Faces Of Evil: Vicious Part 23

Was Spears the reason Captain Allen had disappeared? There was always the chance someone in the department wanted to get back at her or at Dan, but still the idea that it was Spears wouldn't stop nagging at her. Maybe she was getting paranoid but she didn't think so.

Harper and Cook were in the field, knocking on doors and making calls, following up with friends of the victims as well as those of the suspects. The Vance sisters and Ellis had to be somewhere.

Jess's attention settled on Lori. She would be disappointed that Jess had kept the pregnancy a secret from her. But she couldn't tell Lori before she told her sister. There was an etiquette to these things.

As if she'd felt Jess's eyes on her, Lori turned to her. "We're almost ready."

"I was just thinking," Jess admitted. "We've hardly had a minute to catch up this week."

Lori looked at her for a moment without speaking. "Sherry took Chester to a friend's until this is over. She refuses to tell Chet where they're at. How's that for catching up?"

Jess winced. "How's Chet handling it?"

Shoving her hair behind her ears, Lori gave an uncertain shrug. "We were both upset at first, but then we kind of decided she'd probably made the right decision even if she went about it the wrong way."

Made sense. "I think you're onto something there." Jess closed her eyes and gave her head a little shake. "We can't predict where this is going."

"Are you holding up okay?" Lori asked gently.

Jess shrugged. "As well as can be expected." Under the circ.u.mstances.

"All right, here we go," Lori announced. "Our guy is calling early."

Jess washed down a gob of M&Ms with a chug of water before joining Lori at her computer. William Upshaw was calling from his cell phone but Lori had forwarded hers to the computer for the larger screen. Skype was one of those new ways for teleconferencing Jess had ignored.

"Mr. Upshaw, this is Detective Lori Wells and Chief Jess Harris."

Jess produced a smile for the man. He was mid fifties with gray hair, brown eyes. He had no wife and no kids. The really strange part was that he still lived with his mother in the house where the murder had taken place. He worked at a grocery store stocking shelves in the same job he'd had since he was seventeen.

His face told the story. This man had died the same day his sister did.

"Mr. Upshaw, I appreciate you taking the time to speak with us. We need your help very badly." Jess hoped his silence was not an indication of how this was going to go.

He cleared his throat. "You've read the statement I gave to the police when my sister died?"

"Yes, sir," she confirmed.

"I haven't changed my story in all that time. Why would I change it now?"

Good question. She could try a psychology trick or two for prompting his cooperation but she had a feeling that wasn't going to work with this man. "I don't expect you to tell me anything different about your actions, sir. It's Richard Ellis I wanted to talk to you about."

He flinched and averted his gaze. "What about him? I haven't spoken to him since that day. I don't even know if he's dead or alive."

"He's very much alive, Mr. Upshaw. We believe he's responsible for the gruesome murders of four people just this week."

He shook his head. "I can't help you with that. I don't read the papers or watch much television. Current events don't interest me."

For a guy who professed such indifference to the media and the news the smart phone he was using at this very moment was just as high tech as the one Jess owned. He could text, Google or virtually anything else he wanted to do right from the palm of his hand. He had never used Skype before but he knew what it was. He'd added it to his phone for this interview.

He wasn't fooling Jess. He knew exactly what was going on in the world around him, he'd just opted not to be a part of it any more than necessary.

"Ellis and two of his friends murdered four people but that wasn't enough to satisfy their appet.i.tes," Jess informed him. "Once the victims were dead, they butchered their bodies and ripped out their hearts. Anything you might recall about him could be useful to our investigation, Mr. Upshaw. We don't want him to keep getting away with murder and I'm certain you don't either."

There was a flicker of something like remorse then he blinked it away. "You read my statement. I haven't remembered anything else."

"Ellis did this same thing in Europe for years," Jess went on as if he hadn't spoken. "They didn't find enough evidence to charge him so he got away with all those murders, too. He'll keep getting away with it and using people to do his dirty work. People who might not have otherwise harmed another person. People like you, Mr. Upshaw."

He jerked. "I don't know what you mean by that statement. We were neighbors. That's all. Neighborhood kids hang out together, you know."

Jess had taken a risk going with her gut instinct. She decided to push a little harder. "Richard Ellis did something to cause your father to react the way he did. You were there, Mr. Upshaw. You know what he did."

"I didn't..." His voice trailed off.

"If you help us, I might be able to stop the man who devastated your family."

Emotion brightened his eyes and Jess knew she had him.

