Page 9
N o one is home when I get back to Eric and Bellamy’s house, so I let myself in using the spare key they gave me and go straight to the kitchen to make a snack. With a bowl of fresh fruit and another glass of iced tea, I sit down at the kitchen table to call Marcus Kelsey. I’m hoping he’ll agree to meet up with me and talk about what happened between him and Tracy Ellis, but after several rings, the voicemail picks up. I hang up and call again, but he still doesn’t pick up. I leave Marcus a message introducing myself and asking him to call me back.
Looking at the sticky note that Leslie gave me, I decide I’m not willing to just sit around and wait for Marcus to call me back. I have time before I need to meet with Ander at his house, so I’m going to use the listed address to my advantage and see if I can track Marcus down that way.
I finish my fruit and tea, send Bellamy a text to let her know my plans for the rest of the day, and head back out into the blazingly hot afternoon. Putting on my sunglasses and blasting the air-conditioning to keep me from melting, I input the address into my GPS and start the drive to Marcus Kelsey’s house.
Forty-five minutes later, I pull up in front of a small house in a neighborhood that reminds me of the ones built for the soldiers coming home after World War II. There are rows of houses of identical design and only differentiated by details like shutter color and decorations in the flower beds, precise little square yards.
There’s no car in the driveway, but there is a garage, so it’s possible Marcus is parked in there. I park at the curb in front of the house and walk up the driveway to the sidewalk leading to the front stoop. A “No Soliciting” sign is adhered to the door along with a handwritten note warning that the doorbell is broken and to knock. I follow instructions and wait for Marcus to open the door. I don’t hear anything coming from inside, and I knock again. There’s still no reaction, and I back up down the steps so I can try to peek in through the living room window. Curtains pulled tightly over it stop me from seeing anything inside the house.
As I’m walking back toward my car, I see the next-door neighbor setting up a sprinkler in the front lawn. I go around the car and down the street to stand in front of their house.
“Excuse me,” I say.
The man looks up from what he’s doing and notices me. He sets down the sprinkler and walks over.
“Yeah?” he asks. “Something I can do for you?”
I show him my shield and introduce myself. “I was wondering if you know your neighbor, Marcus Kelsey,” I say.
The man’s eyes swing over to Marcus’s house, and he shakes his head. “I don’t think we’ve exchanged ten words total as long as he’s lived here,” he says. “He’s not the type to stop and chat at the mailboxes or come by with a plate of cookies in the holidays, if you know what I mean.”
I don’t think there’s a lot of room for interpretation with that, but I nod anyway.
“All right. Thank you,” I say.
I get back in my car and check the time. I still have a couple of hours before the time that Ander sent me, but I don’t feel like going through the drive all the way back to Bellamy’s house only to turn back around and come out here again later. Instead, I look up the nearest library and head there.
The library is bustling with young families finding respite from the heat, but for the most part, the little children are in the children’s area playing with toys and reading picture books. I bypass that area and go to the information desk. A woman who looks like she was plucked out of a vintage movie looks up from the computer when I approach.
“Can I help you?” she asks.
“Are there study rooms I might be able to use?” I ask.
“Sure,” she says. “At the back of the library, there are five of them. If one is empty, you’re welcome to use it.”
“Thank you,” I say.
I walk in the direction of her gesture and weave through the stacks until I see the row of glass doors on the far wall. Each leads to a tiny room featuring a table bolted to the wall and a simple office chair with its back to the rest of the library. There are people in three of them, but I duck into the last one on the row and put my bag down on the table. I take out my tablet and prop it up on the table so I can video call Sam.
He’s sitting in his office at the sheriff’s department when he answers.
“Hey, babe,” he says, then looks slightly confused. “Where are you?”
“I’m in a library study room,” I tell him. “The investigation is a bit of a drive from Bellamy and Eric’s house, so I’m hanging out here while I wait for my next meeting rather than going all the way back to their place.”
“That makes sense,” he says. “How is it going?”
