Jason shrugged. “I had more time to think about it.”
Erica stared at him a beat, then gave him a piece of advice. “Don’t let your heart overrule your head, Jason, it often leads to trouble.”
“Agent Novac, if you think Heather has coerced me into changing my story, she didn’t. I told you the other day that I wasn’t certain if I’d seen her or not.”
“You did, and now you are certain, so I have to ask myself, what’s changed between then and now?”
“Heather and I getting together has nothing to do with my changing my mind about what I saw. Heather wasn’t in Pennsylvania, so I must have seen a woman who looks like her.”
“Is there anything else you’d like to recant?”
Jason clenched his jaw. “I’m not recanting, I’m… clarifying my former statement. I was wrong, and I admit it.”
“Okay.”
“So, we’re good?”
“For now, but we may have questions for you at a later time. Right now, I’d like to talk to Miss Gray.”
Heather appeared nervous to Erica, but that was true of most people she interviewed, whether they were guilty or not.
Erica was talking with Heather inside the same interrogation room where she had spoken to Ted Marx.
“How are you today, Miss Gray?”
“I’m good, and you?”
“I am hunting for a killer, one who killed again yesterday.”
“Jason told me that a man in Kingston was the latest victim.”
“A man? Is that all he said?”
“Yes, why?”
“I’m aware that Jason knows you were raped. Does he know the name of your rapist?”
“No, we’ve never discussed that, and I don’t like to talk about it.”
“The latest victim was Keith Pardo.”
Heather rocked slightly at the revelation and her lips parted, as her eyes widened. The reaction of surprise looked genuine to Erica, which meant nothing. Skilled liars are often great actors, and Heather Gray was a one-time aspiring actress who had studied the craft.
“Keith Pardo is dead?”
“Yes.”
“And you think I killed him?”
Erica slid a pad and pen across the desk to Heather while smiling.
“Please write down your whereabouts for the past two weeks. The sooner we clear you, the sooner we’ll be able to move on to others.”
Heather looked down at the pad, then up at Erica.
“I’ve been here in Manhattan the whole time.”
“You haven’t left the city at all, not even once?”
“No, and I’m usually in my apartment working.”
“I’ve spoken to your roommate, Patty. Could she verify that you were home?”
“Yes, oh, wait. Patty was away in Georgia for a week; she just came back from visiting family.”
“I see.”
“Agent Novac, I did not kill Keith Pardo; I wasn’t anywhere near Kingston yesterday.”
“Did you know the other victims?”
“No.”
“What are their names?”
“Um, I only heard about the last one… next to last one, Cantrell? Jason mentioned his name a few times.”
“If you don’t know the other two men’s names, then how can you be certain that you don’t know them?”
“I know I didn’t kill them; I know that much.”
“Does the name Michael Heskett mean anything to you?”
“No.”
“You don’t watch Ted Marx’s videos?”
“I don’t.”
“I was under the impression you two were close.”
Heather’s left eye twitched at the suggestion, an involuntary tell that Erica had hit the mark.
“We dated at one time, back when I still drank. I’m in AA now, and Ted, with his drinking… I can’t be around him.”
“Then why were you at his apartment the other day?”
“I wasn’t, I mean, I went there to see him, but I never went inside his apartment.”
“He didn’t ask you up?”
“No, he wanted to talk in the lobby.”
“Mr. Marx doesn’t strike me as the type of man who would miss an opportunity to have a beautiful young woman visit his apartment.”
A small smile appeared on Heather’s lips. “Has he hit on you too? He hits on any attractive woman he sees.”
“That’s my point. I find it odd that he wanted to speak with you in his building’s lobby, instead of inviting you to his apartment where you would be alone.”
“He has a woman there he calls a housekeeper. She’s very beautiful, Japanese, and doesn’t speak a word of English, or so he says. Maybe she’s jealous and he meets women elsewhere.”
“You’ve met this woman?”
“Once, a few months ago. I had gone there to see Ted. He wasn’t there, but the woman was.”
“How old is she?”
“I don’t know, mid-thirties maybe.”
“Did you get a name?”
“No, we didn’t communicate very well, because of the language barrier.”
“All right, so you didn’t know Michael Heskett, but what about the first victim, Craig Rubio?”
Heather’s chin rose at the mention of Rubio’s name.
“Craig Rubio? Was he some sort of school teacher?”
“Yes, you knew him?”
“I never met him, but I know that name.”
“How?”
“After I was raped, my parents sent me to see a doctor, a psychiatrist, and I also attended group sessions with other girls. One of the girls there said that a teacher named Craig Rubio raped her when she was only six. I figured he was still locked up.”
“He was paroled years ago, but tell me, was this girl named Lila Martin?”
“Yes, Lila, but she’s dead now; she committed suicide by stepping in front of a train.”
Erica’s gaze shifted to the one-way mirror. Although she couldn’t see her partner, she knew that Owens was watching the interview. This therapy group was a link between two of the killer’s victims, and perhaps a third.
“Miss Gray, was Anna Lee one of the girls involved in group therapy?”
