Page 41 of The Perfect Revenge
He laughed at the question."If you turn your ankle, I can carry-you out piggy-back style.If it happens to me, I guess you're walking back to the trailhead solo to get help.That is, unless you think you can carry me."
“Maybe twenty feet,” she told him.“I guess you’ll just have to hold off any wolves that come poking around while I’m gone.”
He laughed again.
“You might be surprised,” he said.“They might find that I’m more predator than prey.”
Hannah thought that Dallas might be getting a little overconfident.But she didn’t want to make him feel bad, so she kept that opinion to herself.Hopefully, the only prey on the rest of this hike would be the energy bar she was about to inhale
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
By the time Jessie and Susannah got to the crime scene, the folks there were finishing up.
Detective Roy Balmorra, their liaison at the Brentwood home where Veronica Sterling’s body was found, was waiting for them out in front of the giant Westwood condo tower.
“Sorry for the late heads up on this one,” he said as he guided them into the lobby of the 17-story glass behemoth.“We only connected this victim to the others as the medical examiner was concluding the exam.”
“Why the delay?”Susannah asked bluntly.
“Because the similarities weren’t immediately obvious,” he explained as they stepped into the elevator and he pushed the button for the fifteenth floor.“For one thing, the victim—Lena Hayes—isn’t married and doesn’t have any children.She didn’t live in a single family home obviously.But the main problem is that the M.E.thinks that Hayes has been dead for at least two days, so the body was in rougher shape.The only overt similarity was that there were no obvious wounds.Considering that she was so young—only 36—I thought it was worth asking the M.E.to check for any small puncture wounds on the neck.Sure enough, one was found in roughly the same spot as on the other two.They drew some blood and will be checking it as soon as they get back to the lab.”
“How was she discovered?”Jessie asked.
“Hayes has a housekeeper who comes every week,” he said as the elevator doors opened and they stepped out.He led them down the hallway, which was uncomfortably close to the glass wall overlooking the city below.He continued, oblivious.
"Normally, the housekeeper comes on Friday, but she asked if she could push it back a day this week because she had a doctor's appointment yesterday.Apparently, Hayes was fine with it.The housekeeper—her name is Marta Przekop—said that there was no answer when she rang the bell and knocked.But she has a key and permission to enter on her own, so she did.Apparently, she smelled that something was off the minute she walked in.She traced it to the bedroom, which is where she found Hayes on the bed.She called 911 right away."
As he talked, Jessie shot off a quick text to Jamil and Beth, asking them to gather whatever they could on Lena Hayes.She hoped they’d uncover something worthwhile, because based on what Balmorra had told them, she didn’t see how she might be related to the other victims.
“Any signs of forced entry?”Susannah asked as they approached the condo’s front door.
“No,” Balmorra said.“According to Marta, the door was locked when she arrived.Our people didn’t see any signs that it had been jimmied prior to that.”
Jessie noted that so far at least, she couldn't smell anything offensive.Once they all passed by the officer standing at the condo's front door and moved into the expansive living room, she understood why.Someone had opened the sliding balcony door, and an unexpectedly strong breeze was blowing through the space.Despite the situation, she couldn't help but note that the view was incredible.Because Hayes lived in a corner unit, the Santa Monica Mountains were visible to the north, and the Pacific Ocean glimmered to the west.
They reached the bedroom door, and the putrid scent of rotting human flesh wafted through her nostrils, ending her reverie.Her nose scrunched up involuntarily.
“They were ready to bag the body,” Balmorra said, “but I asked them to hold off until you got a chance to look.”
Jessie walked over and did exactly that.Lena Hayes was lying slumped on her side, facing the foot of the bed.It looked like she’d collapsed onto it and died there.She was wearing a smart gray skirt, black blouse, and an unbuttoned gray sports jacket over that.Her black, heeled shoes matched the blouse.Her long raven-colored hair hung limply about her discolored face.Her green eyes were open but milky.It was clear that when she was alive, she’d been quite beautiful.
“What did she do for a living?”she asked.
“Lawyer,” Balmorra said.“With some Beverly Hills firm.Entertainment law, I think.”
“That explains how she could afford this place,” Susannah said.
Jessie carefully maneuvered so that she could see the injection site on the neck.It wasn’t visible, but a tiny bruise was, despite the condition of the skin.The killer appeared to have shot her up in almost exactly the same spot as the others.She looked over at the medical examiner, a short, rotund man she’d never met.
“Detective Balmorra tells us you think she’s been dead for at least two days?”she reconfirmed.
"At least," he said."Probably closer to three.I'll have something more definitive tomorrow, but if I had to guess, I'd say she died sometime between Wednesday afternoon and early Thursday morning."
“I’m surprised no one from work checked on her,” Jessie said.
“According to Marta Przekop, she was taking a few days off at some yoga retreat up near Santa Barbara.She was going to be gone from Thursday midday until this morning.That’s why Marta didn’t think anything of it when no one answered when she knocked.She thought that Hayes might have gotten stuck in traffic or decided to stay later at the retreat.It probably also explains why none of her co-workers thought anything was amiss.She wasn’t expected in the office until Monday.”
Jessie looked at the body again, noting that Hayes was still in her work attire.
