Page 17 of The Perfect Revenge
He looked down at the floor for several seconds.When he looked up again, the confusion was replaced by something else: anger.
“You think I did this?”he asked incredulously.
“It’s one of the leads we’re following,” Jessie told him, not mentioning that so far, it was their only lead.
“But she’s my sister!”He said it as if that very fact alone should absolve him of suspicion.
“You acknowledged that you were in a financial dispute,” Jessie said gently.“That’s a potential motive.”
He shook his head in disbelief.“I can’t believe that you are hitting me with this news and expecting me to defend myself at the same time.Don’t I even get a moment to process it?”
“Mr.Flanagan,” Susannah replied, some of her patience starting to leak out.“We are sorry for your loss.And we understand that this is a hard way to learn about it.But we are investigating a murder.And you’re a person of interest based on what we know so far.So if you want to change that, I would ask that, even in your grief, you answer our questions.”
He shook his head but didn’t respond right away.When he did, his tone was less combative.
“It’s true, we were not on the same page about our mother’s will.But killing Vonnie wouldn’t help me with that.The will was very clear that I get nothing.The only way I would get a penny is if Vonnie was alive to give it to me.So, even if you believed I was capable of this, doing anything to her does me no good.”
Susannah looked like she was about to respond, but Flanagan beat her to it.
“Andshe’s my sister for Chrissake!”His volume was going up again.“We had differences.Really big ones.But I loved her.I figured we’d eventually resolve all this money stuff and find our way back to each other.But now that will never happen.”
Susannah looked over at Jessie to see how she wanted to proceed.The truth was that she wasn’t sure.
“How did she die?”Flanagan asked quietly.
“I’m afraid that we can’t share that,” Jessie told him.
"Do you have a suspect?I mean, other than me?"
“We’re in the early stages of investigation,” Susannah told him.
“Do me this favor,” he said, looking at both of them with fiery eyes.“Once you clear me and eventually find out who did this to my sister, please tell me.Just give me a little head start before you go to arrest them.Then I’ll take care of it.I’ll save everyone the cost of going to court.And then I’ll take care of myself too, so there’s no messy trial for me either.Can you do that for me?Please?”
If they did clear Flanagan, Jessie was tempted to take him up on his offer.Or to just do the deed herself.Then she remembered that she wasn’t supposed to think that way anymore
CHAPTER TEN
They’d been at it for hours.
It was late afternoon now, and they were no nearer to solving this murder than they had been this morning.Jessie leaned back in a chair in the West L.A.Station conference room, where she and Susannah had set up shop for the day, and stretched her arms.
They'd considered going back to HSS headquarters at Central Station, but decided it made more sense to be closer to the crime scene.So the West L.A.Station folks had offered them this space.The conference room table was covered in papers, some provided by the staff here, some from the HSS research team.
It included information on the whereabouts of Mickey Flanagan last night.They had yet to clear him, but a fuller picture was coming into view.One thing was certain.According to Jamil, Flanagan's phone was at his apartment from 6 p.m.on, all the way until Jessie and Susannah knocked on his door this morning.The pizza delivery guy confirmed handing over a large pepperoni to him at the building's inner door at about 6:45 p.m.
Of course, that didn't preclude Flanagan from leaving his phone at his place and heading over to the Sterling house.But that would have been a challenge for him.First of all, he didn't have a car, and getting from Little Bangladesh to Brentwood was a time-consuming process using public transportation.In theory, he could have gotten a rideshare, but without his phone, procuring one was likely off the table.
Taxis were an option, but the trip would be expensive, probably around $40.And Beth had called every cab company that serviced the area.None had any record of a pickup near Flanagan’s place.Perhaps most crucially, video camera footage from the streets around the apartment didn’t show him leaving at any point last night.
None of that was definitive.If Mickey Flanagan was intent on killing his sister, he might have found a way around all those obstacles.But he didn’t strike Jessie as the planning type.And if hehadkilled her, she found it unlikely that he would have had the foresight to bring a poisoned syringe with him.Any attack would have likely been a “moment of anger” type thing.
Most importantly, his argument—that killing Veronica served no practical purpose for him—was pretty compelling.Admittedly, people who committed violent crimes weren't always acting in their own self-interest at the time.But Flanagan seemed to understand that any windfall for him was tied to his sister's goodwill, not her death.Jessie was inclined to move on.If only she had someone to move onto.
The preliminary autopsy report provided some useful information, but no definitive leads.Deputy medical examiner Meg Cronin had confirmed that Veronica died between 8 and midnight.She also relayed that the woman was injected in a vein in the neck with a massive dose of Propofol.Veronica Sterling would have likely been incapacitated in seconds and died in less than a minute at that dose.
According to Cronin, whoever injected her would need to have at least a passing knowledge of how and where to administer it.In addition, the drug wasn’t easily accessible to the general public.But someone with ill intent and access to a medical facility might be able to get their hands on some.
That was technically a lead, and Jamil and Beth were looking into anyone in Sterling's life who might have easy access to the drug.But it was a wide net, and Jessie wasn't optimistic that it would lead to anything concrete.Frustrated, she stood up.
