Page 4 of The Perfect Obsession
The whole of LAPD was mobilized to find and save Jessie.When they were discovered, Andy blew up the mine, killing herself and nearly Jessie too.Even though those events were well in the past, driving down these tree-lined streets still set her on edge.
Ryan found a spot and they got out.As they walked up the path, Jessie noted that Caroline Sheffield’s house, while impressive, wasn’t as ostentatious as some of the nearby mansions.In the Spanish Revival style with stucco exteriors, red-tiled roofs, and ornate wrought-iron gates, it would surely sell for close to $5 million, but compared to others on the street, the one-story home looked almost quaint.As they got closer, Jessie noticed that part of the exterior had been recently painted.
An officer standing at the front door waved them through after Ryan showed his badge and ID.When they passed through the foyer into the living room, multiple heads turned their way.The place was crowded, with four uniformed officers and several members of the crime scene unit.The deputy medical examiner, who looked to be wrapping up, was standing in a corner making notes for the preliminary report.
Two men in suits walked their way.Jessie didn’t recognize either of them but guessed that they were the detectives originally assigned to the case before Chief Decker bigfooted them and brought in his preferred people.The sour expressions on their faces suggested they weren’t very happy about it.
“Hey, Hernandez,” the older detective said.He was squat with a bushy mustache that seemed intended to compensate for the missing hair on his head.“Long time, no see.”
“Hi, Dan,” Ryan said.“Good to see you again.This is our criminal profiler, Jessie Hunt.Jessie, this is Dan Larkin.He used to work downtown before transferring to Wilshire Station.”
“Nice to meet you,” Larkin said, nodding at Jessie.If he knew they were married—and he probably did—he was hiding it well.“This is my partner, De’Aaron Booker.”
The younger detective, who was taller and in better shape than his partner, offered a forced smile but said nothing.
“Sorry, we got pulled onto this one,” Ryan said.“I know it’s your territory, but when the Chief makes the request, it’s out of our hands.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Larkin said unconvincingly.
“You want to give us the rundown of what you know so far?”Ryan asked, cutting to the chase to avoid any more awkwardness.
“Sure,” Larkin said, “you want to fill them in, Booker?”
Booker didn’t look like he did, but gave it a go anyway.
“Caroline Sheffield, 28, was found this morning at 7:30 by her housekeeper, who had just arrived for the day.”He nodded at the body.“Even though she was found this morning, the M.E.is pegging her death as between 8 P.M.and midnight last night.”
Jessie normally didn’t like to look at the victim until she got a sense of the rest of the scene, but in this instance, because of what she saw out of the corner of her eye, she couldn’t help herself.Sheffieldwas seated on her couch, with a book in her lap.Her shoulder-length brown hair was partly in her face, but Jessie could see that her vacant eyes were wide open.On initial inspection, it looked like she might have simply suffered a heart attack while reading.
“How did you determine that she’d been strangled?”Jessie asked.
“You can’t see it from here,” Booker said, “but there are ligature marks on her neck.Once those were discovered, the medical examiner did a closer inspection and found tiny, pink silk threads embedded in the skin.We think she was killed with something along the line of a tie or scarf.”
“Any signs of forced entry?”Ryan asked.
“None,” Larkin answered.“But the housekeeper said that she has a bad habit of forgetting to lock the door when she leaves for the day.She couldn’t remember whether she had forgotten yesterday.Plus, there have been painters working on the exterior of the house.Sheffield was apparently planning to sell the place.The housekeeper said that when they borrow the guest bathroom, they don’t always close the front door to the house after leaving.”
“Great,” Ryan muttered.“Any prints found near the scene?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Booker said.“Hers, the housekeeper’s.Her ex-husband’s.They got divorced about a year ago.”
Jessie made a mental note to pursue that angle.Ex-husbands were always prime suspects.Before she could say anything, Booker continued.
“More bad news.The Ring camera had been disabled.The housekeeper said that Sheffield got annoyed by all the motion-activated alerts out front from the painters, so she turned the system off until the work was done.There’s no footage since midday yesterday.”
Jessie wondered if that was just a coincidence or if there might be something more to it.Either way, it would make things more difficult.
“Not ideal,” Ryan said.“I guess we’ll have to depend on shoe leather rather than tech for this one.I assume you’ve already got the names of the painters.We’ll obviously need to talk to them.”
“The company was sending over info on the guys who worked yesterday,” Booker said.We were also going to talk to her co-workers.She’s a marketing executive for one of the studios.”
“And I was about to reach out to the ex-husband to chat when we got the call that you were taking over,” Larkin added, “So I held off.I’ll give you his number.”
“Thanks, guys,” Ryan said.“It looks like we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but you’ve given us a great head start.”
Neither detective looked bowled over by the compliment, but Jessie didn’t care.Her focus wasn’t on their feelings.It was on finding out who killed the young woman sitting like a posed mannequin on her own couch.Caroline Sheffield had thought she was settling in for a comfortable evening when someone had taken everything from her.
Jessie intended to find out who that was and make them pay.
