Page 39 of The Perfect Prey

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

They were only a block away from Elite Spa when they got a final update from Jamil.

Jessie was well aware that this was their last opportunity for communication until they returned to the car after the party.That might be just as well.Her conversation with Ryan a little earlier had gone about how she expected, and having to be radio silent for a little while, even if it meant going undercover into a sex party, seemed preferable right now.

From his tone of voice when he answered her call, she knew he suspected she’d have to bail on the appointment.

“I’m really sorry,” she had said, briefly explaining that they had an undercover operation starting just an hour before the adoption meeting and that there was no way she’d make it in time.She pointedly didn’t share the details of the operation.

“I’ll cancel it,” he had said, not even bothering to chastise her for breaking her promise.He sounded more resigned than angry.

“Thanks,” she replied, wincing at his clear disappointment.“We’ll figure out something new when I’m not so crazed, okay?”

“Okay,” he had said flatly before hanging up without saying goodbye.

Jessie tried to push that phone conversation out of her head as she adjusted her earphones to better focus on the one she was having now.She and Susannah were both using them for their current chat with Jamil so that the driver, a pleasant enough guy named Freddy, didn’t hear anything he shouldn’t have.They were also being very cryptic in their responses to what Jamil told them.

“So our friends all attended meetings at the convention,” she reconfirmed.

“Yes,” Jamil said, cognizant of the fact that they couldn’t be direct in their questions even if he could be clear in his answers.“Based on GPS data, they all attended, but never at the same time.The Hartleys went to two parties at the spa, including one on the night they were killed.Evelyn Channing went to two as well, but there was no overlap.There was one other party that none of them went to.”

Since they had company in the car, Jessie couldn’t say what she was thinking.The fact that all three victims were never at a single party together suggested that their connection might have less to do with anything specific to their interactions with each other than what they meant to the killer.

“We’re pulling up,” Freddy, the driver, said.

“We have to go, Jamil,” Susannah said.“We’re here.Please ask our ‘friend’ to stay ready.Hopefully we won’t need him.”

“You got it,” Jamil said.“Good luck.”

After they hung up, Jessie leaned forward to talk to Freddy.

“So, can you remind us how this will work one more time?”she requested.

“It’s pretty straightforward,” he said.“When we get to the alley, I’ll pull over to the curb.You walk straight back to the door on the right.Only take your masks and a small, clear plastic baggie and only bring essentials with you.No electronics of any kind.In my experience doing this, most people just bring baby wipes and hand sanitizer.”

“Jeez,” Susannah muttered under her breath.

“There will be someone to greet you at the door,” Freddy continued.“Just give them the password you were provided, and you should be good to go.I’m sorry, but I don’t know what happens after that.”

“Okay, thanks.”Jessie said.

“Do you want to write down my license plate number?”he asked.“All these cars look the same.”

“We’ve got it memorized,” Susannah assured him.

“Okay,” Freddy said, “according to Valentina, your pickup time will be at 4 p.m.I’ll be waiting for you.Have a good time.”

“Thanks,” Jessie said.

While Russo trusted Freddy, they didn’t know him and had therefore acted the part, as if they really intended to party.They got out of the car at the curb and headed toward the square-looking man in the black suit by the back door ten paces into the alley.

As they approached him, Jessie glanced back toward the street they’d just come from.Across the road, she could see the camera they’d had set up on the streetlight pole about fifteen feet up.About an hour earlier a crew of tech unit police officers wearing L.A.Department of Water and Power uniforms had arrived to do some “maintenance.”

When they left, the camera—which Jamil and Beth were operating—was in place.They would have preferred to have set up others too, including in the alley itself.But they worried that doing anything that close to the building would have set off alarm bells.

They’d also co-opted Detective Jim Nettles—the “friend” that Susannah had referenced to Jamil—as backup.If all was going as planned, he was currently in Elite Spa’s men’s locker room, preparing for a massage he wouldn’t actually be getting that was scheduled for two hours from now.

He wouldn’t have been Jessie’s first choice.Burly, grizzled, and taciturn, with flecks of gray in his black hair, he’d just turned forty and didn’t seem like the massage type.Self-care wasn’t really his style.

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