Page 28 of The Perfect Accomplice

“I can’t remember her name right now, but I have it in my phone,” he said pulling it out. “I’ll need a minute to find it. We had brunch at the coffee shop down the block from my place. Then I sent her on her way. Here it is. Her name was Gayle. I can send you her number if you want.

Jessie, increasingly disgusted by the man, didn’t directly respond to his offer. “And last night?

“I was here.”

“Until when?” she demanded

"From just before six until about 2:30 a.m. We close at two, but there's always cleanup after. But if you want a thorough accounting of my evening, I should probably admit that I took an extra-long dinner break."

“From when to when?” Ryan asked.

“About ten to 10:45.”

“Why?” Ryan asked, though Jessie had an idea. Barber would only volunteer a detail like that if it served his purposes.

“I met a nice girl and I wanted to show her the storage room,” he said with a smirk. “So I showed it to her—a few times.”

Jessie did her best to hide her revulsion. Brian Barber was the epitome of everything she detested. She’d love to lock him up just for his attitude. But she was beginning to doubt whether she’d get a chance to lock him up at all.

“We’re going to need her name too,” she replied without emotion, refusing to let him get a rise out of her.

“I’ll try to remember it,” he promised smarmily.

“Get it now,” Ryan instructed. “We’re talking to both of them before your break ends. And if they don’t both confirm everything you’ve said, your shift is ending early tonight.”

Jessie watched as Barber scrolled through his phone, looking for the storeroom conquest. While she waited, she came to two equally unsatisfying realizations. First, unless something else materialized unexpectedly, they had no other leads to follow tonight. They might have to start fresh in the morning.

And two, as appalled by him as she was, she already knew the truth in her bones: this wasn’t their guy. Their killer was still out there.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Chloe Henshall was exhausted.

For someone who didn’t draw a salary, she felt like she sure worked hard.

She got out of her car service ride and wandered—trudged, more accurately—along the path to the front door, making a mental note to call the body shop to see if her car would be ready soon. While her driver, Albert, was a sweetheart, she wanted her personal vehicle back. It was her safe space.

Chloe tried not to let self-pity creep in. After all, she’d chosen this life. She could have happily enjoyed the spoils of being married to a tech mogul and spent her days getting facials or playing tennis at the club.

Instead she’s decided to make use of the blessings she’d been given and do something worthwhile. That was why she had started the Henshall Scholarship Foundation. And she was proud of it. In just four years of existence, they’d provided over two millions dollars to 125 students from underprivileged backgrounds. The goal was help these kids finish college without any debt, something she hadn’t been so lucky to do.

She got to the front door of her Hollywood Hills mansion and waved to Albert that he could leave. As he pulled away, she reminded herself that even if she’d had it rough for a while, she was in no position to complain right now. Yes, she’d had to work her way through school and graduated with nearly $100,000 in student loans to pay off.

But now she was married to Sean, an amazing (if serially absent-minded) guy who was both kind enough and wealthy enough to pay all that off for her. She lived in this incredible home. And just last month, they’d finally found a surrogate they liked. Her life was better than 99% of the population, so if she had to spend six hours at an endless foundation meeting going over Department of Education scholarship eligibility requirements, that was a small price to pay.

She opened the door and stepped inside, locking it behind her. Slipping off her shoes even before leaving the foyer, she dropped her files on the console table and headed for the kitchen to get a snack. Missy, their white poodle, ran up and licked her ankle. Chloe was just fishing a treat out for her when the doorbell rang.

She glanced at the security system’s app on her phone to see who it was. Unfortunately the front door camera wasn’t facing the porch but pointing down at a hedge off to the side. She wondered if it had been blown that way by the heavy winds in the last day or two. Since it was too high for her to reach, she’d have to ask Sean to fix it when he got home.

The bell rang again. Missy was small but had a tendency to bark and leap at visitors, so Chloe closed off the kitchen to make sure she wouldn't get out and "attack" whoever was at the door. With that done, she headed back the way she came. It was at times like this that she half-wished they had a permanent live-in housekeeper rather than the one that came in three times a week. Then, she could just ask them to greet potential guests.

She looked through the peephole, partly hoping it might be a solicitor so she could just ignore them. But it wasn’t. In fact, this was someone she didn’t mind seeing. She unlocked the door and opened it wide.

“Hey,” she said with a smile, “I didn’t expect to see you back here so soon. Did I forget something earlier?”

"No," he said. "This is a little embarrassing. I have another job nearby, but it's not for another half hour. Since I was already right here, I thought I'd see if I could stop in and borrow your restroom really quick. Sorry to bother you."

“No, it’s cool,” she said. “I was just trying to figure out what Sean and I might have for dinner. Come on in. I could get you some water too.”

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