"I knew he was still out there... doing those despicable things. I was going to write a letter." He shrugged. "That way by the time the police started asking questions it wouldn't matter."

"Are you going somewhere, Mr. Upshaw?" He hadn't left Boston in all this time so she doubted that was the case now. Maybe he was sick.

He shook his head. "My mother's dying. Her doctor said maybe another couple of months. I promised her I would never tell what happened. She doesn't want my sister's name sullied."

"I'm sorry about your mother, Mr. Upshaw, but you must know every minute we waste is one that could cost someone else their life."

"I can't do that to her." He shook his head. "I've already taken everything else she had. I won't take that, too."

Jess tried a different strategy. "If you tell me the truth, I won't put that information in my reports. You can take it to the Boston PD yourself, when you're ready. There's no reason for me to do that as long as I can get Ellis on the murders here. To make that happen, I need your help."

The hesitation that followed had Jess's hopes sinking.

"I was fifteen. I had nothing but cars and girls on my mind."

Jess nodded. "That's probably true of all fifteen year old boys."

"Rick didn't like my sister. She yelled at us all the time. She didn't want us near her friends. And I think something happened between her and Rick and he really hated her after that."

"You have no idea what happened between them?"

"I think it was about that picture he painted of her. He had a crush on her and wanted to impress her. He worked really hard for days and days painting her portrait. When he gave it to her, she laughed. She told him he was pathetic and that he didn't have enough talent to paint a door much less a portrait."

"Did Ellis change after that incident?"

Upshaw nodded. "He did. Started trying to turn me against her. There was a lot going on with my family, too. They were laying off at my dad's factory. I overheard my parents talking about how they didn't know what they'd do. They'd used up their savings on my medical bills. I had Polio and it was tough for all of us."

He didn't speak again for a bit. Jess struggled to be patient.

"My sister got mad at me for something dumb I'd done and she told me that mom and dad hated me. She said it was my fault they were so worried about bills. She said she wished I'd never been born."

"Siblings say that sort of thing sometimes." She and Lil had said horrible things to each other from time to time.

"I know," he agreed hollowly. "Rick used it to convince me that my sister was evil. He hatched this plan about how he could prove it to me. He said that if he got her into bed and then I joined them I'd see how evil she really was. I mean, what kind of sister would have s.e.x with her brother, right? My family's devout Catholics. Just talking about it was enough to send us to h.e.l.l."

He shook his head. "Rick bought some weed and we all got high. It wasn't like the weed I'd smoked before. This was powerful. We all ended up in bed together kissing and touching." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "My father came in and he went ballistic. Rick laughed and told him he should join us. My father suddenly had his shotgun." He shook his head. "I don't know how he got the gun. I was really messed up by the weed. My sister was screaming and telling us to get out of her room."

More silence elapsed.

"The next thing I knew my father aimed the shotgun. Rick pushed my sister at him just as he fired. The sound was like a bomb exploding in the room. There was blood everywhere and my sister was lying on the floor. My father and I tried to help her but there was nothing we could do. She was dead. There was a big hole in the middle of her chest... like where her heart should be."

"Where was Ellis while you were trying to help your sister?"

"I didn't figure that out until later. He was reloading the shotgun. My father was so devastated that when Rick put the shotgun back in his hands and started talking to him, he just went into a coma. Rick told him to pull the trigger and he did. It was like something from the movies and all I could do was watch."

The horror the man had likely suffered over and over since that day was unimaginable. "Thank you, Mr. Upshaw. You have no idea how much you've helped us. You have my word, we'll do all we can to stop him."

When the connection ended, Jess stared at the faces of the victims on the case board. They were all just like William Upshaw's sister. Innocent... led to slaughter by a devil, a hole left where their hearts had been.

Jess shuddered.

Hayes walked in with a bag of burgers and a disposable tray of soft drinks. "Lunch is served, ladies."

Jess held up a hand to Hayes. "Put it over there." Her appet.i.te was MIA at the moment. "We need to figure out if Ellis had anything to do with Lisa Templeton and Alisha Burgess getting into that house in Homewood. I'll bet," the rest of the scenario unfolded for Jess, "Rod Slater kicked Templeton out of her apartment because Ellis paid him to do it."

Ellis wasn't an artist. Not a single one of the paintings in his gallery or in his home carried his name. Jess got the picture now. He wasn't a painter at all. He was a director and these murders were his stage plays-his works of art.

"Are you thinking Ellis intended for Templeton and Burgess to be the ones to die there?" Hayes suggested.

