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CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
“I think we’re about to get shut down.”
Those were Ryan’s first words to Jessie the second she walked into the bullpen ten minutes later.
“Why do you say that?” she asked, forgoing any pleasantries of her own.
“Valley Bureau has officially charged Vasquez,” he said. “They’re pushing hard to close the case. I told Captain Decker that we’re not on board with that. He wants to meet with us at nine thirty to make our pitch for keeping it open. Other than Valley’s sloppy, stunningly suspicious rush to judgment, I don’t have anything hard to offer. Without something definitive, I think he’s going to defer to them.”
“In that case,” she said, pulling out her phone and scrolling to her note with the initials from the Post-it, “it’s a good thing I found these.”
“What’s that?” he asked, squinting at the letters.
“For your own professional deniability, I can’t tell you where I got it,” she warned. “But this is a list of initials that I think represent people Michaela had private dates with.”
“She did that?”
“I can’t prove it. But there is good reason to think she did and this list was an informal way to track her clients. I’m hoping we can use it to come up with some names.”
Ryan looked at her doubtfully.
“We can go through her data,” he said, patting the file on her desk. “But the chances of narrowing down something credible based solely on a bunch of initials from a source you won’t even share with me are…not great.”
“Which is why we need to get started,” Jessie countered. “We’ve got less than a half hour until nine thirty. Let’s make the most of it.”
Jessie quickly went through most of Michaela’s banking and credit card records and was planning to look at her phone logs next. Across from her, Ryan reviewed the GPS data from her phone. She had come across a few names that matched initials but so far, they’d all turned out to be dead ends.
“Hernandez and Hunt—in my office!” Decker shouted across the bullpen, making Jessie jump out of her seat.
She looked up at the wall clock and saw that thirty minutes had passed in the blink of an eye. As she followed Ryan to Decker’s office, she mentally scrambled, trying to come up with any credible reason for the captain to let them stay on the case. There were several she found compelling but she doubted he’d agree.
“Close the door,” he ordered as she entered.
She did so, and then took a seat beside Ryan.
“So I gave you the day, Hunt,” Decker said, settling into his worn swivel chair. “And it looks like you didn’t catch any murderers in that time. Am I mistaken?”
“Not yet, sir,” she conceded.
“Well, our friends in Valley Bureau believe they have.”
“They’re wrong, sir,” Jessie said forcefully. “I was the one who apprehended Pete Vasquez. I questioned him before anyone else arrived on the scene. He’s not our man.”
“Are you sure about that, Hunt?” he asked pointedly.
“That is my belief, sir.”
“Well, those aren’t exactly the same thing, are they? Unfortunately, the folks at Valley Bureau are confident enough in Vasquez’s guilt that they’re formally charged him with Michaela Penn’s death. He’s being arraigned this afternoon. Unless you have another suspect for me, I’m not sure what can be done.”
“Captain,” Jessie pleaded, “Vasquez is a small-time thief. He has no history of violence and his claim about finding the laptop in an alley dumpster is as credible as any assertion that he got it at her apartment. I looked at the CSU report this morning. None of his DNA or fingerprints was found at her place. Everything about his arrest looks like a cover-up.”
That hung in the air for a second.
“What do you mean, Hunt?” Decker asked, leaning forward.
“Nothing, Captain,” Ryan said quickly. “Jessie’s just spitballing.”
“Is that true, Hunt? Because that’s quite an allegation you just made.”
