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“Okay,” Ryan said quickly, apparently not interested in the particulars of that right now. “Can you prove that you were both there?”
“Sure,” Gravell said. “Just ask the manager. He knows me. Plus, there are cameras all over the place. Should be easy to prove.”
Ryan looked over at Jessie. She nodded and it was clear that Ryan understood why. Nothing in Gravell’s words or demeanor suggested obfuscation. She’d answered everything directly, more so than most witnesses, despite her clear suspicion toward the authorities.
“We’ll look into this,” he told Gravell. “If it all checks out, we’ll follow through on everything we promised.”
“Where’s the gift card to?” she asked.
“We’ve got a list,” he told her. “You can choose.”
“I like In-N-Out Burger,” she said.
“I think that’s on the list,” Ryan said. “Give us a few minutes.”
They left the interrogation room and hurried down the hall to Research.
“Jamil already confirmed that Buhner arrived at LAX on a flight from Vegas at 7:17 p.m.,” Jessie noted as they walked down the hallway. “The timing would fit almost perfectly for him to get downtown by eight. If we can verify Florence’s story, that would give him an alibi for the entire estimated time of death for Ava.”
“Let’s see how quickly Jamil and Beth can access the security footage from the Hollywood Motor Lodge,” Ryan said. “If we can eliminate Buhner as a suspect, I want to do it ASAP. I don’t like the idea of wasting time here while a killer is on the loose.”
Jessie nodded in agreement even as she involuntarily yawned. Ryan didn’t miss it.
“I can give Jamil and Beth the details,” he said. “No matter how fast they are, it will take them a little while to get the footage and review it. Why don’t you go to the conference room and see if you can get in a quick catnap while we wait? I’ll wake you when we have something or in a half hour, whichever comes first.”
Jessie wanted to protest but the truth was that the idea of lying down on the plush sofa in the darkened conference room sounded pretty appealing right now.
“A half hour at most,” she reminded him.
“I swear,” he told her.
That was all she needed to keep walking while Ryan stopped at the door to Research. She continued down the hallway, turned right at the end, and followed it the rest of the way to the conference room. Once there, she grabbed one of the pillows and blankets, which were kept in a cabinet for this very purpose. Then she settled into a comfortable spot.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus on her breathing. But as she feared, her thoughts kept intruding. It had been a long, rough day and it didn’t look like it would be ending anytime soon. They hadn’t caught Ava Martell’s killer and if they didn’t keep pressing, Jessie feared the trail would grow cold.
She tried to push the negativity out of her head and focus on something positive. It didn’t take long. During their questioning of Florence Gravell, just like when they’d interrogated Harrison Buhner at his office, they’d easily fallen back into the comfortable rhythm they always used to have when they partnered up, as if they could each read the other’s mind. All it took was a glance or a nod to convey entire strategies. There was an electricity between them in these moments.
But as much as she got off on it, Jessie was also worried. It seemed like their connection was strongest when the drama was at its most heightened. Did they need it to keep things interesting between them? Did they have to be in constant crisis mode to keep the home fires lit?
If that was true, it was another thing they needed to work on with Dr. Lemmon. And it was something they’d need to figure out if they were ever going to seriously consider Ryan’s suggestion of starting a family. They had to work out their own crap before bringing another human being into the world.
That is, if she even wanted to. Ryan had been good about not bringing up the issue for the last few days, but she knew it was on his mind. It was for her too, but not just because of her apprehension about their complex lives or the emergencies that seemed to fuel their romance. It was also because of how badly things had ended the last time.
It wasn’t just the horror of having her own husband poison her for the express purpose of ending the pregnancy, it was the aftermath. Sometimes she still had dreams that the pregnancy had gone well and that she was now raising a little toddler. When she woke up from those dreams, it was like a scab being ripped off a slow-healing wound. She wasn’t sure she could handle anything like that again.
Beyond the emotional pain, she wondered about how she would handle things physically. In the last few years, she’d suffered an almost unimaginable amount of physical abuse during the course of hunting down killers. In addition to her ongoing brain injury issues, she’d been shot, stabbed, strangled, and broken more bones than she could recall. She wasn’t sure how well her body could deal with the challenges of pregnancy and childbirth.
The thought of all this was making another dull headache begin to creep into her skull. She tried to set the issue aside and once again focus on her breathing. After some time, she felt her muscles begin to relax. She was just starting to drift off when Ryan walked into the conference room.
“Has it been a half hour?” she asked groggily.
“No,” he said apologetically. “It’s only been about ten minutes. Sorry to bother you but I didn’t have a choice.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, sitting up straight on the sofa, now fully alert.
“There’s been another murder, and it looks a lot like the first one. We have to go.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
