“I’m not sure why; he just kept saying that I was never worthy of her. I guess he could have been talking about Stella. She introduced me to her art students after we got engaged.”
“And you slept with the other models when?” I demanded.
“After I put a ring on Stella’s finger, I wasn’t ready to let go of the perks of my job. My models revere me as a god.”
“Of course,” I said, biting down my anger. “And now three are missing and one is dead. Is it possible that Conrad knew you were cheating on Stella?” I asked.
“Well, yeah. He knew I was banging Gretchen. He’d walked in on us once.”
I ran my hand through my hair.
“Anything else you’re leaving out? Did Conrad see you with any of the other models?”
“He saw me with the girl in the first picture. I don’t remember her name, but we were checking into a hotel, and the kid walked in dressed in a pizza delivery uniform, carrying a large pizza. He rode the elevator up with us. I thought for sure he was going to say something and ruin my night, but he didn’t. He kept his mouth shut. I slipped him some money the next time I saw him.”
I headed for the door.
“Wait. You’re going to arrest the guy, right?” Marcus called out.
I grabbed the handle and glanced over my shoulder. “Yeah, I’m going to get him, and if I find out you lied about Grant and Jenny, then you won’t have to worry about Conrad; I’ll be back to settle the score.”
20
Ashton
I walked out to find Morrison waiting and the cop back from his break.
“Did he tell you anything else?” Morrison asked as we stepped onto the elevator.
“We found the tie to Stella and the missing women,” I said.
Morrison raised a brow. “What did you do, beat it out of him?”
“Didn’t lay a finger on him.” Yet. “He was engaged to Stella and cheating on her. Conrad saw him with at least one other woman after Stella had introduced Marcus as her fiancé to her art class.”
“So what? This Conrad character decided to dish out his own brand of justice since Marcus was cheating on his teacher? I liked a lot of my teachers but never enough to kill for one.”
“Stella didn’t have anything to do with this.” I met Morrison’s gaze. “She’s a victim. This kid is psychotic and must think that he loves her or something. In his warped mind, he probably believes he was saving her.” I headed for the elevator with Morrison behind me.
He poked at the call button. “Explain what you mean by saving her.”
“Marcus cheated on Stella with his other models. So, Conrad killed them. Stella was getting sick. He’d show up and take care of her and now that all the cops got sick, it makes perfect sense.”
“You lost me,” Morrison said as the elevator arrived.
We both stepped in and I anxiously pushed the lobby button several times as fear and understanding started to settle in my mind. Conrad was fixated on Stella.
“Conrad works at the pizza place. I thought it was her other student that was poisoning her, but it was Conrad. He’s the only one that knew about the other women. He’s the only person that would need to get the cops out of the picture.”
“So, he thought he was saving her, for what? In the hopes that she’d fall for him?”
“I don’t know. I’ll be sure to ask him if I find him.”
“Why don’t you follow me over to Gretchen’s place and we’ll see if he showed up? Maybe if we go through his things, it will tell us where he’s hiding out.”
“Divide and conquer. You check his apartment. I’ll check for surveillance at the pizza place and see if he’s at work and then go straight to Stella. I’ll call you if I find anything, and you do the same.”
I slid in behind the wheel of my SUV and dialed Grant’s number, putting him on speaker just as Morrison pulled out.
