Tami Hoag - Deeper Than the Dead

“Or he incapacitated them quickly and efficiently,” Dixon countered. “He stalked them to a secluded location and grabbed them. No witnesses.”

“That’s possible,” Vince conceded. “But with the way he staged Lisa Warwick’s body in the woods, this killer is looking for attention. He wants an audience. He wants credit for his work. He’s got an ego. He’s liable to try to insinuate himself into the search for Karly Vickers, attend the funeral of Lisa Warwick. That kind of involvement will be part of the power trip for him.

“With the exception of the missing finger, everything about the Warwick dump site was neat and tidy. The cutting wounds on the body were laid out in a specific pattern. Your victim number one-Paulson-had similar deliberate marks on the body. But you’re telling me Gordon Sells isn’t organized in any way. He lives in a hovel, out in the country, away from people, not attracting attention.”

“He had both women’s cars in his possession,” Dixon said.

He looked like he was feeling persecuted, Mendez thought. No doubt he was as exhausted as everyone else, maybe more so considering his personal connection to Jane Thomas. She had to be hammering on him to solve the case. Mendez could see Leone taking the same reading on his boss.

Vince held his hands up. “Hey, Sheriff, I appreciate your position here. You’re under a lot of pressure, and you’ve got a bird in the hand with Sells. But it’s not my job to agree with you. I’m no help as a yes man.

“I’m telling you what I know based on my experiences,” he said. “That doesn’t mean this guy couldn’t be the exception to the rule. I’m just telling you what I know. You’ve got him with the cars. Hold him. But I would strongly advise you to continue to develop other possible suspects.”

Dixon sighed and nodded and rubbed his hands over his face. “Does anybody else have anything?”

“Lisa Warwick’s vacation plans didn’t turn up anything,” Hamilton said. “But her phone records show a lot of calls to the law offices of Quinn, Morgan and Associates. Two calls the day she disappeared.”

“She volunteered as a court advocate to women from the center,” Mendez said. “Morgan handles most of the family court cases. I think she might have had a thing for him. He’s tougher to read. I haven’t spoken to his wife yet.”

“Steve Morgan is as straight an arrow as they come,” Dixon said.

“He’s the guy in the photograph?” Trammell asked.

“Yeah,” Mendez said.

“I finally talked to the next-door neighbor last night,” Trammell went on. “Nosey old bat. She said she saw a man coming and going from Lisa Warwick’s house from time to time at odd hours, late at night. She-the neighbor-is up at odd hours on account of her sciatica, she told me. I showed her the photo. She couldn’t swear he was the guy, because it was always dark, but she thought it could be. Right height, right build.”

“When was the last time she saw him?” Mendez asked.

“She wasn’t sure-I think she drinks for that sciatica-but she thought it was maybe the night before Warwick went missing.”

Dixon swore under his breath. “Tony, talk to Morgan again.”

“We’ve got the maintenance man from the Thomas Center in,” Hicks said. “He denies any connection to the stolen cars or to the women, but Miss Vickers’s friend told us he had his eye on Karly and she didn’t like it.”

“He did five in Wasco for stealing cars-”

“That’s where Gordon Sells was,” Mendez said.

“Lyle claims he didn’t know Sells there, but he has been to Sells’s junkyard.”

“And Lyle had charges on him for abusing a girlfriend?” Dixon asked.

“Six months’ worth.”

“He’s still here?” Dixon asked.

“Holding him on a bench warrant for outstanding traffic violations. But unless we come up with his prints in one of those cars, we’ve got nothing to charge him with. He can pay his fines and go.”

“Talk to him again,” Dixon said. “If nothing turns up, kick him loose. Hamilton and Stuart, I want you to canvass the businesses around Peter Crane’s dental office. So far, that’s still the last place anybody saw Karly Vickers. Trammell and Eaton, knock on every door within half a mile of Gordon Sells’s place.”

Mendez turned to Leone. “You coming with me? I’m stopping at the elementary school to talk to the Crane boy and Wendy Morgan to see if they know how the Farman kid got that finger.”

“No,” Vince said. “I have to make a call to Quantico. But do give my regards to Miss Navarre,” he added with a smug smile.

“Yeah,” Mendez said, rolling his eyes. “I’ll get right on that.”

Tommy hurt all over. He had a whopper of a black eye. The back of his head hurt from where it had bounced off the ground when Dennis knocked him down. The doctor at the emergency room had taken X-rays and said that his ribs weren’t broken, but they sure were bruised. His whole stomach was black and blue from where Dennis had kicked him, and it hurt like crazy when he tried to breathe.

Still, he felt pretty proud of himself for going after Dennis. There was no way Dennis was going to do anything but kick his butt, and still Tommy had taken him on. His dad had told him he had done the right thing defending Wendy. A man should always defend women.

His mother, of course, had flipped out about the whole thing. She had spent much of the evening screaming about Dennis Farman and Dennis Farman’s parents, and how she was going to press charges AND sue-sue the Farmans, sue the school, sue Mr. Alvarez.

His father had been calmer, but still upset. He had gotten on the phone with Principal Garnett after Tommy’s mother had finished screaming at him, and asked a lot of questions about what would be done about Dennis.

His mother was voting for prison, but Tommy knew they didn’t send kids to prison for fighting during gym class. Tommy figured Dennis would get expelled, which was good, except that that left Dennis free to harass and attack people when school was out. And he had no doubt that Dennis would come after him.

Dennis would blame him for everything. Never mind that Dennis had tried to shove a rotten finger from a dead person down Wendy’s throat. That right there was enough to get him expelled. But Dennis wouldn’t see it that way.

Tommy and Wendy sat in the outer office while their mothers were in with Principal Garnett. Tommy could hear his mother’s voice as she ranted and raved. She was down a hall and behind a closed door, and he could still hear her. He felt bad for Principal Garnett.

He felt bad for himself too. He was afraid his mother would come storming out of the principal’s office and drag him home with her just because she was mad. She had already made threats about moving him to another school, which he didn’t want at all.

He looked at Wendy sitting next to him and made an impatient face, rolling his eyes. She just looked at him.

“Are you all right?” Tommy asked.

“No!” she said, her voice lowered so as not to attract the attention of the secretaries. “I’m mad! Dennis tried to stick the finger of a dead person in my mouth! He touched my face with the finger of a dead person! I’m still totally grossed out!”

“Oh.” He knew better than to say too much when a girl was really mad.

Wendy’s expression softened. “Are you all right? You look like you hurt all over.”

“Yeah, but I’m pretending I don’t or my mom will make me stay home. I don’t want to stay home with her. She’s crazy mad.”

A door opened back in the depths of the office. Tommy snapped his head around, wincing at the pain. His mother came storming out of the hall, her face as red as the suit she wore, her eyes bugging out of her head.