Eye of the Storm (The Storm Series) (15 page)

Seeing her nod, they were prepared to jump when they heard a ship’s horn. Turning around, they saw a coast guard boat chase after the other boat. Knowing they weren’t completely out of danger, he hugged Evie tight. He didn’t want to let go. Another coast guard boat came up and brought them aboard. They were quiet on the way back to the harbor but never left each other’s side.

~*~

It was a long twenty-four hours. They spent the night talking to the police, then showing them where they found the body, and getting chewed out for not coming to them first. Evie was worried Jeremy would go out and move the body after the run in, but it seems he spent the night evading the coast guard. No one is sure exactly how he did it. After that, they made sure Kaitlin and Jake were reimbursed for the boat.

All Evie wanted to do was sleep for a day or two but Anthony was too paranoid about Jeremy knowing where they were. He was well-founded in his worry. They decided to book numerous flights leaving about the same time so that Jeremy wouldn’t be sure which one they were on. They did the same thing in Ft. Lauderdale, all going to different parts of the country. Figuring that going back to Ipswich would be the most logical, they decided to go somewhere else.

As soon as they were in the air on their way to Seattle, Evie fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

~*~

Jeremy tried to control his anger. The only thing that gave him solace was the fact they were running scared. He replayed the video of them making love as he slowly stroked himself, not coming just yet. Switching to the video, he recorded while chasing them down, he moved his hand harder and faster seeing the fear on their faces. Freezing the frame when Evie came into view at the end with blood on her face, he finally had his release.

Traveling on the rutted road leading out to the Ellison house in the middle of nowhere, Evie was thankful for the sleep she got on the cross-country flight. They had a brief layover in San Francisco before getting into Seattle late, or really it was early in the morning. The extra security measures they had to take making sure it was Anthony, not Jeremy, made things more difficult. Even though they got a room, she tossed and turned for the rest of the night. The phone call home didn’t help anything. It seemed that some of the security guards were refusing to guard the Troublesome Trio. Thankfully they hadn’t done anything to them they just didn’t like the comments or being treated like a piece of meat. Noah had to question all of the guards to see which ones would actually guard the Trio.

Later in the morning after their arrival she watched the dust in the side rearview mirror she wondered what they would find. The property was in Jay Ellison’s name. Which meant the police didn’t know about it. She felt sick to her stomach. This is where Jeremy grew up. After everything happened with Lexi, they found out more about Jeremy. Like the fact that his father killed his mother, most likely in that home in front of the nine-year-old boy. From the reports, they were able to find out that his parents didn’t have a good relationship, but since his father was the Sherriff, no one would say anything. His mother found someone else and was going to leave both his father and him. Evie could have sympathy for the little boy, if it was true, to have your mom leave you with, from all accounts, a complete asshole. But on the other hand, what could have happened to flip that switch for him to become a serial killer? It couldn’t be just the fact his mother was going to leave him and then Tiffani. Two women he loved not wanting him.

Jeremy’s father started drinking more and more and he ended up losing his job. After the new Sherriff was in charge, a hiker found the body of his mother. They reopened the investigation into her death and found enough proof to put his father away. Twelve-year-old Jeremy was put in the system, moving from foster home to foster home. First, he got into a lot of trouble, but as he became more practiced, he started to fly under the radar.

“I’ve been thinking,” Evie said.

“Now there’s a scary thought.”

She punched him in the shoulder. “Stop. About Jeremy. So his mother was going to leave him, then Tiffani left him for you. Do you think that is what flipped his switch? If he really loved her like he told Lexi…”

“True, but sad to say, that happens to a lot of people, yet they never become serial killers.”

Evie sighed, “I guess I’m just trying to get a handle on him. The more we know, the more we can figure out, the better chance we have to catch him.”

Anthony reached over and grabbed her hand. “Have I thanked you yet for everything you’re doing?”

“Nope.”

