Page 9 of The Perfect Deception
"It's all just very cloak and dagger."Hannah was clearly frustrated."I tried to hack into the hospital CCTV to see the transport vehicle that was used and who the Marshals who took him were."
“Should you really be telling a law enforcement officer that you hacked into a hospital’s video system?”
Hannah continued, undeterred.“But it was all erased before I got to it.It just felt like overkill for a college student stabbing victim.”
“And yet, maybe that was the smart move,” Jessie pointed out.“If you were able to hack the hospital’s security footage, maybe the attacker could too.”
“Fine.I get all that.But no matter where I look, everything on Finn disappears into a black hole.Now that you’re back, I was hoping you could help grease the wheels a little and find out where he is, or at least if he’s okay.I don’t even know for sure if he’s still alive.You’ve worked with the Marshals before, when they moved us to a safe house that one time.They trust you.They’ll talk to you.”
Jessie could see the frustration on her sister’s face and wanted so badly to comfort her, to assure her that Finn was safe and sound.But it wasn’t as easy as that.
“I’ll see what I can do,” she finally said, doing her best to sound like she meant it.
She was lying of course, but Hannah couldn’t know that
CHAPTER SIX
James Maplewood could barely keep his eyes open.
As he pulled into the driveway of his West Adams district mansion in Lafayette Square, not far from downtown Los Angeles, he let out a huge sigh of relief.He'd been worried that he'd fall asleep on the drive back from the airport but he'd made it, just barely.He promised himself that next time he went on a business trip he'd use a car service.It's just that he was an impatient man, and once he was back in town, he didn't want to wait around.He wanted to get home.Plus, his canary yellow Lotus Eletre electric SUV was super cool, and he loved driving it.
James pulled into the garage of the giant Queen Anne-style home that, at night at least, looked more like a haunted house than a family residence.He grabbed his carry-on suitcase from the trunk and lugged it inside, trying to keep as quiet as possible.His wife, Olivia, had wanted to wait up for him.But when he told her that his flight had been delayed and he wouldn’t get back to L.A.until after 11 P.M.she agreed to go to sleep.He’d talk to her in the morning.
James reached the base of the stairs and looked up the winding staircase.He made a command decision.Rather than trudging up the steps with the clunky bag and making a racket, he’d just leave it downstairs for now.So he rifled through the thing, grabbed his toiletry bag and headed for the downstairs bathroom just off the main foyer.He brushed his teeth, pushed his blond hair out of his eyes, and washed his face there, worried that even with the main bedroom’s bathroom door closed, he might disturb Olivia.
When that was done, he tiptoed up the stairs and made his way down the long carpeted hallway to the bedroom.He didn’t like to think about the last time this carpeting had been cleaned.The home was built in 1914, which was historic by L.A.standards, and he feared the same carpet had been there since the beginning.He shook his head silently, deciding that obsessing over potential grossness of the carpet he was walking on wasn’t the ideal head space to be in right before trying to drift off to sleep.
When he got to the bedroom door, he opened it slowly.Sometimes it creaked, sometimes not.Tonight he got lucky.In the darkened room, he saw the outline of Olivia lying in bed.She must have kicked the sheets off at some point because she was uncovered.He was about to head into the closet to change into night clothes when something caught his eye.
A thin sliver of light from the street was peeking through the curtain and it fell ever so slightly on Olivia’s head.But he could have sworn that in the dim light, his wife’s hair looked blonde.Considering that her hair was black, he found that odd.He walked over to get a better look, wondering if his exhaustion was playing tricks with both his eyes and his brain.When he got closer, he froze.
The person in his bed was not his wife.Olivia had medium length black hair.This woman’s was short and blonde.In the distant darkness, their figures were similar, both slender yet curvy.But this woman was easily half a foot shorter than Olivia.He took another step forward and realized that he recognized the woman.
What the hell was going on here?Where was Olivia and why was someone other than her in their bed?And that’s when James noticed the rest.The woman wasn’t moving.No rise and fall of her chest.No snoring or even soft breathing.She was completely still.
And now that he was beside the woman, he noted something else.There was a pool of liquid under the sheets.It seemed to be coming from her neck.
James gasped, his brain refusing to process what he was seeing.He wanted to turn and run but his body wasn’t responding to his demands.Stuck there, his legs locked in place, one thought kept ringing loudly in his brain.
She’s dead.There’s a dead woman in my bed
CHAPTER SEVEN
At first Jessie wasn’t sure where she was.
As she blinked her blurry eyes open, she tried make sense of things.Everything was dark.She could hear Ryan’s voice but didn’t understand what he was saying.After a moment, she realized that she was lying in her own bed in her own house.She must have been sleeping.
“Whoot?”Her voice sounded like it was full of marbles.
But Ryan must have understood because he replied immediately.
“I’m sorry to wake you.”He was speaking in an urgent whisper, probably keeping his voice down because Hannah was asleep in the other room.“I just got a call from Captain Parker.”
“Is everything okay?”
Through the remnants of sleep, Jessie squinted at her bedside clock.It read 1:09 A.M.That gave her the answer to her own question.Obviously, their boss wouldn't be calling at this hour if everything was okay.
“I’m afraid not.”He sounded as tired as she felt.“There’s been a murder in the West Adams district.The victim was found lying in bed at someone else’s house.”
