“What is it?” she asked, looking up.
She knew before he said a word. A fifty-something man with a potbellyand a shock of white hair was marching toward them. He was wearing a Sheriff’s Departmentcaptain’s uniform and a scowl.
“Let me do the talking,” Peters muttered under his breath.
Jessie wanted to mutter back that he should know better than to expecther to hold her tongue but the older man was on them before she could.
“Captain,” Peters said with forced enthusiasm, “it’s good to see you. I’dlike to introduce you to Jessie Hunt. She’s the profiling consultant on loanfrom LAPD. Ms. Hunt, this is Captain Ted Hawley, Avalon Station.”
“Nice to meet you, Captain,” Jessie said, using her best professionalvoice.
She was taller than him so he had to look up at her, but not beforeletting his eyes do an extended examination of the rest of her. Her urge to beprofessional was suddenly gone.
“Honored to have you with us, Ms. Hunt,” he said with unvarnishedinsincerity before turning his attention to Peters. “My phone has been ringingoff the hook with irate calls from mainland lawyers, demanding that theirclients be allowed to leave the island. Others have said we’re not to questionthose clients without them present. Some of these lawyers have names you wouldknow. This isn’t what I wanted today.”
“No sir,” Peters said amicably. “I can assure you that the vastmajority of guests will be able to leave on the nine a.m. ferry. Deputy Heck isinforming them now.”
“The vast majority?” Hawley balked.
“Captain,” Peters replied softly, trying to keep the temperature down. “Afew guests were pretty toasted last night. We wanted to give them anopportunity to clean up their statements this morning, to avoid any messinessdown the road. That might take us past the first ferry. But I’m confident that wecan get them out before noon as well, barring something unforeseen.”
“What might be unforeseen?” the captain demanded.
Jessie bit her lip so as to not reply with “that’s why it’s calledunforeseen.” Glancing over at Peters, she saw that he was struggling and didn’twant to make his job any harder. Now she understood why he was so malleablewith island visitors. It came from the top.
“As you know,” Peters answered, “a woman was murdered last night, aguest at this hotel. As much as we want to avoid alienating our other guests, Iknow you don’t want Avalon to be seen as an unsafe place or one where a victim’sdeath is swept under the rug.”
“Is that what you’re suggesting I’m doing?” Hawley blustered.
“No sir,” Peters said hurriedly, “of course not. I just think thathandling this diplomatically but with professionalism and empathy might allowus to come out of the situation all right. We don’t need the folks atheadquarters coming out and bigfooting us. We don’t need oversight.”
That seemed to make Hawley reconsider. Peters saw it too and keptgoing.
“Employing a single profiler from a coordinating law enforcement agencyleaves a light footprint and may help everyone get out unscathed. Andtruthfully, a few angry attorneys squawking from over twenty miles across theocean isn’t the end of the world. By the time they decide to really dosomething, we’ll be letting everyone go anyway. Just give us a little more time,Captain.”
Hawley, who seemed to be softening slightly, turned to Jessie. “Whatabout these interrogations without representation? I hear you’re big on them.”
“Absolutely not, Captain,” she assured him. “No one we’ve questionedhas been treated as a suspect. We’re just interviewing witnesses, trying tocreate a timeline of events while they’re still fresh in people’s minds. Ofcourse, I’m just a civilian consultant. As such, I’m not officially lawenforcement, so I’m not formally bound by those rules. But I take your point.Should someone’s status change from witness to suspect, Detective Peters wouldof course follow proper procedure when it comes to Miranda and all othermatters.”
Hawley stared at her hard. She couldn’t tell if he sensed that she wasmassaging the truth or if he was always this agitated-looking. Finally, heresponded.
“It’s seven fourteen a.m. right now. I want to be able to tell thesepeople’s attorneys that they’ll be leaving on the twelve twenty ferry. Thatgives you five hours. After that, I pull the plug. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Peters said.
“I hear you, Captain,” Jessie added, technically agreeing to nothing.
Hawley nodded brusquely, spun around, and dashed out before any hotelguests could accost him.
“That was pretty solid, Peters,” Jessie said admiringly. “I thought Icould see your spine growing before my very eyes.”
“Shut up,” he replied, though not with any real pique. “So I guess nowwe have to decide who to go at first.”
She was wondering the same thing herself, though she had some primecandidates. Just then, her phone buzzed. It was her daily reminder to take hermultivitamin. Considering that it was in the pillbox on her kitchen counterthat would be hard. As she silenced it, she noticed that she’d missed a textfrom Ryan, sent at 6:45.
It read: Good morning, hope your case is going well. Leaving for thestation to research mine. Hannah still asleep. I have the over/under for her wakingup at noon. Keep me posted. I love you.
She was about to reply when a call came in. There was no name attachedto the number but it looked vaguely familiar. She picked up.
“This is Jessie Hunt.”
“Hello, Ms. Hunt. I’m returning your call. It’s Ariana Aldridge.”
Jessie reminded herself not to let her excitement seep into her voicewhen she replied.
“Mrs. Aldridge,” she said as if discussing the weather, putting thecall on speaker so Peters could hear too. “I’ve been trying to get hold of you.Thanks for getting back to me.”
“What can I do for you?” Aldridge replied, cutting to the chase.
“Right. Well, I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”
Aldridge cut her off.
“I know—Gabby Crewe is dead.”
Peters turned to her, his eyes wide, and mouthed the words Is sheconfessing?
She decided to find out.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Jessie phrased her response carefully.
“How do you know?” she asked simply, though she wanted to saymuch more.
“I was checking voicemail this morning and got one from Theo. He toldme.”
It was a good thing Ariana Aldridge wasn’t able to see her face becauseJessie couldn’t hide
