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Jessie found herself getting increasingly furious about Ava Martell’s death with each word Melinda said.
“I know this is awkward,” Ryan pressed, “but were you aware of any relationships she might have had outside her marriage?”
Melinda shook her head.
“I never saw or heard anything to indicate that.”
“What about friendships that soured?” he continued. “Anyone she ever mentioned having an issue with or vice versa?”
“She didn’t talk to me about that stuff,” Melinda explained. “As a boss, she was friendly and seemed interested in my welfare. We would talk about movies or holiday plans. But she never got too personal. And she never gossiped, at least not to me. She was very discreet. For example, she had a meeting yesterday. But because it wasn't work-related, she didn't tell me anything about it. It was listed in the calendar with a name and time but nothing else.”
“Can you point out that calendar item?” Jessie asked.
Melinda nodded and noted the item: a lunch meeting with someone named Nina Kirby.
“Did she come back to work after the meeting?” Jessie wanted to know.
“Yeah,” Melinda answered.
“And did anything seem off when she returned?”
“No,” Melinda replied. “She seemed mildly stressed, but that was normal. Ava was always mildly stressed.”
“And there were no other meetings on her agenda for the day?” Ryan confirmed, looking at the calendar.
“No,” Melinda told him. “In fact, she spent the day in workout gear. She went to the gym in the morning, had this lunch meeting, then came back here, where we worked until the late afternoon, trying to lock down additional financing for her next project. She sent me home just before five and said she’d see me today at nine. It was a pretty standard day.”
Ryan looked at Jessie with his eyebrows raised, and she knew where he was headed. She nodded that she was done with her questions and that he could ask the one he'd been holding off on.
“What did you do last night?” he asked, keeping it as casual as possible.
“Is this the part where you need my alibi?” she wondered, not falling for his attempt to be subtle.
“I’m afraid so,” he told her.
“I figured that would come up at some point,” she said, not put out. “I went straight to the gym from here, then showered and met some friends for happy hour in Santa Monica. Then I went home to my apartment in Culver City, read a new script that Ava was interested in, and streamed a movie, which I fell asleep watching. I have the names and numbers of my friends from the bar. And I can show you my log-in info for the movie if that helps.”
“It all helps,” Ryan told her. “Thanks. I’m going to give you the contact info for our chief researcher, Jamil Winslow. If you can share everything you mentioned with him, along with anything else he asks for, we’d appreciate it.”
After they gave her Jamil’s info, Melinda offered them a tour of the house, which yielded nothing out of the ordinary. Nonetheless, Ryan requested that Melinda meet the forensic team, who would be coming by momentarily, to let them in. She agreed, then walked them to the door.
As Jessie and Ryan headed back down the path to the car, Jessie saw a local news television truck pull up across the street. Frankly, she was surprised that they didn’t already have the place surrounded. Hurrying along the path to avoid being seen, she punched the name of the woman from Ava’s lunch meeting, Nina Kirby, into her phone.
“Looks like she’s a lawyer,” she said, holding out the screen for Ryan to see. “She and her husband have a firm nearby.”
“Entertainment law?” Ryan asked.
“Not from what I can tell,” Jessie replied. “I wonder what that lunch meeting was about.”
“How about we head over to her office now and find out?” Ryan suggested before Jessie could do it herself.
She smiled. It might be her first day back, but they were already getting into their old groove again. She had missed this.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jessie didn't know what she was expecting, but it wasn't this.
Maybe she’d assumed that any lawyer that Ava Martell would meet with would have a giant office in a gleaming skyscraper, but this was the complete opposite. Kirby & Kirby Law Partners was located in a small shopping plaza off San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood.
