“You used to be married to a man named Jason Mannix, correct?”
She watched Sullivan’s face closely as she posed the question.Resentment immediately filled the woman’s eyes.
“That’s one way of putting it,” she snarled.“Another is that I was involved with a rat bastard who had barely said his vows to me before he started cheating.Why are you asking about Jason?”
‘We’ll get to that,” Jessie said, sensing that beside her, Webb was getting anxious to jump in.She hoped he could contain himself a bit longer.“But first, when was the last time you saw him?’
Rebecca sighed heavily, as if trying to retrieve the memory was a burden.
“Not since the annulment,” she said, “so maybe nine or ten years ago?”
“And you’re sure you’ve had no interaction with him since then?You never ran into him at a movie theater or a farmers’ market?”
Sullivan shook her head.
“To be honest, one of the reasons I moved this far north of the city was because Jason always talked about loving the energy of the downtown area of L.A.I figured if I lived up here, I was never in danger of running into him.”
“It’s clear that you’re not a fan,” Jessie said, poking to see how the woman would react.
Sullivan snorted at the question.“Maybe I wasn’t clear before but he was nailing other women before the ink was dry on our marriage license.Let me askyoua question: is he dead?Because if he is, I can’t really fake giving a crap.”
“He’s not dead,” Jessie said, “but multiple women he was involved with in recent years are.”
She took note of Sullivan’s shocked expression.
“Did he kill them?”she asked in a hushed voice.
“We don’t know,” Webb said, finally unable to stay quiet.“He’s in custody right now as a precaution.It could be him or it could be someone who’s violently jealous of him or the women in his life.”
Jessie flinched slightly at hearing that.She hadn’t been ready to bring up Sullivan’s history of violent incidents yet, but now there was no choice.
“I’m guessing you’re referring to the restraining order he had put on me?”Sullivan asked disdainfully.“Come on, that was a decade ago.I had one bad stretch after my life fell apart, all at his hands.I’ve never had a run-in with the law since.You can check my records.My only hiccup in 33 years on this planet was exclusively Jason-related.He had an… effect on me.”
“Yes,” Jessie said knowingly.“I’m well aware of the effect.”
Sullivan smiled bitterly at that.
“I’m not surprised that he’d focus his charm on you,” she said.“You look like his type.”
Jessie didn’t know what to make of that.Yes, she had brown hair and a trim figure, but there had to be more to it than that for Mannix to fake marry someone.Before she could address that, Sullivan continued.
“Anyway, once I got away from him, my life turned around.I got my job at the hospital.I met and married a wonderful man.We have a beautiful daughter.Honestly, I haven’t thought about Jason in forever.”
“You didn’t see or hear anything about him on the news today?”Webb asked skeptically.
“I’ve been at work this whole time,” she said.“And I never listen to the news on the way home.I prefer podcasts—true crime ones, ironically.”
“So, you were at the hospital all day today?”Jessie asked, using this as an opportunity to test the woman’s alibi.
“Yes, at the West Valley Care Center in Chatsworth.”
“Can anyone verify that?”Webb wanted to know.
“The people I work with can,” she said, mildly offended.“I can give you the name of my assistant, of my deputy, of the board members I met with and the doctors I consulted.There were a lot of them.”
“That’s great,” Jessie said, though it wasn’t.If all that bore out, their best lead was about to evaporate.“Are you also willing to let us review the GPS data from your phone and vehicle for the last several days?”
“If that clears all this up faster, then sure,” she said.“But first, I’d probably insist that you move that black tank off my lawn.”
