Page 4 of The Perfect Prey

Jessie shot Susannah a grin.The kid was polite, and he didn’t assume that just because of how Susannah was dressed, she was simply a curious onlooker rather than a cop.She couldn’t crush him for that, nor could she nail him for staring at her lasciviously.His eyes had remained respectfully above her shoulders.

“We’re with Homicide Special Section,” Susannah said, flashing her badge and ID.“They’re expecting us.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the officer said, lifting the tape to make it easier for them to duck under it.

As they started down the path, Susannah looked over at Jessie expectantly.

“See,” she said, “I can take it easy on people.You judge me too harshly!”

“I think that kid had been warned not to break eye contact with you,” Jessie teased, “probably by another officer whose head got bitten off by you in the past and has yet to be re-attached.”

“Now you’re just being mean,” Susannah said, pretending to pout.

Jessie wanted to come back at her again, but as they got closer to the mansion where she knew two dead people were waiting inside, she felt a twinge of guilt.Instead, she focused on the home.

Even for the standards of the tony Hancock Park neighborhood, this place was impressive.It took up almost a third of the block it was on.With its Tudor styling and elaborate hedge designs, it looked like it would be a better fit in the English countryside than the heart of L.A.

Strangely, despite how over-the-top it was, the home had surprisingly little in the way of obvious security.Unlike a lot of homes in the area, it wasn’t gated.One could walk straight up to the front door as they were doing now.Jessie noticed that the side fences were unusually low too.An average-sized person in decent shape could likely scale them without much trouble.She looked around for security cameras.There was a Ring camera near the front door, but nothing else that was immediately visible.

A second officer stood at the door.He was also young, but he didn’t have the same nervous demeanor as his compatriot by the street.Nor did he have the other guy’s tact, as he seemed unable to tear his eyes away from Susannah’s chest as she approached.Jessie wasn’t in the mood for a confrontation, so she short-circuited any.

“Morning, officer,” she said, holding up her ID, “we’re here from HSS.I’m Jessie Hunt.This is Detective Valentine.Who’s the officer in charge?”

The young cop managed to turn his focus to Jessie’s ID, which likely saved him from a tongue-lashing.

“That would be Sergeant Alonzo,” he said.“Go down the main hallway for a while until you get to the last bedroom on the right.That’s where everyone is.”

Jessie nodded and took the lead.Susannah followed, clearly using all of her willpower not to turn around and bust the officer, who was almost definitely sneaking a peek at her backside.

“I thought you showed impressive control there,” Jessie muttered to her as they started down the hallway.“You’ve come a long way, baby!”

“Don’t call me baby,” Susannah said, trying not to smile.

The trip along the hallway, which seemed to go on forever, took longer than expected.They passed ten open doors, five on each side.Jessie counted a living room, a dining room, a bar, a library, and a bathroom on the left, and five bedrooms on the right before they reached the one they’d been directed to.

Jessie stepped inside to find the primary bedroom crowded.The room itself was massive, easily the size of three normal bedrooms.There were two enormous dressers, a reading nook with a small library’s worth of books, and a chaise lounge chair in the corner.She specifically avoided looking at the bed, where she could see two bodies out of the corner of her eye.She wanted to get a sense of the space before focusing on the victims.

She counted four crime scene technicians, the medical examiner and an assistant, as well as four uniformed officers.One of them, a short woman with strawberry blonde hair tied back in a bun, saw them and walked over.Jessie had never met her before.

“You must be the folks from HSS,” she said, extending her hand.“I’m Sergeant Justine Alonzo.Thanks for coming.”

“Detective Valentine,” Susannah said, shaking her hand, “This is Jessie Hunt.Thanks for reaching out.Was it you that thought this should be an HSS case?”

“I’d like to take credit,” Alonzo said, “but the first officers on the scene knew this was a weird one and immediately suggested contacting you guys.You’ll see why when you look at the bodies.”

“Before we do that,” Jessie said, “what can you tell us about the couple?Who are they?How were they found?”

“It looks like Richard Hartley was a big-time real estate investor,” Sergeant Alonzo said.“Apparently, he was mostly retired now, even though he was only 44.His wife, Cynthia, was some kind of socialite.She was 43.No kids.Two dogs.We know most of the details we have so far from the dog walker, who was a family friend.Her name is Olivia Townsend.That’s who found them.”

“Is she here now?”Jessie asked.

“No,” Alonzo answered.“One of our officers helped her take the dogs to doggy daycare so that they’d be out of the way.But we got a statement from her before they left, along with her contact information.I’m sure you’ll want to talk to her in more detail later.She could probably use a little time to regroup.She was pretty broken up.”

“We’ll definitely want to speak with her,” Susannah said.“So how did she find them?”

“She said that she came by to do the morning walk with the dogs,” Alonzo said.“Apparently the Hartleys normally do that walk themselves but told her they’d be out late last night and wanted to sleep in.So she let herself in with the key they gave her.”

“If they were supposedly sleeping in, how did Townsend even know anything was wrong?”Jessie asked.

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