by Kathi Daley
At the sheriff’s office, Salinger was sitting behind his desk working on a file. He set it aside when we walked in. “So, you think you found your stalker?” he asked.
I explained about Jason and the contest he was participating in. Salinger agreed that on the surface it sounded as if he could be our guy, so he radioed one of the deputies who were in Ashton Falls helping out for the weekend and asked him to bring Jason in for questioning. While we were waiting for him to arrive, we looked through the photos one more time. I’d gone through the ones Salinger had made copies of and left for me, but we realized that if Jason didn’t ’fess up to following me, a photo with his reflection might just provide the incentive he’d need to come clean.
“The photos we found in the barn seem pretty harmless,” I said. “Most are of me going about my daily business. Dropping Scooter off at school, taking the dogs for a walk, shopping, spending time at the Zoo. But there’s this one that sends little shivers down my spine.”
I handed it to Zak.
He frowned.
“What is it?” Salinger asked.
Zak passed the photo to Salinger. “I don’t remember seeing this one the first time I went through the box.”
“Because it wasn’t in the box. At least not initially,” I said.
Salinger furrowed his brow. “What do you mean, it wasn’t in the box? Of course it was. It has to have been.”
I shook my head. “The photo is of Zak and me while we walked along the river, waiting for you to speak to the medical examiner. It was taken a few minutes before we stumbled across the crime scene.” I pointed at the photo. “We were talking about a trip we once took with a similar setting to this river walk.”
“That was yesterday,” Salinger said.
“Exactly. I found the box of photos in the barn on Wednesday.”
“That’s impossible,” Salinger huffed. “This box has been in my office since I put it here the day you discovered it.”
I looked at the photo again. It had definitely been taken yesterday. “Maybe someone slipped in and added the photo to the box.”
“Why would anyone do that?” Salinger asked.
“Why would anyone do anything that’s happened this past week? We’re obviously dealing with a psycho.”
“Then let me change my question,” Salinger said. “How would someone slip in and add the photo to the box? The front door to this building is locked any time I don’t have a receptionist in front.”
“Does she lock the door every time she takes a break to use the ladies’ room?” I wondered.
Salinger frowned. “I don’t know for certain, but probably not.”
The room fell into silence until Salinger’s phone buzzed, letting him know Jason was here. The sheriff asked that he be taken to the conference room that doubled as an interrogation room. Salinger wanted to speak to him alone, but he was fine with Zak and me watching through the two-way glass.
“Why am I here?” the very angry man demanded the minute Salinger walked through the door.
Salinger tossed a handful of photos onto the table. “Do you recognize these?”
He paled. “I wondered what happened to those.”
“So they are yours?” Salinger asked.
He nodded.
“I’m going to need a verbal reply,” Salinger demanded.
“Yes. I took the photos. For a contest. It’s all perfectly innocent.”
Salinger sat down on a hard plastic chair across from Jason. “Why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me exactly why it is you’ve been following Mrs. Zimmerman around for the past few weeks snapping photos of her?”
He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Am I in some sort of trouble?”
“You’re most definitely in some sort of trouble. How much trouble will depend on how cooperative you are.”
He nodded, then glanced at the two-way mirror, frowned, and began to speak. “Like I said, I took the photos as part of a contest.”
Salinger took out a notepad and pen. “I’ll need the name of the contest, the name of your contact person, and the names of the other contestants if you know them.”
“I don’t know any of that.”
I thought he was about to cry.
Salinger clicked open his pen and closed it. “Okay. Let’s start with how you found out about the contest.”
Jason folded his hands, opened them again, and then ran them nervously over his pant legs. “I received an e-mail about a month ago, saying there was going to be one lucky winner who’d get ten thousand dollars. I needed ten thousand dollars, so I responded. I was sent a list of instructions and the name of my subject.”
“Let’s back up a bit,” Salinger said. “You said you were sent an e-mail. Who sent it?”
“A company called Surveillance Masters.”
“Was the e-mail personalized to you?” Salinger asked.
Jason nodded.
“I’ll need a verbal reply,” Salinger reminded him.
He bowed his head. “Oh, sorry. Yes, the e-mail was personalized to me.”
Salinger jotted down a note. “And how do you think this company got your name?”
“I assume it was because of the class I signed up for.”
Salinger lifted a brow. “Class?”
“I signed up for a class that teaches you how to do surveillance, for folks wanting to go into private investigation and related fields. When I got the e-mail I just assumed I was invited to enter the competition because I’d shown interest in the field by signing up for the class.”
Jason was probably right about that.
Salinger flipped his notepad to a clean sheet. “So you responded to the e-mail and then what?”
“Then I got a return e-mail with the rules. I was to follow Mrs. Zimmerman for a month, remaining undetected as I did so. I was to take photos of her, and from those photos I was supposed to come to some conclusions.”
“What sort of conclusions?” Salinger asked.
“Just stuff like whether she was stepping out on her husband.”
Zak glanced at me with a raised brow. I smiled and shook my head. Zak wound the fingers of his left hand through my right and gave it a gentle squeeze.
