Twisted Hunger (19 page)

Abraham paused for a moment as he considered what else he needed to know. “Is there any need to give Mr. Levitt police protection?”

“Not at this point,” the sheriff replied. “He said he’s going to stay with a brother in San Francisco for a while, so he should be out of harm’s way, so to speak. Anyway, we don’t want to create more concern in the community by implying that he’s in danger because of coming forward, when the truth is, his information might not be of much help unless we actually catch the guy. There could be another problem, though. Harris said he looked like he had AIDS…
bad
. He might not be around much longer.”

“Oh that would be a shame. Let’s just hope we find the killer while he’s still alive to identify him. I appreciate this news, Frank, but I’m afraid I have an appointment waiting. Say hello to your wife for us.”

Abraham hung up the phone and took several slow deep breaths. The information he had just received had to be assimilated and analyzed, but he had no time to do that properly now. Because his mother had picked at him yesterday until he’d agreed to try her idea, he had an appointment to meet someone he didn’t need. As he had told her, however, if he didn’t like Ms. Diane Oliver, he had no intention of wasting his valuable time no matter how many famous people the woman worked for previously.

On the other hand, knowing that she might possibly report back to his mother, he wouldn’t want to give Ms. Oliver a bad impression of him.

It was all simply too much for him to figure out on his own.

* * *

Ellery was enjoying her chat with Diane, but part of her attention was distracted by what was going on in the senator’s office. Rather than calling for Ms. Oliver to be sent in after he hung up with Sheriff Patterson, the senator asked her to excuse him for a few more minutes. He then made a call on his private line and, almost immediately, his brother arrived and hurried into his office.

What made it even more peculiar was that, for the first few seconds, the men’s voices were both raised, as though they were arguing. Because of the heavy door between the offices, she couldn’t make out enough words to understand what they were upset about, but one thing was very clear. Unless a third party had entered through the senator’s side door, Teddy’s meek, stuttering manner of speech had been miraculously replaced by a voice stronger than his brother’s.

She also found it interesting how well Diane was pretending not to notice that anything was wrong. Nearly fifteen minutes passed before the senator buzzed her again. His voice sounded completely calm as he asked her to send in Ms. Oliver.

Ellery got up and went to open the connecting door to his office.

“Ah-hah,” Diane said, coming up behind her. “I won’t have to get new stationery after all.”

Ellery took a second to recall what that was about, but she had no idea which flaw the expert had seen.

“Your left foot turns in slightly when you walk,” she said in a hushed voice then she winked and went in to meet her new client.

Ellery stifled a laugh and closed the door quietly. She hoped the senator liked Diane as much as she did. She seemed very competent.

When she turned back to her desk, she was momentarily startled by the sight of Teddy waiting in her office doorway. His head was slightly bowed and his arms were crossed defensively.

“Is everything all right?” she asked.

As usual, it took him a few seconds to force his first words out. “You had suggested I ch-ch-check w-w-w-w— about dinner th-th-this w-w-w-w-week.”

She almost made a comment about his stutter returning, but she caught herself. “Oh yes, of course.” She skimmed over several pages of her appointment calendar. Now that she had seen, or rather
heard
something odd going on between the brothers, she decided that dinner with Teddy would definitely be a good idea. “Thursday looks like I’d have a chance of getting out of here at a reasonable hour. It would probably be best though if we waited ‘til that afternoon to set a time.”

As he ducked out the door, Teddy’s pleased smile was brilliant. In that moment, the similarity between the brothers was almost identical.

It came as no great shock that the senator gave Diane ten minutes more than he’d promised, then informed Ellery that he and Ms. Oliver would be spending one hour a day together for the next week. Though she was glad to hear that, it meant she would have to do some mad shuffling of the senator’s calendar to fit it in.

Diane stopped to talk to Ellery for a few more minutes before leaving. “It looks like I’m staying in Sacramento for at least a week, and I don’t know a soul here. I’m used to being the lone stranger, but I’d really like to have dinner with you if you’re free. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think we have quite a bit in common.”

Although Ellery had agreed to see Brandon that night, she had been thinking about canceling ever since she spoke to him earlier. Diane had just given her a better idea. “I think so too. Do you know Brandon Ross?”

“The television star? I know who he is, but we’ve never met.”

“He’s a friend who’ll be leaving in the morning, and I promised to have dinner with him tonight. I’m sure he’d love to have you join us.” When Diane hesitated, she added, “He could be a good contact for you.”

Diane smiled. “We
do
think alike. Yes, I’d be pleased to join you.”

“I could pick you up around seven-thirty.”

“That would be fine, if it’s not too much trouble. I’m staying at the Yorkshire Hotel. I understand they have a very good restaurant.”

Ellery chuckled. “They do, but I’ve had enough of the Yorkshire to last me a while. I had another place in mind for tonight. This will work out great though. Brandon is staying there also and I had already planned to pick him up. I’ll give you a call if I’m going to be late getting out of here.”

After Diane left, Ellery had a fleeting thought about Brevowski’s warning, but decided Diane didn’t count. Not only had she come in on legitimate business, she had come with Mother Jones’ stamp of approval.

