Page 51 of The Perfect Prey

“Jessie, you better get in here,” she yelled.

Jessie dashed down the hall.Some small part of her feared that they were too late and there might be a naked body in the room.But when she stepped inside, she understood that Susannah’s urgency had been for another reason entirely.

On the wall above the desk in the corner of the room was a corkboard.Affixed to the board were photos of multiple people with addresses handwritten below.Jessie immediately recognized three of them as Richard Hartley, Cynthia Hartley and Evelyn Channing.But that wasn’t what had Susannah so anxious.There were four other photos on the corkboard: three women and one man.

“I’m going to call all these in right now,” Susannah said.“We’ll have units go to each address.”

“Okay,” Jessie said.

While the detective made the call, Jessie moved closer to the corkboard to get a better look.She noticed something right away.At first, she thought that her fatigued, bleary eyes were playing tricks on her.But they weren’t.Three of the addresses were transcribed in meticulous handwriting.But one of them was scrawled more haphazardly, to the point that she had to squint to read all the letter and numbers.

“Send units to the other three, but we’re taking this one,” she said to Susannah as she pointed at the photo of the severely attractive brunette whose name was apparently Claire Hoffman.

“Hold on a second,” Susannah said to the dispatcher on the other end of the line, then asked, “Why?”

“For one thing, it’s close,” Jessie said.“This address is just down the hill in West Hollywood.We’re probably five minutes away.And two, because she’s going to be his next victim.”

“How do you know that?”Susannah demanded.

“Look at the difference in how he wrote her address information compared to the others,” she said, her blood pumping faster as she spoke.“He couldn’t control himself.She clearly brings out strong feelings in him, and not good ones.We need to get to her place right now!”

CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

Claire Hoffman was annoyed.

She’d forgotten to take her plastic grocery bag into the store and ended up having to get one of their paper ones.She didn’t mind the $.10 charge.What she did mind was how crappy the bag was.

One of the handles broke as she was carting it down the hallway to her condo and several items had fallen out.She was lucky none of them was the wine bottle.Actually, the store was lucky.If that had broken, she’d have gone back to give them hell.

She was so tired of ineptitude.The folks she represented at work, mostly actors and directors, were a whiny bunch who didn’t appreciate what she did for them.The service industry people she dealt with seemed disinterested in giving half a damn about their work.

It was enough to make her wish that bomb threat to the office had come in early enough for her to go to the “Afternoon Delight” event at Elite Spa today.But the party announcement had come on such short notice, and she couldn’t justify it with all the work she had.She’d just have to find a nasty boy toy who could satisfy her needs next time.

As it was, she had the bag in her left arm and her briefcase in her right, making it impossible to unlock her door.She put down the bag and searched for the keys in the pocket of her slacks.

As she did, she felt a strange shiver go down her back.It reminded her of that feeling she and her friends got as kids when they’d say that meant someone had just walked over their grave.She glanced back down the hallway behind her, but there was no one there.

She finally managed to get hold of the keys and pull them out.She fished around for the right one, then unlocked the door.As she picked up the briefcase, she got the same shiver as before.But this time, she didn’t have the energy to look over her shoulder again.

She pushed open the door and was just starting to step inside when she heard what sounded like shoes reverberating loudly on the wooden floor behind her, coming her way.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

Jessie had been wrong.

It didn’t take them five minutes to get to Claire Hoffman’s condo complex.It took seven.

Susannah pulled up to the curb, and Jessie was out the passenger door before the car had come to a complete stop.They reached the exterior gate, which was locked.Susannah punched in the special gate code for the complex that was only available to emergency personnel so they could gain access in situations exactly like this one.

As they raced through the courtyard to the building’s main entrance, Jessie got a call.She pulled out her phone and looked at the screen.It was from Kat.That would have to wait.She sent it to voicemail and waited as Susannah entered the code for the interior door as well.

The building was only four stories high, with four units on each floor.But, of course, Hoffman lived on the fourth.Susannah hit the elevator button.When it didn’t open immediately, Jessie made a decision.

“I’ll take the stairs,” she said, “meet you up there!”

She darted over to the stairwell and took the stairs two at a time.By the time she reached the top floor, she was out of breath.Her recovery from the fight with the poisoner two weeks ago had left her unable to do her normal workout routine and she could feel the difference.

Seeing that Susannah hadn’t arrived yet, she tried to put her physical and mental exhaustion out of her head and find Hoffman’s unit.She was in 404, which was at the end of the hall.

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