Ultimate Thriller Box Set - Crouch Blake (лучшие книги без регистрации txt) 📗

“That’s okay.” Aware of her own breathing.

“I heard you had a girl,” he said. “Dressed up and posed, am I right?”

“Yes.”

“So did we, five months ago. Girl named Alison Burns.”

“What was she wearing?”

“She was dressed up like a flower girl and posed on a bed at a motel slated for demolition. It was pure luck we found her at all. It was kind of opportunistic—guy that found her was taking pictures of abandoned buildings. He said he had his eye on the place and as soon as they cleared out, he went in before it could be boarded up. He was our main suspect for a while, but turns out he was in Monterey around the time the girl was killed—at a photographer’s workshop.”

“How old was she?”

“Twelve. How old was yours?”

“Fourteen.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment, probably pondering the disparity in their ages. Laura pressed him for details.

“She was left there after they officially closed the place, but before they removed the beds. The fact the guy found her that early gave us a better fix on time of death.”

According to Endicott, Alison Burns had been smothered. She had traces of Rohypnol, the date rape drug, in her system.

“We figured the guy gave her the Rohypnol, then soft-smothered her, but that’s only a theory. We think from the stomach contents that he held a little party for her.”

Laura said, “What?”

“We think he took her to McDonalds. Happy Meal, soft drink, Baskin Robbins after that. There were balloons in the room and a new teddy bear.”

Stranger and stranger. “Like a birthday celebration?”

“Like one. Her birthday wasn’t anywhere around that time. We think he made her last day a good one.”

Laura was aware how tightly she gripped the phone.

“That’s conjecture on our part, though.”

“He soft-smothered her?”

“We think he wanted to quote unquote ‘ease her into sleep.’”

“Was she molested?”

“Oh yeah. For days.”

“Days? He didn’t kill her right away?”

“We think he had her four days, maybe five.”

Jessica’s killer had kept her only a few hours tops, and raped her postmortem. Maybe this wasn’t the same guy. “Could I see the evidence list?”

“We’ll need a written request.”

“I’ll fax you one, but is there any way we can expedite this?”

“I’ll see what I can do. Go ahead and send your request. Make sure you ask for a detailed list. You’ll want to ask for photos of the dress, the digital camera—“

“What camera?”

“The one he sent her.”

“He sent her a camera?”

“Among other things.” He paused. “We think he got to her over the Internet.”

Twenty minutes later, Laura got the first fax: A photograph of Alison Burns’s dress.

According to the accompanying report, the dress pattern came from an Internet company called Inspirational Woman, which sold clothing designed for the “modest woman and girl.” Laura recognized it from Ted Olsen’s list. She looked it up online. The dress, called “Winsome,” was a lot like the one that had been used for Jessica Parris, but there were a few differences. Alison’s dress was plainer, but it had an apron that looked as if it were part of the dress itself.

She scrolled down through the patterns and found Jessica’s dress at the bottom: It was called “Charity."

This was good. This was really good.

It got better. The faxes came through at a maddeningly slow pace: A photograph of the camera Alison had received in the mail, two photos of jewelry that seemed sophisticated for a twelve-year-old. But the last picture was the best find of all.

Scribbled on top was a notation by Endicott, saying that the original photo had been printed up on an inkjet and taped to Alison’s mirror. This was a black-and-white photocopy, a poor one—but enough to give her a thrill.

The man was in his early twenties. Dark, handsome, wearing casual but expensive clothing. He stood before a clapboard house on stilts. Scribbled across the bottom, barely legible in the photocopy, was a note.

“Forever True, James.”

This was the guy the Riverside Sheriff’s Department believed had corresponded with Alison Burns via the Internet. Unfortunately, they had no more information since Alison Burns didn’t have a computer. Endicott believed she had been contacted by this man during her time on the computer at the public library.

Laura stared at the man, putting herself in Alison Burns’ shoes. He did not look like a child molester. He looked like a gorgeous, rich, young guy who could fit the bill in the Prince Charming department.

The kind of guy who could lure a precocious twelve-year-old.

Laura looked at the house. The fact that it was on stilts indicated ocean-front property—a beach house? The house was clapboard, a light color, and a saw palmetto grew near the steps. The Gulf Coast? And the man’s tanned beauty, the professional quality of the photograph—this could be a photo from a model’s portfolio.

She grabbed her notebook and jotted these new developments down.

Alison Burns - similars

Dress patterns – Inspirational Woman

Motor home seen at Brewery Gulch

Motor home seen near primary crime scene

Digital camera, jewelry sent to Alison/Internet connection (?)

CRZYGRL12

The man in the photo—beach house?

Serial killer, organized type

Differences between Jessica and Alison: period of time kept, age, manner of death

Postmortem vs. antemortem

There were serious differences. The age difference, the method used to kill the victims, the fact that Alison was kept and raped for days and Jessica was alive only a few hours and raped postmortem.

Jessica Parris’s pubic area had been shaved. The dress the killer brought was too small—the ME saying that Jessica was an immature fourteen-year-old. Laura wondered—could he have realized his mistake after he picked her up? And would the fact that she was older than he expected ruin it for him?

If it did, he might take it out on her. He might strangle her instead of “ease her into sleep,” as Endicott had described it.

Laura was even more impressed by the similarities. She had always felt that the answer to this problem was on the Internet.

If the guy who killed Jessica also killed Alison, it would be easy enough to eliminate Chuck Lehman. All they had to do was verify where he was at the time of Alison’s death.

If it was the same killer.

Despite her doubts about Lehman, Laura added him to her list.

Lehman’s friendship with Cary and Jessica

Lip Bullets lipstick found in bedroom

Vacuumed, change sheets?

Safeway card found nearby

Screenplay about kidnap and murder of young girl

Porn

Lehman lied about relationship with Cary.

It was like looking at two different pictures. A strong case could be made either way.

Frustrated, she closed the notebook and stared out at the desert beyond her window. The answer, she knew, was in the cyber world.

She picked up Jay Ramsey’s card and made the call.

24

Wrought iron gates set into a seven-foot-high stone wall marked the entrance to the Alamo Farm on Fort Lowell Road. The last time she’d been here, the stone wall was waist-high and there were no gates. The trees beyond the wall were the same, though mature mesquite and Arizona walnut. As lush and healthy as she remembered.

As she approached the speaker set into the pole underneath the security camera, Laura buzzed her window down, looking at the wall. She couldn’t tell where the old section left off and the new one began. She did notice the embedded glass across the top.

The speaker crackled. “May I see some ID?” a voice asked.