He pulled over to the side of the road and turned to face her. “Truly, thank you. You’ve been in danger, almost killed, seen things you should’ve never seen. All to help. Quite frankly, it’s shocking in this day and age that someone would pretty much drop everything to help someone they felt needed it, especially at the risk of injury to themselves.” She looked away but he grabbed her chin. With their eyes locked together he continued, “Thank you.”

She felt embarrassed under his scrutiny. “Really, there are more people out there that would help than you think.”

“Then you have more faith in people than I do.” He turned back and put the car in gear. They were quiet the rest of the short ride to the house.

Looking around Evie shuddered knowing at least one murder took place here. The vegetation was grown over, part of the roof was sinking in and windows were broken. Getting out of the car she looked around trying to see why someone would want to live out here so far from other people They hadn’t seen another house in miles. It was a beautiful view, but maybe knowing what she knew is what made it seem dark.

The closer they got to the house, the worse the smell got. Looking at each other, they knew what was on the other side of that broken down door wasn’t good.

Anthony reached out and offered his hand. “We go in together. We stay together.” After she nodded he continued. “But if I tell you to get out, you get the hell out. Understood?”

Remembering the last time, she nodded again.

Taking a deep breath, they entered.

~*~

Another alarm went off on Jeremy’s computer. Although there was no electricity at his old home he had a battery alarm system to notify him if someone stumbled onto it. Now he knew where they went, and what they were going to find. Cursing the fact he’d been unable to install cameras there, he sat back to think about what them finding it meant to him. Rage built within him until it boiled over. Systematically going through his room, he destroyed everything he could get his hands on. It wasn’t the same as killing a woman, but it did take the edge off. Picking up his things, he tossed a couple hundred dollars on the bed and walked out of the room, never looking back.

~*~

Evie looked around in wonder. The front door opened to the living room. Pictures covered the walls. Getting a closer look she saw that most of them were old and she assumed of Jeremy’s parents. They were so badly damaged, she couldn’t be sure. It was hard to tell who got the most of his anger, his father or his mother. You could see where they were sliced and stabbed over and over, each and every one of them. The only person never marked was the little boy. As they walked around the room, you could see the little boy growing up and getting more and more distant. She lifted her hand and touched the little baby, an innocent little child who didn’t know the hell that would happen to him in his young life.

She saw a happy smiling toddler. But even then you could see that he didn’t smile as much if his father was near him. He clung to his mother. By the time she guessed he was around five, his expression was weary in every picture. The damage to the pictures became more violent as the boy grew up in them. She stopped at the last picture. This one had to be taken right before his mother was killed. She shivered, his eyes looked almost dead. So different from the smiling child he’d started as.

Seeing nothing amiss in the kitchen, they went to the first bedroom door and looked in. Evie gasped. You could tell it was a boy’s room. Old football posters covered the walls, he was a 49ers fan. But the twin bed had, as far as she could tell, five skeletons on it.

Anthony walked into the room and started going through the dresser and closet, there was nothing in them.

She walked closer and counted six ribcages and no heads. “What did he do?” Her voice shook. “I don’t see any heads on these skeletons.”

“I have no idea. Come on. Let’s see what else we can find.”

“Shouldn’t we call the police?” She shuddered. “There’s got to be more.”

“We will, after we finish looking around. You know they will lock this place up and we won’t know for days, if not weeks, what they found.”

“You’re right. Let’s get this over with.”

The door at the end of the hall was partially open. Using his foot, Anthony pushed it all the way open to reveal the bathroom. It was worse than any horror movie she had ever seen. Blood covered every surface. The smell was disgusting. Thoughts whirled through her mind at what could have happened in here and she thought she might be sick.

They turned to the last room. Once again he used his foot to open the door all the way. This time Evie did throw-up. Turning away from Anthony she lost what little was in her stomach. He rubbed her back as it emptied. The image would not leave her head.

