“And you developed a romantic relationship?” Sam pressed.
“At some point during all of that, we fell in love,” Williamson said. “I think I did a solid job with her friend, which endeared me to her. And I was smitten. At first it was because of her beauty, I’ll admit. But over time, it was other things. She was so kind and gentle with her friend, and so devoted too. She was like a pit bull when she thought the aftercare wasn’t meeting her standards. But she never tried to bigfoot anyone. She never mentioned being this well-known model. She was so self-effacing, even awkward. You’d never know it by looking at how confident she seemed in her photos, but when the camera wasn’t clicking, she was goofy and clumsy. It was incredibly endearing.”
He paused and swallowed hard, struggling to maintain control of his emotions.
“Did she ever get any threats related to her modeling?” Jessie asked, moving on quickly to keep him from losing it.
“Not really,” he said. “Shedidget some borderline stalker-ish fan mail, but it was never overtly threatening and it always went to her modeling agency, not directly to her. I had a privatedetective check out the senders and the messages were all from guys back in Eastern Europe. None of them had ever been to the U.S. and none had criminal records.”
“This doesn’t seem connected to that,” Jessie said. “Still, we may want to talk to your investigator. And we would love that GPS data you offered to give us from your phone and from your vehicle as well. It could help us nail down a more accurate timeline.”
She didn’t mention that it might also help nail down his alibi.
“Not a problem,” he said.
“We will likely have more questions for you,” Jessie said, “but for now, we’re going to leave you in the good hands of Sergeant Delco. Please follow his instructions. That will help us immensely.”
Williamson nodded vaguely as they left the room. Once in the hallway, Sam pulled out his buzzing phone.
“Just heard from the unit watching Richard Paulson,” he said. “The man hasn’t left his apartment since we were there.”
Jessie nodded as they headed for the stairs. She was already skeptical of his involvement the moment she heard that he wasn’t the Williamson’s attorney. But eliminating him as a suspect didn’t improve the situation. They were still at a loss.
As they descended the stairs, Jessie caught sight of the dining room in the distance. Unlike the other two they’d seen today, it was pristine. It was a break in the pattern, but maybe not a huge one. All the victims were still found at tables where families gathered for meals. In the first two instances, the green cards were left on plates. That would have likely been the case with Ana too, had Marcus Williamson not come home early.
Jessie wondered if the killer was trying to make some kind of statement by that placement. Family meals were traditionally considered a time of warmth and comfort. Was the murderer trying to say something about that by disruptingthat environment so violently? By wrecking a mainstay of happy homes, were they trying to comment on these women? Maybe suggesting that they were, in some way, homewreckers?
Increasingly, she got the sense that as political as these killings seemed to be on the surface, that might not be their primary intent. The intimate nature of the killings, the use of blunt scissors, the plates, the green cards lying there.
Somehow it all felt…personal.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“What?” Jessie asked vaguely.
“I was asking if you wanted another coffee,” Sam said. “But I think your reaction gave me my answer.”
“Yes please,” she said sheepishly.
Sam got up from his bullpen desk, leaving Jessie alone with her thoughts. She glanced at the clock. It was 7:39 A.M. She’d been at the station for over an hour without much to show for it.
When she’d left the house at 6:15 this morning, Ryan was still asleep. She knew from the gentle snoring in the other bedroom that Kat was zonked out too. That was fine. She wasn’t in the mood to answer questions about a case that currently had three victims and no credible suspects.
By the time she got to the station, she found that Sam was already here, as were both Jamil and Beth. Jamil was running some kind of database search that he wasn’t yet ready to discuss. Beth had analyzed the phone and vehicle data from Dr. Williamson, which so far reinforced the timeline he’d given them and offered no evidence that he was anything other than a grieving widower. Sam had spoken to the Williamson’s private investigator and gotten info on the three wannabe European stalkers so he could do his own follow-up.
That left Jessie to mostly twiddle her thumbs as she circled her theory that these killings might be more personal than political. Of course, that meant they had to find someone with personal connections to all three women, something they were missing so far. She decided to check in on the research gang. Sam would eventually figure out where she went and bring her coffee there.
When she entered the research department, she could immediately tell that Jamil was excited about something. Hewas doing that thing where his right foot bounced rapidly without him even being aware of it.
“What have you got, Jamil?” she asked, startling him.
He half-jumped out of his chair but hadn’t even resettled before he started talking.
“Getting Anastasia Williamson as a victim gave us a whole new data set,” he explained. “As unfortunate as her death was, it offered unexplored potential sources of connection among the women.”
“And did you find any?” she asked.
“Possibly,” he said, though his tone suggested he felt more strongly than that. “Since they lived in three distinct parts of the city, there isn’t a lot of overlap in terms of places they frequented, clubs they’d joined—that sort of thing. Since they were all different ethnicities, we didn’t focus on clubs or organizations that emphasized that kind of thing. But I did find one group they were all involved with. It’s called IILA, or Integration & Immersion Los Angeles. It’s a non-profit that does exactly what it sounds like. They help foreign-born residents become more assimilated into the community, so they don’t feel like such outsiders. It doesn’t cater to any particular ethnicity, though it does emphasize assisting women. Two of the three victims—Tanaka and Williamson—were on the executive board, and Cain was a member as well.”
