Page 16 of The Perfect Deception
He was unshaven and his black hair was everywhere, as if he hadn’t had time to concern himself with brushing it properly.That made sense, as did the rumpled slacks and the dress shirt, which was mis-buttoned.He’d been told in the middle of the night that his wife had been murdered.Appearances likely weren’t his top priority.
He was clearly a good-looking man, but his eyes were puffy from crying and his face was blotchy, possibly due to the stress.As he sat down opposite Jessie, she noted that his black dress shoes were untied.
“I’m sorry about how I look,” he said, running his hand through his hair.
“Don’t worry about it,” Ryan said, taking a seat next to Jessie.“As I told you last night on the phone, we’re terribly sorry for your loss, Mr.Dominik.”
The man nodded, biting his lip so forcefully that Jessie feared he might draw blood.After a moment, he swallowed hard, and spoke.
“I’m afraid to ask, but it’s been eating at me the whole drive up here.What exactly happened?”
“That’s a little complicated,” Ryan told him in what Jessie considered quite an understatement.“We didn’t want to get into all the details when everything was so fresh for you, but we’d like to address some of them now if we could.”
Dominik nodded weakly, looking defeated by the world.“Fine.”
“Your wife wasn’t actually found in your home.”Ryan treaded delicately.“Her body was discovered in the home of your neighbors—the Maplewoods—by James Maplewood.The body we found in your bed was Olivia Maplewood.”
Dominik looked at Ryan blankly, as if the words he’d just heard had been spoken in a foreign language.Jessie decided this was a good time to step in.
“Do you have any idea why that might be, Mr.Dominik?”
He stared at her with the same dull, confused expression he’d offered Ryan.
“Wait, you’re saying it wasn’t Cassandra that you found in our house?”
“That’s right.”She pressed on as gently as she could.“Can you think of any reason why Olivia would be in your house and Cassandra would be at the Maplewoods?”
He shook his head.
“Do you know the Maplewoods?”Ryan already knew the answer from their conversation with James Maplewood last night but just like Jessie, he clearly wanted to hear how Dominik would answer.
“I mean, yeah, sure.It’s a tightknit community and they lived a few blocks over.We were always crossing paths with them at neighborhood events and stuff.I didn’t know them super well but they seemed nice.”
“So not friends then?”Jessie said.
Dominik squirmed a little in his seat.Jessie couldn’t tell if it was because of the question or general discomfort at being in a hard metal chair after just sitting in a car for two hours.
“Friends?”He pondered the question.“I don’t know about that.Friendly?You could say that I guess.I mean, they’d been in our house and we’d been in theirs.But you could say that about two dozen other families in the neighborhood.People are always hosting stuff, us included.”
Again he swallowed hard.Jessie wondered if he had dry mouth, maybe parched from the long drive, or if this was a sign of nervousness.She got the distinct feeling that even as he was discussing the death of his wife, he was holding something back.
It could be something as simple as feeling guilt for being out of town when Cassandra was killed or it could be something more ominous.But a mere feeling wasn’t enough to push the guy too hard.Besides, being overly forceful in her questioning could make Dominik start to feel like a suspect.If that happened, he might lawyer up, and then where would they be?
As she was weighing how to proceed, Ryan got a buzz on his phone.He glanced down at the message, then back up at Dominik.
“Would you excuse me and Ms.Hunt for a minute?We need to attend to something.”
“Did you learn something new?”the man asked excitedly.
“I’m not sure yet.We’ll be right back.”He nodded toward the stern-looking officer standing in the corner of the room.“If you need anything, Officer Meyer can help you.”
After they stepped out, Ryan filled her in.“They just brought Maplewood into interrogation room 3.Shall we see him?”
Jessie was already walking down the hall before he finished the question.She stopped just outside the door.
“Dominik is holding something back,” she told him after he’d caught up.“It might not be relevant but there’s more there.I’d like to see how Maplewood comes across.Even last night, in the middle of his grief, the guy seemed wishy-washy on how well he knew Cassandra.I’m curious if he’ll get more specific.”
“Okay, but don’t push too hard.For the time being we need to treat these guys as witnesses who are in mourning.Let’s not antagonize them until we have to.”
