As she waited, she looked over the house. It seemed fairly modest atfirst glance. It was modern, with a front-facing façade of alternating metallicand wooden horizontal siding. It appeared to be one story. But Jessie knew fromexperience that expensive homes built on a cliff side, as this one was, oftendropped several stories down into the canyon that served as a back yard. Shedoubted this house was any different.
A porch light came on and Richard Ferro stepped outside with aperplexed look on his face. When he saw it was her behind the wheel, his facesoftened and he waved.
“Come on in,” he called out.
She opened the door and stepped out of the car but stayed beside it.
“I was just waiting for Detective Peters to arrive,” she said.
“Well, don’t wait out here,” he insisted. “What is it, forty-fivedegrees? Come inside and warm up. I’ll make some tea.”
Jessie was inclined to stay outside but worried that refusing his offermight undermine the collegial energy he was giving off. The less on guard hewas, the more likely he’d be to reveal something unexpected.
“Okay,” she said, closing the door and starting toward him.
She was halfway there before she remembered that her gun was resting inits holster on the passenger seat. For a second, she considered going back forit. But if Ferro saw her return to her car to strap a weapon to her waist, itwas sure to amp up his suspicion.
She could tell him that she forgot something and that she’d catch up.But she wouldn’t be surprised if Melissa was secretly watching her approach thehouse from behind a curtain in a darkened room, waiting for a reason to denyJessie entry. She decided to keep walking.
He held the door open for her and she entered, taking in hersurroundings while trying to avoid looking like she was on high alert. Ithelped that the home was amazing, allowing her to gawk while also scanning theplace for anything unusual.
The foyer opened onto a massive living room with floor to ceilingwindows that looked out on the entire L.A. basin in the direction of thePacific Ocean. It was too dark to see the water but in the distance she couldsee the glow emanating from Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier.
“Where’s Mrs. Ferro and the kids?” she asked, stepping down the smallflight of stairs and doing a full spin so that she could take in the ten-chairdining room table under a massive, Chihuly-style chandelier.
“The kids are spending the night at a friend’s house.” he said. Lookingembarrassed, he added, “Melissa might not join us. She said she’d had enough unpleasantnessfor one day.”
“I thought she was okay with me coming by,” Jessie reminded him.
“She was, but then—”
He was interrupted by Jessie’s phone. She glanced down and saw that thecall was from County Supervisor Philip Blake.
“Would you excuse me for a moment?” she asked. “This is about the case.”
“Sure,” he said, stepping away to give her a little privacy. “I’ll makeus that tea.”
She nodded absently as she answered the phone.
“Ms. Hunt?” Blake said when she picked up.
“Yes, thanks so much for getting back to me,” she replied vaguely, notwanting to give Ferro any indication of who she was speaking to.
“I don’t see how I could have not responded,” he said, sounding lessput out than she would have expected. “You left one of the more unusualmessages I’ve gotten lately, and I get some odd ones.”
“I’ll bet,” she replied, glancing over at Ferro, who had gone into thekitchen to turn on an electric water boiler. “So can you help me get some clarityon the issue I mentioned?”
“Sure,” he told her, “but I don’t know that I’ll be of much help. I wassaddened to hear about Mrs. Crewe’s passing, though I don’t think I ever mether while I was there. As to your specific question, I do remember RichardFerro helping me up the stairs. I’d had a few too many adult beverages in thebar.”
“It happens to the best of us,” Jessie said, before lowering her voiceslightly. “I guess it was good that you had a friend to help you out.”
“I suppose, although that might be overstating it. I know Richard alittle because his marketing firm handled the county’s recent push to increaseMetro ridership. I think last night was the first time I ran into him since wehad a progress meeting on strategy few months ago. But it was nice to see theguy.”
“And to have a guide back upstairs,” Jessie prompted, not commenting onthe fact that his description of their relationship varied wildly from Ferro’s.
“I guess,” Blake said. “I wasn’t that drunk, Ms. Hunt. Frankly,I thought he was going to use the moment to pitch me on hiring his firm forsomething new. But he restrained himself, just said his goodbyes and moved on.”
The pot began to boil loudly in the kitchen and Jessie took advantageof the noise to ask her next question.
“He didn’t help you into your room?” she whispered.
As she waited for his answer, a call came in from Ryan. It couldn’thave been worse timing. She sent it straight to voicemail.
“I’m not sure how much my wife would have appreciated that,” he said,chuckling. “She was taking a shower when I got back.”
Jessie couldn’t help but be surprised. Blake’s voice gave no indicationthat he was nervous or hiding anything. He was either an incredible liar or hehad no clue about what Richard Ferro had asserted. The boiler was no longer bubblingso Jessie was as non-specific as possible with her next question.
“Do you recall if the times I mentioned in my message were correct?”
“Ten thirty to ten forty-five? That sounds about right. But it wasn’tnearly that long. I didn’t need fifteen minutes to get to my room,” he said,before adding, “Is there anything I should know here, Ms. Hunt? I like to givelaw enforcement a wide berth and not interfere or ask too many questions.
