Page 13 of The Girl and the Lies

“I know you say you couldn’t see the person’s face or anything, but based on size and movements, do you think it’s likely that they were a man or a woman?”

“I would think a man,” he says.

“All right,” I say. “And you couldn’t see their hands or any other skin?”

“No, they were wearing gloves.”

“When you got to the apartment, none of your neighbors were outside or anything? It didn’t seem like any of them noticed what was going on?” I ask.

“No,” he says. “I didn’t see anyone until after the police got there. Either they didn’t hear anything or they did and didn’t want to get involved.”

I make a mental note to make sure I talk to the neighbors closest to their apartment so I can find out which of those scenarios is true.

“I know you said that you saw the person writing on the wall of Gideon’s bedroom. Did you get a chance to see what they had written?” I ask.

“No,” he says.

I take out the crime scene photo that shows the message written on the wall with a permanent marker and hand it to him. Jesse takes the picture and looks at it, his breath catching in his throat as he looks at the scene.

“Does that mean anything to you?” I ask.

“I have to guess that it’s referring to Tracy Ellis, the woman Gideon worked for,” Jesse says. “He was one of the people in her entourage, I guess you’d say. Officially, he was security, so he did protect her.”

“This is pretty strong language,” I say. “Does it seem to you that someone would call Tracy Ellis ‘vile’?”

“Absolutely,” he says without hesitation. “She is one of the most divisive people I’ve ever heard of. I worked for her company really briefly a couple of years ago, but then I found something else. Even in the short time that I was working there, I saw so much controversy and negativity. Then Gideon talked about the things he experienced when they would do appearances and travel for presentations and guest speaking gigs. There are a lot of people who can’t stand that woman or any of what she apparently stands for. I think that’s why Gideon didn’t take the threats very seriously.”

“Did he talk to you about getting the threats?” I ask.

“Yeah. He showed them to me when he got them. I thought he should call the police about them, but he said they weren’t that big of a deal and he was used to hearing threats against Ellis because of the things that she preached and talked about. He said he didn’t think they were anything to really worry about because they were so much like ones that he’d heard of Ellis getting before and nothing ever happened to her. He didn’t think that anyone would go after him just because he was one of her security team. I pointed out that some of the threats came in the mail, which meant that they knew where he lived, but he still wouldn’t think too much about it. After getting a couple of them, he did bring them to Tracy’s attention so that she at least knew what was going on.”

“Did he tell you how she reacted to that?” I ask.

“Pretty much how I would have expected her to. She blew it off and told him that he was doing righteous work by working with her so he didn’t need to be afraid. Getting the threats was just a sign that what she was saying was being heard and it was affecting people, which was exactly what she wanted,” he tells me.

He continues, “That’s the thing about her. There’s no middle ground with Tracy Ellis. People are either absolutely obsessed with her teaching and everything she says, or they despise her and completely condemn what she stands for. But it doesn’t really matter to her. She likes being fawned over by the people who all but worship her, but she is just as fine with the people who hate her. She might even like them more because they tend to talk about her more and get other people to listen to her just out of sheer curiosity and wanting to know what has offended other people so much. Hate-watching is definitely a thing. And she doesn’t really care as long as she’s getting the attention. The whole ‘all publicity is good publicity’ thing.”

“Have there been any specific people whom Gideon ever encountered who you think would want to cause him harm? Anyone he was specifically afraid of?” I ask.

“No. None of the threats he ever got or that ever came into the company were signed. He’s encountered people who were threatening to hurt Tracy Ellis while on her appearances, but they never mentioned wanting to go after security, and they were always easily subdued. The vast majority of the time when people speak out against people like Tracy and claim they were going to do something about them, it was all talk. They weren’t actually going to take any action. They just wanted people to hear them talking because they thought it was going to make a difference if they sounded like they were vehemently against the things that were pissing so many people off,” he says.

“A messed-up version of virtue signaling,” I say. “I’m unfortunately very familiar. Do you know if he kept any of the threatening notes?”

“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure he threw them all away,” Jesse says. “If there are any, they would be at the apartment.”

“Are you going back there after you are discharged?” I ask.

He’s only being held for observation, likely to make sure that the wound in his back doesn’t get infected and to monitor his mental health after the extreme stress he just endured. But that means he won’t be in the hospital very long. He’ll likely be discharged within the next few hours and have to face this new normal in life. The thought of him going back to the apartment already is sobering.

“Not yet,” he tells me. “The detective told me he would let me know when I’m allowed to go back. I’m going to stay with my parents for a few days anyway. I just don’t want to be alone there. I don’t know if I ever want to be there again.”

“That’s perfectly understandable,” I say. “I’m going to let you get some rest. Thank you for talking with me. I will likely want to talk to you again.” I give him one of my business cards. “If you can think of anything else, don’t hesitate to call me. I always have my phone on me.”

I leave the room and go back to my car. I call Detective Fuller as I wait for the air-conditioning to kick in.

“I want to go to the apartment and get a look at the crime scene,” I tell him.

“The door was replaced, and there’s a lockbox on it. I’ll send you the code,” he says. “Do you want backup to go with you?”

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