An Evil Mind--A Suspense Novel (13 page)

1

“Do you have children?” Mark asked.

“Yes.” Brian Curtis nodded.

According to his birth certificate, Sam Curtis’s parents’ were Brian James Curtis and Caroline Rose Burke. Caroline had remarried two years after divorcing Sam’s father and taken her new husband’s last name, Dolman. Both Brian and Caroline still lived at the addresses provided by Edward Phillips.

Brian Curtis was a thickset man with a sizable bald spot. He wore gray sweatpants, a black T-shirt, and brown leather slippers. He spoke with an accent that sounded Australian.

“What are their names?” Mark said.

“Sam and Debra.”

“How old is Sam?”

“Thirty.”

“And Debra?”

“Twenty five.”

“Can you tell me your son’s email address?”

“Let me look.” Brian grabbed his cellphone. About fifteen seconds later he said, “It’s [email protected].”

“What about [email protected]?”

“That’s his old email address. He doesn’t use it anymore. Is he in trouble?”

“No, he’s not in any trouble. I’m just trying to verify some information. Can you show me one of the emails Sam sent you from his old email address?”

“Sure.”

Brian searched his inbox for half a minute and then handed his phone to Mark. “Here you go.”

The message found by Brian had been sent from [email protected] on December 2 of last year; its subject line was “Check this out.” It contained a link to an online video.

“Can I forward it to my email?” Mark asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

Mark forwarded the message to his personal email, and then said, “Did Sam have a dog when he was in middle school?”

“Yes. A Border Collie.”

“What was its name?”

“Bruno.”

“Did Sam break your video camera when he was fifteen?”

Looking puzzled, Brian said, “Yes, he did. That thing cost fifteen hundred dollars.”

“How did he break it?”

“He dropped it from the roof of our house.”

Edward Phillips (or rather Sam Curtis) must hate his parents, Mark thought. If Brian and Caroline had posted their son’s bail before January 11, Edward Phillips wouldn’t have stolen his body.

“Sam spent four weeks in jail last winter because he couldn’t post bail,” Mark said. “Did he ask you to help him with bail?”

“Yes, he did.”

“Did you say no?”

“I told him that a few weeks in jail would teach him not to drink and drive. I suppose I was right, because he hasn’t made that mistake again.”

“Did Sam ask his mother for help?”

“Yes. I asked Caroline not to help him.”

Mark wished he could tell Brian that because of his tough love his son had ended up on death row.

“Was it you who paid Sam’s bail in January?”

“No. It was one of his friends.”

It must have been Jeff Phillips.

“Do you have any pictures of you with Sam?”

Mark had little doubt that the man sitting in front of him was Sam Curtis’s dad: his middle name was James and his place and date of birth matched the place and date of birth in the father section of Sam Curtis’s birth certificate. He wanted to see photos of Brian with Sam to be completely sure.

“Yes, I do.”

“Can I see them?”

“Sure. Let’s go to the study.”

In the study, Brian turned on his laptop, opened the Pictures folder, and then clicked on a subfolder named Sam.

“I’d like to see the most recent photo,” Mark said.

“Okay.” Brian clicked on the first thumbnail in the top row.

It was a picture of Brian and Sam sitting at a restaurant table. Both men were smiling.

“It was taken about four years ago,” Brian said.

Mark looked at the photo for a long moment and then said, “I need to ask you a personal question, Brian. If you don’t want to answer it, just say so.”

“Okay.”

“Did Sam’s mother ever cheat on you?”

Brian pushed the laptop aside. “I guess you have good reason to ask this question. And I’ll answer it. Yes, Caroline did cheat on me.”

“Did she cheat on you with a man named Aaron?”

“Yes, he was one of her lovers. I should have beaten the crap out of him.” Brian smiled. “How do you know about him?”

“A friend of Caroline’s told me. What was his last name?”

“Townsend.”

“How often do you talk to Sam?”

“Not very often. I haven’t talked to him since March. He changed his number and didn’t give me the new one.”

“Do you know where he lives?”

“No, I don’t.”

A short dark-haired woman in her late forties stepped into the room. She kissed Brian on the cheek and said, “Oh, we have a guest.” She smiled at Mark.

“This is Mark. He’s a Dallas police detective.”

“Police detective?” the woman said.

“Please meet my wife, Melanie,” Brian said to Mark.

“Nice to meet you, Melanie,” Mark said.

“I’ll leave you two alone.” Melanie smiled again, and walked out of the study.

“You know, I’m not upset that Sam doesn’t call me,” Brian said. “To me, it’s a sign that he finally turned his life around.” Brian paused. “You see, he used to ask Caroline and me for money every month. He doesn’t do it anymore. Evidently, he found a well-paying job.”

“Does Sam call Caroline?”

Brian shook his head. “No, he doesn’t.” He clasped his hands in his lap. “I know Sam’s mad at us, maybe even hates us, but I’m sure we made the right decision. Jail changed him for the better. Have you met Sam?”

“Yes.”

