Page 79 of Killer Clone

A surge of anger filled Stella. “Playing?”

Agent Donnelly nodded. “That’s correct. I’m thinking the killer used a paintbrush to throw liquid blood onto the wall. Like a kind of twisted painting.”

Hagen chimed in. “That makes sense. We discovered a paintbrush in his vehicle.”

“Indeed. Well, in any event, we found additional spatter near the bottom of the wall next to where that rope is hanging. That’s where your victim bled out.”

Stella’s phone rang in her pocket. “One sec.” She stepped out into the hall and took off her mask. It was Ander. “What’s the latest?”

“For the most part, it’s what you might expect. We’ve taken hair and fingerprint samples from the Tacoma. We also found some gunshot residue.”

Yeah, from when the bastard was shooting at us.

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, there was a plastic water bottle. It was filled with this kind of sludge that we’ve identified as blood. There was a paintbrush in it too.”

Stella rubbed her temple “We saw that too.”

“Wild, huh? We also found a backpack containing several chargers, a laptop, and a bunch of protein bars, among other things.”

Her phone beeped, indicating an incoming call. Stella glanced at the screen and experienced a hint of surprise. “Ander, sorry, I’m getting another call. I’ve got to take this.”

She’d been expecting a call from Claymore Township. But she thought it would be from the sheriff.

“Stella. How are you? It’s Bill.”

“Dr. Silow.” The administrator of Claymore’s psychiatric hospital and the town mayor. “I’ve actually been needing to speak to you. Do you know if Maureen King knew a person by the first name of Trevor?” She went to the doorway and waved Hagen over.

Dr. Silow chuckled. “That’s actually why I’m calling. Trevor McAuley was one of Maureen’s students. Must be aboutnineteen years old now. She talked about him sometimes after she started teaching again.”

“And she taught history, yes?”

“Correct.”

“What did she say about him?”

“Nothing but positive things. Trevor was one of her star debate students, apparently. He was also on the football team, I believe.”

“Really?”

“Yes, she would almost gush over him. She seemed quite taken.” He cleared this throat and lowered his voice. “If I’m being honest, there were times when I thought she was a little inappropriate, that perhaps their relationship wasn’t on the up-and-up.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I have no real reason for saying so. But let’s just say, when you’re in my line of work, you need to be able to read people. I’ll just come out and say it. I suspected they might’ve been having an affair.”

“Why didn’t you tell us any of this after everything that happened?”

Dr. Silow exhaled. “I don’t know. Honestly, I didn’t really remember it, until he called me just now. And now that I do, I feel like I’m betraying Doug somehow.”

Stella tensed. “I take it Trevor’s not in Claymore at the moment.”

“That’s right. How did you…anyway, I haven’t seen him around town for a while. Maybe a few weeks? Though I can’t say for certain. But yes, he just called. He’s in Nashville and wanted to know if I could put him in touch with the FBI agents who were in Claymore. He’d like to meet you.”

Stella gripped her phone tighter. “We’d like to meet him too. How would we recognize him?”

“White male, short brown hair, about six foot tall.”

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