Jason continued. “There were a whole list of questions I was supposed to answer, like whether there were routines she kept on certain days of the week or certain times of the day. I knew she went to the events committee every Wednesday because my girlfriend did too, and I knew she picked up her son from school on most days at three fifteen because I sometimes picked up my girlfriend’s kids at the same time. I found out she walks her dogs every day at around four thirty or five, and she almost always turns to the left down the beach after leaving her house. Stuff like that. The more detailed my observations, the more points I’d receive.”
“Were you supposed to report on things other than her routine?” Salinger asked.
“I was to make a list of the people she spent the most time with and make notes about personal routines, such as exercise classes she might be taking and things like that.”
“Why did you hide the photos in the barn at Henderson House?”
“I didn’t. They were in my apartment until a few days ago. I got an e-mail that my challenge was complete on Monday of this week. I was also notified that someone from the contest had stopped by to pick up the photos. I thought that was odd because I keep my place locked when I go out, but I didn’t find anything tampered with or missing, so I let it go.”
Which meant someone else had put the photos in the barn. How many people were involved in this thing anyway? I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated.
“Do you have the e-mails you were sent and the list of items to provide in your surveillance?” Salinger asked.
“Yes.”
“I’ll need you to deliver everything to me, including all the e-mails you’ve received from Surveillance Masters.”
Jason nodded vigorously. “I’ll give you everything. I don’t wan
t to go to jail.”
Salinger didn’t respond to that. Instead, he tossed another photo in front of Jason. “Tell me about this one.”
Jason picked it up. He looked at it with a frown, then said, “I didn’t take this photo.”
“Are you sure?” Salinger asked. “Remember, I’m expecting your full cooperation.”
Jason looked up at Salinger. “I’m sure. If I’d taken it I’d tell you, but I didn’t.” He narrowed his gaze. “I don’t even know where this is.”
I wasn’t surprised Jason hadn’t taken the photo by the river. That one, I was certain, had been taken by the killer.
Chapter 15
Salinger questioned Jason for another thirty minutes before allowing him to leave. I was happy we’d identified my stalker, but doing so hadn’t brought us any closer to identifying the killer. By the time we got home my mom was there. Zak walked over to Levi and Ellie’s to pick up Catherine while I went upstairs to join the others.
“How’d it go?” Mom asked.
“Jason admitted to being the one to take the photos of me. I’m happy to know it was just some guy with bad judgment and a desire to win ten grand and not a psycho killer following me these past few weeks, but his confession didn’t bring us at all closer to finding out who killed the two murder victims.”
“Seems like it might be Salinger’s job to figure that out,” Mom said as she teased Alex’s hair.
“Maybe, but I still feel I’ve been intentionally linked to the death of both men, so I don’t think I’ll be able to relax completely until the killer is caught.” I sat down on the edge of Alex’s bed. She was sitting at her vanity while Mom did her magic with her makeup. “Having said that, I’ve done what I can for today and am very excited to see Alex’s transformation.” I stopped talking long enough to take a look at the makeup Mom was applying. It seemed to feature a lot of really dark eye makeup. “I thought you were going as Marie Curie.”
“I was, but Diego and I changed our minds at the last minute. I’m going as Cleopatra and he’s Marc Antony.”
Okay, that had me frowning. Most of the Cleopatra outfits I’d seen over the years featured a very skimpy outfit with a bare midriff. Zak would blow his lid.
“Is it okay if I see your costume?” I asked.
“Sure,” Alex said. “It’s hanging on the back of the closet door. I borrowed it from my friend Evie, who was Cleopatra last year.”
I let out a sigh of relief when I saw that the dress, while sleeveless, was long enough to touch the floor. The headdress that went with it was really outstanding. Alex, with her long dark hair, was going to make a beautiful Cleopatra. Now I just hoped Diego’s Marc Antony costume was equally modest.
Mom sat back and admired her handiwork. “I wish I had my liquid eyeliner. I’d be able to accomplish the cat’s-eye effect a lot more easily.” She looked at me. “I don’t suppose you have any?”
I laughed. “Me? No, I don’t think so. I can run out and get some, though.”
“Don’t bother. I can make do with what I have.”
I placed my hand on my heart as I looked at Alex. “You look so grown-up.”
“That,” Alex smiled, “is exactly what I was going for.”
“Zoe,” I heard Ellie call from somewhere down the hallway.
I stuck my head out the door. “I’m in Alex’s room. Is something wrong?”
“I let the dogs out into the yard for a few minutes and when I called them back everyone came running except Charlie.”
“That’s odd. I’ll go out to see if I can find him. Is Zak back with Catherine yet?”
“I haven’t seen him.”
I headed to the back door. It wasn’t at all like Charlie to wander off. The other dogs became distracted from time to time, but Charlie always stayed close to the house when he was let out without a human.
“Charlie,” I called.
I paused, but there was no reply. I headed toward the beach. As I passed Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein, which Zak and Scooter had set up earlier in the week, I felt a chill run down my spine. I stopped to look at the mechanical figures, which had been repaired but once had been damaged due to my anger and negligence. I continued on down the beach, hugging the waterline. I didn’t see anyone, but I had the feeling I was being watched.
