“Threats?”he snorted.“If you mean calling her out as the cheating snake she is, then I guess that’s what we’re calling threats these days.”
“How is she a cheating snake?”Jessie asked, not yet interested in arguing about what constituted a threat.
“Oh, you know, little stuff,” he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.“Like taking the full commission on a sale for a house that we represented together.Or convincing a client to switch from me to her by spreading rumors about me.”
“That must have really upset you,” Jessie prodded.For now, she wasn’t concerned whether his allegations had merit.Her priority was what he did about them.
“You better believe it,” he said heatedly.“Why do you think I’m relegated to this dump?I assure you it’s not by choice.After starting a firm together and teaming up on nearly two-dozen sales, she basically got me blackballed from Griffin-Malone.All because she didn’t want someone around reminding her of her pre-celebrity days.So yeah, I was pissed.Wouldn’t you be?”
Karen answered his question with one of her own as she looked down at her phone.“Is that why you texted her that:Someone should put you in your place?Or that:one of these days, karma is going to get you.Or maybe someone will expedite it.Payback is a bitch, just like you.”
He looked unbowed.“First of all, someoneshouldput her in her place.She’s gotten a little too big for her britches, in my opinion.And that second text was after I found out that she’d swiped my one remaining big fish.I was prepping to put a house on the market with a starting price of $3.2 million.The commission on that alone would have sustained me through the rest of the year.But Lauren wanted it, so of course, Lauren got it.So, excuse me if I’m a little hot under the collar.Typical of her to call the cops on someone for an angry text or two.”
Jessie decided now was the time to throw him off guard and see how he reacted.
“Lauren’s dead.”
She watched closely as Lamb processed her words.At first, he didn’t seem to have heard her, cocking his head in apparent disbelief.Then his jaw dropped.It took a couple of seconds to say anything.
“What did you say?”he asked.
“Lauren’s dead,” she repeated.“She was murdered.That’s what we’re investigating, not just some ‘angry texts.’So, we thought we’d give you the opportunity to explain yourself, Mr.Lamb.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” he said, stumbling back against his wall.“You can’t think I did it.”
“That’s why we’re here,” Karen told him.“To find out.Now’s your chance to disavow us of that notion.”
Lamb seemed on the verge of hyperventilating and forced himself to take slow, deep breaths.Jessie thought he was putting on a convincing show of being truly shocked by the news.But she knew from experience that someone capable of murdering a person was often capable of feigning innocence too.
“Look, I admit that I was pissed at Lauren,” he said.“She screwed me over multiple times.But I would never hurt her.We’ve known each other for a decade.We were like brother and sister—sometimes at each other’s throats but still connected.I was actually hoping that me being so harsh in those texts would lead her to apologize and we could get back on solid ground again.”
“You thought that saying payback is a bitch, just like her was going to lead to contrition?”Jessie asked in disbelief.
“It sounds stupid when you put it that way, but yeah, I did,” he said, seeming to belatedly comprehend how clueless that sounded.At the realization, he asked weakly, “am I under arrest or something?”
“Not yet,” Karen told him.“If you didn’t kill Lauren, the best thing you can do is give us all the information we need: access to your phone and GPS data, along with verification of where you were last night.”
“Last night?That’s when she was killed?”
“Please answer the question, Mr.Lamb,” Karen instructed.
“Okay, um, last night?”He looked to be searching his memory.“Oh, right.I was showing a few places to a guy who just moved here from Phoenix.He’s renting right now.We visited three houses from about 5 to 6:30.Then I ordered some Thai food, which I picked up on the way home.After that, I spent the evening in.”
“Doing what?”Jessie pressed.
“I watched a few episodes of a show on Netflix.Then I went to bed, maybe around 11.”
“Was anyone with you?”Karen asked.
“No,” he admitted, his shoulders slumping.
“Did you interact with anyone at all once you got home?”
He shook his head sadly, but then his face suddenly brightened.
“Wait, yes.I live in an apartment complex with a garden courtyard.The guy across the way was blasting some music.After a while, it got super-annoying, so I went over to tell him to turn it down.”
“Did he?”Jessie asked.
