Page 7 of The Perfect Obsession
The startled staffer looked uncomfortable but didn’t protest, stepping into the booth.They watched as the engineer, recording the session, first gave the kid an angry look, then a bewildered one.They couldn’t see Sheffield from their current angle, but less than a minute later, the door opened.
Out stepped a guy who only somewhat matched the photos they’d seen of him.Unlike his clean-shaven pictures, the current Jordy Sheffield had unkempt black hair and a patchy, poorly-maintained beard.They knew that he was thirty, but to Jessie, he looked nearly a decade older than that.He’d once been pretty good-looking, but now his skin was pasty and he looked paunchy.The divorce—or maybe something else—had apparently aged him.
“What the hell is this all about?”he demanded.“I’m in the middle of recording a crucial moment, and Clay busts in and ruins my best take to tell me there are cops outside.This better be good.”
Jessie wondered how often the police visited him and why he was reacting this way.In her experience, most folks were far more solicitous and polite when law enforcement showed up unannounced to interview them.
“I’m assuming you haven’t checked your messages this morning, Mr.Sheffield?”Ryan said, showing admirable restraint.
“Of course not.I put my phone on silent during sessions.I’m a professional, after all.Now, whatever this is, can we please make this quick?The director wants to lock the episode by the end of the day, and she can’t do that until I finish.”
“Your session will have to wait, Mr.Sheffield,” Ryan said, this time a little more sharply.“I’m Detective Hernandez with the LAPD, and this is Ms.Hunt.We have some questions for you that we can’t wait to ask.”
Jordy Sheffield briefly looked like he might want to argue some more, but seemed to sense that this wasn’t about a parking violation, and bit his tongue.
“There’s a break room down the hall.We can talk there.”
When they sat down at the break room table, Jessie couldn’t help but take some pleasure in how Sheffield squirmed and fidgeted as he seemed to get that something serious was going on.
“You had a call yesterday with your ex-wife around lunchtime,” Ryan said as he and Jessie settled in across the table from the man.
Sheffield was briefly taken aback before he found his words.“That was private.”
“Not anymore,” Ryan said flatly.“Tell us what you discussed.”
The self-righteous expression from before returned to the guy’s face.
“Look, I’ll acknowledge that our divorce wasn’t the most amicable.There were hard feelings on both sides.But this—siccing cops on me?That’s harassment.”
Jessie noted that Sheffield was acting as if he had no idea that Caroline was dead.He was fairly believable.Then again, he was a professional actor.
“Mr.Sheffield,” she said.“No one is harassing you.But your refusal to explain the nature of that conversation is increasingly suspicious.If there was nothing inappropriate about it, you’re better off just being straight with us.Otherwise, this chat is going to get contentious real fast.And it may take place back at the police station.I know you don’t want that.And I’m guessing your director doesn’t either.”
That seemed to finally sway him.“I don’t see what the big deal is.It was about alimony, okay.Caroline makes a lot more than I do, and I get money from her monthly.But things have been slow lately.This series I’m working on now ends this season, and this is the second-to-last episode.I don’t have anything else lined up, and my resources are drying up.It’s embarrassing to admit, okay, but I asked her to increase her payments through the end of the year.”
And how did Caroline react to that?”Jessie wondered.
“Not well,” he answered bitterly.“She said that we’d made our arrangement and that was that.I told her I would go back to court to get it bumped up if I had to.She said to go for it—that I would lose.”
“That was the entire conversation?”Ryan pressed.
Sheffield shrugged.“I might have called her a bitch.I assume that’s why you’re here.But I was pissed.Besides, I didn’t know that was a crime.”
Ryan looked over at Jessie.He clearly thought it was time to broach Caroline’s death and wanted to see if she was on board with it.She nodded that she was.
“Name-calling isn’t generally a crime,” he said, “But murder is.”
Sheffield was quiet for a second.Jessie wasn’t sure he’d heard what Ryan said.But then his brain seemed to catch up.
“What?”
“Your ex-wife was murdered last night, Mr.Sheffield,” he said evenly.“Where were you then?”
“Wait, you’re messing with me, right?You’re probably not even real cops, are you?Caroline’s pissed, so she hired you guys to scare me and make me feel bad.”
“No,” Ryan told him.“Caroline is dead.”
Sheffield looked back and forth between them, waiting for them to tell him this was all a joke, or at least giving the impression that’s what he expected.
