Page 47 of The Perfect Deception
“We can do it for the sake of certainty, but that looks pretty definitive to me.”
“How could Elise Prager not have noticed this?”Hannah marveled.“She knew Vanessa.”
“To be fair,” Jessie said, “the idea that one of her clients, who had supposedly killed herself, was secretly pretending to be a swinging bachelorette probably never occurred to her.It only just did to us.And besides, we’ve seen ample evidence that Prager isn’t the most observant, detail-focused person in the world.Plus, Vanessa Winston’s job was to help protect her clients from identity theft.It’s not hard to imagine that she’d be pretty adept at creating fake identities too.If Alvin ‘Tommy Golden’ Cruvelli could slip past Prager’s vetting process, then Vanessa certainly wouldn’t have a problem.”
“Okay,” Hannah said, “But Nancy Manion’s only life swap was with Robert and Melanie Patel.”
She grabbed the file of the sole remaining bachelorette, Candace Majerus, and flipped to her photo.Like the lawyer Bridget Halloran, Candace had red hair and green eyes.She also had that furrowed-brow smile that Jessie was becoming so familiar with.
"According to the file," Hannah said, "Candace has only been in a swap with the Maplewoods.However, I do see a note in the margin in Prager's handwriting.It looks like Candace had a 'get to know you session with the Troppers at their place.That was two weeks ago."
“That means she’s been in the homes of all four couples,” Jessie noted.“She’d know the layout of each one, maybe even the security they did or didn’t have.”
“And it could explain how she got the victims to go to other people’s houses,” Hannah added.“She could have pretended to be one of the wives to get a swap husband to come over to her house.Or she could have used her bachelorette identity to cajole them into the house.With knowledge of the homes and the couples, she’d know just which buttons to push to get them to come over.Either way, once they were in the home, she could drug them and drag them to the bedrooms or seduce them there and drug them once they were in bed.After that, killing them would be the easy part.”
The theory made a lot of sense to Jessie.With access to all the homes, familiarity with the couples and their routines, and the physical strength to move their unconscious bodies around, Vanessa had the means and the opportunity to commit these murders.All that was left was motive.
“But why would she do this?”Beth asked, broaching the same question.
“Hard to say,” Jessie reached for her phone.“Her file references depression and ‘other issues.’Maybe one of those issues impacted her mental health to the point that she had some kind of break.Maybe it’s the motive I ascribed to her husband—that she resented other couples whose swaps hadn’t ended in humiliation.”
“Who are you calling?”Hannah asked.
“Elise Prager.I noticed that these files have phone numbers and e-mail addresses for all three bachelorettes, but no home addresses.I’m hoping that Elise kept a record of them somewhere else.Then we’ll know where to look for Winston.”
“I’ll try to pull up DMV records for all three, just in case,” Jamil offered.
“Go for it,” Jessie said, “although I’ve got a sinking feeling that Winston only created the fake IDs to get past Prager, not the state of California.”
Prager’s phone went to voicemail so Jessie hit redial.
“What can I do?”Beth asked.
“Call Ryan,” Jessie instructed.“Fill him in on what we’ve learned.Tell him that his first question when he talks to Walter Winston should be: what other mental health issues was his wife dealing with besides depression?The second question should be whether they have any other property in the L.A.area.I want to know where Vanessa might be holing up.”
The second call to Prager went to voicemail again.She tried once more, just as Jamil looked over at her.
“You were right.There’s no DMV record of any of these women.”
“That’s okay.”Jessie stood up.“I keep getting Prager’s voicemail so I’m going to talk to her in person.If she made copies of the fake IDs, maybe those at least have real addresses.If so, we can send units to check them all out.”
“You’re not going alone, are you?”Hannah said more than asked.
Jessie knew what her sister was hinting at.Ryan was would be incredibly upset if, with her head issues, exhaustion, and being generally out of practice, she went into the field by herself.
She turned to Beth.“Do you know if there are any HSS detectives available to join me?”
“Valentine and Goodwin are in the Arts District where a sculptor was shot in his own warehouse.Karen Bray took the afternoon to go to her son’s soccer game but we could try to get hold of her.”
“That’s okay.”Jessie had a brainstorm and headed for the door.“I’ll take Harper Devery.He’ll be over the moon.He keeps saying how he wants to join HSS.This will give him a taste of it.”
“With all due respect, Ms.Hunt,” Jamil protested forcefully, “Officer Devery has been on the force for less than three months.”
Jessie was touched by his concern.The young man wasn’t prone to moments of outward emotion, so he must have really felt strongly.But that was secondary right now.
“Devery is who I have, so he’s who I’ll use.”
“Then you better get moving.”Hannah knew better than to argue when Jessie had made up her mind.“It’s already past 4 P.M.We’re getting close to killing time.”
