Page 24 of The Perfect Revenge
Jessie had been watching him mutter quietly with his attorney in the interrogation room via the video camera in the observation room.But eventually she got bored and stepped out.Susannah joined her.
“Since it’s a Saturday, we’ve got a few hours before this warrant for his office will be approved,” the detective said.“You think he’s got some deep dark secret or that he’s just being a jerk?”
“Can’t it be both?”Jessie replied.“Let’s check in with research to see if they’ve uncovered anything worthwhile.”
They left an officer in the observation room and told him to get them when Brennan was done talking to his lawyer.Then they retreated to the conference room that had become their makeshift headquarters over the last day.
“Do you mind if I make another call real quick before we check in with Jamil and Beth?”Jessie asked.
Susannah shook her head, so Jessie stepped into the hall and called Hannah.It rang twice before going to voicemail.She sighed, debating whether to try again.After waiting a minute, she hit redial.This time, the call only rang once before going to voicemail.Her sister was definitely avoiding her, as she had been doing for basically the last 36 hours.
Part of her wanted to call Ryan, have him walk over to her sister, and force her to talk.But that felt like it might backfire.She’d just have to let it go for now.Putting her phone back in her pocket, she returned to the conference room.
“Everything okay?”Susannah asked.
Jessie shook her head in frustration."My sister's acting like she's nine instead of nineteen right now, and it's really starting to piss me off.But I'm going to do my best to set that aside for a while so we can, you know, solve these murders."
“I appreciate that,” Susannah replied drily.“So I can call research then?”
Jessie nodded.Beth answered the call.
“Hey, you’re on with me and Jessie,” Susannah said.“We were hoping you might have had more success digging into Brennan’s background than we have dealing with him in person.”
“We’ve definitely had a bit,” she replied.“Turns out that Propofol, the drug in both victims’ systems, is much more accessible to medical professionals than to the general public.There was a crackdown after the Michael Jackson overdose.But if Dr.Brennan wanted to get his hands on it, he could have.”
"That's worth knowing," Susannah said."Of course, we'd need a motive to go along with the means, and without access to the patients' medical records, that might be challenging.We have no way of knowing why he might have targeted these two women."
Jamil gave a small cough over the phone.Jessie had come to recognize it as his way of indicating he had information to share.
“What’s up, Jamil?”she asked.
“I’m not certain that the reason Andrew Brennan is playing hardball with you has to do with his patients’ medical records.I think it might have more to do with his own.”
“What does that mean?”
"I've been going through his financials, and it looks like the guy is in serious debt."
“That’s a surprise,” Susannah noted.“I would have thought a fertility doctor would be raking it in.”
“He is, to the tune of about $7 million a year, but Brennan seems to have a bit of a gambling problem.”
“How big?”Jessie asked.
“To the point that several online gaming services stopped taking his bets.It looks like when he got shut out, Brennan switched over to less reputable options.”
“A bookie,” Susannah surmised.
“More than one.And it looks like with one of them, he might have used his practice as collateral.He’s in really deep.”
Jessie sighed.
“So it’s possible that Brennan isn’t hiding that he’s a killer,” Susannah said.“He might just want to keep a lid on that fact that his entire financial situation is on the verge of blowing up.”
“I’m sure he’d like to keep Carly in the dark,” Jessie agreed.“But he has to know that’s not a realistic option anymore.He could just be stalling us while he figures out a way to come clean to his wife.”
“Regardless of the misconduct he’s hiding, we should push ahead,” Susannah said.“I’d like you guys to work on getting all his geolocation data so we can see where he’s been the last couple of days.He’s unlikely to just hand it over, so we’ll need to go through a judge.That’s going to take extra time on a Saturday, so the sooner that process starts, the better.”
“Okay,” Jamil said.There was an odd catch in his voice.
