Vicious (19 page)

“We have an ID on the two women on the video.” Jess smiled, thankful for a small triumph. “And an address.”

“Do we need a search warrant?” Lori was already reaching for her cell.

“Let’s do a drive by and check it out first.”

“You riding with us, ma’am?”

Jess shook her head at Harper. “Dan’s coming. I’ll ride with him.”

She didn’t want him out of her sight. Not after that delivery from Spears.

Now who wanted to hover?

Before heading out, Jess thanked Gina again for coming through. As jealous as she was of the woman at times, she was a sort-of friend, too. Like Sylvia. Jess had always been too busy to have many friends. All of a sudden she had several… sort of. Maybe that was why she had so much trouble deciding if they were really friends or not.

“Keep me posted,” Gina called after them.

Jess gave her a wave. “The exclusive is yours.” It always paid to have someone in the media on your side.

“Love the tee, by the way.” Gina pointed at Jess, then gave a thumbs up. “Roll Tide!”

Super
.

16

Birmingham Police Department, 8:15 a.m.

The sisters hadn’t come home all night. Lori, Cook and Harper were attempting to track down friends or family who might know their whereabouts or what they had been up to since Sunday.

With the rest of the team pounding the pavement and banging on doors until midnight, Jess and Dan had kept an eye on the Vance residence for the night. They’d slept in shifts. She could not remember when her body had been this sore. Sleeping in a vehicle, even one as nice as Dan’s Mercedes, was no stay at the Ritz.

Around three this morning she’d considered having that talk with Dan. But it seemed as if each time the moment appeared to be right one of their phones would ring. Flustered, she’d finally given up.

When Cook arrived to take over surveillance, Jess was immensely grateful for a chance to run home, grab a quick shower and change of clothes before coming to the office. At least they had movement in the investigation. Using her DMV photo, the blonde had been positively ID’d as Selma Vance. Since she was on video leaving a crime scene with a large bag during the victim’s estimated time of death, a BOLO had been issued for her as a person of interest in the investigation. With no way to identify the sister as the other person in the video, the ‘be on the lookout’ didn’t include her.

Hayes was on the horn with Boston PD again attempting to prod information out of the detectives who had worked the case involving Ellis’s neighbor. It was a closed case, a very old and very cold one. No one wanted someone new to poke around and find something they had missed.

Then again, maybe Boston PD hadn’t missed a thing. Ellis might be a dead end, but Jess had a feeling about the guy.

First thing this morning when she arrived at the office she had called Paris and spoken with the Vance sisters’ father. The trouble his daughters might be in seemed to rattle him. When she’d asked for permission to search his home, he’d hemmed and hawed and insisted he must speak to his wife first. Unless his wife was also his attorney, Jess suspected he was calling his attorney right this minute.

Whether he agreed or not, they were going in. The odds of getting a judge to sign the warrant were very good, in Jess’s opinion. For now, the house was under surveillance in case one or both sisters showed up.

Jess walked the length of the official case board, studied the faces there. They now had both Selma and her sister Olive posted under the persons of interest column. Selma, twenty-two, had attended college right here in Birmingham, so had Olive who was two years older. Neither had bothered to stick with a major long enough to achieve anything close to a degree. Both daughters were party girls. Living the Sex in the City life right here in Birmingham. By all accounts, clothes and parties were their primary interests.

Every parent’s dream
.

Jess pressed a hand to her waist. Parenting was hard work. She’d heard Lil say it often enough. Sometimes even children of good people, who had done everything right, turned out to be criminals or ended up dead way too young.

How did you know if you were doing it right?
Her instincts worked pretty well when tracking down a murderer. But that didn’t mean she’d be any good at guiding a child through life. Dan would be better at that than she would.

Another truckload of worry dumped on her, prompting a weary sigh. Whether they solved this case or not she had to find time to talk to him about this. Last night she had tried, she really had, but ultimately the point of a stakeout was to stay vigilant. Allowing that kind of distraction would have amounted to dereliction of duty.

They needed privacy and time.

