Page 36 of The Perfect Deception
Jessie pushed her.“To your knowledge, have any of these others, whether male or female, been in swaps with more than one of the couples in which someone died.”
“Not yet.I was rolling it out slowly.So far, Tommy was the only single to be with more than one couple.”Prager’s face fell.“But I’m telling you, he’s innocent.”
Ryan, clearly unconvinced, stood up.“If you want to prove that, we’re going to need you to bring in all your data on the singles involved for our research team to review.Frankly, you should have included that information with the original material you handed over.And we’ll need you to come as well to help decipher it.”
“Is that absolutely necessary?I’m in no condition to go out right now.”
“It’s necessary.”Ryan didn’t even try to sugar-coat it.“In fact, not coming in to the station could be perceived as interfering in a criminal investigation.I assume you don’t want that.”
Prager must have been desperate because she turned to Jessie with horrified eyes.“Look at me.I’m a mess.”
Jessie dug deep for as much pity as she could muster.
“We’ll give you a half hour to shower and get dressed.That’s our outer limit for this sort of thing when it comes to murder investigations.Better get moving.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Jessie finally felt like they were getting somewhere.
When she and Ryan pulled into the parking lot of the Pinnacle Health Club, it was 7:02 A.M.According to Beth, Tommy Golden had a training client at seven, so he should definitely be around.Jessie, despite her lack of sleep, was excited.
The last hour and a half, which she’d spent in the research department with Ryan, Jamil, Beth, and Elise Prager, had kept them all busy.Once Hannah arrived in an hour, she’d look into some of the other singles that Prager had recruited for the life swaps.But truthfully, they had their hands full investigating Golden.
By the time Jessie and Ryan arrived at Pinnacle, they already knew all about the guy.Thomas “Tommy” Golden was a 28-year-old personal trainer who had moved to L.A.from Nashville seven months ago.Photos showed him to be a stunningly good-looking guy with dirty blond hair, blue eyes, and a wide grin that revealed pearly white teeth.But as they walked through the parking lot and up the ramp to the club entrance, Jessie mentally reviewed what else they knew.That was the stuff that had her intrigued.
Specifically, there was the fact that Tommy Golden didn’t seem to have existed before about nine months ago.There was no record of employment in Nashville.He had listed an address there for Prager’s benefit, but it appeared to be for a motel that had no record of him.
Jamil was currently running the man’s photos through the facial recognition program, but because the system had to search the entire country, it might take a while.Once they brought him in, they could fingerprint him and see if he showed up in a database, but for now they were flying blind.
One thing was certain.The guy was sketchy.His social security number was fake, belonging to a man who had died in 1962.His Tennessee driver’s license wasn’t real either, according to a representative from the state’s Driver Services department.
Add to that, while searching for his training schedule today, Beth discovered that the guy’s personal trainer certification was fake too.And in a final ding to his credibility, Jamil had noted that “Thomas Golden” had run up nearly $100,000 in credit card debt since arriving in L.A.
“We’re looking for Tommy Golden,” Ryan told the smiling young receptionist at the front desk as he held up his badge for her.“He’s got a personal training session with Margot Moroney scheduled for seven.”
After taking a few seconds to wrap her head around the fact that a cop was in front of her, demanding the location of someone she likely knew, the young woman answered.
“I’m not sure exactly where he is right now,” she said, her voice shaking slightly.“But if I had to guess, he’s probably on the main workout floor.”
“Where’s that?”Jessie asked.
“Go down the hall behind me and make a right at the couches under the central skylights.It’s directly across from the café.”
“Does he still look like this?”Ryan held up a photo from his phone.
The receptionist nodded.“Yeah, but he’s tanner than that now.”
They thanked her and headed in the direction she’d indicated.Jessie couldn’t wait to talk to the guy.She had so many questions, even before getting to whether he was a murderer.She wondered if he’d originally joined these life swaps as a way to get a sugar mommy, or sugar daddy.Or was he just committing these murders to hide something else—maybe a desire to get into people’s homes and steal stuff?There was no sign of missing items in the mansions but in houses that big, one might go a long time without noticing a valuable item was gone.
They reached the couches and turned right, walking through a pair of sound-proofed double doors, leading to a massive workout floor.On the right side were dozens of weight-lifting machines.Beyond them were treadmills, ellipticals, and stationary bikes.To their left was an open space that had artificial turf covering the floor.People were using the area to engage in everything from stretch sessions to dumbbell workouts to heavy ball maneuvers.
Jessie noted that the turf side seemed to have a lot of folks wearing the same fitted blue t-shirts as the receptionist, complete with the club insignia.In every case, they were paired up with what looked like a club member.
“I think our guy may be on this side.”She nodded in the direction of the turf.
Ryan nodded in agreement.As they walked down the center aisle separating the machines from the turf section, she scanned every male in a blue club shirt.Golden didn’t seem to be on that side.She was about to turn her attention to the machine section when she caught a glimpse of a man on his knees in the far back left corner of the turf.
He had blond hair and was facing away from them as he guided a woman lying on her back through what looked like ab exercises.Jessie stopped walking and motioned in that direction.Ryan looked over just as the man and his client stood up.The guy was tall, lean, and tan.
