THE PERFECT IMAGE by Blake Pierce

Author:Blake Pierce [Pierce, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-09-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

She had to admit she was impressed.

As Jessie stared at Vince Hutchence through the one-way mirror of the SMPD interrogation room, she marveled that the guy was even sitting upright.

After cuffing the dazed trainer and tossing him in the back of the car, she and Ryan thought they might have to make a pit stop at the hospital. Jessie was even looking forward to it, on the off chance she could stop in to see Callum Reid.

But the mountain of a man recovered enough that it was clear no stopover was needed. In fact, it had taken three good-sized officers to drag him into the room where he sat now, handcuffed to a table that was bolted to the floor, looking far less like a puppy dog than before. His expression was surly and his eyes were flinty.

“You ready?” Ryan asked from beside her.

“What I’m ready for is a good bath,” she said. “My hip is killing me.”

She didn’t mention that she was also so tired that she thought she might keel over then and there.

“Maybe we should have stopped at the hospital to get you checked out, Evel Knievel. I don’t know what you were thinking.”

“I clearly wasn’t,” she admitted. “I’ll be fine once the ibuprofen kicks in. Let’s see if we’ve got our guy, shall we?”

They walked into the room and, as she had while waiting in the observation room, Jessie stood in quiet wonder at the modern touches the Santa Monica police station had that Central Station did not. The technology in both was state of the art. Most of the stuff they used downtown was approaching a decade old. Here, the interrogation room was soundproofed, with hidden microphones intended to make suspects forget they were being recorded. The multiple cameras were built into the walls for the same reason. At Central Station they were lucky if all their recording equipment worked.

“Hello, Mr. Hutchence,” Ryan said. Jessie knew he was addressing the guy formally to remind him in one more subtle way that he wasn’t in charge. No one would be fawning over his good looks and physique here. “So I read you your rights back in the vehicle. I know you weren’t at the top of your game then, what with your run-in with the car door. Are you willing to talk to us now?”

Though Ryan had Mirandized Hutchence in the car, they hadn’t tried to question him then. He was angry and volatile and they didn’t want him invoking his right to an attorney, so they’d held off until he was a little calmer.

“I don’t even know why I’m in here,” he said belligerently. Jessie considered the fact that he was speaking at all to be a good sign. She decided to take advantage of it.

“Do you know Gillian Fahey or Siobhan Pierson?” she asked as if she was merely curious about the weather. His face softened slightly at the names.

“Yes. They were both clients of mine. It was awful what happened to them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.