Page 43 of The Perfect Obsession
“Hi,” Jessie said, startled.“What are you doing here?Are you okay?”
She pointed at her sister’s chin, which was covered in a small bandage.
“I’m fine,” Hannah said quickly.“ I just had a run-in with a bathroom stall door.I’m actually here waiting on Kat.We were working a case, and she got sliced in the leg by our target.”
“What are you talking about?Is she badly hurt?”
“Everything’s okay,” Hannah assured her.“It’s a long story, but we were working a case for a friend of Kat’s who was being stalked.The guy followed the friend into the bathroom, where Kat took him out.But he had a knife and got in a swipe at her leg.She’s getting stitches now, but they say she’ll be fine.”
“And you were in there, too?”Jessie pressed.“Was the stall door collision part of taking this guy out?”
“Yeah, but it was no big deal.Both of us will be fine.It’s the stalker who’s going to be out of commission for a while.Kat did a real number on him.”
“Why do I feel like I’m not getting the whole story here?”Jessie asked.
“I can fill you in on the details later,” Hannah said.“Right now, I’m wondering why you’re here.”
Reluctantly, Jessie let the issue go for now.“Serial killer case.We’re waiting to question a suspect who had to be sedated.”
“Now who’s not sharing the whole story?”Hannah asked.
“I can fillyouin on the details later,” Jessie countered.“Right now, I want to know how you’re doing emotionally.Kat mentioned that you’d left the apartment a few times to do surveillance for a case.I didn’t call or text because I didn’t want to put extra pressure on you.But that feels like real progress.How are you feeling about it?”
“Getting better,” Hannah said.“I know that Dallas Henry isn’t a threat to me anymore.And since Kat’s apartment and office locations are unknown to Ash Pierce, I don’t feel like she’s going to jump out from behind a door at any second and come at me.”
“We’ll get her soon,” Jessie said.“By the time school starts, this will all be a bad memory.”
She knew that Hannah wasn’t going to be assuaged by that, but she had to say it.
“I hope so,” her sister said quietly.
“Have you talked to Finn lately?”she asked, quickly changing the subject, although maybe not to the best one, as that situation was still a little raw.
“On the phone,” Hannah said.“But only a little.We haven’t really talked about everything that happened other than on the most basic, surface level.I’m worried that he’s going to blame me for what happened to him.I should have listened to his warnings.”
Jessie shrugged.“You couldn’t possibly have guessed what Dallas Henry was up to.Finn might have been right, but he was also coming across as jealous and borderline obsessed with you.Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
“You either,” Hannah said.
“What do you mean?”
“Look, I can’t say that I’m not still a little pissed that you kept me in the dark about hiding Finn in a safe house while I worried that he was at death’s door.But I get why you did it.You were trying to keep him—and me—safe.But maybe the next time a friend of mine or I is in mortal danger, keep me in the loop?”
“Fair enough,” Jessie said.
She was about to turn that request over to her sister to ask for more information on exactly what transpired with this stalker when she got a text from Ryan: "They say we can go in now."
“To be continued,” she said to Hannah.“Right now, I’ve got to interrogate a possible serial killer.”
CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
Jessie couldn’t read the guy.
Maybe it was the sedative that Alexander Krantz had been given.As he lay propped up in his hospital bed, his eyes were still slightly cloudy and his movements languorous.It was going to be difficult to tell if he was lying when his reactions were dulled by the medication.But they had to try.
“We want to ask you some questions,” Ryan told him, “but before that, I need to read you your rights.Okay?”
Krantz nodded lazily.As Ryan went through the Miranda warning, the man appeared to perk up.He seemed to increasingly remember why all of them were here as each word was spoken.
