Dead Ringer (35 page)

Before Jacob rang the front bell, Zack drew his gun and ducked down the
alley behind the house. He returned and reported Cole's car was in the
driveway. Jacob rang the bell. Seconds passed and they heard nothing. Jacob
rang the bell again. Finally, footsteps sounded in the house. The door opened.

The man standing before them was tall, lean and possessed
an intensity
in his eyes that caught Jacob by surprise. This
guy was no insurance agent.

"Cole Markham?" Jacob asked.

Markham's eyes narrowed.
"Yeah.
Can I help
you?"

Jacob pulled out his badge. "We're with the police. We have a warrant to
search this house."

Markham stiffened.
"On what grounds?"

"We have reason to believe you might have knowledge about a recent
murder."

Markham didn't blink. He wasn't intimidated or surprised. "That's
ridiculous."

"We don't think so." In fact, he was more certain than ever that this
guy was into something up to his neck.

Blue eyes narrowed. "Let me see your warrant."

Jacob handed it to him, carefully watching him as he surveyed the
document. "It's all very legitimate."

Markham shoved out a breath. "I want my attorney to look at this first."

Lawyering up so quickly.
"Feel free to call him. In the
meantime we're going to be searching the house." Jacob raised his hand
signaling Ayden, Vega, Zack, and the city detectives to advance toward the
front steps. "We're coming in now."

"This is
my
house!" Markham shouted. "I want you the hell out of
here!"

"Save it," Jacob said. He pushed past Markham. Zack moved in right
behind him and blocked Markham so he couldn't stop Jacob.

Jacob's gaze roamed the room. It was furnished with only a lawn chair
and a TV set up on crates. Tinfoil dangled from the set's rabbit ears. His
footsteps echoed as he moved through the main room and looked in the vacant
sitting and dining rooms. The kitchen had a refrigerator, but it was empty save
for a couple of beers.

"This is bullshit!" Markham's voice echoed through the house.

Jacob had hit a nerve with the guy. Good. He started to climb the stairs
to the second floor. He glanced back and saw that Markham looked visibly upset
now.

"I'm going to sue your ass for everything you're worth!" Markham
shouted.

Jacob winked at him. "Go for it, sport."

He moved down the center hallway.
To the master
bedroom.
He pushed the door open and stopped dead in his tracks.

The room was papered with pictures of ten women.
All
dark haired.
All young.
He didn't recognize the
faces of all the women, but he did recognize newspaper pictures of Jackie and
Vicky. There were also several pictures of Kendall.

Anger roiled inside Jacob as he stared at the pictures.

"Zack!
Get up here!"

Kendall woke in phases to the sound of Nicole's frantic voice. She
struggled to clear her mind and to shake off the fog that seemed to surround
her. Her limbs felt so heavy and her side ached. She wanted to roll over and
let the sleep take her.

"Kendall!" Nicole's voice was so sharp and angry. What was her problem?
Nicole was such an easygoing person.

She felt the sharp sting of a slap on her face. The pain made her angry.
"Stop."

"Wake up!" Nicole shook her shoulders.

Kendall's eyes fluttered open. The image above her was a blur. She
blinked a second time and shook her head. "Nicole? What's going on?"

"Wake up! You've been drugged." Nicole pulled Kendall into a sitting
position.

Her head spun. She felt nauseous. As her vision cleared a fraction she
looked around the room. Pink. It was filled with the color pink. "Where the
hell are we?"

Nicole shoved out a sigh. "I don't know. He brought me here in the
middle of last night."

Kendall shoved long fingers through her hair. She couldn't concentrate. Couldn't
remember how she got here. "Who is he?"

"I don't know. His face was covered and he keeps talking about us
joining some family."

God, think. Her brain felt as if it were wrapped in cotton.
"Family?"

Nicole rose gingerly, cupping her hand to her belly. She picked up a
photo album from the nightstand and handed it to Kendall. "He killed those
three women. And others, I think."

She glanced down at the pictures secured in the album's clear plastic
pockets. They were of the women who'd been killed. Only the pictures had been
taken when they were alive. Snapshots taken while they walked down the street,
talked to their grocery store clerk, came out of a shoe store.

Someone had been following them and taking pictures.
"My
God."

Nicole flipped through several pages. "Look at the last page."

Kendall saw a picture of herself and Nicole. They were having lunch. She
remembered that lunch. It had been taken just before Christmas. "He's been
following us."

"He considers us family."

Kendall clawed through the fog in her brain until she remembered the
face of the man who'd taken her. "I know who he is."

Zack, with four uniformed officers behind him, brought Markham upstairs
to the room dedicated to the dead women and Kendall. Markham wasn't cuffed but
was surrounded by tense cops waiting for an excuse.

Jacob turned from the wall of photos and stared at him. "Mind explaining
this?"

Markham folded his arms. "It's not a crime to collect pictures."

Jacob flexed the fingers of his right hand. "No. But it's mighty
suspicious when those women show up dead. Where's Kendall?"

Markham frowned. "I don't know. Is she missing?"

Jacob's eyes narrowed. Rage pumped in his veins.
"Like
you don't know."

Markham met his gaze. "I
don't
know. I've been gone most of the
day."

"That's crap. You know where she is. It's clear you've been watching her
for days, weeks even."

"Yeah, I've been watching her for about a week. But I don't know where
she is. Like I said, I've been out most of the day."

"Where the hell were you?"

