Page 53 of The Perfect Prey

Jessie somehow doubted that the man was choosing his victims based purely on how nice they were.But she held her tongue on that point too.Instead, she tried to appeal to his ego.

“Listen, Michael, maybe these people didn’t treat you right, but forget about them,” she said.“I can’t promise you that you’re going to leave the country.That’s not realistic.I want to be honest with you about that.But Icanpromise that you’re going to become a celebrity now.Your trial will be all over television.You’ll have women sending you letters asking to meet you, talking about how great your conjugal visits will be.”

He licked his lips at that idea, so she kept going.

“But all of that only happens if you’re alive,” she added.“You hear those sirens?Those officers will be up here soon.And the more cops in this room, the more chance that something goes wrong.But if you toss that letter opener away and surrender yourself to us, you’ll be in cuffs before they even get up here.And then the whole process starts.The news stories.The jail interviews.Those letters I mentioned from adoring groupies.Your life is about to change, in some ways for the better.So what do you say, let’s end all this craziness?”

He turned the offer over in his head.Jessie could tell that it appealed to him.He just needed to take that final step.He looked over at Claire and then back at Jessie.And then he stood up.He started to walk slowly, moving toward the foot of the bed.

“That’s great, Michael,” Jessie said.“You just need to drop the letter opener.”

“You know,” he said, “maybe if the girls back in school were more like you, I wouldn’t have ended up like this.”

Saying those words seemed to do something to him.Jessie watched as he cast his mind back to whatever trauma from his youth had led him down this road.And in that instant, she saw his eyes darken.She knew the moment was lost.

Suddenly he leapt across the foot of the bed, the pointy end of the letter opener headed toward her.But apparently, she hadn’t been the only one to notice the change in Pearson.With incredible speed, Susannah unholstered her gun and fired, hitting the man in the right shoulder.

He collapsed onto the bed, his torso landing on Claire Hoffman’s legs.His arm fell limply by his side and the letter opener dropped from his hands, bouncing once on the bed before coming to rest at Jessie’s feet.

Susannah, without hesitation, holstered her weapon and moved toward Pearson.Within seconds, she had yanked him from the bed to the ground.He lay on his stomach, where she jammed her knee into his back as she pulled out her cuffs.

Jessie looked at Pearson.The man had tried to kill her, even after she set aside her feelings and tried to help him survive this thing, an offer he’d never made to his victims.The rage returned.

Jessie glanced at the letter opener lying at her feet.She could imagine the cold steel in her palm as she grabbed it, clenched it tight in her fingers, and jammed it deep into the top of Pearson’s skull.Unable to stop the image from invading her brain or the excitement from filling her gut, she bent down to pick it up.

“What are you doing?”Susannah said, shaking her out of her fever dream.“Don’t touch that, Jessie.You know it’s evidence.”

“Right, sorry,” Jessie said, covering quickly.“I was just going to move it away from him.I guess I wasn’t thinking.”

“Just let the crime scene folks bag it,” Susannah said, apparently oblivious to the churning hatred still roiling inside her partner.“Can you check on Hoffman?”

“Yes.Of course,” Jessie said, trying to get back into her normal headspace.She wanted to slap herself in the face but decided against it.Instead, she moved over to the bed to check on the victim she was supposedly here to save.

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

Jessie was almost back to normal.

They had watched one ambulance take Claire Hoffman away after the EMTs managed to get her conscious.She was disoriented and in pain from the blow to the head she suffered, but she was alive.A second ambulance would take Pearson to a separate hospital, where he would be treated for the gunshot to the shoulder before being processed right there in his hospital room.

His surgery would take a while, so Jessie and Susannah decided to head back to Central Station to get a head start on the paperwork.Susannah hadn’t made any more mention of Jessie, almost grabbing the letter opener.It seemed like she’d bought the story that Jessie had just gotten lost in the moment and almost made a mistake.

That was reassuring, but Jessie didn’t feel all that relieved.She was quite sure that if her partner hadn’t noticed her reaching for the letter opener, the thing would be in Pearson’s skull and Jessie would be in handcuffs.This had to stop.

She pulled out her phone as they headed back to the station, about to text Dr.Lemmon.That’s when she noticed the voicemail from Kat.She’d completely forgotten about her call.She hit play and put the phone to her ear.

“Jessie,” her friend said, clearly agitated, “I know this is going to sound crazy, but I need you to believe me.Something is up with Ash Pierce.I’ve gone to all the proceedings in her case.I get that people think that’s not great for my mental health.But set that aside.I know how this woman typically acts.And she’s acting differently today.I don’t know if it’s because her trial starts next week or what, but she’s agitated.And she never gets agitated.I feel like something’s going to happen.I’d say call me back, but the hearing is supposed to resume at 4:15.That’s in ten minutes.Maybe you can reach out to people you know here at the court and give them a head’s up.Something isn’t right.”

Jessie looked at the time.It was 4:37, meaning the hearing was likely in session right now.Normally, she’d think that Kat was overreacting because of her personal history with Pierce.But between this call and Hannah’s warning from Mark Haddonfield earlier, she wasn’t so sure.

She was tempted to call her contact at the courthouse but thought better of it.It was one thing to warn the jail administrator.Increasing Pierce’s guard contingent was no big deal for them.If needed, they could simply confine Pierce to her cell.

But the courthouse was another matter, and she just didn’t have enough information to justify putting them on even higher alert.That required moving precious resources around.The best move under the circumstances seemed to be just to go there herself.

“Hey,” she said, turning to Susannah in the driver’s seat,” do you think you could start on the paperwork without me?”

“Sure,” Susannah said without hesitation.“Why?”

“Kat’s at the courthouse,” Jessie explained.“She’s got some anxiety over the Ash Pierce case, and I’d like to be there to offer her some moral support.Would you mind dropping me off there?I’ll catch up with you after this hearing is done.”

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