The Dead Room

 

 

 

 

 

T H E   D E A D

R O O M

 

 

 

R o b e r t   E l l i s


 

 

 

 

Also by

 

R O B E R T   E L L I S

 

 

Murder Season

 

The Lost Witness

 

City of Fire

 

Access to Power


 

 

 

 

This is a work of fiction. All characters, opinions, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

 

THE DEAD ROOM

Copyright © 2002 by Robert Ellis

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.


 

 

 

 

In memory of my father

Francis J. Ellis

1926—1999


 

 

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 

 

Without the help and effort of many friends, this book wouldn’t exist.

The novel was refined with the assistance of my editor, Kate Duffy, and my friends, John Truby and Michael Conway. Further creative distillations occurred with the help of Charlotte Conway and Meghan Sadler-Conway. I can’t thank you all enough. I’m also grateful to John Diliberto and Kimberly Haas, who assisted with background information resulting in one of my favorite chapters in the book.

Special thanks go to Detective Rick Jackson, LAPD, Robbery-Homicide Division, Art Belanger, Pathologist Assistant, Yale University School of Medicine, and Don Widdoes, for their valuable knowledge, experience and attention to detail. Any technical deviation in the book is my responsibility alone.

Further thanks go to Neil Oxman for his good advice, and Sharon Pinkenson and Peter Leokum, who opened the gates to the city; all those who helped out at the district attorney’s office, the Philadelphia Police Department, the Philadelphia Prison System, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Thanks also go to my agent, Frank Weimann, my publisher, Laurie Parken, and everyone who makes up the team at Kensington. Thanks for your enthusiasm and guidance, and for giving me this special opportunity.

I’d also like to thank the booksellers I’ve met over the past year with the publication of my first novel, Access to Power. Words can’t describe how grateful I am for your effort and support, but also for your great feedback and introducing me to readers.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank Mark Moskowitz, Thomas “Doc” Sweitzer, Karim Olaechea, David Marks, John W. Nelson, Ray Noll, Adrianne Carageorge, Lisa Cabanel, Bill Wachob, Deborah Conway, Olivia and Louie, my mother, Constance, my brother, Peter, Sharon and Nelson Rising, and Christopher, Cori and Matthew Rising, for their unyielding support and goodwill.


 

AUTHOR’S  NOTE

 

The events in this story are real, and in some places happen every day. Still, this is a mystery/thriller, not a manual. Given the choice between fact or fiction, the story always won out. That’s why the word fiction is printed on the spine of this book. If you’ve done any research, then you know this is particularly true of the setting. Of all the cities that could have been chosen, Philadelphia is perhaps the least likely place this story could have occurred. Yet the style of the city, its relationship with art and history and its European feel, made it the only place I considered. When the story jumped out at me, I thought we could have some fun with it, get scared, check beneath our beds at night, and be happy together the next day. I hope you agree.

 

Sleep loose,

Robert Ellis

www.robertellis.net


 

 

 

 

A snake coiled in its wisdom strikes

spitting on my skin a third eye

showering my body with sparks

I listen to the silence between breaths

I speak to the silence after the breath

I am the silence before the breath

and then we move together

in jeweled conversation....


 

 

 

 

ONE

 

 

 

She liked the way her hair looked. Her eyes. She crossed the room to the full-length mirror on the closet door and struck a pose. Shifting her weight, she turned. The nightgown was the color of falling snow and almost perfectly transparent. She liked the warm tone of her skin underneath. The way her breasts seem to bob with the slightest move. It had been exactly the right choice.

Darlene had purchased the baby doll nightgown with matching G-string at the Victoria’s Secret website on the Internet using her mother’s credit card. She knew her mother would never notice. Christmas was less than ten days off. There would be a lot of gifts bought with that credit card. Some even from the same store.

She glanced at the clock.