haus?”
“Let’s go find out.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
With all ofus in his SUV, Mike stopped at the exit from the KWMT parking lot.
“Haus?Or Kam?”
“Haus is the one who’d know the registered agent system,” Diana said.
Jennifer offered the alternative.“It was Kam’s address.”
They looked at me.
“Let’s start with Kam Droemi.Diana’s right that Haus has the background.But we might pick up information from Kam to help pry him open.Plus, there’s the personal angle.”
“What personal angle?”
As Mike drove, I reminded Jennifer of the vet who said Nance wanted to date Kam.Plus her apparent interest in firefighter Miles Stevens.