“How’s he doing?”

“I don’t know how he’s doing now. I met him last November. But I’m sure he’s fine. Does he keep in touch with his sister?”

“Debra’s Melanie’s daughter. Sam’s met her only a couple of times.”

Sam Curtis had stopped communicating with his family. It was quite a drastic change, wasn’t it?

“I need you to do me a favor, Brian. Please don’t tell anyone about our conversation, including Sam and Caroline.”

“Okay. So Sam’s not in trouble, right?”

“He’s not in trouble.”

2

Let’s review the facts.

Sam Curtis
actually
had a Border Collie named Bruno.

Sam Curtis
actually
dropped his father’s video camera from the roof of his house.

Sam Curtis’s mother
actually
cheated on her husband with Aaron Townsend.

Phillips knows Sam’s email and eBay passwords. He knew where Sam kept the gun.

This morning Mark had obtained Sam Curtis’s Social Security number and found that it matched the number he had gotten from Phillips.

Every piece of information given by Edward Phillips had proved correct, and there were a significant number of them.

Could someone other than Sam Curtis know all this?

It would take a lot of effort to gather this information. Why would Phillips do it? He had nothing to gain by tricking his victim’s father into believing that he was Sam Curtis. And he had to know that no judge and no governor in America would believe a body-switch story, no matter how much proof was presented.

The logical conclusion was that Phillips hadn’t acquired this information by making inquiries and hacking Sam Curtis’s email.

Sam had abandoned the email and eBay accounts he had used before his DWI arrest. He had stopped talking to his parents and started hanging out with Jeff Phillips. These facts supported Phillips’s claim.

He’s telling the truth, Mark thought. Edward Phillips did swap bodies with him.

If Edward Phillips loved his girlfriend very much, he might have told her about the body switch.

Phillips had had no female visitors except for his mother while he was in the Dallas County Jail, which meant that his visitor records didn’t contain his girlfriend’s name.

Detective Blanco might know Phillips’s girlfriend’s name.

Mark looked at his watch. It was eight-fifty.

It wasn’t too late to call Blanco.

Mark dialed Blanco’s number. The phone rang twice and then Blanco answered.

“Hi, Mark. What’s up?”

“Hi, Rob. I’m calling about Edward Phillips’s girlfriend. Do you happen to know her name?”

“I didn’t know he had a girlfriend.”

“I see. Goodbye, Rob.”

Chris Novak. He used to be Phillips’s close friend. He should know Phillips’s girlfriend’s name (assuming Phillips had had a girlfriend). He might even have her phone number.

There was one more thing he could ask Novak about: Edward Phillips’s interest in black magic.

It wasn’t too late to pay Chris Novak a visit. His place was only twenty minutes away.

Mark found Novak’s address and entered it into the GPS.

3

Christopher Novak was home.

“We met a few weeks ago,” Mark said after introducing himself.

“Oh yeah, I remember you.” Novak nodded.

In the living room, Novak asked, “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“I’d like to ask you a few questions about your friend Edward Phillips.”

“He’s not my friend anymore.”

“Right. Your
former
friend Edward Phillips. Did Edward have a girlfriend before he went to prison?”

“Yes. Her name was Anna.”

“Do you have her number?”

“I think I have it in my phone.” Novak picked up his cell from the coffee table and about fifteen seconds later told Mark Anna’s number.

“Do you still keep in touch with Anna?” Mark asked.

“No, I don’t.”

“Do you know her last name?”

“No.”

“Do you know where she lives?”

“No.”

“Was Edward interested in black magic?”

“Black magic? I don’t know. Maybe a little. He likes movies about ghosts and that kind of stuff. I like them, too.”

“Did he have books on black magic?”

“No. I didn’t see any books on black magic at his place.”

“Did his father have books on black magic?”

“I don’t know.”

“Have you ever been to Edward’s parents’ place?”

“Yes, I have, but I never paid any attention to their books.”

“Did Edward ever talk about magic rituals?”

Novak smiled. “Rituals? Well, we went to a few witchcraft websites, just for fun. We tried a couple of love spells, but they didn’t work.” Novak giggled. “We tried like ten money spells, but they didn’t work, either.”

Did Phillips find the body switch ritual on the Internet?

“We played with a Ouija board a few times, but nothing happened. Do you believe in witchcraft and ghosts?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Did Edward ever talk about Satanism?”

“Satanism? No. You think he’s a Satanist?”

“I think it’s possible.”

Mark took out Sam Curtis’s picture and showed it to Novak. “Have you ever met this man?”

Novak looked at the photo for a long moment and said, “No, I’ve never met him.”

Novak didn’t seem to have recognized Sam Curtis. Evidently, Curtis hadn’t told him about the body swap.

“Do you keep in touch with Edward’s parents?”

“No, I don’t.”

1

On Tuesday morning Mark read the text messages Sam Curtis and Jeff Phillips had sent each other from August 22 to 24.

