Page 48 of The Perfect Prey

“If it’s them, it’s likely a burner phone,” she said, then instructed, “Answer it and put it on speaker.”

Russo nodded and, with shaking fingers, did as she was told.

“Hello?”she said uncertainly.

“Put the police on,” ordered a digitally altered voice that Jessie thought was male.

“You’re on speaker with us now,” Susannah told them.

After a short pause, the voice responded.

“Can you guarantee that you aren’t interested in our business?”

“Some of us attended your party this afternoon,” Jessie replied.“As far as we could tell, everything going on there seemed to be activity among consenting adults.That’s not our priority anyway.”

She didn’t mention the questionable legal status of the India-based charity that they were apparently using as a front for their Special Friends Events.That was something the financial crimes unit—or the IRS—could pursue.

“Not prioritizing it is not the same as ignoring it,” the voice noted, perhaps worried about that very issue.

Jessie wasn’t in the mood for semantic games and said so.

“Perhaps not,” she said.“But you need to look at the bigger picture.If it gets out that members of your club are being murdered by another member, how long do you think your business will survive, especially if we let it be known that you were unhelpful in apprehending the killer?Your business might have some issues going forward regardless, but I suspect that particular revelation would be a death knell for you.”

There was another long silence, so long in fact that Jessie wondered if she’d pushed too hard and they’d simply hung up.But then the voice returned.

“We are sending a list of members who meet your criteria to the draft folder now.We expect that this is the end of our communication.”

This time, Jessie knew that the silence that followed meant they’d ended the call.

***

Ten minutes later, they had their marching orders.The list they’d been sent managed to reduce the number of potential suspects from sixteen to nine.But only two of those nine had what they agreed was enough technical or electronic experience to circumvent Evelyn Channing’s security system and know that the Hartley’s was on the fritz after that big storm.And as it turned out, both had been at the party this afternoon.

The first suspect was a thirty-nine-year-old named Thomas Reed.Married with three kids, he had formerly served in the military in a unit that specialized in network-centric warfare.It appeared that his job was to undermine the efficacy of enemy computer networking and information technology.Since leaving the service, he’d become rich as an executive at a firm that prevented exactly those kinds of intrusions into private sector companies’ systems.He definitely had the skills to evade or undermine the basic security at most people’s homes.

The other promising suspect appeared to have a similar skill set.Michael Pearson was a thirty-one-year-old, unmarried multi-millionaire who designed software for home and business security systems.He made his fortune when he sold the company three years ago.He could likely outsmart the victims’ systems in his sleep.

“We’re going to head out,” Susannah announced.“Nettles will pull Detective Garrison from Homicide and pay Thomas Reed a visit.Jessie and I will look in on Michael Pearson.”

“I noticed that you assigned me the guy with military experience,” Nettles said.“Should I be worried?”

“That’s why Garrison is going with you,” Susannah said.“He’s a former Green Beret.You should be safe.”

“It’s going to take a bit of time to get access to their GPS location data,” Jamil warned, “that is, assuming they’re driving and have their phones with them.I don’t know whether these guys will be at work or home, or either for that matter.”

Susannah looked over at Jessie to get her thoughts.

“Have uniformed officers go to both men’s offices,” she said.“They’re less likely to do something drastic in a public environment.But warn the officers to stay alert.Assume their target is armed and dangerous.Nettles and Garrison can check Reed’s home, and we can do the same for Pearson.”

“Sounds good,” Nettles said.

“But we should all remember not to jump to conclusions,” Susannah added as they headed for the door.“These guys both look good for this, but there’s no guarantee that our working theory is right.That’s why, while Jamil tries to get the location data on these two, Beth will be looking at the other seven guys on the list to see if we’re missing something.”

“Will do,” Beth promised.

“Let’s also remember the converse,” Jessie said.“Both of these guys were at the party this afternoon.That means they know the cops were there.They might have gotten spooked.Depending on how they react, that could mean that if one of them is the killer, they’ve gone to ground.Or it could mean that they know there’s a ticking clock.That could lead him to move everything up.If that’s true, then we might not have until tonight.He could be stalking his next victim right now.”

“Okay,” Susannah barked, “with that in mind, let’s move out!”

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