Page 35 of The Perfect Prey

“I understand,” he said.“One last thing.While it’s clear that you don’t fully trust me, I’m going to trustyouwith something important, and I really need you to listen closely, okay?”

“I’m listening,” she said, wondering if the call would cut out before he could spin some other wild yarn.

“If you want to be independent, you have to go to the mattresses,” he said slowly and with great portent, as if he was some fortune teller sharing the secrets of her future.

“What the hell does that mean?”she asked, annoyed.“Isn’t that a line fromThe Godfatheror something?”

“You’ve seen it?”

“No, but I’ve heard the phrase,” she told him.“I can’t believe that’s how you want to end this conversation.”

“And yet it is,” he assured her.“If you want to be independent, you have to go to the mattresses.You have to tell Jessie that I said that.Okay?”

Before she could answer, Hannah heard a click, followed by a dial tone.The call was over.

Great, she thought,now I have to decide what the hell I’m supposed to tell Jessie, if anything.

She walked into her class two minutes late, fully aware that she was unlikely to be able to focus on anything other than what a serial killer had just told her.

CHAPTER TWENTY

If they weren’t under such time constraints, Jessie would have strung the woman out even longer.

As it was, they let Valentina Russo sit alone in the interrogation room for a half hour, getting increasingly fidgety before finally joining her.

It turned out that Russo had indeed gone to her office at Arresting Affairs and snuck out with the masquerade ball mask design memo.In fact she was driving to the station with it when the squad car that Susannah sent pulled her over on the side of the road.

Nonetheless, the officers removed her from her car, handcuffed her, and transported her to Central Station in the back of their vehicle.They wanted her unsettled, even scared, and from her expression, visible through the one-way mirror, it had worked.

“Hi, Valentina,” Jessie said warmly when she and Susannah entered the interrogation room.

She wanted to keep the young woman off balance for this conversation.Acting as if everything was normal and friendly, while Russo’s wrists were cuffed to a metal hook on the metal table bolted to the floor, was one way to throw her off.

“Why did you have me arrested?”Russo demanded angrily.

“We didn’t have you arrested,” Susannah informed her.“We just had you detained so that we could better assist you in meeting your obligations.You promised us that you’d bring in that memo first thing this morning and we got concerned that you might be in danger, so we sent some officers to help you out.”

“I was on my way here,” the woman protested.“You put me in handcuffs.”

“Only to make it look legit in case anyone was watching,” Susannah lied with a wave of her hand.

“Can you at least uncuff me now?”Russo pleaded.

“I have to say—I’m more than a little disappointed,” Jessie told her, ignoring the request.“You weren’t totally honest with us yesterday, and being deceptive with law enforcement is a big no-no.”

Technically, Russo was under no official obligation to be completely forthright with them.Lying to the police was a misdemeanor.But merely holding back potentially relevant information wasn’t as clear a violation.Still, creating the impression that she might have crossed some line could keep Russo on her heels.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the woman insisted.

“Sure you do,” Susannah said.

“I really don’t.”

“Yesterday, you told us that those wild, secret parties were a thing of the past,” Jessie replied.“But that wasn’t strictly true, was it?They might not held at abandoned warehouses and empty mansions anymore.But they’re still happening, aren’t they?”

Valentina Russo looked crestfallen.

“You have to understand,” she pleaded, “I was just protecting myself.I know you said the NDA didn’t apply, but I wasn’t sure you were being straight with me, and I didn’t want to risk getting sued for everything I have.Besides, it didn’t seem like such a big deal.I don’t know if the jewels on those masks were stolen or if there are mountains of cocaine or sex shows at these parties or what.But I figured it couldn’t be that bad if you let me go.”

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