“It’s going,” I tell him. “I met with Tracy Ellis this morning.”
“How did that go?” he asks. I let out a sigh, and he chuckles. “That well, huh?”
“It was fine,” I say. “I got a lot of good insight into her and her company, and I have to say, I really understand now why people might be so upset by her that they would want to threaten her.”
“Why is that?” he asks.
I try to describe the way Tracy talks and the fierce intensity she exhibits.
“It’s not her faith that bothers me necessarily,” I say. “It’s just some of the beliefs and perceptions that she has, that she masquerades as being about faith. She weaponizes them and turns them into something divisive and exclusive, even when she’s saying that she’s trying to spread her message and bring more people into it. She’s actually just trying to break people apart even more. She calls herself a teacher and says that she doesn’t have followers, but she very clearly puts herself on a pedestal and makes everything all about her and the way she wants things to be.
“I went to a company meeting she had so that she could talk about Gideon Bell’s death, and three people walked out of it, ready to quit right there rather than stay with the company and continue to be threatened. One of the women looked like she was ready to pass out just speaking out against what Tracy wanted, and there were other people in that room who looked absolutely terrified at what she was going to do. There are people in her company who wholeheartedly believe the same things she does and are completely loyal to her because they think she’s right, but I think that there are far more who are just scared of her and don’t want her wrath to come down on them,” I say.
“And this woman is supposed to be a spiritual leader?” Sam asks.
“According to her,” I say.
“Do you think this murder has anything to do with Terrence Brooks?” he asks.
“No,” I tell him, running my fingers back through the front of my hair to try to get some of the wispy pieces at the front to behave themselves in spite of the humidity I just left. “None of the people I’ve talked to who have actually seen the threatening notes have mentioned seeing the symbol that is on the Game Master communications. The killer wrote on the wall in Gideon Bell’s apartment, and it wasn’t there either. I don’t think that they are connected in any way.
“But that doesn’t mean I’m not bothered by the way that Tracy Ellis is talking about him and his death. She’s trying to posthumously make him a part of her stance against the world even though there’s nothing about him that I’ve read or heard that sounds like his beliefs were anything like hers. It’s almost like she’s trying to turn him into a martyr she can point at and scare more people into following what she says.
“Now that Gideon has been murdered, I’m afraid the media is going to latch on to it even more. There’s no clear evidence that Terrence Brooks’s death had anything to do with his religion or his job, but that’s popping up everywhere. It’s being called a hate crime, and I’ve even seen some posts online suggesting some sort of cult or satanic element to his death. I watched some of the coverage of Gideon’s death last night, and they mentioned Tracy and Terrence. They’re blending the two stories already, and that could have serious implications for the investigation.”
I don’t say it, but I think about the Game Master and how adamant he is about being recognized through the inclusion of the undecipherable symbol on his communications and on Terrence’s body. I don’t want to think that Terrence’s death being mixed up with Gideon’s and turned into something it isn’t will further trigger him into action. But it’s also about protecting the dignity of both victims. They deserve the truth about their deaths to be understood and their real stories to be told, which means not trying to find parallels and links where there aren’t any.
“What is your next meeting?” Sam asks. “You said you were waiting in the library for it.”
“I found out that Tracy Ellis’s main bodyguard has gotten some of the threats, and I’m going over to his house after he finishes work for the day to talk to him about them,” I tell him. “You know, it strikes me as really strange. She went on and on about how she wasn’t going to back down to a ‘mere human’ and that she wasn’t going to show any fear just because of what’s been going on. But she maintains a robust security detail, including a bodyguard who stands in front of her office and goes with her everywhere. Those two things don’t really seem to line up to me.”
“Maybe she’s worried about being mobbed by all her fans,” Sam says.
I laugh. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.” I let out a breath. “How is work for you today? Anything interesting?”
“It’s still Sherwood, babe,” he says. “Interesting doesn’t really happen around here very often. And when it does, we’re not happy about it.”
