CHAPTER TEN
When Jessie looked out the window, she was surprised.
She looked across her desk in the Central Station bullpen at Karen Bray, who was hunched over her monitor.
“Anything good?” Jessie asked her.
“Unfortunately not,” her partner said, clearly frustrated. “None of the financial data that Jamil and Beth gathered points to an obvious suspect.”
“Same with the social media comments.” Jessie sighed in frustration. “We have all of them now, and nothing worth pursuing jumps out.”
“When is Jason Mannix supposed to be here?” Karen asked.
They’d asked Mannix to come into the station now that he’d had few hours to deal with what happened to his wife. They were still in the process of verifying all the elements of his alibi, but so far, everything he’d said had been confirmed.
Assuming for now that he hadn’t killed his wife, the hope was that since they last spoken with him, he’d have thought of something new that might offer them a fresh lead. Jessie also wanted to know why he’d been unaware of the threatening texts from David Lamb, whose alibi had ultimately borne out.
“He said he’d be here by 6:30,” she said.
“Should we be worried that he’s late,” Karen asked. “You think he’s making a run for the border?”
“Maybe,” Jessie said skeptically, “or he could have just hit bad traffic. I can call him to check in.”
“Detective Bray, Ms. Hunt,” someone called out from the entry to the bullpen. They both looked over to see that it was Officer Harper Devery. Devery was the rookie officer who so desperately wanted to join HSS.
He’d helped out in a supporting capacity on a few cases and in one recent instance, he’d actually joined her when she caught a killer, proving himself to be calm in what was a tense situation.
Despite that, she still had trouble moving past his boyish demeanor, which was exacerbated by his brown hair, trimmed close and parted neatly to the right.
It almost looked like his mom had brushed it for him.
“What’s up Devery?” Karen asked.
“There’s a Jason Mannix waiting for you at the front desk. He said you asked him to come in to answer some more questions.”
It was clear from his eager expression that Devery would have loved to be in on that questioning.
But as much as Jessie would like to let him join them and get some experience questioning witnesses, she wanted their interview to have more of a conversational vibe.
Having a uniformed officer in the room, even if he was completely quiet, was a potential stressor.
“Thanks,” she said. “Can you please escort him to interrogation room three? We’ll meet him there.”
Obviously disappointed, Devery nodded and disappeared. Of the multiple interrogation rooms at Central Station, three was the least antiseptic and offered the best chance to put Mannix at ease.
“Do you want to go hard at him or use kid gloves?” Karen asked.
“I think we ease into it,” Jessie said. “We can always amp it up if need be.”
When they arrived at the room, Mannix was already inside and Officer Devery was standing at the door.
“Thanks Devery,” Karen said, patting him on the shoulder. “We’ve got it from here.”
“You sure you don’t want me to stay?” he asked hopefully. “Just in case?”
“We appreciate the offer,” Jessie said, “but we’re good.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, before shuffling off like a puppy that had been told his owners couldn’t play with him right now.
Jessie wondered how much was actual dejection and how much was for show to make them feel guilty. Either way, he was out of luck this time. Karen opened the interrogation room door and they stepped inside.
The room wasn’t exactly homey, but since it was intended more for witness interviews than suspect interrogations, it was a little less intimidating than the other rooms. The overhead lights were still fluorescent but less intense than in the others.
The folding chairs had a bit of cushioning and weren’t bolted to the ground.
The table wasn’t bolted down either. And unlike in the other rooms, which had metal tables with slots and hooks for handcuffed and manacled suspects, this one was wooden and could almost pass for a breakfast room table.
Jason Mannix was seated opposite the two-way mirror, so that the camera recording everything had a clear shot of his face.
It, like the rest of him, looked better than during their first meeting.
He appeared to have showered and shaved since this morning.
He was in fresh clothes: jeans and a casual, muted-blue, short-sleeved shirt.
His short brown hair had been brushed and his eyes were still a little red but not as puffy as before. He seemed to be all cried out for now.
All cleaned up, he was even more handsome than before. There was something else too. Jessie couldn’t quite define it, but the guy exuded a charismatic energy that seemed to almost vibrate off him.