Jess nodded. "Burgess, Thomas, and McCrary may have been murdered simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I think Templeton was an intended victim. Just as Upshaw's sister was." Jess considered the idea that most of the victims left in Ellis's wake were art students. Did they all have one thing in common? Perhaps the ability to paint better than Ellis could ever hope to? "The Upshaw girl was guilty of making him feel inferior when she degraded his work. Templeton did the same thing when her talent outs.h.i.+ned his."

"In the end," Lori surmised, "the victims in Europe may have been guilty of nothing more than being better painters."

"Envy can turn a person into something vicious," Hayes offered, their lunch getting cold on his desk.

"That's exactly right," Jess agreed.

All they had to do now was find Ellis and his little murdering helpers. She wondered if Selma and Olive were as innocent as William Upshaw had been. Or were they just as evil as their teacher?

Her new cell made that puny sound that announced she had a text message. Jess frowned. She needed to change that. Corlew's name flashed on the screen. She opened the text.

We need to meet. Something you need to know.

Worry had her heart rate picking up. Where, she responded.

He sent the address of a restaurant in Five Points.

Jess grabbed her temporary bag and a burger. To Hayes, she said, "Lieutenant, catch up with Harper. I'd like the two of you to talk to the Homewood landlord and to Slater. Detective Wells, come with me. I have a meeting."

"I could tag along," Hayes proposed. "Make the calls en route."

Lori grabbed one of the burgers and a drink. "I got this, Lieutenant."

Hayes didn't like it but he backed off.

Jess would smooth that tension over the first chance she got.

Like maybe sometime in the next century.

Jim 'N Nicks, Five Points, 2:19 p.m.

The burger she'd scarfed down on the way over was not sitting well. Jess stared at the door, wondering what the h.e.l.l was keeping Corlew. He'd asked her to meet him here and then he was late.

That was the trouble with Corlew. He operated under one set of rules-his own. Though most of his work was good, that was only the case if good didn't get in the way. If he had to choose between what he wanted and in doing the right thing, what he wanted would win every time.

Lori sat at the bar, keeping watch. Jess appreciated that she understood the meeting with Corlew was private-at least for now.

Her cell rattled on the table. She'd turned off the ringer so she and Corlew wouldn't be interrupted. Harpers's name appeared on her screen. Maybe she'd get lucky and Ellis had turned himself in, along with his two proteges.

"Tell me something good, Sergeant." Jess kept an eye on the restaurant's entrance.

"Hayes and I connected and we have a couple of real bulletins for you, Chief," he announced. "Are you sitting down?"

Jess perked up. "I am."

"First, Slater admitted that he booted Templeton out of her place because Ellis paid him to do it. Ellis also set up the lease with the owner of the house in Homewood. He provided Templeton with the money she needed for the move by buying her painting."

"Ellis has been a very busy man." Jess could not wait to take him down. Like Spears, he had gotten away with his evil deeds for far too long. Whether he was the murderer or the orchestrator of murder, he was guilty of taking lives.

"Busier than you know," Harper went on. "The Vance sisters' mother just called. Apparently, her conscience started to weigh on her. She and her husband will be back in Birmingham tomorrow. They're leaving Paris tonight."

"She's feeling bad for leaving her spoiled daughters at home alone?" Too bad she hadn't thought of that maybe twenty years ago.

"I do believe so," Harper confirmed. "She admitted to having an affair with Ellis while she and her husband lived in Paris the first time. Ellis wanted her to leave her husband but she refused. The affair ended badly when she told him that he didn't make enough money to support her."

"Oh. That's cold. Another blow to his tender ego." Jess could see where this was going.

"She also confessed that Selma is Ellis's biological child. She's afraid he might be levying a little payback."

"I guess she chose the wrong psychopath to have an affair with." Jess couldn't see this ending pretty for anyone involved.

The call ended and Jess placed her cell back on the table. Now all the players were lined up. The sisters were likely so thankful for all the attention the charming older man lavished upon them that they would do anything he asked. Though twisted, the sisters were victims of his egocentrism, just as Templeton was. The others were just collateral damage to satisfy Spears's wishes.

What would make a killer like Ellis or Cagle do Spears's bidding? Cagle mentioned something about doing what he did for his daughter. Maybe Spears had threatened the man's family. But what about Ellis? What could Spears possibly have on him? He had no family.

Except Selma Vance. Yet, Ellis was using her to exact his own kind of payback.

Maybe Ellis was enjoying being a part of Spears's big finale.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, kid."