Page 10 of The Perfect Deception
“Okay.Good luck with that.”She rolled away from him and hugged her pillow.
“Parker wants both of us on this.”
“I’m not supposed to start up again until tomorrow and I’m still wiped out from travel.Does she really want my jetlagged ass sleepwalking through this?”
“I think she wants to get you back in the rotation as quickly as possible and since I was available, it made sense to pair us up on your first case back.Do you think you can muddle through?”
Jessie rolled back over to look at him.
“It doesn’t sound like I have much choice.”
“She was pretty insistent.”
Jessie sighed heavily.She knew this was her job and she wanted to help.But she had hoped she’d get at least one night in her own bed to decompress and readjust to her old life.
“Fine.”She pushed herself upright.“Give me ten minutes to get ready.”
“If it’s any consolation, I can drive so you can sleep in the car.”
It wasn’t.“West Adams is less fifteen minutes from here.There’s no point in trying to sleep.By the time that I’d drift off, we’d be there.”
When Ryan didn't respond, she looked over at him.His expression told her that he'd been kidding about the sleep.Clearly, she needed to wake up a bit more if she was going to be of any use.
Whoever this victim was deserved her best.She just needed to summon it.
***
As they drove down the street of the house where the murder had occurred, Jessie was still Googling what she could find on the residents.She didn’t want to reach out to the research staff at this hour.At least that way they’d be fresh when she asked them to help out in a few hours.
“I’m not familiar with this neighborhood,” she admitted as they passed a series of large homes in varied styles on huge lots.
“Probably because it doesn’t have much crime,” Ryan told her.“It’s called Lafayette Square.Semi-gated community with less than 300 homes.It’s over a hundred years old.”
“Semi-gated?”
“Right.”He pulled over to the side of the street just behind an ambulance and three squad cars, all of which had their lights flashing.“Meaning where we entered, on St.Charles Place, is the only way in or out.All the other major streets are gated off.No security at the entrance though, which is too bad.That means no cameras.”
“Well, according to what I’m reading, the folks around here could afford security if they wanted it.”She scrolled through her phone.“It looks like most of the homes here go for over $2 million.The address we’re going to sold for over $3 million four years ago.”
They both looked at the house just up the block, which was already cordoned off with police tape.
“I wouldn’t want any part of that place.”Ryan was shaking his head.“It looks more like Dracula’s lair than the home of—who lives there again?”
“James and Olivia Maplewood.”Jessie clicked on a link.“Looks like he works for a corporate bank.Office is downtown, less than ten minutes from here.She’s an interior designer.From her website, it seems like she does a lot of houses in the neighborhood.And you said neither of them is the victim?”
“Not according to Parker.Should we go in?”
“I guess so.”She did her best to locate her game face as she reached for the car door handle.
He put his hand on her forearm.“Are you going to be okay with this?”
The concerned look in his eyes told her he wasn’t just asking about whatever ugliness they’d find inside.She’d been to hundreds of crime scenes, some so horrific that they still haunted her.She might have been gone for a few months, but she was certain that she’d be able to steel herself for what they were about to face.
But Ryan was also, in his delicate way, asking something else.Oftentimes in the months before Jessie went on her sabbatical, it was seeing the brutality of what had been done to victims that fueled her rage, and the desire for vengeance that came with it.He wanted to know if she was going to be able to keep her cool or if the bloodthirsty urges she’d been dealing with were about to return.
“That’s what the time away was for, Ryan,” she told him.“So that when I’m in a situation like this, I’ll be okay.I guess we’re about to find out if it was worth the trip.”
She tried to sound nonchalant but the truth was that she was as worried as he seemed to be.She had no idea how she would react once removed from the security blanket of The Ionian Center.
