“Anything good?”Jessie asked her.
“Unfortunately not,” her partner said, clearly frustrated.“None of the financial data that Jamil and Beth gathered points to an obvious suspect.”
“Same with the social media comments.”Jessie sighed in frustration.“We have all of them now, and nothing worth pursuing jumps out.”
“When is Jason Mannix supposed to be here?”Karen asked.
They’d asked Mannix to come into the station now that he’d had few hours to deal with what happened to his wife.They were still in the process of verifying all the elements of his alibi, but so far, everything he’d said had been confirmed.
Assuming for now that he hadn’t killed his wife, the hope was that since they last spoken with him, he’d have thought of something new that might offer them a fresh lead.Jessie also wanted to know why he’d been unaware of the threatening texts from David Lamb, whose alibi had ultimately borne out.
“He said he’d be here by 6:30,” she said.
“Should we be worried that he’s late,” Karen asked.“You think he’s making a run for the border?”
“Maybe,” Jessie said skeptically, “or he could have just hit bad traffic.I can call him to check in.”
“Detective Bray, Ms.Hunt,” someone called out from the entry to the bullpen.They both looked over to see that it was Officer Harper Devery.Devery was the rookie officer who so desperately wanted to join HSS.
He’d helped out in a supporting capacity on a few cases and in one recent instance, he’d actually joined her when she caught a killer, proving himself to be calm in what was a tense situation.Despite that, she still had trouble moving past his boyish demeanor, which was exacerbated by his brown hair, trimmed close and parted neatly to the right.It almost looked like his mom had brushed it for him.
“What’s up Devery?”Karen asked.
“There’s a Jason Mannix waiting for you at the front desk.He said you asked him to come in to answer some more questions.”
It was clear from his eager expression that Devery would have loved to be in on that questioning.But as much as Jessie would like to let him join them and get some experience questioning witnesses, she wanted their interview to have more of a conversational vibe.Having a uniformed officer in the room, even if he was completely quiet, was a potential stressor.
“Thanks,” she said.“Can you please escort him to interrogation room three?We’ll meet him there.”
Obviously disappointed, Devery nodded and disappeared.Of the multiple interrogation rooms at Central Station, three was the least antiseptic and offered the best chance to put Mannix at ease.
“Do you want to go hard at him or use kid gloves?”Karen asked.
“I think we ease into it,” Jessie said.“We can always amp it up if need be.”
When they arrived at the room, Mannix was already inside and Officer Devery was standing at the door.
“Thanks Devery,” Karen said, patting him on the shoulder.“We’ve got it from here.”
“You sure you don’t want me to stay?”he asked hopefully.“Just in case?”
“We appreciate the offer,” Jessie said, “but we’re good.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, before shuffling off like a puppy that had been told his owners couldn’t play with him right now.
Jessie wondered how much was actual dejection and how much was for show to make them feel guilty.Either way, he was out of luck this time.Karen opened the interrogation room door and they stepped inside.
The room wasn’t exactly homey, but since it was intended more for witness interviews than suspect interrogations, it was a little less intimidating than the other rooms.The overhead lights were still fluorescent but less intense than in the others.The folding chairs had a bit of cushioning and weren’t bolted to the ground.The table wasn’t bolted down either.And unlike in the other rooms, which had metal tables with slots and hooks for handcuffed and manacled suspects, this one was wooden and could almost pass for a breakfast room table.
Jason Mannix was seated opposite the two-way mirror, so that the camera recording everything had a clear shot of his face.It, like the rest of him, looked better than during their first meeting.He appeared to have showered and shaved since this morning.He was in fresh clothes: jeans and a casual, muted-blue, short-sleeved shirt.His short brown hair had been brushed and his eyes were still a little red but not as puffy as before.He seemed to be all cried out for now.
All cleaned up, he was even more handsome than before.There was something else too.Jessie couldn’t quite define it, but the guy exuded a charismatic energy that seemed to almost vibrate off him.
“Thanks for coming in,” Karen said as she and Jessie both took seats opposite him, making sure not to block the hidden camera’s view.“How are you doing?”
He shook his head slowly.
“To be honest, I’m still having trouble accepting that this is real,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.“Because I travel so much, Lauren and I were apart a lot.I’m used to not having her with me all the time.I think it will take a few days of being around the empty house for me to really process everything.Of course, that can’t start until they let me go back.”
