Demon King Series Books II & III

Chapter 26

Joelynn was sitting in her apartment, waiting to see if Jacob would call her. She couldn't believe that Lupita Torres was dead. Lupita was like a second mother to her and her heart ached. She wanted to be there for Jacob, but right now he needed someone to lash out on. Joelynn understood that for him that person was her. She wasn't sure how Lupita had died. She was just sitting there with her body slumped over the kitchen table as if she was taking a nap. Could it have been a heart attack? Joelynn couldn't imagine anyone trying to purposely harm Lupita.

She looked at her phone and sighed. "Call me Jacob," she said in frustration.

As if her prayers were being answered, her phone rang. It wasn't Jacob...it was the police.

"What did you say? Oh my God. Oh my God...I'll be right there. Thank you!" Joelynn rushed to grab her car keys as she quickly left her apartment.

Earlier that Day

Vincent McDaniels was in yet another hotel suite. He was pouring himself a glass of red wine in the kitchenette while his female guest was changing in the bathroom. Today was going better than expected. He had called Dr. Spencer to get him the files from Open Heart Residential Treatment Center. There were several files he wanted access to, his own included. He just wasn't sure how to get his hands on them. He thought about stealing them himself but that was too risky.

Thankfully, a little over a month ago, Dr. Colt Spencer had approached him in regards to his last book, Raising the Demon King. Dr. Spencer was fascinated with the Demon King and wanted to interview Vincent for an article he was hoping to get published in some psychology journal. Vincent had rejected the offer until his agent mentioned that Dr. Spencer also did some part time work with some of the patients at Open Heart. This was news to Vincent, who was a frequent visitor of that residential treatment center. He had never heard of Dr. Colt Spencer.

Vincent decided to do a little research on Dr. Spencer as he had learned long ago, that connections were everything in life. Vincent had connections everywhere...even within the precious police department. After meeting Dr. Spencer, it was easy to see that he was a bit more than fascinated with the Demon King. He was obsessed.

Vincent took a sip of his red wine and thought of how he had investigated Dr. Spencer. He was prominent in his field but like everyone that tried to enter Vincent's circle, he was flawed. Colt Spencer had a very bad habit of sleeping with his patients. A habit that could possibly lead to him losing his license. Colt also had a twin brother, Colin. This is what Vincent thought was even more intriguing. Colin was also a psychologist but he worked for the FBI. Vincent suddenly began to see Colt in a more useful light. He had Colt look into patient's files for him. Vincent knew celebrities sometimes stayed at Open Heart under the guise of exhaustion or fatigue. These were code for drug use and eating disorders. If he was able to get information to blackmail these stars into promoting the movie based on his book, it was useful to him. He never did the blackmailing directly...he let a middleman handle that.

Other files that Vincent wanted were those of his family members. His brother-in-law Roger, his deceased son Christopher, and he had all stayed as patients at one time or another. The confessions in those files were damaging to his reputation, so he wanted them destroyed. He wasn't quite sure how to pull that off yet. He had asked Dr. Spencer to retrieve the files, but the psychologist was too scared of being caught. Open Heart had a security system. Vincent tried to work a plan in his head of how to retrieve or destroy those files. He couldn't do it himself. He had a pesky FBI agent constantly tailing him.

"Baby, I'm ready!"

Vincent turned around to see a beautiful young Hispanic woman dressed in red lingerie. He sighed in disappointment. He had originally picked her up because she looked a little like Lupita. Seeing the young woman being blatantly provocative was a turn-off for him. Lupita was sweet and demure. She wasn't a whore.