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“I already told the captain we had our guy,” Wagner said to Ortega. “If Britton doesn’t pan out, what are we going to do?”
“We just have to bite the bullet,” his partner said. “This hiccup won’t matter if we nail the perp in the end. We have to go with the right choice, not the first one.”
Something Ortega said made Jessie freeze in place.The first choice.How could she have let that slip by before? There was one obvious reason—her head injury was impacting her more than she realized. But that wasn’t a theory she was willing to entertain at this moment. If she was losing her edge—and possibly more—she’d deal with that later.
“I’m going back in,” she said.
She opened the door, walked over to Britton, and leaned over him rather than sitting down this time.
“Earlier, you said that Isabel Shea wasn’t your first choice for a couples’ counselor. So why did you go with her?”
“Because Gemma didn’t like who I picked,” he answered. “I did all this research and found someone who was supposed to be the best, at least according to the internet, but Gemma said it would be weird because they had history together.”
“Who was that?” Jessie demanded, feeling a pit grow in her stomach.
"It's been a while, so I can't exactly remember. I know it was some older lady with a weird fruit name, like Mellon or something," he said uncertainly.
“Was it Lemmon? Janice Lemmon?”
“That’s it!” Britton confirmed. “She was supposed to be great, but Gemma put her foot down, so we went with Dr. Shea.”
“Thank you,” Jessie said, even as she darted out of the room.
“What is it?” Grover demanded once they were in the hall again.
Jessie motioned for him to head down the hall with her, away from Wagner and Ortega.
“Probably nothing,” Jessie said. “This could all be a coincidence. But the killer has gone to two psychiatrists known for their work with couples’ counseling. According to Britton, Dr. Lemmon is renowned for that too. I didn’t know that, but as you’re well aware, Ryan and I have been using her services ourselves.”
“Just to be clear, “Grover said, “you think this murderer has some kind of relationship issue, that he’s going to well-known couples’ counselors, and when the therapist doesn’t solve it for him, he takes it out on them?”
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about,” Jessie conceded.
“Then call her,” he suggested.
Jessie did. Lemmon’s receptionist, Amy, picked up right away.
“Hi Amy,” Jessie said casually, not wanting to create stress if none was deserved. “It’s Jessie Hunt. How are you?”
“I’m fine, Jessie. How are you? Everything okay?”
“I’m good,” she lied. “Are you guys wrapping up for the day?”
“Dr. Lemmon has an appointment starting in a few minutes, but that’s the last one today,” Amy told her. “If you need to talk to her, I could you patch you through, but only for a minute or two. Or I could ask her to call you after her final session. She should be done by seven.”
Jessie tried to restrain her impulse to say yes to all of it. Everything was fine. There was no need to dominate Lemmon’s every free second.
“That’s okay,” she said. “I don’t need to talk to her now, but yes, it would be great if you could have her give me a call once she’s done with this last session. I just want to check on something.”
“Of course,” Amy said. “I’ll give her the message.”
They hung up, and Jessie looked over at Grover. He seemed to read her mind.
"Do you want to go over there just to set your mind at ease?" he asked. "You'd need to stay in the car as a precaution, but I could pop into the office and see how everything's going."
“Would you?” she asked.
He nodded.
