Page 24 of The Perfect Deception
“How long have you been doing this?”Ryan asked.
“Nearly two years now.”
“You said it didn’t always pan out?”Jessie noted.“Was that the case with the Dominiks and Maplewoods?Did any of them ever express reservations?”
Prager shook her head vehemently.“Not at all.In fact, the reason they did a second swap was because the first one went so swimmingly.I never heard a single complaint after either one.”
“No jealousy?”Ryan wondered.“You never got the sense that one of the four participants wished the swap was more permanent?”
“I’ve had that happen on a few occasions with other couples and it wasnotfun.But never with these two.They seemed to have a very healthy attitude about the whole thing.”
Ryan was unconvinced.“Then what was Michael Dominik so exercised about when you met him at Cordy’s earlier?”
Prager shrugged.“It wasn’t anything all that suspicious.He wanted answers I couldn’t give.Did someone on my staff have access to their home security information?Had anyone else I worked with been upset that they weren’t paired with him and Cassandra or with the Maplewoods?Was there some kind of vendetta?I guess he was trying to make sense of all this by doing some amateur detective work.”
“And what did you tell him?”Jessie asked.
“The same thing I’ll tell you.I have no staff for the swaps.It’s supposed to be very confidential and bringing in someone else would undermine their privacy.And no, there were no hard feelings when it came to pairings.”
“That’s it?”Jessie got the sense that Prager was holding something back.
“Michael was also worried that the swaps would come to light publicly and make them look like freaks,” she admitted.“I told him that I had no intention of sharing anything about their arrangement unless I was legally obligated to do so.Then he left and you two walked over to my table, so my assurances lasted less than five minutes.I feel bad about that but it appears that it wasn’t up to me.”
It most certainly wasn’t.Jessie wondered at what point she or Ryan would ultimately end up letting Prager know that her claims of confidentiality with her clients were an illusion.If they wanted that information, they’d get it.But for now, there was no need to fight that battle.They had a bigger one on their hands.
Jessie glanced over at Ryan to see if he was thinking the same thing as her.It was clear to her that he was.The fact that she could read his expression so easily, even after months apart, was reassuring.
They needed to talk to the husbands again.Neither Michael Dominik nor James Maplewood had acknowledged these life swaps when interviewed.In fact, in Jessie’s eyes, not evenmentioningsomething so obviously relevant amounted to lying about a factor that could be crucial to their wives’ murders.
That didn’t automatically mean they were involved.But it was awfully suspicious.And it demanded answers
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
They sent squad cars for the men.
It was Jessie’s idea.She wanted them on edge, worried about why they were being brought in a second time, and in police cars no less.They might be mourning the deaths of their wives, but their lack of candor bordered on obstruction and she intended to use that against them.She had an unusual idea for how to go about that.
Dominik, who was still at the Cordelia Hotel, arrived first.They put him in interrogation room 1 but waited until Maplewood was brought from his sister’s house in the valley, which he’d never left, before proceeding.When he arrived and was put in interrogation room 3.
But rather than go in and question the men themselves, they put Jessie’s idea into action.Susannah Valentine was sent in to question Dominik, while Karen Bray took Maplewood.Jessie and Ryan had prepped them so that they were up on everything.
The questioning would take place concurrently, so Jessie and Ryan could watch the interviews on monitors from an observation room.That way they could note any major discrepancies in real time, or worse, any stories that soundedtoosimilar.The latter might indicate that they’d conspired to get those stories straight.
“Go for it, ladies,” Ryan said into the earpieces that both detectives wore in one ear.“But remember, we don’t want them to lawyer up, so stop shy of any accusations.”
Susannah dived right in.“Why didn’t you tell Detective Hernandez and Jessie Hunt about your life swaps, Mr.Dominik?”
The man looked stunned before stammering a reply.“I didn’t think that would matter.”
“You didn’t think it mattered that a woman you temporarily lived with on two separate occasions died in your home?In your bed?”
“Look, I was so shocked by what happened, I wasn’t really thinking in those terms.I was woken up in the middle of the night and driven back to L.A., where I knew my dead wife was waiting.It was like some crazy fever dream, only it was real.I’m sorry if I wasn’t completely on the ball.”
Karen Bray, in the other interrogation room, used a different interview style.She had an unflappable air of professionalism to go with her keen sense of perception.And as a married mother of a five-year-old, she was generally more patient than Susannah so she was slightly less aggressive with James Maplewood.
“Can you please explain why my colleagues had to hear about your life swap situation from Elise Prager instead of you?Didn’t you think that might be relevant to your wife’s death, as well as that of Mrs.Dominik?”
He paused for several seconds before replying.When he did, he sounded remorseful.“I guess.Maybe.The truth is that I wasn’t really in the head space to focus on that.I found Cassandra lying dead in my bed.And then I couldn’t get hold of Olivia.I was panicky.I mean, the doctors said that I had anactualpanic attack.And frankly, I’m still freaked out.The only thing that’s allowing me to sit here without breaking down is the sedative I took a little while back.It hasn’t worn off yet and thank god for that.”
