Page 63 of The Perfect People

“Well, you’re right,” Jamil said. “He worked for three different South Bay area plumbing companies since he moved here. That was the reason we couldn’t track him to any of the victims. It turns out that he did do work on each of their homes, but only once. And in each case, he was either a last-minute fill-in or a one-day worker. He was never a full-time employee for any of the companies and was never formally on a work roster, so there was no record of him for any of the jobs. He was like a ghost when it came to the databases.”

“It turns out he was a bit of a ghost in his own life back in Bakersfield too,” Susannah said. “I called around this morning. He didn’t have many friends. Apparently he was pretty messed up. Multiple people told me that both his motherandhis older sister were verbally and physically abusive to him, maybe sexually too according to at least one person. Then his mom died of pneumonia just a couple of weeks ago and his sister got him cut out of the will. I’m guessing that didn’t do a ton for his mental well-being.”

“One last thing,” Beth added. “This isn’t confirmed yet, but the Bakersfield police were looking to interview him in relation to a recent murder-suicide. A local man killed his wife, then himself. The man left a note claiming she was cheating with someone he couldn’t identify. They had three kids, all of whom were found sleeping in the house, unharmed. Physical evidence in the home suggests that Cronin might have been the other man. If he was aware of what happened, I can’t imagine that would have put him in a great headspace.”

“Who knows?” Susannah said. “Maybe one or all of those events made him crack. Maybe these ladies on the Strand just said the wrong thing to him. Maybe it was a combination of the two. His apartment in Gardena is cordoned off and I’m heading over when we hang up. Maybe we’ll find something there that explains his motive. Whatever his reason, he won’t be choking anyone else.”

“I’ll try to join you once Hannah is all squared away,” Jessie said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Susannah said. “You just got out of the hospital. Take care of yourself and your sister. Go to your group meeting. I’ll call you if I find anything.”

“Sounds good,” Jessie said. “If we’re all done, I want to take this call off speaker so I can finish up with Detective Valentine privately if that’s cool?”

Everyone said their goodbyes. Once they were all off the line, Susannah asked, “What’s so special secret that we had to talk privately about it?”

Jessie took a deep breath before what she said next, hoping that it would be received in the spirit that it was intended.

“I just wondered if you’d given any more thought to what we’d talked about earlier,” she asked, “in regard to a certain surfing silver fox law enforcement officer who expressed interest in getting to know you better and who didn’t start drooling the minute you walked in the room?”

There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the line.

“I might have,” Susannah finally said, sounding as close to shy as Jessie had ever heard her.

“Okay, well I just happen to know that Drake Breem likes to hang out at the Tortoise Tavern when he has Sunday evenings off, which he does tonight, starting at six. So if you were to stop by to buy him a beer and update him on the case, he’d be around. Just an idea.”

“Just an idea, huh?” Susannah asked.

“Just an idea.”

“I’ll think about it. Goodbye, Jessie.”

“Bye.”

She hung up, confident about where Susannah Valentine would be spending her evening. She was slightly jealous, imagining what it might be like for the potential couple, as they made their first hesitant steps toward each other. She remembered that stage with Ryan and what a different place they were in now.

She thought about the emotional weight that still hung over them, mainly a result of him keeping Zoe Bradway’s threat from her. He’d thought he was protecting her by not burdening her with Bradway’s claim that she intended to have him, Hannah, and Kat killed. But when Bradway followed through on the threat by hiring a hitwoman, and Hannah and Kat nearly died as a result, it opened a wound in the bond of trust between them that had yet to heal. She still doubted him. He still blamed himself. And it still ate at both of them. Yet they never spoke of it.

It was time that changed. Dr. Lemmon had repeatedly suggested that Jessie bring up the issue with Ryan directly and she still hadn’t. If they couldn’t address it on their own, perhaps they could do it together, with Dr. Lemmon’s help.

The psychiatrist had been a beacon of light for Jessie individually, as well as for Hannah. Why couldn’t she do the same for Jessie and Ryan as a couple? Maybe she could help guide them back to a path of trust they couldn’t find on their own.

As they pulled into the driveway of the beach house, she decided to broach the idea with Ryan and was just opening her mouth to do so when she saw something that made her jaw drop wide open.

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

There, on the small porch behind the house, Hannah was engaged in a passionate kiss with Chris Balfour.

Jessie wasn’t exactly surprised to see it, but the intensity of what was going on in front of her was difficult to process. The two officers in the SMPD squad car, parked next to them, were deliberately looking away.

“You ready for that?” Ryan asked, sounding as gobsmacked as she felt.

“I guess I have to be,” she replied, hoping that saying the words out loud might help get her there.

The kids heard the tires on the sandy gravel, instinctively stopped what they were doing, and came over from the porch, now more chastely holding hands. Jessie and Ryan got out. Hannah came over and gave them both hugs.

“You guys remember Chris from up in Wildpines, right?” she said.

They said that they did and reintroduced themselves, shaking hands. Chris’s cheeks were deeply flushed.

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