CHAPTER 30 JESSALYN #2
Ridge’s favourite topic of discussion? Himself.
I’d actually listened when he talked about various legal cases, and during the years we’d been married, I’d learned quite a bit.
Enough to know that Ridge would never take me to court for defamation, although getting a picture of his inadequate dick admitted into evidence would be a high point if he was dumb enough to try.
“Okay, I’ve nuked Saige’s BuzzHub account,” Alexa announced. “But the problem is a bunch of true-crime fans already saw the video, and they’ve downloaded their own copies. One podcaster made the link between Justin and Blackstone House, and now they’re all reporting on it.”
“Oh hell,” he muttered.
“Yeah, this isn’t going to die quietly. Jessalyn, you said the guy you saw in the stairwell was wearing a leather jacket?”
“Uh, yes?”
“The kind you’d wear to ride a motorcycle?”
“Maybe? He wasn’t carrying a helmet or anything.”
“There was a Harley parked in the visitor lot,” Dawson said.
“A Softail or a Fat Boy, looked like. It was there when we arrived, but when I came back from postering, it was gone. Are you thinking there might be a connection between the guy in Sophy’s apartment building and Raelene Holtz’s ‘bodyguard’? ”
“Possibly. But it gets weirder. She filed the petition for the police file on February twentieth, but the first time she met him was on February sixteenth in the hospital. To make a filing like that one, she’d have to investigate the facts, review the available evidence, draft the motion, and get whatever approvals she needed from Sykes.
Does five days—including a weekend—seem like a reasonable timeline for that? ”
Finally, a question I knew the answer to. “Nuh-uh. Maybe it’s different for pro bono work, but Ridge drew out the process for as long as possible because then he could bill more hours. He’d take months to file a petition.”
“How do you know she didn’t make more visits to Levi?” Dawson asked. “What if the formal appointment came later?”
Alexa coughed into her hand. “Visitor logs.”
“Dammit, Alexa.”
“The Justice Project is a not-for-profit. They must get a hundred applications a month for representation, and I checked out their past cases—they only take the ones they think they can win.”
We all looked at each other. Why would they take Levi’s case? Everyone said it was cut-and-dried, that there were no doubts about his guilt. The only other good suspect was Justin, but Justin had a good heart. I wasn’t sure of much in life, but I was certain of that.
“This is fucked up,” he said.
“Did you know you can’t just show up at the prison if you want to visit an inmate?” Alexa asked.
“It isn’t something I’ve given much thought to.”
“Well, you have to be on the inmate’s visitor list, and this is where it gets more interesting.
Levi only has one person on his list other than Raelene.
Her name is Serafina Hennessy, and he added her at the end of last year, not as a legal representative, just as a regular visitor. Does that name ring any bells?”
Dawson shook his head. “Can’t say it does.”
“Exactly. We lived with Levi for two years, give or take, and he never mentioned a woman named Serafina. So where did she come from?”
“No idea.”
“England.”
“England?”
“Yup. She moved from England to New York two years ago, and she was dating a cellist named Rudd Bester. Her BuzzHub shows pictures of them together until last October, and then Bester popped up in photos with his hand on Zara Michaels’s ass.”
“Zara Michaels, the rock star?”
Alexa turned her laptop to face us, and sure enough, it was the Zara Michaels. Rudd Bester looked like a cross between a goth and an investment banker.
“Yikes,” I muttered.
“So Bester possibly does the dirty, and then Hennessy begins visiting Levi. Which didn’t make much sense until Ari saw her walking into the offices of the Justice Project this morning.”
“To meet with Raelene Holtz?”
Alexa shrugged. “She was carrying a laptop bag, and she hasn’t left again.”
“You think she’s working there?”
“Maybe. She also has a shadow on a motorcycle, and the guy knows Raelene’s pet thug because the two of them are chatting in the parking lot.”
“Wait, so Serafina Hennessy is the lawyer?” Violet asked. “Then why is Raelene Holtz’s name on the filings?”
“Because Hennessy hasn’t passed the bar exam in Virginia. She’s passed it in New York, and she’s passed it in England, but she can’t represent clients in Virginia.”
Justin’s arm tightened around my shoulders. “But she’s driving this? She’s taking the lead in whatever the fuck Levi’s up to?”
“Ari’s looking into that.”
“If she knows where Amie is, someone has to make her spill.”
“We can’t be sure that the two issues are connected.”
“Oh, you think? Levi’s family was paying Amie and now she’s missing, Hennessy’s running around with one-percenters, and he’s making a bid for release? Too damn right they’re connected. Do we need bodyguards?”
Dawson raised a hand. “I am a bodyguard.”
“Okay, do we need more bodyguards?”
“Give it a couple of hours, and there’ll be podcasters camping on the lawn,” Alexa said. “The bikers won’t get past them, but I’m still going back to Brax’s place. Violet? Are you coming?”
“I…” She glanced at Dawson. “Why would Serafina Hennessy work on this case? Why would she think Levi’s innocent?”
“Because he’s spun her a great line of bullshit,” Justin said a little grumpily.
“It worked on us,” Dawson admitted. “We all thought he was an oddball, but not dangerous.”
“Ruby even liked him.” Alexa closed her laptop. “And in order for him to be innocent, Justin would have to be guilty.” She fixed her gaze on me. “You’re his alibi for last Wednesday—is there anything you want to tell us?”
“No!” How could she even think that? “He was here. He left the office at 6:33, and at nine minutes past seven, he answered the door in a towel. Norquist Construction is a twenty-minute drive at least. He didn’t stash Amie in the basement—I’ve been down there to do laundry—so what on earth do you think he did with her in the sixteen minutes he had left? ”
I was more or less yelling, and I didn’t even care. Justin wasn’t a murderer. He wasn’t.
“I don’t think he did a thing.” Alexa’s voice stayed calm.
Quiet. Emotionless. “To answer your question, it wouldn’t take long to whack a person over the head and toss them into the undergrowth—and there’s plenty of forest between here and Norquist Construction—but hiding a vehicle would be harder.
What happened to Amie’s car? If we could find it, we’d be halfway to solving this mystery. ”
“If I wanted to hide a car, I’d park it at the airport,” Dawson said.
“I already had people check Dulles, Reagan, and Baltimore. Manassas is too small.” She paused for a moment. “I’ll send someone to check Richmond International, seeing as there’s a connection to the area.”
Chase was standing nearest to the window. “Looks as if the first podcaster has arrived.”
“Fucking fantastic.” Alexa stowed her laptop in a case and stood. “I’m out of here.”