Page 57 of The Perfect Betrayal

Cisco paused for a moment, as if deciding whether he was really going to share this. Then he continued.

"Usually there are lots of girls at these things," he said. "But because it was so late that night, she was the only one around. We'd all been drinking in the yacht club bar and were pretty sloppy when we left the harbor. Everything was cool for a while. The two of us hit it off, and I took her down here to my cabin. We started to hook up when she just started to lose it, scratching at me and stuff."

Jessie was already dubious of his version of events. Why would Heather suddenly “lose it” in the middle of a consensual encounter? It was far more likely that Cisco pressured her into something she wasn’t comfortable with. But for the sake of keeping him talking, she didn’t press the issue.

“What happened then?” she asked as if she believed he was being straight with them.

“She was so out of control that I locked her in my cabin so she could calm down. I went up to the deck to tell the other guys what happened, and we all agreed that we should head back to shore and just unlock the cabin and let her leave.”

Jessie glanced over at Monica, who seemed as skeptical of this version of events as she was. But to her credit, the woman said nothing. Maybe she was hoping for a big revelation. Or perhaps she was just holding back until she couldn’t take itanymore, at which point she’d make use of the knife. Regardless, she was quiet for now.

“But that obviously didn’t work out,” Jessie prompted.

“No,” he said. “While we were up top talking, she somehow climbed out the cabin window and up onto the deck. She started screaming that we had kidnapped and assaulted her. I walked over, trying to calm her down. But she backed away from me. I guess she slipped on a wet spot or something because she suddenly fell backward and hit her head. It knocked her out. But her momentum sent her off the side of the boat. She fell in the water.”

He paused briefly as if he expected questions or pushback, but when neither Jessie nor Monica spoke, he went on, his increasingly confident tone suggesting that he thought they were buying what he was trying to sell.

"I jumped in right after her to try to save her," he continued. "But she had started sinking right away. It was dark out and I lost sight of her. Some of the other guys jumped in too. We were all searching around. Someone shined a light on the area where we last saw her, but there was nothing. We kept looking for about ten minutes but eventually had to give up. The water was really cold, and we couldn't see anything. We came back on board and just, you know, had a moment of silence for her."

Jessie saw Monica’s grip on the knife handle tighten at that last line and spoke quickly, before the woman did anything.

“Why didn’t you report the incident then or when you got back to shore?” she asked.

He shrugged limply.

“We were scared,” he said, finally making eye contact with her. “Who would believe us? It looked really bad. So we all just kept quiet about it, which I know was wrong. After about a day, I felt so awful that I decided I had to go to the police. But Robbieconvinced me not to. He said that no one had reported her missing and that maybe it would all blow over.”

“Robbie, who is dead now and can’t dispute your version of events, talked you out of it?” Jessie asked.

“Yes,” he answered, looking down again. “I know it was cowardly, but I allowed myself to be convinced by him. I’ll always regret that.”

Joel Cisco might have been a good financial advisor. He was obviously competent enough to amass all this wealth and, at least for a while, hoodwink his clients. But he was a terrible liar. Jessie didn’t have to be a professional criminal profiler to see that.

And it was clear from her expression that Monica wasn’t falling for any of this either. But she hadn’t made any move toward Cisco. She looked over at Jessie, who waited to see what she would do next. Unless the woman came at her with the knife, Jessie was fine with whatever path she chose.

After what felt like forever, and without a word, Monica Silver dropped the knife on the floor and kicked it over to Jessie. Then she took a step forward and extended her wrists, palms up. When she spoke, she sounded on the verge of tears.

“I assume you have handcuffs?”

Jessie nodded, filled with an odd mix of relief and disappointment at the woman’s decision.

She suspected she knew why Monica had made it. Cisco’s story about that night was laughable. But even if one bought it, he’d still admitted to covering up a woman’s death. Monica had to realize that his self-incrimination was enough to get him convicted of something.

More importantly, now she finally knew the truth: her sister was dead. Whether it was an accident, or far more likely an assault gone horribly out of control, Heather was gone. Therecould be a funeral, even if there wasn’t a body. And someone would finally pay.

CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

They were almost back to shore.

Jessie looked over her shoulder. Behind her, seated on metal benches on either side of the patrol boat, were Monica Silver and Joel Cisco. Both were handcuffed. Cisco had bandages all over his body and a medic was taking his blood pressure one last time before they were to disembark.

He was much more mellow than when Riddell and three Coast Guard officers had boarded the Bodacious Tata an hour ago. The second that he saw them, he started screaming that he’d been coerced into a false confession and Jessie had been willing to let Monica kill him if he didn’t make it.

Riddell had turned to her with a raised eyebrow. When he spoke, his words took her by surprise.

“Pretty desperate guy,” he said, “to make up something like that.”

“Can you believe it?” she replied, neither confirming nor denying anything.

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