Page 24 of Constant Risk
The kind trying to hide a murder.
All four of them made their way back to Elliot’s room, the master bedroom. The room was neat, bed made. Different posters hung on the walls—some constellations, an Escher print and a shot of Kate Upton, the famousSports Illustratedswimsuit model. Tanner took a look in the walk-in closet again. Small, but nothing suspicious in there either.
It was all just vastly ordinary.
“Nothing about this screamsserial killer,” Tanner said. “And yet...”
“There’s something about this room that’s just off,” Whitaker muttered.
“Exactly. Too perfect, right? Staged to look like how a college student’s room should appear.” Tanner studied the poster of the beautiful woman in the bikini and where it was situated on the wall. Definitely not where a college kid would put it. “It has to be staged. The Kate Upton poster gives it away.”
Whitaker crouched near the bed and whistled through his teeth. “I think you’re right.”
Penelope came farther into the room behind them, staring at the poster. “Why does this give anything away? What are you seeing that I’m not?”
Whitaker smiled ruefully. “You’ll have to lie down on the bed to understand what we mean.”
She raised an eyebrow. “That’s creepy, Whit. You’ve gotten weird since you moved to Colorado.”
He chuckled. “I know. Just do it.”
Penelope lay down, looking ready to jump back up any second. “Okay, I’m down here. What?”
Tanner stepped out of the way so that Penelope had a clearer view of the wall where the posters hung. “What do you see on the walls?”
“The bookshelf is blocking Size DD over there. All I can see are the constellation posters.”
“Exactly.” Tanner crossed his arms over his chest. “No twenty-two-year-old male would hang that poster of Kate Upton where it couldn’t be seen from the bed.”
Penelope jumped up from the bed with a shudder. “Okay. But what does it mean?”
Tanner spun around the room again slowly. “It means Elliot Webster is trying to make his mom and anyone else who might visit think that everything is normal with him at first glance. Which means he has some other place that he considers his personal space and feels more comfortable than this room.”
“Then why did Bree’s calculations lead us here?” Penelope asked. “If this isn’t where he spends his time—and obviously isn’t where he has his computer—why are we here?”
Tanner shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe we need to bring her in to look around. See if she sees anything we don’t.”
They searched through the books and CDs on the shelves but found nothing of interest. The dresser drawers produced clothes, but nothing suspicious.
The walk-in closet was as organized as the bedroom and just as innocuous. A few shirts and pants hanging in the small space. Shoes scattered along the ground. A couple boxes filled with some useless junk—more books, some camping gear, sleeping bags.
Nothing that helped them in any way.
Penelope let out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t see anything in here. Grab some of his shoes. We’ll take them back to the lab and see if they can find traces of anything, since he’s obviously not holding a woman in this house.”
Tanner grabbed a pair of well-worn tennis shoes closest to the door and decided to add the hiking boots that sat in the back corner.
One came easily; the other seemed to be stuck to the floor. He tugged hard on it and watched in disbelief as the back panel of the closet clicked open.
His weapon was in his hand in less than a second.
“Guys!” he called, keeping his Glock pointed at the open space in front of him. “There’s some sort of secret room behind this wall. I pulled on a shoe and this door cracked open.”
There was some sort of secret room behind the closet. No wonder the damned thing seemed so small.
Penelope and Whitaker both rushed back into the closet behind him.
Whitaker cursed when he saw the open panel. “Are you kidding me?”
