Page 46 of The Perfect Prey

“So no guarantees, but probably closer to forty than twenty with those kinds of resources, right?”Hannah suggested.

“You never know these days,” Jessie countered.“He could be a twenty-year-old social media influencer raking in millions of dollars a month.”

“So, do you think his motive is like the hedge fund guy?”Hannah wondered, “someone who doubts that his proclivities will go over well in his normal life, so he embraces a secret one, where he can stare at people going at it without being judged?”

“Maybe,” Jessie allowed, “But the hedge fund guy had a hands-off vibe that made him unlikely to get down and dirty like this.These killings feel personal.The way our guy posed the victims—it’s as if he wanted to make them vulnerable even as he was de-personalizing them by putting masks on their faces.It’s like he craves intimacy but, at the same time, doesn’t know what to do with it when he gets it.”

“Okay,” Hannah mused, “so do you think he maybe had sex with these victims at a party and then things ended badly?”

The question made a light go off in Jessie’s brain.

“No,” she said excitedly, making Susannah pause her conversation with Jamil to listen in.“But now that you mention it, I think hewantedto have sex with them and couldn’t for whatever reason.I think our guy coveted his victims.I think he watched them but couldn’t join in.Maybe he had the money to join the club, but no one was interested in him once he got there.Maybe he approached the victims but was rejected by them.I think he thought that this club was his ticket to sexual satisfaction, and when it turned out not to be, he got mad.I think this might be his way of asserting control.”

As she spoke, it was as if the killer’s anger at his victims seeped into her.She could feel her whole body tingling with barely controlled rage at the man who had done these things.Beside her, Susannah’s attention was diverted by something Jamil said to her on the phone.But Hannah’s apparently wasn’t.

“Are you okay?”her sister asked.

“Yeah,” Jessie assured her, whispering now.“This guy just pisses me off.”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that,” Hannah said.

“Is this what you called about?”

“No, I’ll get to that, but I was talking to Ryan yesterday and he mentioned that you’d been having some of the intense anger issues that I dealt with not that long ago.”

“I wish he hadn’t have said anything to you,” Jessie muttered in frustration.“That’s personal, and besides, I don’t want to worry you.”

“He’sworried about you, Jessie.And as to it being personal, you know better than anyone that I have some experience with this issue.If anyone can relate, it’s me.Can I help?”

Jessie was quiet for a moment, deciding how best to proceed.

“Maybe,” she said, speaking quietly so Susannah wouldn’t hear, “but that’s something we can talk about another time.”

Now, it was Hannah’s turn to be quiet for a bit.

“Okay,” she finally said, “but don’t let it fester.I can hear the rage in your voice, sis, and I know all too well that if you wait for the perfect time to address it, it could be too late by then.”

“Noted,” Jessie said, hoping to move on, “now what did you originally want to tell me?”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.Mark Haddonfield called me.”

“What!”

“Don’t worry,” Hannah said quickly.“He didn’t threaten me or anything.He said he was actually trying to reach you, but you didn’t pick up.”

Jessie vaguely remembered getting a call this morning from a number she didn’t recognize.She’d rejected it and no one had had left a voicemail, so she hadn’t thought about it since.

“I guess I missed it,” she said.“What did he want?”

“He said he wanted to help,” Hannah told her.“Take this with a huge chunk of salt, but he claimed that Ash Pierce approached him on a prison transport bus and proposed that they work together to escape.”

Jessie didn’t know whether to scoff at the idea or be concerned.

“How long ago did he say this happened?”

“Eighteen days ago,” Hannah said.“He was very specific about that.”

“But he’s only coming forward now?”

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