Time, apparently, was her enemy. When she’d dressed this morning in her favorite red suit, she’d noticed the waistband of the skirt was a little tighter. Was that supposed to happen this early? God, she hoped not. If that was the route her body intended to take, she was doomed.

Her cell rang and she was glad for the reprieve. Lori’s image flashed on her screen. Jess’s pulse automatically shifted into a higher gear. “Did you locate the sisters?”

“Not yet, but the detective in Paris called.”

Now there was a surprise. The French National Police rarely responded so quickly. “Anything useful?” Jess reached for a pencil, ready to jot down a few notes.

“Ten years ago three students from one of the premiere art schools went missing about a month apart. Each body was found a few days after the victim’s disappearance. All three had been brutally murdered, chests cracked open and hearts removed.”

Jess dropped the pencil back onto her desk. “Did Ellis teach at this school?”

“He did, but he was never connected to the crimes in any way. The cases remain unsolved.”

“See if the detective will fax or email us the case reports,” Jess wanted to kick something, “or anything that shows Ellis was a person of interest on that case. We need something tangible to put in front of a judge in the event we want to go into the gallery and his home.”

“There’s more.”

Jess stilled. “I’m listening.”

“Two years before the murders in Paris a couple of students disappeared from a small town in the Ukraine. And it doesn’t end there. Two years prior to that, three students went missing in Hungary and before that one in Romania. There may even be more, those are just the ones he discovered long after Ellis had left Paris. But none of the missing students could be connected to Ellis and they all remain unsolved. The detective has been able to loosely connect travel by Ellis to the general area in those three cities, but nothing concrete.”

“Call the judge.” This was enough, Jess felt confident. “Get me a warrant for the gallery and his residence, in case we need it. Lieutenant Hayes and I are heading to his home now.” The gallery wasn’t open yet. Maybe they’d catch him at his house.

Jess ended the call and grabbed her bag.

Hayes was already waiting at the door. “You have an address?”

“Clairmont Avenue. It’s in Forest Park,” she told him.

Hayes opened the door as she reached him. “I know the area well.”

Jess resisted the temptation to ask if he’d had clients in the wealthy neighborhood back when he was working his way through college.

Not nice, Jess
. Maybe the detective had friends there. She knew from his personnel file that he didn’t live in that posh neighborhood.

Clairmont Avenue, 9:15 a.m.

Hayes rang the bell again. There was a Jaguar, presumably Ellis’s, in the driveway near the detached garage. If he was home, Jess wished he would come to the door already. It was hot as blazes out here and it wasn’t even ten o’clock.

The impressive Tudor style home was quite beautiful and large. The house sat amid lush landscape facing Triangle Park. It didn’t take a lot of imagination to know it would be equally grand inside.

“Did you hear something?” Since the noise sounded like footsteps, she hoped it was Ellis coming to the door.

“I did,” Hayes confirmed. “Someone’s coming.”

The door opened and Ellis looked from Jess to Hayes and back before offering a smile. “Good morning, Chief Harris.” He glanced at Hayes again.

“Mr. Ellis.” She gave a nod. “This is Lieutenant Hayes and we’d like to speak with you a moment if you have the time.” Since she didn’t have a warrant yet, playing nice was the only way to go.

“Of course. Come in.” He drew the door open wide in welcome. “I was just about to have one last cup of coffee before going to the gallery. Would you care to join me?”

Considering he was one of three suspects in her ongoing murder case, the answer to that would be a resounding no. “Thank you but I’ve had way too much caffeine already this morning.”

Ellis shifted his attention to Hayes. “Lieutenant?”

“No, thanks.”

“Join me in the parlor.” He led the way through the ostentatious entry hall with its own little gallery of artwork to a room on the right.

The interior was elegantly decorated. “You have a lovely home.” Jess produced a big smile. “You live here all by yourself?”

He gestured for her to have a seat then he and Hayes followed suit. He sat in a throne like chair, one leg crossed over the other. “I do.”

“It must get lonely?” She’d bet her beloved Coach bag in which she carried the necessities of daily life, that he had at least one maid and a lawn service.