However, she knew if Brevowski was hovering as closely as he implied, he might see her tonight and question her about Diane. To cover herself, she thought of an easy way to prove Diane was trustworthy. She dialed the New York phone number on her card. After one ring, a voice-mail message came on.

“Hello, this is Diane Oliver of Mirror Images, Inc. I’ll be out of the office from June 3rd through the 20th, staying at the Yorkshire Hotel in Sacramento, California. If this is an emergency, you can reach me on my cell.”

Ellery hung up and pulled up the Mirror Images website. It was very professional and involved advanced graphics, much more than needed to present a cover. She felt satisfied that she had done what any good spy would have.

She decided not to warn Brandon of the slight change in advance. If he became annoyed that his plans to seduce her this evening were spoiled by a third party’s presence, he might decide to cancel out, and she thought it could be a good idea to have Diane and Brandon meet. If Brandon could spend several hours with a woman like Diane and not flirt with her or make a pass, then Ellery might be able to believe he had changed as much as he vowed.

They’d spent a delightful day together Sunday and, after leaving the office late last night, had met for dessert and coffee. When she again resisted his attempts to get her in bed, he had reacted maturely… much to her surprise. He was doing everything right to convince her that she meant more to him than a temporary distraction.

And yet, something was still holding her back from enjoying his attentions on an intimate level.

Perhaps the answer was simple. If he had only been interested in her as a distraction, she might have already found a way around her concern for her reputation. Since he kept bringing up a long-term commitment, however, she was hesitant to take any step in that direction.

In a way, she was hoping something would happen that evening to help her make a decision about him.

Chapter 11

Back in his motel room, Luke took apart the press kit Ellery had given him and spread everything out on the bed.

There were two photos of Jones, one smiling, one serious. Neither was very flattering, and both gave him the creeps to the point that he had to turn them over while he reviewed the rest of the material. The press kit contained a brief biography and numerous newspaper and magazine articles touting Jones’ successes in politics. Ellery had added a more detailed bio, a voting record summary and copies of two speeches he had given. It didn’t look like there was anything that would detail the traveling he’d done, but Luke had known asking for that had been a long shot.

As he began reading the biographical information, however, he realized there was one thing he could compare immediately. Until the Jones brothers were in college, the family never lived in the United States. Therefore, if the first murders occurred while they were in a foreign country, Theodore Jones could not possibly be The Eye Doctor.

Luke hurriedly pulled out the victim profile summary sheets he had copied from Terrell’s file to compare the dates. The first documented murder was the University of Pennsylvania student twenty-six years ago. According to the bio, Jones was a junior at Yale at that time. The second was a professor at Harvard two years later, when the senator was attending Yale law school. Luke had nothing that stated where Theodore was at that time, but from what he had learned so far, it was probably safe to assume that he was either there or somewhere close by.

Thus, rather than eliminate Jones as a suspect, the bio seemed to corroborate Luke’s theory. On the other hand, both victims being associated with college while Jones was a student in the same geographic region wasn’t solid proof of guilt either. He could almost hear Terrell asking him if he knew how many other college students were in that area at those times.

He carefully read every word on every piece of paper twice through, but as he had expected, nothing placed Jones in the Los Angeles area three weeks ago.

He was about to put everything away when two lines of small italic print caught his eye. They were at the bottom of a powerful speech given by Abraham Lincoln Jones about the Bill of Rights. The italicized lines placed him at the California State Young Republicans Convention in Los Angeles, twenty-one years ago—the same city and year that Luke had witnessed the murder in the alley. A quick search on the internet would pin down the exact date of that convention.

He realized it still wasn’t enough to convince Terrell. He needed more, probably a lot more before Terrell would consider his theory over the FBI’s conclusion that a professional assassin could be involved. If he could verify that Jones and his brother were in Los Angeles when Neuman was murdered, plus come up with a match for at least one of the out-of-state murders, on top of the college ones, then he’d have something worth calling Terrell about. He’d still be mad as hell about Luke investigating the case on his own, but he’d get over it once he heard the results.

What Luke had to do now was figure out a way to get more information about Jones’ past travels without using Ellery Winters.

* * *

Rather than having a cocktail with his wife before the Bar Association meeting, Abraham went for a drive, as he often did when he had a problem to work out. He would miss this liberty after the election. The vice president could not refuse the full-time protection of the Secret Service. Once in the White House, he knew his personal freedoms would be sharply curtailed… for the good of the country, of course.

That was why it was so very important that
everything
be taken care of immediately. There would be few opportunities like this once he was named as Erikson’s running mate, and from what he’d been told, that announcement could be forthcoming in as little as a couple weeks.

With regard to the possible eye witness, Henry Levitt, a solution was already in place. There was something else he had needed to think about on this drive, although it couldn’t actually be classified as a problem. It was more of a question.

Who was Lucas Madigan?
A man who had the audacity to flirt with Vivian to get to Miss Winters. And when that didn’t work, he came to the office to try it again. Abraham might have let it go as a simple matter of infatuation if the man had not lied to him about knowing Detective Harris.