Page 3 of The Perfect People

She hung her head dramatically.

“Don’t give me that,” Hannah said, not falling for it. “If I had stuck to the original plan and gone to Cal State Fullerton, I’d already have been in school for two weeks by now. By switching to Cal-Irvine, you get an extra month with your charming sister.”

“And I’m loving every second of it,” Jessie noted, “but let’s not forget how you got to switch schools at the last minute in the first place. I believe it was because I got my master’s there and pulled strings with my thesis advisor, who just happens to be the head of the Criminology Department, which you suddenly decided to major in. So maybe a little genuflecting is in order.”

“I think the complimentary cheesy eggs should suffice,” Hannah replied with playful snark.

“Remind me who these beach house friends are again,” Ryan said.

Jessie knew that he probably remembered who Hannah was meeting just fine. But he was intentionally playing the forgetful stepdad type to shake the sisters out of their teasing dynamic, which could occasionally turn acidic. She took the hint and eased up. So did Hannah, who answered the question sincerely.

“It’s the gang from Wildpines,” she said. “Remember when we had to hole up in that snowy cabin there last winter? These were the students from the Wildpines Arts Conservatory I met in town and ended up hanging out with. We all kept in touch. Anyway, one girl’s family has a Santa Monica beach house and they’re staying there this weekend. She’s having her whole circle of friends over and they invited me to come too.”

None of them mentioned the circumstances or final outcome of their stay in that mountain cabin last winter. They were holed up there because they were being stalked by a serial killer called the Night Hunter. Though they eventually managed to outmaneuver and capture him, Hannah had shot the elderly, unarmed, handcuffed man in a moment of delirious fury. The high she admitted to getting from killing the man was something that had scared all of them and that they’d been working through ever since.

“Must be nice to have a Santa Monica beach house they can visit on holiday,” Ryan said, adopting a terrible faux British accent in the hope of moving quickly past the elephant in the room. “What kind of activities will you be partaking of?”

“I’m not sure,” Hannah said. “Patrice mentioned that they had surfboards, jet skis, and kayaks. But I bet it will mostly be a lot of hanging out on the beach and walking along the pier.”

“I’m actually kind of envious,” Ryan said, giving up on the accent but not the silliness. “Maybe I should take a day off from this whole police captaining thing and join you crazy kids. I’m always game for water sports.”

“We’d totally love to have you,” Hannah said, managing to keep a straight face, “but I’m worried that the city would fall apart without you.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he said, before turning to Jessie. “I guess we should head out soon. I know we’re being leisurely this morning but if we get in too late, I might lose my authority and not be able to keep Los Angeles on the straight and narrow.”

Jessie offered a tight smile, hoping it would seem playful. She wanted to join in her husband and sister’s shared jocularity, but her mind kept drifting to other, less lighthearted matters. Chief among them was the issue that had hovered over her marriage for the last two months, the one that neither she nor Ryan ever spoke of, which she morbidly called The Zoe Problem, though never out loud.

And then there was the other concern, the one theydidtalk about constantly, which would surely come up once they got to the station. But that could wait. For now, her little sister was going away for the weekend and that would be her focus.

“While Ryan is keeping our streets safe,” she said to Hannah, “you do the same for yourself. Have fun. Relax, but please stay aware and keep in touch.”

“I will,” Hannah assured her, “but remember, we’ll be less than an hour away.”

“Still,” Jessie reminded, “a lot can happen in an hour. You know that better than most. Just have an enjoyable, extremely alert weekend.”

CHAPTER TWO

Jessie wasn’t used to relief being her most anticipated emotion.

But somehow it had neared the top of the list of late, sometimes overtaking joy or pride. She’d felt it when she and Ryan got out of his car in the LAPD Central community police station parking garage without talking about The Zoe Problem, though she probably shouldn’t have.

Her psychiatrist, Dr. Janice Lemmon, had told her on more than one occasion that the only way to solve this problem was to address it directly. But how was she supposed to tell her husband that she partly blamed him for her sister and best friend nearly being murdered by an assassin because he hadn’t taken the threat seriously?

And what good would saying something do when he already blamed himself? Ryan was already fully aware that if he’d told his wife that Zoe Bradway—an incarcerated acolyte of a woman obsessed with Jessie—had made death threats against him, Hannah, and Kat, then she would have investigated them.

But he had assumed Zoe was just trying to get in Jessie’s head and had no way to deliver on those threats. He was wrong and two people she loved had nearly paid the ultimate price. He beat himself up every day about that mistake. Jessie didn’t need to make it worse. And yet she found forgiving him was beyond her, at least for now. So each conversation that concluded without the topic coming up was a reprieve.

She felt the wave of relief a second time as they walked into the detectives’ bullpen at the station and noticed the relative quiet. That meant that there almost certainly hadn’t been another recent murder by the killer who’d been haunting Jessie’s dreams for months.

“Nothing new?” she asked Detective Karen Bray, who looked up as they walked in.

“Not so far,” Karen said.

“But the morning is young,” chimed in Detective Jim Nettles.

The other detectives in their unit, Homicide Special Section, weren’t in the bullpen at the moment. Jessie wondered if Detectives Susannah Valentine or Sam Goodwin might bring back news of a fresh murder with their coffee.

The four detectives, along with a two-person research department, and Jessie as criminal profiler, comprised HSS, an elite teamwhich investigated cases withhigh profiles or intense media scrutiny—typically involving multiple victims or serial killers. Ryan led the group in addition to being captain of the station.

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