“I travel so frequently I rarely have time to be lonely.”

“Your work at the gallery and the school keeps you busy as well,” Hayes commented. “I’ve spoken with a number of your students. They all idolize you.”

Jess gave the man high marks for joining the conversation rather than merely observing. He’d apparently hit a nerve since Ellis’s jaw tightened noticeably. Clearly, he wasn’t happy to learn that questions were being asked about him.

“I’m flattered. My greatest hope is that I can instill passion. Art without passion is dead.”

“Have any of your students mentioned Lisa Templeton’s or Alisha Burgess’s untimely deaths?” Jess found it odd that he hadn’t asked how the investigation was going the moment they arrived.

“We haven’t spoken of it.” He glanced at his untouched coffee waiting on the table next to his chair. “I’ve been watching for updates on the investigation in the news. Do you have any leads?”

“We do.” Jess watched his face and eyes carefully as she spoke. “We believe we’ve identified the murderers.”

His eyebrows reared up in surprise. The reaction wasn’t reflected in his eyes. “There’s more than one?”

“Two. Females. They were caught on the security camera at the apartment where they brutally murdered their last victim. They’re wanted for questioning.”

“That is good news.”

“Mr. Ellis.” She leaned forward just a bit and clasped her hands in her lap. “From what I’ve seen so far, you’re a man of passion. What kind of passion do you suppose drives a person who would murder another human being and then take their hearts right out of their chests?”

He took a moment to sip his coffee. The delicate bone china cup and saucer looked right at home in his long fingered hands. This was a man who enjoyed the finer things in life. He wasn’t pretending to be hoity-toity, he was. All the way down to his expensive hand-tooled leather shoes. But those hands of his weren’t soft and smooth… they were rough. Maybe from working with tools—like the ones used to crack open the chests of his victims.

“I’m sure you would know better than I,” he said at last. “Clearly, it would take a person driven by strong emotions.”

Jess nodded in agreement. “Did you hear about the three murders, exactly like these, when you lived in Paris? I think the victims attended the school where you taught art.”

There was a hint of a shrug and the inevitable averting of his gaze. “Paris is a very large city, Chief Harris. I do recall hearing something about the murders but I didn’t know the students personally.”

“The odd thing is,” Jess went on, “there were several murders exactly like these, always a couple of years apart and in different cities. You didn’t hear about those?”

“Not that I recall, no.” He set his cup aside, rested his hands on the ornately carved wooden chair arms and stared directly at Jess, game face on. “Where did these murders occur?”

“I don’t remember the names of the cities.” Jess made a big production of blowing off the whole subject. She reached into her bag and retrieved the photos of the Vance sisters. She showed them to Ellis. His face remained impassive but there was something in his eyes… approval or pride. “Were either of these women ever students of yours?”

“No.” He shook his head.

“You’re certain?” Jess pushed.

“The bond that develops between teacher and student in art is far different from, let’s say, English or Math,” he explained in a tone just shy of arrogant. “I would remember any student I’ve had the pleasure of teaching.” The glee or pride she’d noted in his eyes when he viewed the photos of the sisters was still there.

“They travel a lot to Europe.” Jess studied the photos. “We’ve spoken to the detective in Paris who was in charge of the cases there. He’s thinking of reopening them. He wants to see if he can connect the murders that occurred there with the ones happening here. He plans to start with the Vance sisters.”

Jess felt confident the detective would as soon as she passed along their identities.

“I’m happy to help any way I can, Chief.” Ellis stood. “Unfortunately, now I have to get to the gallery. I’m sure you understand.”

Jess rose from her chair. “Certainly. I didn’t mean to keep you so long.”

As he walked them to the door, Ellis assured Jess he would be available if she had any other questions.

Outside, she hesitated at the car. “I want Ellis followed,” she told the lieutenant. “He lied about not knowing the Vance sisters.” He not only knew them, Jess was certain he shared that bond he’d spoken of so fondly with them. Her instincts were humming. He was part of this… somehow.

Hayes glanced toward the Jag backing away from the garage. “That might be difficult unless you want me to follow him.”