That’s true. The sleepy little town is not a place where crime runs rampant and the newspapers overflow with stories of intrigue. But there have horrific events in Sherwood, most recently the bombing of the community center with me barely escaping before it detonated. As the trusted sheriff of the town, Sam is looked to for guidance and answers when things like this happen. People want him to protect them and stop the rest of the world from getting into our community. He’s been serving in the role for many years, just as his father and grandfather did before him, but now he’s planning the next step by running for mayor.
“How are the plans for candidates’ night coming?” I ask.
He’s been nervous but also looking forward to the first big event of his campaign since announcing his intention to run. The community gathering at the town square will give families of Sherwood the opportunity to come out and enjoy an evening of activities while adults hear from the candidates for the different offices and positions coming up for election. I know Sam wants to make a good impression and show how serious he is about committing himself to the town in this new capacity, but I don’t think he needs to be as worried as he is. The people love him and are thrilled about his candidacy.
Though he hasn’t said it, I think a lot of the nervousness he’s feeling comes from uncertainty about what it will be like to walk away from his role as sheriff. He’s served the community in that capacity for so long. It’s so much a part of his identity that I don’t know if he’s fully wrapped his head around the idea that if he’s elected, he’ll be doing something completely different and someone else will be in his old position.
“They look good. The high school band is going to come out to play, so that should be fun. We have the food all lined up. I think that new dessert food truck is even coming out,” he says. “The child safety tent is going to be doing fingerprinting and taking pictures of the kids, and Savannah designed a coloring book for them that’s getting printed. They’re also talking about a whole water play area with bubbles and things because it’s going to be really hot.”
“That should be fun,” I tell him. “Everyone will really like that.”
“It should be,” he agrees. “I’ve got to go, babe. Keep me updated.”
“All right. I will. Love you.”
I end the call and lay the tablet down so I can type on it. It makes me wish I’d brought my laptop with me. Some people seem to be able to use their tablets with the same speed and ease as a computer, but I am much more comfortable with my computer while I’m doing research. I could go out into the library and use one of the public computers, but I’d rather keep the investigation out of the public eye. I don’t want anyone at the library reading over my shoulder, even if it’s unlikely they would put anything together.
Instead, I use my tablet to search for Marcus Kelsey and the Tracy Ellis Ministry. I want to know more about this man and why he was ousted from the company to which he showed so much enthusiasm and loyalty. My search brings up articles about the ministry and some of the events they hosted during the time that Marcus worked for them. Images come up of Tracy and Marcus posing together, and the articles mention the work Marcus was doing planning outreach events and coordinating with other organizations to broaden the reach of Tracy’s message.
I read through the material that I find, but there’s nothing about him leaving the company. That is, until I find a forum where people discuss their experiences at their places of work. They post anonymously so there can’t be any sort of backlash or retaliation if the company finds the post. I can’t see who made any of the comments, but it’s obvious Marcus Kelsey’s reputation wasn’t exactly glowing among those working for the company.
He’s even more of a zealot than she is sometimes.
Some of the venues he’s chosen for appearances are completely inappropriate. It’s offensive.
I never felt comfortable working for him. I always felt like I had to be on edge because I didn’t know what he was going to do next.
I quit after hearing some of the conversations that the two of them had. They are a scary pairing.
He doesn’t even pretend to be friendly. It’s like he thinks that he’s too far above other people to be nice to them. Even when he’s asking them to do something for him.
I hope he never gets into politics because of the destruction his policies would cause, but he seems like just the type to do it.
A few of the comments express relief that Marcus was finally out of the company but also curiosity about what could have happened to turn Tracy against him. None of the people posting seem to have any idea about what happened.
I can’t decide how I feel about the posts and what the assessments of this man might mean for the suspicions against him from the man I talked to earlier. I can understand the ire of a disgruntled former employee, and maybe even rage at having what was really important to him taken away, but I don’t know if it corresponds with the threats and the writing on Gideon’s wall. I need to keep trying to talk to him and find out what actually happened.