CHAPTER FIVE
Jessie flipped through the papers, trying to keep her frustration in check.
She and Ryan were back at Central Station, in the HSS research department, where they’d been poring over reports and databases for several hours now. Unfortunately, their efforts had so far yielded little of use.
She looked over at the two researchers, who were hard at work, and tried to remember that they were doing their best. If those two hadn’t come up with anything helpful yet, it wasn’t for a lack of effort. Jamil Winslow and Beth Ryerson were as good as it got.
“Let’s review what we know,” Jessie said to Ryan and the researchers.
“Caroline Sheffield was a vice-president of film marketing at Sovereign Studios. She got divorced last year from Jordan Sheffield, aka Jordy, a voiceover actor. She was on the boards of several charities and was a fundraiser for both her university, Stanford, and her high school, an exclusive boarding school called Thornfield Academy.”
“Right,” Jamil volunteered. “And from what I can tell, she was a real California blueblood. Her family made a fortune in oil decades ago, although she seemed to have mostly disavowed their politics.”
“She has no criminal record,” Beth added, “and from the interviews we’ve conducted with friends and co-workers so far, there doesn’t seem to be anyone with a bad word to say about her.
The worst I’ve come across was that she was a bit of a workaholic.
But I don’t think any of us are going to hold that against her. ”
“Yeah,” Jamil said. “Her assistant said that she had to constantly remind her that it was time to go home.”
“And where are we with the ex-husband again?” Jessie asked Ryan.
“I’ve left two messages with him asking him to come in for an interview. But they both went to voicemail, and I haven’t heard back yet.”
“Maybe he’s in a voiceover session or something,” Beth offered generously.
“Or maybe he’s avoiding us,” Jessie countered. “I’m on the verge of saying we should pay him a visit instead of the other way around.”
“That may be our next best shot,” Ryan agreed, “Especially considering that none of the painters panned out.”
He was right about that. They’d learned that all of the guys in the crew painting Sheffield’s house were at a surprise birthday party for one of their wives last night.
There was footage from the East L.A. restaurant of all of them hanging out there from 7:30 until 11:30.
That window matched the medical examiner’s estimated time of death for Caroline Sheffield almost exactly, eliminating them as suspects.
“And we vouched for the alibi of Caroline’s dinner companion, correct?” Jessie reconfirmed.
“Yes,” Jamil said. “Bill Patterson is the foreign sales executive at Sovereign Studios. After their dinner, he said he went back to the studio because he had forgotten his laptop. There’s studio security footage of him driving onto the lot around the same time Caroline Sheffield’s phone GPS data has her arriving home, at 9:48. So he appears to be in the clear.”
“And with that GPS data, we also narrowed Sheffield’s time of death. Instead of being from 8 to midnight, we’ve cut it down to 10 to midnight,” Beth noted. “So that’s something at least.”
Jessie’s phone rang and she looked at the caller ID. It was Jeanette Marsh, Sheffield’s assistant, whom they’d spoken to earlier.
“Hi Jeanette,” she said, putting the call on speaker. “What can I do for you?”
The young woman’s voice was hesitant.
“Yes, hi, Ms. Hunt. When we spoke earlier, you said I should call if I remembered anything else that seemed important. I thought of something.”
“Go ahead,” Jessie said, leaning in.
“Well, yesterday, when Caroline got back from lunch in the commissary, she looked a little unsettled. I asked if she was okay. She said that she’d gotten an upsetting call from her ex.
She didn’t go into details, and I didn’t really think much of it at the time, because she’s always talking about what a narcissistic jerk he is.
I don’t mean to get the guy in trouble if it’s just ‘ex bad-mouthing’ type stuff.
But looking back on it, she seemed more bothered than usual.
I don’t know if that means anything, but I figured I should let you know. ”
“We appreciate that, Jeanette,” Jessie said. “Better to tell us than assume it’s nothing. And if you think of anything else, don’t hesitate to call back.”
“Sure.”
The second Jessie hung up, she turned to Ryan.
“I think we’ve given Jordy Sheffield long enough to get back to us. What do you say we go check in on the man?”
Ryan, clearly on the same page, was already standing up. Jessie did the same. This was their best lead in hours, and she wasn’t about to wait for it to come to them.