Page 23 of The Perfect Obsession
For a second, Jessie was confused.Then she understood.Krantz either didn’t get—or at least wanted to give them the impression that he didn’t get—that they were killed in separate incidents.He seemed to assume that they were the victim of a mass shooting.
“We’ll get to that in a minute,” Ryan said, handing him the bottle.“But first we need to know if you were still in regular communication with either of them.”
Krantz lifted his head.“Not regular, but occasional, mostly through Amanda.”
“Your wife?”Jessie checked.
“Yes,” he said, and then, after seeing her confused expression, went on.“I assume you know that she went to high school with them.They were all in the same social circle.”
Jessie had to swallow her gasp.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Jessie cursed silently.Somehow, that stunning detail had gotten past them.
“What’s Amanda’s maiden name?”she asked.
“Black.”
Amanda Black.She remembered that name.In fact, it had been on the alumni list from the 2013 graduation class; they still planned to call.But that had taken a backseat once they learned about Alexander Krantz.
“So your wife kept in touch with them?”she asked.
“Yes, some,” he said, getting agitated.“Please, you can’t tell me that two people I know were murdered and then just expect me to answer a bunch of questions without knowing what happened.Were they out together somewhere?”
Ryan looked over at Jessie.She could tell that he thought they had to come clean at this point.If Krantz was innocent, then he wasn’t going to be any help to them if he was kept in the dark.And if he did this, maybe he’d say something incriminating.She nodded that she was okay with it.
“They were both strangled in their homes,” Ryan told him.“Diana Hartwell was killed last night.Caroline Sheffield, the night before.”
“Oh my god,” Krantz said, pausing for several seconds before adding, “Amanda is going to be devastated.”
“We’ll want to talk to her as well,” Jessie said.“We’ll try to be sensitive when we inform her.”
“More than you were with me?”he shot back as he stared at Ryan, showing real anger for the first time.Jessie hadn’t been sure if his other reactions were genuine, but this one sure was.
“You dated both of these women and now they’re dead,” Ryan replied coldly and without apology.“So sensitivity isn’t our top priority with you, Mr.Krantz.Speaking of that, how did things end with each of them?”
Jessie thought his attitude was unnecessarily harsh, but said nothing.She wondered if he was more upset about their recent parenthood conversation than he’d let on and was taking it out on this guy.Regardless, Krantz seemed mildly chastened by Ryan’s response, and he eased back on the anger when he answered.
“There were no hard feelings,” he said.“We were all so young.It was more play-acting at dating than anything really serious.Caroline and I were together for a couple of months.With Diana, it was maybe half that long.It was all very casual.The last time we all hung out together—maybe six months ago—they teased me mercilessly, saying that back then I was a wannabe player.”
“That didn’t bother you?”Jessie wondered.
“No.It was all in good fun.They knew I was happy with Amanda.She even joined in.They were all just giving me a hard time.”
“Did you date Amanda soon after you were with them?”Jessie pressed.
“No.I knew her through them, but we were just friends back then.But we ended up going to the same college—USC.We hung out a lot because neither of us knew many folks there.Things kind of evolved from there.By junior year, we were dating exclusively.”
Jessie noted that Alexander and Amanda Krantz’s story mirrored her own.She had also gone to USC.In fact, she would have graduated the year before they started there.And that’s where she met her first husband, Kyle.Of course, that was back when he seemed like a good guy, before he cheated on her, induced her miscarriage by poisoning her, and eventually tried to kill her.She decided not to mention any of that.
Ryan looked unimpressed by the man’s answer.“So where were you the last two nights?”he asked sharply.
Krantz appeared taken aback that his love story reminiscences hadn’t won him over.
“Um, wow, okay.So I guess we’re doing this.You’re asking me for an alibi?”
“We ask everyone,” Jessie said, hoping to take the edge off the situation.
