Page 41 of The Perfect Deception
“My records aren’t as thorough as your people would like,” she said quietly.
“I don’t understand.”She turned back to Jamil, hoping he could clear it up.But he was clearly too agitated to speak so Beth stepped in.
“We have all these records about the life swaps.But they’re incomplete at best.According to Ms.Prager, she didn’t start really keeping track of her client list in an official way until three months into the project.And even then, a lot was left out.”
Jessie turned back to Prager.“Why?”
“Why what?”More defiance.
Jessie clarified.“Why isn’t your record-keeping complete and why didn’t you say anything about it before?You told us that you were comprehensive when it came to all that.Remember?”
“We already knewthatwasn’t true,” Hannah piped in.“Based on the Tommy Golden situation alone, it’s clear that the vetting process was a sham.”
“That’s not fair!”Prager objected.“I’m not a detective.I did the searches a normal person would do.How could I possibly know that this charming man was hiding so much?”
Jessie decided not to go down that conversational cul-de-sac for now.“What exactly are we missing?”
“Some client names.”Jamil was seething.“Entire records of swaps, including dates and participants.She says she keeps them in her memory.”
Jessie turned back to Prager.“Again, why?”
The woman shrugged.“Some folks didn’t care what people think of them.They were very blasé.But others were worried that a paper record of swaps could hurt their reputations if it ever got out.So I respected their wishes for privacy and kept things up here, in the vault.”
She tapped her forehead.At that, Jamil turned away, too frustrated to even look at her.Beth voiced his thoughts.
"Unfortunately, that makes a lot of the work that we've done so far moot.We've been including and excluding potential future victims and alternative suspects from the data set based on what we thought was comprehensive information.But it turns out that much of it is only in the vault."Her voice dripped with disdain.
Jessie sighed.Looking over at Ryan he could see that he was barely holding back his irritation.She tried to look on the bright side.Prager’s records might be incomplete, but she was here, able to flesh it out with her vault data.In that sense, she was vastly more important than the paperwork she’d provided.
“Okay, let’s try to make the best of this.”She turned to Prager.“We’ve been working off the assumption—based on your documentation—that no one has been involved in swaps with all four couples and that no one other than Tommy Golden was in swaps with even two couples.Can we still count on that assessment?Or is it possible, incorporating the extra knowledge kept only in your brain, that there were others?”
Prager shook her head vehemently.“Not possible.My records might not be perfect but I would absolutely recall if anyone had been with four different couples, especially these four.It would have leapt out at me without you even asking.Some couples have mixed and matched with three others in some instances, but not with the Maplewoods, Dominiks, Patels,andTroppers.And other than Tommy, no bachelor or bachelorette participant has been with more than one couple.Of that I’m certain.”
Jessie fixed Prager with a steely stare.“You do realize that having an accurate list of everyone involved in this whole thing is crucial to determining if we’re searching for the right suspect and just as important, who his next victim might be?If Tommy Golden is our guy, he’s in the wind.And we don’t have a clue who he might be after next.”
“I understand that,” Prager insisted.
But Jessie wasn't sure that the woman did.She could feel the tension rising in her chest, making a potent cocktail when combined with her exhaustion.She wanted to yell.Instead, she swallowed the desire and pictured herself back on the cliffs of Sicily, with frothy waves crashing below, echoing all the way up to where she stood.After several seconds, she spoke in as measured a tone as she could.To her surprise, she sounded completely calm.
“Then let’s get back to it.Regardless of whether Tommy is our killer or not, we’ve had double murders the last two nights.And tonight is getting closer every second.
CHAPTER THIRTY
It was one big mess.
It became clear to Jessie and everyone else in HSS that Elise Prager’s mind was not the steel trap she claimed.On multiple occasions, she changed her take on how many swaps a couple or single had engaged in.The more she talked, the more apparent it became that neither her records nor her memory could be trusted.
Jessie noted that Hannah had taken to ignoring the woman completely, and had started to drill down on the other single swappers, even though they had a perfectly good suspect in Golden.Jessie, not wanting to set her little sister off, said nothing and let her be.
Instead she turned her attention to the victims, wondering if there might be something they had in common other than the life swaps.She’d been at it for a couple of hours, without success, when she got a call.It was Dr.Janice Lemmon.
Jessie stood up, happy for the interruption.She realized that it was 1:45 P.M.and she hadn’t moved from her seat since she went to the vending machine a while back to grab a bag of pretzels, which she’d scarfed down in sixty seconds flat.
“Hey Doc.What’s cookin’, good-lookin’?”she said as she stepped into the hallway.It occurred to her that she might be getting a little loopy from lack of sleep, considering that she’d just referred to her 70-year-old psychiatrist by the nickname “good-lookin’.”
“Jessie Hunt,” Lemmon said, sounding mildly amused.“You go away for a couple of months and suddenly you’re abandoning all pretense of professionalism?”
“Sorry.I haven’t slept much and my brain’s self-regulation corner isn’t operating at full strength.But you’d probably know more about that than me.”