On August 22, at 4:32 p.m., Jeff Phillips texted Sam Curtis: “Wanna go to Ninja Sushi?”

At 4:51 p.m., Curtis replied: “OK. What time?”

At 4:58 p.m., Phillips texted: “6:30.”

At 5:01 p.m., Curtis replied: “OK.”

On August 23, at 12:33 p.m., Curtis texted Phillips: “Call me.”

They had sent no messages to each other on August 24.

There was no mention of Austin. Jeff Phillips hadn’t called Sam Curtis Son, and Sam Curtis hadn’t called Jeff Phillips Dad.

These guys were cautious.

At four o’clock, Mark received a response from Edward Phillips’s former girlfriend’s cellphone company. The number Mark had gotten from Chris Novak was registered to Anna Wesley. She had to be Phillips’s former girlfriend because the number had belonged to her for three years.

Anna Wesley lived in Irving, eleven miles from Sam Curtis’s house. Interviewing her was not a good idea: if she knew about the body switch, she might tell Curtis that he was under investigation. Mark decided to inquire if Anna Wesley had received any text messages or calls from Sam Curtis.

At half past five, Detective Aguero called Mark to give him an update on the Laura Sumner case.

“Two weeks ago, I talked to Edward Phillips’s father,” Aguero said. “His name’s Jeff Phillips. I asked him if he went out of town on August twenty-third. As you may remember, Laura Sumner was killed on August twenty-third. Jeff said he didn’t go out of town that day. I checked his credit card records and found out that he was in Austin on August twenty-third.”

“He lied.”

“Yes, he lied. Last Saturday I asked him for an explanation. He said that he went to Austin to get laid.”

“Can he prove it?”

“No.”

“Do you believe him?”

“No, I don’t.”

“If Jeff was involved in Laura Sumner’s murder, he was probably involved in my daughter’s murder, too.”

“I agree.”

“Did you ask Jeff where he’d been on the night of Helen’s murder?”

“Yes, I did. He said he’d been in a bar in Dallas. He has no alibi.”

“What’s your next move?”

“I want to talk to Edward’s friends. I asked Edward’s mother to persuade him to help us. I hope she pulls it off. By the way, I saw that you visited Edward three times in the last month. Are you trying to get him to give you his partner’s name?”

“Yes.”

“Did he tell you anything useful?”

“No, he didn’t. He keeps saying he’s innocent.”

2

When Mark finished his steak, he took three sips of water and then looked at Joan, who sat across from him, eating a salad, her eyes fixed on her plate.

“This steak is amazing,” Mark said. “Thank you, honey.”

“You’re welcome.” Joan smiled.

“You know what Edward Phillips told me last Saturday?”

“You went to see Phillips last Saturday?”

“Yes.”

Mark wanted to discuss Edward Phillips’s fantastical story with someone, and Joan was probably the only person he could talk to about switched bodies and black magic without worrying about his reputation.

“What did he tell you?”

“He said he wasn’t Edward Phillips. He said Edward Phillips switched bodies with him last January, while he was in the county jail.”

I still haven’t told her about Phillips’s prints on the knife used to kill Helen.

There was no point in telling Joan about the prints now, was there? What good would it do?

“Edward Phillips switched bodies with him? What does that mean?”

“Remember the movie Freaky Friday?”

“Is that the one with Jamie Lee Curtis?”

“Yes.”

“He actually said that?”

“Yes, he did.”

“Is he trying to play crazy?”

“No. He can prove it.”

Joan raised her eyebrows. “Did he give you the proof?”

“Yes, he did. He said he used to be Sam Curtis. He gave me Sam Curtis’s email password and Social Security number, I checked them, and they turned out to be correct. He knows Sam Curtis’s eBay password, he knows the name of the dog Sam Curtis had when he was a child, and he knows the name of the guy Sam Curtis’s mother cheated with sixteen years ago.”

“That’s his proof?”

“I think it’s solid.”

“Don’t tell me you believe him.”

“How does he know all this?”

“Maybe they’re friends.”

“They’re not friends.”

“Have you seen this Sam Curtis guy?”

“Yes.”

“You said Phillips knew the name of the man Sam Curtis’s mother cheated with. How did you verify that?”

“I asked Sam’s father about it.”

“How did Phillips switch bodies with him?”

“He thinks Phillips used black magic.”

Joan shook her head. “I don’t care what he knows. Body switching is impossible.”

“Why would he make this up?”

“Maybe he wants you to help him overturn his conviction.”

“He knows I can’t help him with that.”

“Did he ask you for anything?”

“No, he didn’t.”

“Do you believe him?”

“I haven’t made up my mind yet.”

“Do you believe in black magic?”

“I believe that Satan exists. Maybe Satan helped Phillips swap bodies with Sam Curtis.”

“Come on, Mark. You can’t be serious.”

“Let’s agree to disagree.”

Mark glanced at his watch. It was 8:21 p.m.

If he weren’t exhausted, he would spy on Sam Curtis tonight.

I’ll spy on him tomorrow, Mark thought.