Page 12 of The Perfect Prey

“Who isn’t?”

“Well, Ryan hasn’t been because he’s been sedated a lot of the time to control the pain as he recovers,” she explained, “so I’ve been tracking it on my own.And let me tell you—waiting to find out if the guy who killed multiple people that I previously savedandthen tried to kill me is going to prison for life has been, to put it mildly, anxiety-inducing.”

“But you know that he’s going to be convicted, right?”Susannah said reassuringly.“My understanding is that they didn’t even need you or Ryan to testify.”

“That’s true,” Jessie conceded.“They determined that the testimony of Dr.Janice Lemmon, who was in the hospital room when Haddonfield attacked me, was enough, especially with all the other physical evidence.But you never know until the verdict comes in.”

“I get it,” Susannah said.

“And on top of that, you know my friend, Kat, right?”

“Of course.”

“Well, I’m worried about her.She’s going through a similar situation with the Ash Pierce case, only she’s doing it while dealing with her fiancé’s murder.It’s a lot.Between all of those things, I guess I’ve just lost some of my ability to self-regulate.”

Susannah nodded and squeezed her hand while doing something that Jessie rarely saw from her.She stayed quiet.

Jessie felt bad.Everything she was saying was true, but it wasn’t the whole truth.The fact was that none of the concerns that she’d mentioned weighed on her like the bloodlust she felt.And she’d completely neglected to mention the ongoing uncertainty that she and Ryan were dealing with when it came to potential adoption.

“Listen,” Susannah finally said.“I’m the last person who would ever tell you to hold back.You know that’s not my thing.I know that I’ve mellowed out some since I started seeing Drake.And not even dating a grizzled surfer cop is enough to chill me out all the time.But I’m here to tell you that if you ever feel like it’s too much for you, just give me the high sign.I’ll cut into whoever we’re dealing so you don’t have to.Everyone expects it from me, so it won’t come as a surprise, and you can experience the vicarious thrill of going after someone without the dirty looks.Personally, I relish the dirty looks.”

“Thanks, Susannah,” Jessie said, deciding it was time to end the pity fest, “I really appreciate that, especially coming from a skanky malcontent like yourself.”

Susannah laughed.

“I’ll let you have that one,” she said, standing up.“What do you say we get back to it?By my count, we’ve got over a hundred close contacts of the Hartleys that we need to work our way through.Maybe one of them got hosed in a real estate deal with Richard Hartley, owns a collection of masquerade ball masks,andhas a criminal record.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice?”Jessie said, following Susannah back inside.“Maybe they’ll own an ice cream shop too and we can question them over a cone of mint chocolate chip.”

“Sounds yummy,” Susannah said with a grin.

Though Jessie didn’t say it, she was skeptical.If someone had that many touch points with the Hartleys, Jamil would have found them already.The likelihood was that they’d be spending all afternoon poring over minutiae about everyone the Hartleys knew, hoping for some scrap that might lead to a credible suspect.

As daunting as that sounded, Jessie was almost looking forward to it.At the very least, it would allow her to focus her attention on something other than the parade of horribles that had made her so unpleasant to be around.And if it landed them a quality suspect along the way, all the better.

CHAPTER SIX

Kat Gentry sat in her tiny booth at the coffeehouse and for the third time in the last few minutes, glanced at her phone.It was 3:04, exactly two minutes later than the last time she’d checked.

She knew that she shouldn’t be here, that this wasn’t the most productive use of her time, and yet, she didn’t intend to stop.Later on, she planned to stop by the home of her best friend Jessie to check in on how Ryan was doing.She knew his recovery had been going slower than hoped.

Since she and Jessie had mended fences, she’d been by several times.She’d first visited them in the hospital the night they’d had the confrontation with the poisoner.Hannah had returned from school on the weekends to help out, but during the week, Jessie was mostly alone to watch Ryan, so Kat had been by the house almost every other day since then, bringing meals and helping keep an eye on Ryan so that Jessie could grab some quick catnaps.But her visit today would have to wait.

Right now, she had other plans.Specifically, she got up and left the coffeehouse, making the short trek to the Los Angeles County Courthouse, which she intended to walk the entire exterior of, and not for the first time.This was the building where two important things were happening.

First off, jury deliberations would resume here tomorrow in the trial of Mark Haddonfield, who had caused them all so much pain.In addition to killing multiple people and trying to do the same to Jessie, he was ultimately responsible for the murder of Kat’s fiancé, Mitch Connor.It was based on instructions in Haddonfield’s online manifesto that a crazed acolyte had tried to shoot Kat.Mitch had leapt in front of her, taking the bullet that ultimately killed him.

That was the main reason that she’d been so upset with Jessie.She’d learned that her best friend had met with Haddonfield in the months since Mitch’s death to discuss a case she was working on.That treachery had cut her to the quick.

Eventually, she learned that Jessie was only meeting with the killer as part of a deal in which he retracted his manifesto and ordered his followers to leave Jessie’s loved ones alone.As long as she continued to discuss some of her cases with him, he would refrain from calling for violence against those in her life.Kat still felt ill when she thought about the two of them poring over a case file together, but she’d come to accept that it was the lesser of two evils.

And she would be happy to see Haddonfield convicted—which was a virtual certainty—and then sentenced to life in prison.But she wouldn’t be in the courtroom for that event because she had other business to attend to.

In another part of the vast complex, there was an evidentiary hearing planned in the trial of Ash Pierce, which was scheduled to begin next week.That was where Kat would be.As she wandered along the sidewalk surrounding the courthouse, sipping her coffee and looking for all the world like just another regular gal enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon stroll, her mind was moving a mile a minute.

She kept her eyes on the exterior of the huge building, looking for any weak spots where she could get in or where Pierce could get out.Kat had every right to be in the courtroom, especially as one of Pierce’s victims.But that wasn’t her focal point right now.She was looking for an unmanned entry point, where she could access the place without supervision or having to surrender her weapon.She knew it was a longshot.These places were designed as fortresses.But that didn’t stop her from looking.

She knew that if she found a point of entry that she could take advantage of, then Ash Pierce would almost certainly know about it as an escape option too.Kat had learned the hard way just what Pierce was capable of, and she put nothing past her.

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