Page 27 of The Perfect Prey

“Please send us the address,” she said.“We’re going to the car now.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

As they pulled up at the address twenty minutes later, Jessie looked out the car window.

At this late hour on a Sunday night—approaching midnight—traffic was minimal, even in the heart of Hollywood.The victim lived in a large apartment tower near the corner of Sunset and Vine.It wasn’t immediately obvious that a crime had been committed here.There were two squad cars and a crime scene truck on site, but they were parked a half block up, giving the impression that they might be here for an incident that happened on the street rather than inside.

Susannah parked in a loading zone right in front of the building and they hopped out, rushing up the stairs to giant, locked glass doors.Susannah rapped on the glass to get the attention of the security guard, who was talking to an LAPD officer.The guard, a portly man in his fifties, shook his head as if he ran a business and was telling them it was closed for the night.

Susannah slammed her badge against the glass, which seemed to have an impact.The guard, along with the officer, a tall, youngish Latino man with uncertainty in his eyes, walked over.When they were close enough to hear, Susannah shouted, “We’re handling the case.Open the door.”

The officer nodded at the guard, who pushed a button to the left of the door.A lock automatically clicked.Once he opened the door, Susannah stepped in with Jessie close behind.

“We saw the CSU truck out front but no medical examiner van,” Susannah said, dispensing with any pleasantries.“Are they not here yet?”

“Not yet, Detective,” the officer said.“There was a drive-by shooting near the corner of Fountain and La Brea about an hour ago.There were two fatalities, and this late on a Sunday, they’re a little short-handed.I’ve been told someone will be here in the next thirty minutes though.”

“Okay, tell us where we’re going,” Susannah said.

“14thfloor,” he said.“Apartment 1406 at the end of the hall.”

They went to the elevators with the guard, who had to swipe his access card to unlock the buttons.He pressed 14.The door was about to close when Jessie stopped it.

“What time do you lock those front doors?”she asked him.

“10 P.M.,” he said.“After that, residents need to swipe cards like this for entry or be admitted by me.”

“What about earlier in the day?”Jessie pressed.“Do non-residents have to sign in, or could they just walk in after someone else does and head upstairs?”

“In theory, everyone is supposed to sign in,” he answered, “but I have to be honest.Sometimes people slip through the cracks.This building has twenty-one floors with ten units on each one.There are well over four hundred residents.I don’t claim to know each one on sight.Sometimes, people get by when it’s busy.I’ve had food delivery people come out of the elevator after dropping something off and didn’t even realize they’d gone upstairs.I do my best, but I’m one guy working a ten-hour shift.”

“Do you have video cameras in the elevators, stairwells, and residential hallways?”

“Yes to the first two, along with the fitness center, the parking garage, and the lobby here,” the guard said, “but not to the individual floors.”

“Sergeant Frank, who’s upstairs, already requested everything from today,” the officer told them.“One of our people is processing it all now.It should all be available soon, certainly by the morning.”

“Great,” Jessie said, handing over a card.“Make sure it gets sent to our research team as soon as it’s ready.”

She let the elevator doors close.As it started upward, Susannah looked over at her.

“Any preliminary thoughts, Ms.Hunt?”she asked.

“Nothing brilliant just yet,” Jessie conceded.“I’ll be curious to check out what’s on those cameras, but the truth is that whoever did this was likely aware of them too.I doubt we’re going to find someone putting on latex gloves as they stare up at the elevator security camera.Our killer might have snuck in here twelve hours ago with a big group.Or they could be a resident with access to the whole place.”

“Hopefully, the officers in the room will have clues,” Susannah said.“What do we know about this woman again?”

“According to what Beth pulled together while we drove over,” Jessie said, looking at her phone, “the victim’s name is Evelyn Channing.She’s twenty-six and works in marketing for a record label.She went to school at USC, graduated four years ago, and moved to this address about eight months ago soon after she got a promotion.She’s also quite attractive.”

Jessie held out her phone to show Susannah a headshot of Channing from the record label’s website.On the screen was a blonde with bright blue eyes and a vivacious, high-wattage smile.

The elevator doors opened, and they were met by an officer who was blocking the hallway in the direction of Channing’s apartment, making sure that no lookie-loos got by.They displayed their credentials and headed to the end of the hall, where they again showed their IDs to another officer, who stepped aside to let them in.

Once they entered, Jessie took in the place.It was more impressive than the building’s exterior, which was fine, but essentially a cookie-cutter residential tower.Channing had done up her apartment to reflect her interest in music.

There were posters of album covers from multiple eras on the walls, framed like pieces of art.A bookshelf that took up half of an entire wall was filled with vinyl albums instead of books.Jessie guessed that there were over three hundred of them.Even her furniture reflected her love of the music industry.

A circular coffee table in the living room looked like an actual LP.It was black with grooves and album information in the center.When she looked more closely, Jessie saw that it was from Fleetwood Mac’sRumours.The throw pillows on the couches had recreations of famous album covers from Michael Jackson’sThrillerto Bob Dylan’sBlood on the Tracksto Pixies’Doolittle.

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