“Thanks for coming in,” Karen said as she and Jessie both took seats opposite him, making sure not to block the hidden camera’s view. “How are you doing?”
He shook his head slowly.
“To be honest, I’m still having trouble accepting that this is real,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.
“Because I travel so much, Lauren and I were apart a lot. I’m used to not having her with me all the time.
I think it will take a few days of being around the empty house for me to really process everything.
Of course, that can’t start until they let me go back. ”
“We’re sorry about that,” Karen said. “Until the crime scene folks say they’re done and give the all clear for you to return, the house is off limits. It shouldn’t be more than another day or so. Did your police liaison help you find alternate accommodations?”
“She was very helpful. But I picked my own spot. There’s a place that Lauren and I would go to when we wanted to have a staycation. I’m hoping that spending the night there will help me reconnect with what—what we used to be.”
His voice cracked slightly at that last line. They gave him a second to regroup, which also allowed Jessie to get a grip. Even though it was wholly unprofessional, she found herself wanting to give the guy a hug. When she was more in control, she spoke for the first time.
“Where are you staying?” she asked.
“It’s a resort down in Palos Verdes called The Peninsula,” he said, his eyes misting over slightly. “We actually went there for our second anniversary.”
Jessie saw Karen glance at her out of the corner of her eye and tried not to react. They both knew The Peninsula well. Jessie once loved it too, so much so that she and Ryan had their wedding there.
Unfortunately, the night was marred by an unexpected event. The wedding was crashed by Andrea “Andy” Robinson, a one-time friend of Jessie’s who turned out to be a sociopathic killer. Robinson became obsessed with Jessie, believing the two of them were meant to be together.
So just minutes before the wedding was to take place, she drugged and kidnapped Jessie. Then she took her to an abandoned mine in the Arizona desert, where she planned for them to “play house” together. Virtually the entirety of the LAPD was mobilized to find and save her.
When they were discovered, Andy decided to blow up the mine, killing herself and nearly Jessie along with her.
Hearing the name of the place again now stirred a mix of emotions.
She still had affection for the cliffside resort with perfect ocean views.
But she couldn’t separate them from the horrors she’d endured at Andy Robinson’s hand.
Karen seemed to sense that she needed a moment and took over.
“Is that why you were late getting here?” she asked.
“Yes,” Mannix said. “Sorry about that. As the crow flies, it’s not that far from here, but in the middle of rush hour, it took nearly an hour and a half.”
Jessie had recovered from the bad memories but not from Mannix’s powerful appeal. She decided the best way to fight off the haze of his charisma was to put him on the defensive a little.
“Don’t worry about it,” she told him. “You’re here now and we’re hoping that the time you had away allowed you some clarity, because we do have a few questions for you.”
“I’ll answer them as best I can,” he said. “Anything to get justice for Lauren.”
His eyes clouded over again but Jessie tried to ignore it and push through.
“One thing that was confusing to us was related to a man named David Lamb. Are you familiar with him?”
He nodded. “I know who he is, Lauren’s former realty partner. But I’ve never actually met him. Why? Is he a suspect?”
“Is there a reason you think he should be?” Jessie countered.
“Not really,” he said. “I mean, I know that when he left Griffin-Malone, it wasn’t the most amicable parting, but beyond that I haven’t had much reason to think about him. Please, if he did this, you have to tell me.”
“We don’t believe he did,” Jessie said, annoyed with herself for giving in to Mannix’s plea.
“His alibi holds up for last night. But the reason we looked into him in the first place was a series of increasingly threatening text messages he sent Lauren over the last nine months. Are you saying that you were unaware of that?”
His eyes widened in surprise. “This is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“I have to confess,” Jessie said, “that seems odd to me. This is your wife of nearly four years. And she never mentioned that her former business partner was sending her troubling texts?”
Mannix sighed heavily. He looked like he was struggling to find a way to explain what was going on in his head, which he was furiously scratching. Finally, he stopped and fixed her with his enormous brown eyes.