There tied to the bed was a decomposing body of a woman on top of a tarp, without a head and all of her flesh peeled off. The smell was overwhelming and even in her head she could still see the maggots moving over her.

“Fuck. Let’s get out of here,” Anthony said.

She could only nod and try to make her feet move down the hall. When they got back to the living room, they stopped. Anthony started looking around.

“What do you think he did with the heads?”

Evie shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about that.”

She followed as he moved back into the kitchen and started opening cabinets.

“What do you think he put them under the sink with the cleaning supplies?” She was starting to lose it.

“This was the only other place we didn’t look through everything. Well, besides the last room.”

He paused with one hand on each of the handles for the refrigerator. She saw him take a deep breath before he opened it. “Don’t look.”

But it was too late, she already saw. There were seven heads in there. Because there was no electricity the smell was horrific. It looked as if their faces were melting in there, dripping things down on the bottom of the refrigerator. With the door open, some of it spilled out onto the floor.

Evie was picked up and Anthony moved quickly out the front door into the sunlight. He sat her down on the hood of the car. Shivering so hard, she thought her teeth would break as they chattered against each other, she was thankful the engine had left the hood still warm. Watching the grass blow in the breeze, she stared without blinking.

She didn’t acknowledge when Anthony put a shirt around her shoulders or when he climbed up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist pulling her tight to him.

They stayed that way until Evie finally spoke. “It’s going to be another long night at a police station isn’t it.”

“Looks like it.”

“Why?” She knew she wasn’t going to have to fill in the blanks, he knew what she was talking about.

“I have no idea. Obviously he holds them responsible and because he grew up here, no matter how bad it was, it’s still a ‘safe’ place for him.”

“But to keep the decapitated heads in the fridge? Really?” Her eyes grew huge and a laugh escaped her lips. “Oh my god.”

“What?”

“I’ve always loved Halloween.” She giggled. “And every year…” She tried to control the laughter that was starting to bubble up. “I always put de…” Another laugh came out. “Fake decapitated heads in the fridge to scare people.” She completely lost it and couldn’t stop the laughter or the tears that started falling. Holding onto Anthony’s hands as he rocked her, she laughed and cried for the women inside the house.

~*~

It was a long couple of days. They spent hours talking to the police before they were finally able to get a room, clean up, and get some sleep. Everything Anthony had seen kept replaying in his head. Between that and the nightmares Evie had, he wasn’t sure he got any sleep. He held onto her as she clung to him most of the night. He was both scared and felt bad for her every time she screamed.

The next day they’d talked to anyone who’d known Jeremy and his parents. They didn’t learn much more than they already knew. But as Evie always said, every little bit will help put the whole puzzle together.

He was looking forward to getting together with Noah so they could analyze the new information. He looked over at Evie in the light of the setting sun on the drive to catch their plane to go back to Ipswich, wishing he could keep the women out of it, knowing it would be impossible. He could see the strain of everything that had been going on in Evie’s eyes. He wanted to bring light back into them. Once this was all over, and Jeremy was caught, he’d do just that.

~*~

Since Anthony and Evie were all the way across country, Jeremy decided to head back to where he knew they would end up eventually. Smiling at his luck, he couldn’t believe it. The old bat was home alone. He’d made sure Evie’s stupid brother went down to the city for the night. The only person he’d have to worry about was the guard. It was surprisingly easy to sneak up behind him and slice his neck open. Looking down, he tilted his head to the side. The knife didn’t cut as deeply as he’d hoped. He was going to have to sharpen it before he used it next.

After going through the cottage and finding nothing, he moved towards the main house. Silently creeping through, he arrived at Evie’s bedroom. He was disappointed there was no dirty laundry for him to go through. He went over to the bed and pulled the covers back. Slowly leaning down he moved from the top of the bed to the bottom smelling, closing his eyes in appreciation of the fact the linens on the bed had not been washed since she’d been gone.