Markham set his jaw as if mentally digging in his heels. Clearly, he
didn't like cops.
"Across the river."

"Killing another woman?"

Markham shook his head. "So like the cops to take the easy way out."

"Believe me, pal," Jacob said, "
none
of this is
going to be easy." He shifted tactics. "Who are these women on the wall?"

"I want my lawyer."

Jacob moved so that his face was within inches of Markham's. "I've got
two missing women. I swear to God if anything happens to them because you
didn't talk..." He let the sentence trail.

Markham's brow knitted and he let out a sigh. "They're women who've been
murdered. Most were strangled.
A couple were
beaten to
death. It's easy enough for you to check. I've got all their names."

Jacob cursed. "Checking takes time, but you've already figured that part
out. And I think you know Kendall doesn't have much time."

"If he has her, she has time," Markham said. There was no joy in his
statement.

"If he's got Nicole," Ayden ground out, "she doesn't have time. She's
about to give birth."

"Who the hell is
he?
" Jacob demanded.

"I don't know his real name," Markham answered.

Jacob shook his head. "Where would he be holding them?"

"That's what I was trying to figure out today." Markham fisted his
hands. "I don't think he'll hurt either of them right away."

"How the hell can you
be
so sure?!" Jacob
shouted.

"Because he likes to hold his victims," Markham said. "He held some for
months."

"His last three victims weren't held for months," Jacob countered. "He
killed them within forty-eight hours."

Ayden checked his watch. "Nicole has been missing for almost twenty-four
hours. And I spoke to her doctor. The baby could come any day now."

Markham shook his head. "I don't know why he'd want Nicole. She doesn't
fit the profile."

"Well, she's missing," Ayden said.

Jacob folded his arms over his chest. He was afraid he'd pummel the smug
bastard if he wasn't careful. "Start talking, Markham.
Fast."

Markham's jaw tightened and released. His distaste and defiance were
clear. "I'm from Denver. I owned a computer software business that was doing
real well until eighteen months ago when my girlfriend, Diane, vanished. The
police thought I had something to do with the disappearance. They hounded me
for months. They took all my computer equipment. When they found out I had a
record, they called clients and told them I was under investigation. Within
weeks, my life was destroyed. Then Diane's sister, Courtney, vanished. The cops
really started to squeeze me then. My income stopped and I lost my house."

Jacob shook his head. "Save the sad story."

Markham glared at him. "January of last year, Diane and Courtney's
bodies were found. Diane had been strangled just days before. Her sister had
been beaten to death the same day." He seemed to struggle with the memories. "I
had an alibi for the time of their deaths."

"Really?"
Jacob said.

"Yeah.
I had been arrested--broken taillight. The cops
were always looking for an excuse to hold me. Anyway, I was in jail when Diane
and her sister were murdered. All that time the cops had been hounding me and
some sicko had them. They were alive and could have been saved."

Jacob stared at him. He was either one hell of a liar or one talented
actor. "Keep talking."

"When the cops realized I hadn't killed the women, they quickly lost
interest in me and the case. Since early October the case has languished. I
needed to find out who had killed Diane and her sister." Contempt dripped from
his words.

"So how the hell do you land on the East Coast two thousand miles away
from home squatting in a vacant house?" Jacob itched to grab this guy by the
collar and rattle the truth out of him.

"Like I said, I owned a computer company. I can hack into any system and
I don't need a warrant to collect data. I checked ViCap. There was an old
killing in Alaska."

Jacob narrowed his eyes. "Keep talking."

"I started watching ViCap.
Nothing for months.
And then you filed a report on the thirteenth. It was the first lead I'd had in
months. So I drove to Richmond from Denver."

"That's bullshit."

Markham sighed. "Have you talked to the trooper in Alaska?"

The guy's knowledge of the Alaska killings added credibility to his
story.

"When I saw Kendall on the news shortly after I arrived, I noticed the
similarity to Diane immediately," Markham said. "I decided to keep an eye on
her."

"Why not come to us?" Ayden challenged.

Markham glared at Ayden. "I don't trust cops. The cops out West made my
life hell. And let's face it--I show up after two women are killed. It would be easy
to assume that after what happened in Denver I was behind these killings."

"If you know so much, then who the hell is behind this?" Jacob asked.

"I spoke with all of Diane's friends and family many times. It wasn't
until the fourth interview with her neighbor that the woman remembered a man.
This guy had done a little carpentry work for Diane a few days before she
vanished. The neighbor only saw him the one time so she'd forgotten all about
him."

Jacob thought about Kendall's newly renovated kitchen.

"By the time I figured out who Kendall's carpenter was and where he
lived, the third victim had been found. The carpenter didn't show up for work
yesterday. I've been watching his house but he hasn't been home either."

"What's the guy's name?"

Markham shoved out a breath. "Todd Franklin."

"You got an address?"

Markham gave him the address of a motel on the south side of town. "He
hasn't been at his motel room since yesterday." He folded his arms over his
chest.

Jacob stared at Markham and flipped open his phone. He quickly verified
Franklin's address. "Ayden, hold this guy while Zack and I check out his
story."

"Be glad to."

An hour later, Jacob and Zack arrived at the address Markham had given
them. Todd was living in a seedy motel on Route 60.
A search
warrant
in hand, they got a key from the manager and with guns drawn
opened the door.

It was dimly lit and smelled of mold. The bed was made neatly and
everything on the cheap bureau was laid out in precise lines. "This guy has a
thing for organization and detail."