Page 25 of The Girl and the Lies

“Like Marcus Kelsey,” I say.

The name makes Ander go still.

“Yes,” he says.

“One of the people who walked out of the meeting this morning told me I should look into him as possibly being involved in all this. What can you tell me about him?” I ask.

“Marcus was close to Tracy. She trusted him and thought he was one of her most impactful employees. He’s actually the one who made the first contact with the college where the protest happened. They didn’t generally have speakers like Tracy, but he convinced them that it would be a meaningful event for the students and the community around the college, so they let her do it. He’s like her in a lot of ways. They fed off each other and got more whipped up and intense when they were together. She used to have him talk to everybody during company meetings, and she watched him like he was the one leading the ministry.”

“Was there something going on between the two of them?” I ask, wondering if that could be the explanation behind his sudden departure.

“There were some whispers,” Ander admits. “With it being the two of them, I don’t think many people would have wanted to openly speak out about something like that. It wouldn’t fit in with the image that Tracy has with the people who follow her.”

“What do you think?” I ask. “You have a position that puts you close to her. You surely would have seen or heard something if they had a romantic relationship.”

“Tracy has a gift for discretion,” he says. “If she doesn’t want someone to know something, they aren’t going to know it. I definitely am not close to her on a level that would make me privy to any kind of personal relationships she had going on. But I can say that there were a lot of private meetings between the two of them. Then suddenly he was fired. There was one company meeting where she addressed it, but all she said was that circumstances necessitated he be relieved of his responsibilities and commitments to the company. She didn’t give any more details than that, then she didn’t talk about him again.”

“Does she have anyone else in her inner circle like that now?” I ask.

“No,” Ander says, shaking his head.

“Do you think he would be angry enough at her for being fired that he would be willing to send these threats and kill Gideon?” I ask.

“I don’t really have an answer for that. I didn’t know him personally. I only ever saw him when he was ‘on’ for work. I remember the day that he was fired and what he looked like when he stormed out of Tracy’s office. He looked as angry as I’ve ever seen a person. I know I thought then that he could be dangerous. But that doesn’t mean anything. He had just gotten fired, and he was upset. I don’t want to say anything I don’t know for sure,” he says, quickly trying to cover himself for what he is willing to say.

“You’ve been very helpful,” I say. “If you can think of anything else that you think might be important or you get any other notes, please call me.”

“I will.”

I shake both of their hands and leave. They stand with their arms wrapped around each other, waving as I get in my car. I look at the mailbox as I pull away, getting an eerie feeling at the thought of the ominous letters appearing there.

Detective Fuller stands up to shake my hand when I walk into the investigation room after leaving Ander and Sabrina’s house.

“How’s the investigation coming?” he asks.

“I just came from Ander and Sabrina Ward’s house,” I tell him. “Ander is the personal bodyguard of Tracy Ellis and has gotten some of the threats. At least one of them has specifically mentioned his wife. She told me that she has had a couple of incidents where she called the police thinking that she was being followed or that someone was coming into her house. Can you show me those reports?”

“Sure. Give me just a minute, and I’ll get them for you,” he says.

He leaves the room and comes back several minutes later with a slim folder in his hand. He offers it out to me with a slight, apologetic shrug.

“There really isn’t a lot to go through,” he says. “She made four calls over the last couple of months. Two of them were because she was positive that someone was following her while she was driving, one of them because she was home alone and thought someone was coming in, and one of them because she got home and said she felt like someone had been in her house. When officers responded each time, there was no evidence of anything happening. In fact, the time that she called because she was home alone and thought someone was coming in, it turned out to be her husband coming home early from work. He’d locked his keys and phone in the car and was trying to get in using an old key they had hidden but got stuck in the lock.

“She admitted that she was just feeling a little jumpy and was fine by the time the officers left. We haven’t heard anything else from her since. While the officers were talking to her, she did report the threats her husband was getting and said she thought they were just getting to her. But he reassured her everything was going to be fine, and she said that she was all right before the officers left.”

“There was never any indication of anything in any of the four calls?” I ask.

“Nothing that the officers could pinpoint,” he says. “I mean, it’s almost impossible to prove that someone was following you unless you have a camera to capture it, but she wasn’t able to give any details about the car, the driver, or anything. She said she just felt like there was someone right behind her and they were driving aggressively.”

“So it was probably just someone in a hurry who didn’t like that she was following traffic laws, and it spooked her,” I say.

“Probably.”

I nod and flip the file shut. “All right. Thanks for getting that for me.”

I stand up and head for the door.

“Where are you going now?” he asks.

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