“Shall we talk to Mannix?”she said, giving up.
“Let’s do it,” he replied, again with more fervor than she thought advisable.
They opened the door to find Jason Mannix sitting at the table, waiting for them with an anxious grimace on his face.Unlike interrogation room three, the table in here was metal, not wood, and the lighting was harsher by design.
But even that couldn’t diminish the man’s stunning good looks.Other than his tired red eyes, he looked like he could pose for a men’s magazine right now.His casual pink button-down shirt and distressed blue jeans hung off him perfectly.
“Thanks for coming in, Mr.Mannix,” Jessie said, trying to take control of the interview before Webb injected himself into the questioning.
“I got the impression from that cop that I didn’t have much choice,” he said with a half-hearted smile.
“Oh,” she said, waving her hand casually.“That’s just Officer Devery’s manner.Don’t read too much into it.”
“Who’s this gentleman?”Mannix asked.
Jessie introduced Webb.
“Where’s Detective Bray?”
"She's been reassigned," Webb said.That wasn't technically true, but Jessie decided not to contradict him."The CBI is running point on this now."
“Why?”Mannix asked.“What changed?”
“I’ll ask the questions,” Webb said curtly.
At that, Mannix sat up straighter in the chair.His tentative smile faded, and his tired eyes became instantly more alert.
"Well, I don't love the sound of that," he said."Is this the sort of thing I need a lawyer for?"
Jessie's heart sank.This was exactly the kind of pissing contest she'd hoped to avoid.She wanted to get to the bottom of Mannix's true relationship status with both victims, and putting him on his heels right away didn't feel like the most constructive way to get those answers. She tried to smooth things over.
“Special Agent Webb is just anxious to find out what happened to Lauren, as we all are,” she said quickly, “which is why he’s so direct.We certainly understand that you’re in mourning, Mr.Mannix.But I have to say, there were a few discrepancies in your version of events that had me perplexed.I’d like to clear them up.”
She fought the urge to glance over at Webb and give him a pleading look to let her try this tactic before he went all “bad cop.”
“So would I,” Mannix said.“It’s just that the energy in the room right now is pretty aggressive.Still, you know that I want to do whatever I can to get justice for Lauren, Ms.Hunt.”
His tremulous voice and almost prayerful eyes would have melted her resolve yesterday.But she managed to steel herself to his charismatic woundedness and proceeded.
“You said that you spent the night at your friend’s place the night that Lauren was killed.I believe his name is Hank?”
“That’s right, Hank Cronin,” he told her.
She nodded as if that was a perfectly fine answer.
“It’s just weird, because we’ve tried to reach out to Hank multiple times and our calls keep going straight to voicemail.You’d think the man would return a call from the police, you know?”
Mannix’s expression went from startled to concerned to understanding in the space of about two seconds.
“I think I may know what happened,” he said.“Hank mentioned that he was leaving on a business trip to China.I thought he said he was leavingnextWednesday.But now that I think about it, he might have meant yesterday.If that’s the case, then he might still be in the air or not have set up his phone eSIM over there yet.”
Jessie could feel Webb about to jump in and catch the man in his lie.But if she wanted to unsettle Mannix into making a mistake that could actually prove productive, she didn’t have much time.
“Maybe.We’ll check on that again,” she said quickly, deciding now was the time to throw out the red meat and see how he reacted.“In the meantime, I was hoping you could clear something up for me.”
“Of course,” he said, his smile like a tractor beam she had to remind herself not to get pulled in by.
“Thanks.So, other than Lauren Mitchell and Sarah Winters, how many other fake wives do you have?”