“Charlie,” I called again.
It was then I heard a single sharp bark.
“Charlie, where are you?”
The single bark turned to a series of barks. It sounded like he was somewhere down the beach, so I took off at a jog in that direction. The barking grew more insistent and I became increasingly worried. The only way Charlie wouldn’t come was if he was hurt and unable to do so. I ran faster. About a quarter mile down the beach from the house I found him tied to a tree.
“Charlie.” I fell to my knees and hugged my little pal. I was about to untie him when I heard a voice behind me.
“Leave him tied up or I’ll have to kill him.”
I turned and looked at the man behind me. “I should have known it was you.”
He looked genuinely hurt. “I’m offended you didn’t figure it out long before this. I did, after all, go to quite a lot of trouble.”
“What do you want?”
“What I want is for you to come with me. I have something to show you.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said with a bravado I wasn’t quite feeling, given the fact that he had a gun on me.
Joel Ringer sneered. “You can come along all peaceful-like, or I can put a bullet in your mutt’s head. Your choice.”
Damn. The psycho had me and he knew it. I’d never risk Charlie’s life. “What do you want to show me?”
“I have a boat nearby. We’ll need to take a little trip. Come along nicely and both you and the dog will live. Fight me and you’ll both die.”
I wanted to attack him with the full force of my five-foot-nothing rage, but I’d never be able to live with myself if something happened to Charlie, so I turned and followed Joel meekly down the beach.
“You know this infatuation you seem to have with me has got to stop,” I said after we’d arrived at the boat and set off across the lake. “Killing two men just to impress me really is way over the top,” I taunted him, even though the little voice in my head was screaming at me to just shut up.
“As fond as I am of you, I’m afraid I didn’t do that.”
“You didn’t kill Edgar Irvine and Orson Spalding?”
Joel chuckled. “Oh, I killed them, but if I impressed you with my technique it was simply a side benefit of what I was going to do anyway.”
I turned slightly so I was facing him. “Okay, so why did you kill Irvine and Spalding?” I probably should have been using this time to try to escape, but Joel had a gun and we were in the middle of a large lake. All I really could do was wait to see how things played out.
“Irvine killed my sister.”
I raised a brow. “So you’re Mason Kellerman?”
Joel nodded. “Mason Kellerman was my first name. I’ve gone by many others in my life. When you knew me, I was Joel Ringer. Before that I was Elon Midnight for a time.”
“I’m sorry.”
Joel looked at me with an expression of surprise. “You’re sorry?”
“About your sister. I don’t know everything that happened to her, but I know enough to realize her death probably could have been avoided. I know how hard it is to lose someone you love. Someone who helped you to make sense of a life that doesn’t always make sense. I’m not saying I approve of you killing Irvine, but I guess I understand the rage behind such an action.”
Joel’s face softened. “Thank you.”
“I am curious, though, why you did things the way you did. The venom from an African black mamba must have been pricey. Why go to all the bother? Why not use the venom of a rattler?”
Joel scowled. “A rattler would never do. You know me well enough to realize how important it is to have just the right prop to bring a lev
el of authenticity to something.”
Joel was the king of the props. During his time in Ashton Falls, he’d presented some pretty spectacular haunted houses. If a ghost hunter hadn’t come to town and accidentally stumbled onto Joel’s big secret, he might still be living here, putting on shows the way no one else ever could.
“Besides,” Joel continued, “the venom didn’t cost me a thing. I used some of the money I stole from Edgar.”
“You stole money from Edgar Irvine to buy the venom you used to kill him?”
Joel grinned. “Poetic, don’t you think?”
I wasn’t sure poetic was the word I’d use, but I guess there was a certain artistry to what he’d done. “Let me be sure I understand this. You found out Irvine was responsible for your sister’s death. You wanted to take vengeance on him, so you stole money from him that you used to procure venom from the same type of snake that killed her. You developed a device to deliver the venom to his bloodstream through his neck, which made it look like a vampire bite— which, by the way, was kind of cool in a deranged kind of way. I understand you’re in to role-playing, so making it look like a vampire attack fit too. The thing that doesn’t make sense is why Ashton Falls and why me?”
“Because, love, you’re the one who got away. You not only foiled my plan but you sent me into hiding for four years. My plan now had to include a resolution to the scenario in which tiny Zoe Donovan meets a monster and comes out the winner.”
“I’m guessing you’re the monster in this scenario.”
Joel just grinned.
I took a breath and blew it out slowly. I might be minutes from my untimely death, but at least I had most of my answers. Joel had gone to a lot of trouble to pull this together. He really was the master. He’d managed to whet Irvine’s appetite to the point that he made the trip to Ashton Falls. He bought rare snake venom with money he stole from the victim and he used the death of the man who killed his sister to get a bunch of other vampire types to make the trip to Ashton Falls too, presumably so he could film the movie he seemed to have been chasing his entire life.
“So the news article in the tabloid was a ploy to get vampires to show. I’m assuming you were filming them?”