Page 39 of The Perfect Revenge
Jessie, still a good fifty feet away, pumped her legs as hard as she could.She ignored the burning in her chest.With the crashing waves, she was still too far away to be heard clearly.Denise turned and caught sight of Susannah, still on her back, struggling to get the sea water out of her lungs.Denise gripped the driftwood tight and started toward her.
Jessie realized she wouldn’t get there in time.She dropped to one knee in the sand, unholstered her gun, and despite her instinct to fire, held off, waiting for a break between the deafening waves.Denise was only steps from Susannah when a moment of relative quiet came.
“Denise Monroe,” she shouted through gasps, “I wouldn’t do that!
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
The woman looked up at her, and for the first time, Jessie got a good look at her.She was just over five feet tall and, literally soaking wet right now, less than 100 pounds.She was frail-looking, with rib bones jutting out and drenched, stringy blond hair dangling in front of her face.Jessie was surprised she could even hold the piece of wood up.But she wasn’t taking any chances.
"Drop the wood, Denise," she barked."Otherwise, you're leaving this beach in a body bag."
That seemed to convince the woman, who dropped the wood and put her hands up.
"Now drop to your knees and clasp your hands behind your head," Jessie instructed, standing up and walking closer, the gun still trained on Denise.She didn't feel any bloodlust coursing through her veins, but didn't pat herself on the back for that just yet.Everything had happened so fast that her focus had been on protecting Susannah more than punishing Denise.
Speaking of Susannah, her partner seemed to have finally gotten control of her breathing and was slowly pushing herself up from the wet sand.Her clothes were drenched too, and considering that she was wearing slacks and a blouse, it was probably more uncomfortable for her than for Denise in her swimsuit.
“I’ve got this,” she said, holding up her hand.Jessie noticed that she was still gripping the handcuffs.
“All yours,” Jessie said, stopping where she was but keeping her weapon pointed at Denise until she was no longer a threat.Even under the circumstances, she couldn’t help but tweak her friend and partner, “Then I guess we’ll need to get you a towel.”
***
Jessie looked over the notebook while Susannah dried her hair with one of Ranger’s beach towels.
They were still in the beach house, waiting for backup to arrive.Ranger and Denise were seated on the floor, each handcuffed to a railing.In the meantime, Jessie and Susannah decided to make the most of the couples’ unwise choices.It seemed to be paying off.
“You’re both on the hook for attempted assault of a law enforcement officer,” Jessie had explained to them once Denise and Ranger were settled in on the floor.“But it could get a lot worse for you if you committed the crime we’re investigating.”
“What crime?”Denise spat, seemingly unaware of the hot water they were potentially in.
“Murder,” Susannah said flatly.
“What?”Ranger balked.“That’s crazy!”
"If it's so crazy, prove it to us," Jessie said."We know that, despite not being charged, you used Elite Family Services clients' credit cards to make purchases, and that you tried to blackmail a client.That's bad, but it's not as bad as murder.So Detective Valentine is going to read you your rights and then, if you're not murderers, you can explain why you first tried to evade, and then assault us."
Ten minutes later, just as additional cops were arriving, Jessie thought she understood.Denise didn’t want to admit to anything.But Ranger seemed to be afraid of what an arrest would do to him as an influencer, and more importantly, how his dad would react.He started spilling right away.
That’s why Jessie was currently reviewing Denise’s notebook, which had the couple’s grand plan.Considering how unimpressive the two of them seemed, it was actually unexpectedly ambitious.Denise had made a list of the EFS clients that—based on her intake interviews—seemed the most guarded about their surrogacy plan and vulnerable to blackmail.
Her idea was to threaten to post on the women’s social media, revealing their intentions to all their friends.Denise seemed certain that some couples would rather pay her off than let their struggles with pregnancy be known.Until recently, Jessie had trouble imagining anyone being so afraid of that getting out that they would pay to keep it quiet, but clearly both Maggie Caldwell and Veronica Sterling had those concerns, so apparently it wasn’t that rare.
But the more Jessie delved into the notebook, the clearer it became that this grand plan wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.There were four EFS clients listed in the notebook, complete with financial and biographical data, along with contact info.
But based on the entry dates of Denise’s notes, it looked like the bulk of her research was done in the weeks immediately after she was fired four months ago.There were snippets of other information, including family schedules and club memberships, which suggested that Denise and Ranger were trying to find the best time and place to make their initial blackmail threat.
But even that info was older.The last entry date in the notebook was two and a half months ago.Assuming it was accurate, that implied that either the couple had already put their scheme into action or that they'd lost interest in pursuing it.Ranger claimed it was the latter.Denise didn't say a word.
Jessie decided to find out first-hand.She called two of the names on the list in the notebook, and Susannah took the other two.After explaining who they were and why they were calling, they both asked the same question: has anyone tried to blackmail you about your surrogacy plans or involvement with EFS?
They got the same answer from everyone: no.That was usually followed by a flurry of questions from each of them.What is going on?Should I be worried?Is my situation going to become public?Jessie did her best to reassure them that they were fine, though she wasn’t entirely sure that was the truth.
After she hung up and while she waited for Susannah to finish her final call, she tried to make sense of all if this.Was this just a pie in the sky idea that Denise and Ranger never followed through on because it was too complicated?Did they have a shared moment of clarity and decide that after the close call with their first blackmail attempt, it wasn’t worth the risk of trying again?Were they just too lazy to pursue it when there was so much sunbathing and influencing to focus on?
Whatever the reason, the couple hadn’t acted on their plan.And though conspiracy to commit blackmail was a crime, Jessie wondered if Denise would skate away once again because the attempt seemed to be both unfinished and inept.
More immediately important, Denise—and especially Ranger—didn't seem capable of the precision involved in the murders of Veronica Sterling and Maggie Caldwell.After all, they had fumbled their way through ramshackle efforts at blackmail.Serial killings seemed beyond their skill set.
