Page 17 of The Perfect Deception
“This isn’t my first rodeo, Hernandez,” Jessie replied.It was the first time either of them had made anything close to a joke all night and he smiled appreciatively.
“Got it, cowgirl,” he told her as he opened the door with a grin.
By the time they stepped inside the room, they’d both wiped the smiles off their faces.James Maplewood looked even worse than Michael Dominik.More disheveled than when they saw him at his house, his eyes were bloodshot and every part of him looked rumpled.
“How are you feeling, Mr.Maplewood?”Jessie took a seat in the metal chair next to the man.She didn’t want to come across as adversarial by sitting across the table from him.
“They said it was just a panic attack,” he said, his voice raspier than it had been at his house.“But it didn’t feel like it at the time.”
“That’s certainly understandable.”Ryan was using his most empathetic tone.“It was good to get checked out, just in case.”
“Did you learn anything new while I was there?Did you catch someone?”
“I’m afraid not.”Ryan shook his head.“We’ve got our whole unit working on this.But in these early hours, information from you can be crucial to solving this.We were hoping you could help us clarify a few things.”
“I’ll do what I can.”He sounded defeated.
“At the house earlier, you mentioned that you knew the Dominiks ‘slightly.’What does that mean?”
Maplewood sighed heavily and waited several seconds before replying.
“I mean, we knew them from the neighborhood, saw them around all the time.”
“Hmm.”Jessie said nothing more than that, just letting the one word linger in the air.
“What?”Maplewood looked at her quizzically.
“It’s just—well, when we spoke to Michael Dominik, he gave us the impression that you were friendly.He said you’d even been to each other’s houses.”
The man’s eyes went wide and it was clear to Jessie that she’d struck a nerve.He seemed to be weighing how best to answer.When he did, his voice was even raspier than before.She wondered if that was the exhaustion, or if nerves were playing a role this time around.
“That’s true.”He was choosing his words carefully.“People were always at other people’s houses.It’s the kind of community where everybody has their door open on the weekend.I suppose one person’s ‘casual acquaintance’ is someone else’s ‘friendly.’I don’t know where you draw the line, I guess.”
Under normal circumstances, with a tired, emotionally drained person who was back on their heels, this would be the ideal time to throw in a curveball question.In this instance, Jessie would have liked to have asked Maplewood point blank if he’d been having an affair with Cassandra Dominik or suspected that his wife was involved with Michael Dominik.
But these weren’t normal circumstances.Any premature question along those lines would put Maplewood in a defensive crouch.He might demand an attorney.For now, it was better to hold off.
Both these men were hiding something.But she had no idea what it was.Maybe they were both so consumed by grief that they were reluctant to share anything negative about their spouses.Maybe they were hiding some impropriety unrelated to their wives’ deaths.Maybe they were just nervous around the police.
One thing was clear.They were both uneasy about something, but that didn’t mean whatever secrets they were keeping were about murder.
That’s why Jessie intended to let them go for now.Whatever they were hiding wouldn’t stay hidden forever.Secrets rarely did.
And she was already formulating a plan to uncover theirs
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jessie waited until both men had left the station to share her plan with the others.
She and Ryan called a meeting of every available HSS team member who was already at the station.It was not quite 7 A.M.so that wasn’t everyone.Detectives Jim Nettles and Sam Goodwin wouldn’t be in for a few more hours.The same was true of Hannah, who would show up at eight.But Jamil and Beth were here, as were detectives Susannah Valentine and Karen Bray.For what Jessie had in mind, that was more than enough.
“Something is up with these husbands,” she said to everyone assembled in the bullpen.“We don’t know what it is yet and we don’t want to let them know we suspect anything, so the plan is to tail both men to see if they do something interesting.”
“Haven’t they both already left?”Beth asked, concerned.
“Yes,” Ryan replied.“That’s why we assigned squad cars to follow both of them at a distance.But obviously that’s not sustainable long-term.Even the most clueless civilian is going to notice a black and white tailing them after a while.And these guys are probably more edgy than clueless.”
Jessie picked up from there.“Which is why Ryan and I planned to take over surveillance of one husband.We were hoping that Susannah and Karen could take the other.”
