CHAPTER TWENTY
Things didn’t go as Jessie had hoped.
It took them another hour to reach Amanda Krantz.
First, they had to wait for Officer Devery to arrive at the Bradbury.
As expected, he was over the moon at getting to be part of their investigation, even in a tangential way.
When he arrived, he was positively glowing.
His cheeks were flushed with excitement, and his eyes were full of eager anticipation at being part of the “team.” Per usual, his boyish demeanor was enhanced by his brown hair, which was trimmed close and parted neatly to the right.
It almost looked like his mom had brushed it for him.
“Thanks for letting me help out,” he had said giddily. “I promise I won’t let you down.”
“See that you don’t,” Ryan warned with more forcefulness than Jessie thought was required.
Again, she wondered if this was residual upset over the parenthood conversation.
Whether it was or not, she wasn’t going to broach the subject, even if it meant others bore the brunt of his frustration.
She’d made her position clear. Ryan would eventually have to work through his disappointment, though hopefully not always at others’ expense.
Once they made it clear to Devery that he wasn’t to leave Alexander Krantz unattended until they called him, they headed out to see Amanda.
The Krantzes lived in the Hollywood Hills, on a small road in Beachwood Canyon, not far from the “Hollywood” sign.
With rush hour traffic and the winding roads up the hill, they didn’t get to the house until after 5.
Because the street was so narrow, they had to pull up onto the curb in front of the house. A large wooden gate hid the home from view, but when they approached, Jessie noticed that it wasn’t latched. So rather than pushing the buzzer, they walked straight in.
The interior courtyard was charming, with a small Zen garden surrounding a central fountain.
Other than that, the home looked like a modest one-story house.
But Jessie knew it was an illusion. With almost all of these homes built into the hills, the street-facing portion looked normal.
But often the houses, built in part on stilts, extended down several floors instead of up.
Ryan rang the bell. They waited patiently, aware that if the resident was three or four stories down, it might take a minute to get to them. Sure enough, it was closer to two minutes before they heard a female voice on the other side of the door.
“Can I help you?” she asked cautiously.
Ryan held up his badge and ID to the peephole as he answered.
“LAPD, Mrs. Krantz. I’m Detective Hernandez, and this is Ms. Hunt. We’re investigating a case, and your name has come up. We need to speak with you.”
“What’s it about?” she wanted to know.
“It’s a murder case,” Ryan said, adding, “It’s connected to Thornfield Academy, and it’s time sensitive. We really need to have a word.”
After several seconds of silence, they heard the door unlock.
It opened to reveal a pleasant-looking woman with shoulder-length brown hair.
They already knew, from the info Jamil and Beth had given them on the drive over, that Amanda Black Krantz, 28, was a popular social media influencer.
Her specialty, according to Beth, was recreating meals from exclusive restaurants in her home kitchen.
She apparently had over 2 million followers.
“I’d really rather wait until my husband gets home to have any discussion,” she said. “I just texted him.”
Ryan looked at Jessie with an expression that said, Do you want to handle this one? She nodded that she did.
“If you’re uncomfortable with us coming in, we’re happy to talk out here, Mrs. Krantz,” she said.
“Unfortunately, you won’t be able to reach your husband at this time.
We just came from his office, where we interviewed him.
And because we wanted your input without the filter of having spoken to him first, he’s without his phone until we’re done speaking with you. ”
“Why were you talking to Alex?” Her tone was fearful.
“Because he knew the victims, just as you do,” Jessie said. “You may want to sit down. This could be difficult to hear.”
Amanda Krantz seemed unsure about how to respond to that. “Maybe you should come in after all,” she finally said.
She led them through the foyer, passing an elevator along the way.
They rounded a corner into an expansive living room with views of the hills and, in the distance, the heart of Hollywood.
It was a clear day, and the iconic Capitol Records building gleamed brightly.
Jessie had been in homes like this before, but they still took her breath away.
Krantz sat down on a gray cashmere loveseat and motioned for them to take the matching sofa.
“Okay,” she said as she grabbed a throw pillow and hugged it against her chest, “I’m ready. Tell me what happened.”
“Mrs. Krantz—,” Jessie began.
“Please call me Amanda.”
“Okay, Amanda. Two classmates from your graduating class were killed in the last 48 hours. We understand that you were friendly with both of them, and we’re hoping you can shed some light on the situation.”
“Who died?” she winced, her voice cracking.
“Caroline Sheffield was killed two nights ago. Diana Hartwell last night.”
Amanda squeezed her eyes shut tightly, as if trying to force the news out of her head. They waited to see how she would react beyond that. After a few seconds, she opened them and exhaled heavily.
“We were all friends,” she said softly. “I mean, I hadn’t seen them in a little while, but I still consider them friends. What happened?”
“They were both strangled,” Ryan told her. “Beyond that, we don’t know much.”
Jessie kept a straight face at the statement.
What he said was mostly true. But it was clear he didn’t want to reveal too much either.
There was always the chance that Amanda Krantz was involved in the deaths, either on her own or in concert with her husband.
They weren’t about to share details that the killer would know but someone else wouldn’t.
“We know this is a lot to process,” Jessie said. “But we’re really hoping that, as their friend, you might be able to offer some insight into their connection, beyond just being high school friends who kept in touch.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” Jessie continued delicately. “It seems highly unlikely that they were killed on consecutive nights using the same method out of pure coincidence. And the most obvious connection between them, something that might make them targets of a killer, is that they went to the same high school. But they also remained friends since then, with each other and with you.”
Amanda still looked confused about what they wanted, so Jessie went on.
“We don’t want to just assume that it was their high school connection that led to their deaths, when it might be something more recent.
