Page 54 of Done Dirty

“Is she in the office?” he asked.

“Sure is,” Ben said. “Just knock on the door.”

We went around the concierge desk and knocked on the door behind it.

“Come in,” Jessica called out.

Her office was the kind of space that would close a lease. Walnut desk, cream upholstered chairs, leather binders lined up on the built-in shelves, and a monitor on the wall running a live grid of every camera in the building. Two windows behind her desk looked out over the park, the fountain visible between the trees. No family photos, no coffee mugs, nothing out of place. Style and elegance. Everything telling a prospective resident they’d made the right choice.

She looked up from her computer when we came in and her expression made clear she’d been hoping we were done with her.

“We have a few more questions,” Jack said.

She gestured at the chairs across the desk. We sat. She didn’t move from behind it.

“We want to talk about your relationship with Wade,” Jack said.

“We were friendly,” she said. “I’ve told you that.”

“We’ve been going back over the footage,” Jack said. “We’ve noticed some things that suggest the relationship might have been a little more than professional on your end. Is that a fair characterization?”

She picked up a pen from her desk and set it back down. “He was charming. He had a way of making you feel like you were the only person in the room.”

“Did he have that effect on you specifically?”

Her cheeks colored. “I admired him. He was a wonderful resident. He was kind and he remembered people’s names and he never made anyone feel invisible.” She stopped. “I’m sorry. It’s been a hard couple of days.”

“Were you involved with him?” Jack asked.

“No.”

“Did you want to be?”

She looked out the window at the park. The fountain was running. “He was out of my league,” she said quietly. “He knew it and I knew it. That was just the reality of things.”

“The women he brought home,” I said. “Did that bother you?”

She was quiet for a moment. “I understood who he was. I never had any illusions about that.” She straightened a stack of papers on her desk that didn’t need straightening. “But there were times it was harder to look the other way than others.”

“Like when he was having sex in the pool?” Jack asked.

Her mouth tightened. “The pool, the gym, the conference room. I had to speak to him once the front desk team brought it to my attention.”

“Did it stop?”

She looked down and adjusted the papers on her desk instead of answering.

“Did you ever go inside his condo?” Jack asked.

“No.”

“You have a key to it though,” Jack said.

“We keep a physical master key for every unit in the building.” She nodded toward the electronic cabinet on the wall beside the credenza. “They’re logged in and out. Code access. The key fob is separate—that covers the lobby, the elevator, the pool, the amenity spaces.”

“Who else has the cabinet code?”

“Just me,” she said. “And the regional property manager.”