Page 27 of The Perfect Accomplice

“I sleep with a lot of women, Detective,” Barber told him with a smarmy smile. “I didn’t know I had to report it to the cops every time something happens in their lives.”

Jessie stifled the desire to slap him across the face and pressed ahead.

“Nothing is happening in her life anymore,” she pointed out. “That’s why we’re here.”

“You know what I meant,” Barber said quickly.

“Did you recently break it off with her?” Jessie asked, ignoring his comment.

“There was nothing to break off,” he told her. “We enjoyed each other’s company, at least physically. But then she got needy. She wanted to go places, to have meaningful conversations. That wasn’t the deal, so I moved on. To be clear, there was no relationship to break off.”

“Did you get tired of her being so needy?” Ryan wondered. “Maybe decide to put an end to it?”

Barber leaned back in his chair, seeming to calculate the amount of trouble he might be in. Jessie still wasn't sure if he was just an egotistical, horny wannabe actor or merely using that as a cover for something more disturbing. For a guy being questioned about a woman's murder, he seemed awfully nonchalant to her, at least until now.

“Do I need a lawyer here?” he asked.

“You started out this chat by saying you did nothing wrong,” Ryan reminded him. “Are you retracting that statement? Is that why you’re asking about a lawyer?”

“I really don’t like your accusatory tone, Detective,” Barber replied, either really offended or play-acting at it.

“Right back at you,” Ryan said.

Jessie could feel things going off the rails slightly and decided she needed to tighten the screws in a more productive manner. “Were you sleeping with Erin Podemski too?” she asked flatly.

Barber tore his attention away from his staredown with Ryan and fixed it on her. It took him a couple of seconds to grasp what she was asking.

“I don’t think so,” he said, “Who’s that?”

Jessie showed him a photo from her phone.

“No, I haven’t been with her,” he said huffily, as if she wasn’t up to his standards and he was insulted by the question.

“But you recognize her.”

“I think so,” he answered. “She might have been in here recently.”

“How about last night?” Jessie wondered.

“Okay, if you say so,” Barber replied with a shrug.

"She was here," Jessie assured him, showing him the Instagram photo that Beth had found, "and now she's dead too."

Barber was quiet for a few seconds.

“I don’t like where this is going,” he finally said. “Now I really think I should call a lawyer.”

“That’s one way to go,” Jessie told him, briskly moving past the idea, “or you could just tell us where you were between 9 a.m. and noon yesterday and later that night between 6 p.m. and midnight.”

Barber seemed to weigh whether it was in his interest to answer the question. After a moment he smiled.

“That’s all you want to know?” he asked, his confidence returning. “Okay. I was asleep until at least noon yesterday, like almost every day when I don’t have an audition.”

“Can anyone verify that?” Ryan asked.

“The girl I was with, I guess.”

“Who was that?” Ryan pressed.

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