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The back of Jenna’s neck prickled and she could imagine the horror of waking up and finding this man’s smiling face looking down at her. She’d read his case file and wondered how a man who broke into women’s houses to rape them had been given parole. “Do you own the women’s clothes that were in your grandmother’s house?” She tossed the plastic bag of underwear on the desk in front of him. “As we informed you earlier, we conducted a legal search of your ranch today and discovered this underwear in a nightstand at the back of the cellar. Are these garments part of your collection of trophies?” She eyeballed him. “I do know just how much men like you like to keep trophies of their crimes. You like to relive every minute, don’t you?”
“I never raped anyone.” Sam leaned forward on the desk, an ugly expression cut his face into hard lines. “Those women invited me to their beds. It was a sex game, is all. I did time for something I didn’t do.” He jabbed a finger toward the evidence bag. “If you took that underwear from the house, then they belonged to my grandma. If you think I’d find them sexy, you’re wrong. They disgust me.”
“So, you wouldn’t mind if we burned them?” Jo grabbed up the bag and shoved it into the brown paper sack.
“Go right ahead.” Sam smiled at her. “And if you removed all the other boxes from the cellar, I should thank you. It saves us the work of cleaning it out.”
Trying another tact, Jenna paused the interview to write notes. She needed time to allow him to cool down before she questioned him from a different angle. She raised her head and looked at him. He appeared supremely confident—maybe too confident. “We find it hard to believe that the clothes belonged to your grandmother. None of them would have fit her and, from the photographs of her we found, they don’t appear to be the type of fashion she would wear. If they don’t belong to you, is there anyone else in the family who could have stored them in your grandma’s cellar?”
“Nope.” Sam let out a long sigh. “This is why we inherited the house. There’s no one else alive in the family.”
Although Sam Bright made Jenna’s skin crawl, like his cousin she had no solid evidence against him. She couldn’t prove that he’d stored the clothes at his grandma’s house. She hoped that Kane got to the Goodwill store before they sold the trinkets. There might be a small chance that someone would recognize them from previous crimes. Her gut told her Grandma Bright had known the killer. She looked at Sam. “Did your grandma ever have people staying with her?”
“Yeah, she used to rent out rooms during the hunting season.” Sam stretched. “She had a notice in the general store window. It was how she supplemented her pension.”
With this information, Jenna could feel the end game slipping out of her grasp. Anyone could have left the clothing there. Perhaps a variety of visitors over many years. She nodded. “Do you recall if she kept records or the names of people who stayed with her?”
“Nope and I never found anything in her papers. Her taxes are paid and the lawyer handled the estate. Like everything else in the house, what we didn’t want we took to the landfill.” Sam shrugged. “It’s not like we were close. Sometimes we’d visit her just to see if she had enough food, but she usually waved us away. She preferred to be living on her own.”
“Do you know Poppy Anderson?” Jo stared at him.
“Nope.” Sam shrugged. “I’ve never met her.”
Jenna glanced at Jo to see if she had any more questions. Jo gave a slight shake of her head and Jenna switched off the recording device and collected her things. “That’s all for today. Thank you for your cooperation. One of my deputies will be along to give you a ride back to your ranch.”
Disappointed, Jenna led the way out of the interview room, and they headed along the hallway with Jo keeping step beside her. “That was a waste of time, they gave us nothing we could use and we have no idea if one of Mrs. Bright’s visitors paid her to store the clothes there.”
“Well, if we’ve stumbled over a stash of trophies, one thing is for sure, they don’t belong to the Bright cousins.” Jo touched Jenna’s arm. “This is the problem with psychopaths. They can hide in plain sight and don’t follow any particular type of person. If we walked past someone on the sidewalk, they could be a killer and we’d never know.”
“I still have Lucas Davies to interview. He’ll be back in town in the morning.” Jenna glanced at her. “I know it might seem like a lost cause at the moment but I’m not giving up yet.”
“If you can get someone to cover that for you, I’ve been offered an opportunity to interview the Michelangelo Killer in the morning, if you’re interested in coming?” Jo’s expression became animated. “I can’t guarantee that he’ll give us any information to help with this case, but he might. I figure it’s worth trying. The prison warden informed me that he was keen to be included in my book.”
Wondering how she could go and talk to a convicted psychopathic murderer, with a killer roaming around town, Jenna stopped walking and turned to her. “How could he assist us with solving this case?”
“He’d be interested because the current spate of murders are very close to his MO.” Jo pushed the hair from her eyes and sighed. “I agree it’s a long shot but I’m sure any insight into the mind of the killer we’re dealing with would be an advantage. I’m banking on the fact that the Michelangelo Killer will be looking at a copycat as hero worship. Maybe if we give him details of the murders, he might be able to predict our killer’s next move. We wouldn’t have long to question him—no longer than half an hour.” She raised both eyebrows in question and looked at Jenna. “You have deputies available to investigate any further leads that come in, and I figure it will be time well spent.”
Thinking, Jenna tugged on her bottom lip and then nodded. “We’re chasing smoke at the moment. I guess taking a few hours to gain an inside perspective of the case would be to our advantage. If Carter can fly us there, it would save time.”
“Yes, that’s a given, but it will be an early start.” Jo indicated with her chin toward the men sitting in the conference room. “Do you need to run it past Kane before you decide? I’ll need time for Carter to submit a flight plan.”
Jenna shook her head. “No, of course not. I’m in, but Kane will be coming along too. If we’re going to be alone inside a room with Bruno Vito, I want someone on the outside watching our backs. Vito has nothing to lose and might enjoy one last killing spree. I know prison guards can be bought and I’m not taking the chance.”