“Anna, yes, Anna Lee; Lili Martin; Ruth Thomas; Donna Davis; myself; and a girl named Kari, but I don’t remember Kari’s last name.”
Erica opened a file and scrolled through the case notes. She was looking for the notes she’d made concerning the interview she and Owens had with Luis Cantrell’s brother. When she found what she’d been looking for, she asked Heather another question.
“This psychiatrist, her name was McNamara?”
“Dr. Audrey McNamara, that’s her.”
“When was the last time you spoke to her?”
“About a month ago, I still see her professionally… she’s helped me come to terms with something, something personal.”
“Does the name Tiffany Vann sound familiar?”
“No, I know a few Tiffanys, but their last names aren’t Vann.”
“And the name Michael Heskett, that’s not familiar either?”
“No, and you asked me about him before.”
Erica queried Heather for a few more minutes, then said they were done and thanked her for coming in.
After she escorted Heather to the elevator, Erica turned to find Owens smiling at her.
“Great work; now, we finally have something connecting the victims, or at least three of them.”
“Yes, and it’s their own victims, the girls they molested or raped. Somehow the murders are tied to this Dr. McNamara’s therapy group.”
“I think we should have a talk with the doctor.”
“Yes, but before that, I’d like to speak with the other women who were in those therapy sessions. I’m willing to bet that one of them is connected to Michael Heskett, our second victim.”
“Good idea, and if that’s the case, we’ve definitely found the key to solving these murders.”
“What did you think about H
eather?”
“I think there’s more between her and Marx than she says.”
“I got that impression too.”
“If they’re behind this and working together, they may be setting Jason Warwick up to take the fall. He was only in Pennsylvania the day Cantrell died because Marx had him drive there.”
“He’s now blinded by love, or maybe it’s just sex, but either way, Jason has got blinders on as far as Heather is concerned.”
Owens smiled. “I feel like we’re getting somewhere at last. We’ve found a loose thread, now all we have to do is keep pulling on it.”
“And at the other end of that string is the killer.”
Chapter Forty-One
NEW YORK CITY, THURSDAY, JULY 18th
Erica and Owens made contact with Anna Lee by phone with a three-way call. They were in the New York City office and were seated at separate desks. The desks were pushed together so that they were facing each other.
Lee was aboard a naval ship that was stationed in the South Pacific. Petty Officer 2nd Class Anna Lee confirmed that she had been involved with Luis Cantrell when she was sixteen. Hearing that he had been murdered shocked her.
“Poisoned by a serial killer? What a way to go.”
“We understand that you received therapy from a Dr. Audrey McNamara, is that right?” Owens asked.
Lee laughed. “That’s right and was she ever gung-ho about it. She tried to get me to press charges against Luis, but my father had already made a deal with Mr. Cantrell, Luis’s father, to keep things quiet. Looking back, I guess I should have involved the authorities. For all I knew, Luis was a repeat offender, although he swore he’d never done anything like that before.”
“We have no record of other incidents,” Erica said, “but it’s possible they were handled as yours was.”
“How did you hear about my therapy?”
“Mr. Cantrell’s brother mentioned it, and we’ve also spoken to Heather Gray. Miss Gray said that you and she were in group therapy together.”
“Heather,” Anna said, and there was evident distaste discernible in the way she’d uttered the name.
“Are you and Miss Gray not on good terms?” Erica asked.
“Good terms? With that cu—?” Anna stopped talking mid-word, then exhaled a long, slow breath. “I’m sorry for the vulgarity I almost used, but Agent Novac, Agent Owens, Heather Gray is horrible, or at least she was when I knew her, and people don’t change. She enjoyed hurting people, emotionally I mean. I remember she teased this girl named Lila a lot, and Lila was a mess. She had been raped much younger than the rest of us, and I don’t think she ever recovered from it. I sometimes wonder how that girl is doing.”
“I’m sorry to tell you this, Petty Officer Lee, but Lila Martin committed suicide several years ago.”
“Really? Oh crap, oh man, that poor girl. I can’t say I’m surprised though, she was weak, broken.”
“The man who raped her was also murdered.”
“Did he die in prison?”
“He was released on parole; it happened around the time that Miss Martin killed herself.”
“I bet that pushed her over the edge, the thought that that man was out there somewhere. Lila probably feared that he would come after her again.”
“Getting back to Heather Gray,” Owens said. “What else can you tell us about her?”
“She was a drunk, even at that young age. The doctor had to call her parents once because she came to a session loaded, and then she started in on Jason and even slapped him.”
“Jason?” Erica said. “There was a boy in your therapy group?”
Anna laughed. “No, Jason was a kid who lived in Dr. McNamara’s house back then. She was renting rooms to Jason’s mother. Wow, I wonder how he’s doing. He really had a thing for Lila. I think he loved her.”
Erica looked across at Owens and saw that he was staring at her. He silently mouthed the words, “Could it be him?”
Erica asked the question. “Petty Officer Lee, was Jason’s last name Warwick?”
“Warwick? Yeah, that sounds right. I never called him by his last name, but his mom was Mrs. Warwick.”
Erica and Owens shared a look again, as they realized that Jason was more involved in the case than they believed.