Is there anything that jumps out at you that might have led someone to want to harm them both?
Did either of them ever say they felt like they were in danger?
Did either mention running afoul of someone? ”
Amanda shook her head.
“We didn’t really have that kind of relationship,” she said. “We didn’t get together that often, so when we did, it was mostly to reminisce or catch up on major life events. No one ever shared the problems of their daily lives.”
“What about over text or email?” Ryan asked.
Again, Amanda shook her head.
“No. Our messages were always light, usually planning our next get-together. Maybe someone would send out a meme or mention some major life accomplishment, but never bad news. I didn’t even learn about Caroline’s divorce until we hooked up last time.
It just wasn’t that kind of friendship, you know?
But I can show you the messages if that helps.
Maybe one of them wrote something that didn’t mean much to me but could to you. ”
“We’d appreciate that,” Jessie said.
“Of course,” Amanda said. “Anything I can do to help.”
“Do you think your husband would be willing to do the same thing?” Ryan asked.
“I don’t see why not,” Amamda said. “But I doubt that he has many. He mostly just showed up for some of our dinners. But he wasn’t really chatty with them otherwise.”
“Are you sure about that?” Ryan pressed. Jessie saw him flinch slightly as he said it, aware a moment too late that he’d pushed harder than he should have.
Amanda squinted at him as she shifted on the couch.
“What are you saying, Detective?” she asked. “And why were you talking to Alex anyway?”
“Amanda,” Jessie said, jumping in before things got testy, “we actually didn’t even know that you went to Thornfield until we spoke to Alex. We were there because we learned that he’d dated both of them in high school and thought that connection was worth pursuing.”
“Just because they went out for a few months a decade ago?” Amanda said. “That makes him suspicious to you?”
“Two women are dead,” Jessie reminded her. “It’s our obligation to follow every possible lead, no matter how unlikely it might seem. That’s why we spoke with him. And that’s why we’re here with you now. You can go a long way to helping us cross this line of inquiry off our list.”
“How?”
“By telling us where Alex was the last two evenings?” Jessie asked, trying to keep her tone from sounding accusatory.
Amanda shook her head in befuddlement before something seemed to click for her.
“That’s why you wouldn’t let him call me. Not because you didn’t want what I said ‘filtered’ through him. It’s because you think we might coordinate our answers about where he was.”
“We have to take every precaution,” Ryan said. “But you can help clear a lot of this up by filling in the details. If your answers match his, that would go a long way.”
Okay,” she said, closing her eyes again as she searched her memory. “Last night we binged a few episodes of that spy show, Slow Horses. I fell asleep during the second one. That always happens when I have more than one glass of wine, and I had two last night. So Alex carried me to bed.”
“That’s romantic,” Jessie said. “Did he just put you in bed in your clothes?”
“Yeah. He said he didn’t want to risk waking me up by undressing me.”
“So you woke up in your clothes this morning?”
“Uh-huh. Why?”
“Just getting it clear in my head,” Jessie said. “So from the time you fell asleep during the show until you woke up this morning, you didn’t see Alex?”
Amanda seemed to realize that her story wasn’t as foolproof an alibi as she might have hoped.
“Yeah. But I hope you’re not saying he put me to bed, then left to kill someone. Are you?”
“We’re just trying to get clarity on the timeline,” Jessie said, not answering the question. She didn’t mention the possibility that Alex might have slipped something in her drink to make sure she didn’t wake up. “What about the night before?”
“He had dinner with a client,” Amanda said. “He said the name of the guy, but I can’t remember it.”
“Did he tell you about the dinner when he got home that night?” Ryan asked, laying a trap for her, if she was lying. Her husband had already told them she was asleep when he returned.
“No, earlier that morning,” she answered. “That night, I went to bed before he came back. He sent me a goodnight text because he knew I wouldn’t last that long.”
“So you don’t know for sure what time he got home?” Ryan said.
Amanda shook her head defensively. “I know that looks bad, but I swear, Alex would never hurt anyone. The guy doesn’t even watch horror movies because he can’t stand seeing people killed violently.
He’s just not capable of anything like that.
And even if he was, trust me, I’d know. He’d be different. ”
“We understand,” Jessie said, neither endorsing nor rejecting the woman’s assertion. “Do you maybe have a security system or surveillance cameras that could show when he returned home?”
“We used to, but it depended on Wi-Fi, which can be glitchy up here in the hills. So we were switching to a hard-wired system. It’s being installed in two weeks. But can’t you check his phone or something to see where he was? I do that all the time.”
“Thanks for the suggestion,” Ryan said, managing not to sound condescending at the idea they already had Research working on. “I assure you that we’ll cover all the bases.”
The woman smiled wanly, apparently mildly heartened that they were taking her seriously. “I’m happy to help.”
“Listen, Amanda,” Jessie said, leaning forward on the couch.
“We need you to set aside your anxiety about us having questioned Alex. If you really want to help, the best thing you can do is think back on your interactions with Caroline and Diana, especially recently. If anything pops into your head that seems relevant, something that seemed innocuous at the time but less so looking back now, reach out to us. We want to solve your friends’ murders, but we didn’t know them.
You did. That could be the difference in catching their killer. ”
After they wrapped up and left, Jessie walked silently back to the car.
Her head was swimming with possibilities.
She wasn’t impressed by Amanda’s claims that her husband was too squeamish to commit murder.
But she also wasn’t confident about Alex Krantz as a suspect.
Dating both victims more than ten years ago was a connection.
But on its own, it didn’t amount to a motive for killing them.
Ryan unlocked the car, and she got in, slamming the door behind her in frustration. The night was closing in, and she didn’t feel any closer to solving this thing. In fact, without a solid lead, she felt helpless.