“Here’s the thing, Ms. Hunt,” he said tremulously, “our marriage was passionate and loving, but it was unconventional. Not it a kinky way. It’s just that my work in corporate sales keeps me on the road almost 300 days a year, jetting up and down the state.
Sometimes Lauren would come with me when the location interested her.
But after a few trips, she felt like she’d been there and done that.
So, our actual time living together amounted to less than three months each year.
As a result, I missed some stuff that I probably shouldn’t have.
It’s embarrassing to admit that there were big parts of Lauren’s professional life that I was clueless about.
Hell, there are close friends of hers that I still haven’t met.
That’s why I’m struggling to help you with this investigation. ”
“Why are you struggling?” Karen pressed.
“Because I just don’t know the answers to a lot of your questions. I don’t know all her friends, much less who she might be ‘on the outs’ with. I know her sister Molly a little, but only because she lives in town. I’ve only met the rest of her family a couple of times, including the wedding.”
“But this isn’t boring day-to-day stuff,” Jessie reminded him. “You wife was threatened.”
“You’re right. I should have known. But I didn’t.
Whether that was because I didn’t show enough interest and ask the right questions or because Lauren didn’t want to worry me, I don’t know.
Probably more the former. Looking back, I wonder if she was protecting me from that unpleasantness when I should have been protecting her. But I’m telling you, it never came up.”
He put his elbows on the table and rested his head in hands, much like when they’d first encountered him at his home office desk this morning. He appeared spent.
Jessie found herself not wanting to push him even farther before suddenly getting pissed at herself. This was ridiculous. The guy might be sympathetic and almost preternaturally charming, but this was an interrogation. She needed to snap out of it.
“One other thing we’re a little confused on,” she said as if it was just an afterthought.
“Your firm booked you a room at a hotel in downtown San Diego while you were there. But we recently learned that—according to the housekeeping staff—you didn’t seem to sleep there.
The bed was made and it looked like the room was unoccupied the whole time. ”
He looked at her sheepishly. “If I tell you something in confidence, can you promise that it won’t get back to my employer?”
She wanted to say yes and had to fight the urge. Before she spoke, Karen jumped in.
“It depends on whether it’s relevant to our investigation,” she told him, her tone far more forgiving than usual. Apparently, Jason Mannix’s magnetism were having an effect on her too. “Tell us and we’ll decide from there.”
“Okay. I always accept the hotel booking they provide because I don’t want to give up the perk or the points.
But a lot of times when I’m travelling, I’ll stay with a buddy.
It allows me to relax a little more. I get to hang out with a friend, maybe go out for a bite and a beer, or stay in and watch a game.
The road gets lonely and being able to have people around that I’m close to is a real luxury.
Then again, sometimes I just want some alone time in an anonymous hotel.
So, I let the firm book stays for me. I figure they can afford to eat the cost when I’m grinding away for them for over eighty percent of the year.
Maybe that’s wrong, but it’s how I get by. ”
“That’s fine,” Karen said in a tone that suggested it wasn’t. “We’re not here to judge your lodging decisions. But you gave your address last night as the hotel, which sent us down an unnecessary rabbit hole. You should have given us your friend’s address and contact information.”
“You’re right,” he said. “That seems obvious once you point it out. I’ll give it to you now.”
As Mannix scrolled through his phone there was a knock on the door and Ryan poked his head in. Jessie got up and walked over.
“I’m ready to leave for the day,” he whispered. “But if you’re not going to be much longer, I can stick around. Otherwise, are you cool taking a rideshare home?”
She looked back at Mannix and tried to think about what else they could ask him. Unfortunately, by his own admission, he didn’t know as much about his own wife’s personal life as he should. She wasn’t sure how much more she could glean from him.
Karen, still seated, seemed to read her mind even though she hadn’t heard their conversation.
“Go home, Jessie. I’ll wrap this up.”
“You sure?”
“Trust me,” she said. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Left unsaid was what both of them were thinking. Assuming that Mannix’s alibi held up, they were out of leads for the day. They’d start fresh tomorrow. Maybe by then there would be something new to pursue.
Because right now, they were no closer to catching Laren Mitchell’s killer than when they first encountered her lifeless body.