“And he dated Lila Martin?”
“They never dated. I doubt Jason ever saw her except when she came to the house for therapy, but Jason was so obviously in love with Lila. It was painful to watch, because Lila was too scared of life to have ever given him a chance. I still think she liked the attention, and she probably liked him too. She often defended him to Heather.”
“Why did she have to defend him to Heather Gray?”
“Heather was vicious with Jason and teased him every chance she got. She told him that he was a nerd and a dweeb, and that Lila would never go out with a loser like him. I think Heather hated him for some reason.”
“Her opinion of him has changed; they’re dating now.”
“Get out of here! Heather and Jason are together?”
“It’s true.”
“Wow, now that blows my mind; those are the last two people I would have bet would be a couple.”
“Is the name Michael Heskett familiar to you?” Owens asked.
Anna repeated it twice, as she searched her memory. “You know, I think Kari said a guy named Heskett molested her. Heskett, or something very close to that. I wonder how she’s doing too; I always liked her.”
“Do you remember Kari’s last name?”
“Yeah, it was Whitney… I think.”
“We’ll be speaking with her soon; I’ll give her your regards,” Erica said.
“Do that, and thanks.”
“Did you or any of the girls ever meet Ted Marx?”
“The actor that was on that sit-com years ago?”
“That’s the one.”
“No, I don’t remember him being mentioned, but I remember that show. My best friend had a thing for Marx when we used to watch the reruns.”
The agents asked Anna Lee a few more questions, then they thanked her and ended the call.
Owens looked across the desk at his partner. “So, both Jason and Heather have a connection to the therapy group.”
“And to this Dr. McNamara.”
“I researched her on the internet. Dr. McNamara is not your average psychiatrist. She’s written a book calling for the death penalty for sexual offenders, even for offenses less violent than rape.”
“It sounds like she would applaud our killer’s actions.”
“I had the same thought. By the way, she also has red hair.”
“Another redhead? Between that and her connection to the case, I’d say she’s a suspect. We’ll go see her soon, but first I want to speak with Lila Martin’s family,” Erica said.
“So do I. Anna Lee said that Jason was in love with the girl. Maybe losing her forever was enough to push him over the edge and turn him into a killer.”
Erica held a pen and tapped it against her other palm. “The way Craig Rubio was killed seemed personal, given that he nearly drowned as a child. If the killer knew that somehow, it may be why drowning was the method used to kill Rubio.”
“Keith Pardo’s death was also exceptional in its cruelty. He suffered for days until it became too much and killed him. I was also impressed by the killer’s ability to predict the actions Pardo would take. That toilet seat had to have been prepared in advance.”
“A psychiatrist might have that sort of insight into how a person under stress might react.”
“Someone like Dr. McNamara you mean?”
“Exactly,” Erica said.
“Okay, so for a list of suspects we have Heather Gray, Jason Warwick, and Dr. Audrey McNamara.”
“And don’t forget Ted Marx,” Erica said. “These killings have placed him in the limelight again, while the ad revenue from his channel is bringing in money. He may not have a connection to Dr. McNamara or the therapy group,
but he does know Heather and Jason.”
Owens sat back in his seat, looking thoughtful. “We still have to tie the second murder to the others. From what Anna Lee said, Kari Whitney might be the key to doing that.”
“We’ll locate her, along with the others from the group.”
Owens smiled. “We’re going to find our killer; I can feel it.”
“I think we already have. It’s Heather Gray, Jason Warwick, Dr. Audrey McNamara, or Ted Marx.”
“Or some combination among those four working together,” Owens said.
“Jason has a connection to Dr. McNamara, and Heather and Marx were once lovers.”
“If it’s Marx and Heather, maybe she hooked up with Jason to make it easier to set him up to take the fall.”
“We need the DNA results from that hair found in Pennsylvania. If it matches Heather Gray, it’s almost certain that she’s our perp.”
“About that hair,” Owens said. “What if it was planted to help frame Heather?”
“I hadn’t considered that, but it is a possibility.”
Owens sighed. “Just once, I’d like to come across an open-and-shut case. Why do we always get the convoluted cases with oddball murders and numerous suspects?”
Erica grinned. “It’s more fun that way.”
Chapter Forty-Two
KINGSTON, NEW YORK, FRIDAY, JULY 19th
Hollis and Beth Martin were in their early-fifties but seemed older to Erica. Having their only child commit suicide must have taken a toll on the couple. There were also the years spent dealing with the emotional repercussion of that same child’s rape at an early age.
It was morning, and they were meeting with the Martins in the couple’s living room. The agents had risen early in preparation to avoid at least some of the congestion of the New York area’s heavy morning traffic.
Mrs. Martin had laid out coffee and fresh muffins for the visit. Erica and Owens both accepted coffee, and Erica took a corn muffin to go with it. She knew she should wait and have a proper meal, but sometimes you just didn’t do what you should. Besides, she was feeling stressed, and food, particularly sweets, soothed her.
Before traveling to see the Martins, Erica had texted Heather and asked her if the surname Whitney sounded right as being the last name for Kari, the girl who’d been in the therapy group.
The Appointment Killer Page 17