Page 34 of The Perfect Deception
She saw Ryan frown and knew why.Navigating the emotional fallout of these crimes was part of what made her a good profiler.And if she was avoiding the emotion of the situation, she wasn’t bringing her full skill set to the table.
The truth was that her emotions had actually threatened to overwhelm her earlier.The sight of both these men, each in their early thirties, drained of life as they lay limply on those beds, hit her hard.She imagined what it would be like to come home to find Ryan like that.These new widows were in for rough times.Before she could clean up her comment, Hauk spoke up.
“What vexing questions are you thinking about specifically?”
She decided to focus on that, rather than convincing her husband that she hadn’t shed her humanity while she was away.
“For one thing, I’m wondering how one person managed to get each of the victims, men and women alike, into someone else’s home without a fight.There didn’t seem to be a sign of struggle at any of the crime scenes.“
“We did get Olivia Maplewood’s preliminary bloodwork back from the medical examiner,” Ryan reminded her.“Indications are that, like Cassandra Dominik, she was drugged.I would think that’s even more likely with the men.Both of them are good-sized and would be able to put up a decent fight if they were conscious.”
Sergeant Hauk frowned.“Even if they were unconscious at the time, whoever did this would have to be pretty strong to get all these people into bedrooms and up on beds before cutting their throats.”
Jessie wasn’t ready to draw that conclusion.“That assumes that they hadn’t already gotten into the beds willingly.”
“Good point,” Hauk acknowledged.
“That’s the key, right?”Jessie was surprised no one else had said it out loud yet.“Now that we have all the particulars on these husbands, we need to address the elephant in the room.”
“Which is?”Hauk asked.
Ryan gave the same answer that she would have.“It seems obvious but we need to know for sure: were these two couples in life swaps like our other victims were?”
Jessie nodded.Luckily, we don't have to wait to find an appropriate time to ask the grieving widows that question.We have someone else who can answer it for us just as well as they could."
“Let’s go see Elise Prager,” Ryan said, already making his way down the front porch steps.”
“You do realize that sunrise isn’t for almost two hours?”Hauk reminded them
Jessie smiled.“We’ll bring her coffee and a muffin.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Elise Prager was being difficult.
Jessie had a little sympathy for her, but not much.Admittedly, they had knocked on the door of her Wilton Historic District home at 4:17 A.M., after making that planned pitstop for coffee and pastries.That was a lot for anyone to handle.
The Wilton Historic District was just a few neighborhoods and a couple of miles away from Lafayette Square.Amazingly, the homes here, of which there were less than 100, were even more imposing than those in Lafayette Square.Almost all of them were built in the Craftsman or Colonial Revival style in the first three decades of the 20thcentury.Prager’s was an example of the latter.
They had to wait several seconds as they heard Prager undo multiple locks on the front door.When the woman opened it, confused and bed-headed, she was in a bathrobe so threadbare that Jessie suspected she’d had it for decades.And learning that two more of her clients had been murdered clearly shook her.
But that was where Jessie’s consideration ended.After all, Prager’s business seemed to be intimately connected to the deaths of four people so far.The woman would have to sacrifice her beauty sleep.So after processing the basics of what they were telling her, Prager allowed them inside.
She led them past the foyer with the spiral staircase and down a long hallway that opened into an expansive living room.Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, Jessie saw a pool in the backyard.Beyond that was a guest house that would probably sell for over $1 million all by itself.
Unlike last time, where they interviewed her in an interrogation room and she sat on a hard metal chair, at least she could sit on her own couch for this round of questioning.Despite that, getting answers was like pulling teeth.Still, after an hour there, they had learned a fair bit.
Yes, the Troppers and Patels were involved in life swaps too.Each couple had engaged in multiple swaps over the last two years, including twice with each other.No, there had been no complaints from anyone involved.That hadn’t satisfied Jessie.
“Just to be clear, once it gets a little later in the morning, we’re going to be reaching out to everyone who’s part of your swap network and instruct them to end all of that activity for the foreseeable future.”
“For how long?”Prager balked.
“Until we catch the person killing their neighbors.”Ryan couldn’t keep the shock out of his voice.“It’s almost certainly someone involved in your whole project.”
Prager took offense at that.“My vetting process is extremely careful.I do background checks on everyone involved, even if I’ve known them for years.There’s no way that some psycho could masquerade as a respectable member of our community.This is a very exclusive circle of people.”
Ryan was having none of it.“You say that, but there are a bunch of members of this community that have no idea that, right under their noses, some of their neighbors are involved in what amounts to a fancy swingers collective.So who knows what else everyone’s missing?That’s why we’re here—to find the missing pieces.That’s why we need your help.So let’s dig into it.”
