CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
Jessie couldn’t read the guy.
Maybe it was the sedative that Alexander Krantz had been given. As he lay propped up in his hospital bed, his eyes were still slightly cloudy and his movements languorous. It was going to be difficult to tell if he was lying when his reactions were dulled by the medication. But they had to try.
“We want to ask you some questions,” Ryan told him, “but before that, I need to read you your rights. Okay?”
Krantz nodded lazily. As Ryan went through the Miranda warning, the man appeared to perk up. He seemed to increasingly remember why all of them were here as each word was spoken.
Ryan wrapped up. “With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to us?”
Krantz, now much more alert, nodded forcefully.
“I need a verbal response,” Ryan said.
“Yes.”
“Okay, let’s start with—,” Ryant started to say, but Krantz cut him off.
“I didn’t kill Amanda,” he insisted.
“That’s confusing,” Ryan told him, “because you admitted to the first officers on the scene that it was your necktie beside her and that you were responsible for her death. How do you explain that?”
“I meant that I should have agreed to go to a hotel last night,” Krantz said.
“But we had a long day with you folks, and we were exhausted. Plus, I had a big meeting this morning, and I didn’t want to pack a bag at the last minute or scramble to make sure I had everything I needed.
Amanda seemed okay with that. I guess I just didn’t think that we—that she—was ever truly at risk. Clearly, I was deluding myself.”
“Clearly,” Ryan said. Jessie knew he only responded at all to keep Krantz talking. It worked.
“I came home from work early, and we were going to head straight to the Chateau Marmont. Amanda booked a bungalow. But when I arrived, I found…you saw what I found. My selfishness led to her death. That’s what I meant by being responsible for it.”
Assuming he was telling the truth, Jessie understood how he felt.
The guilt over not insisting more aggressively that the couple immediately change locations was weighing on her.
She made a mental note to be even more forceful with Riley Sinclair, the one Thornfield friend who was still working in a public place, and therefore exposed.
As to Krantz, while his story was compelling, it wasn’t enough to overcome the circumstantial evidence against him, as well as what some would consider a confession. Even before Ryan spoke, she knew what he would say.
“Your statement will be taken into consideration. But right now, you remain under arrest for Amanda’s murder, as well as the other victims. Once the doctors clear you to leave the hospital, you’ll be taken to Central Station for booking. Your arraignment will be tomorrow.”
Krantz began to cry. Jessie wasn’t sure whether it was because of what he’d just been told or because he was processing what had happened to his wife. Either way, the sobbing grew more intense until he was wailing loudly and yanking at his restraints.
The nurse appeared out of nowhere and moved over to his IV to make an adjustment. After about fifteen seconds, Krantz became more subdued. The crying turned to whimpering, and his eyes fluttered open and shut.
Jessie could see that Ryan was annoyed that the nurse had acted without consulting them. But she didn’t mind. The questions she still had couldn’t be answered by Alexander Krantz. She wasn’t sure they could be answered at all, but she intended to find out.