Page 27

Jessie didn’t love this place.

But after managing to avoid it up until now, she was finally in the local Sheriff’s station. It only made sense to take Mark Dawson here to get his formal statement. So even though she felt out of her element, she didn’t put up a fight when Riddell insisted they come here.

Dawson had just put the finishing touches on his statement. It was essentially the same as what he'd told them on the beach, just with more detail. There was one new addition, however—his alibi.

When they were at the beach, Dawson had told them that he’d be fine if the killer of the yacht club bros was never found. At that moment, he shined a light on his own potential as a suspect in the murders.

The idea had already occurred to her, but his words put it front and center. She didn’t mention it at the time partly because she was nearly certain their killer was the female in the yacht club security video, but primarily because she didn’t want to say anything that might make Dawson reconsider coming in and coming clean.

To her surprise, Riddell had managed to exercise some restraint as well and held off on immediately peppering the young man with questions about his whereabouts the last two nights. It turned out to be a good decision. After they'd addressed everything else with Dawson, Jessie broached the subject as casually as possible.

"Last night I was working my shift at the restaurant until 11 p.m.," he said in answer to the question, happy to offer proof that he wasn't their killer. "The night before that, I was at a bar with some friends, watching the L.A. Kings hockey game. I got home after midnight."

Both alibis were easily verifiable, and Dawson quickly began sharing the contact information for the folks who could do so. He was a few minutes into it when a Sheriff’s deputy poked her head in.

“Ms. Hunt,” she said quietly, “you have a call from your captain. She says she’s been trying to reach you. It sounds urgent.”

“Can you finish this up while I take that call?” Jessie asked Riddell.

He nodded, and she stepped out. She'd put her phone on silent so as not to distract Dawson from his description of events. Captain Parker must have called then. The deputy led her to the phone, and Jessie picked up.

"Hi, Captain," she said. "What's wrong?"

“Hunt,” Parker replied. “I heard through the grapevine that you have a suspect in custody. Is that correct?”

"No," Jessie said, startled at the suggestion. "I don't know where you got that, but it's not accurate."

“A friend of mine at that station told me that you’ve had a man in interrogation for nearly an hour,” Parker said.

"That's true," Jessie said, "but he's not a suspect. In fact, he just provided us with his alibi for both nights. He actually gave us information that widens the pool of potential suspects. Apparently, these victims and their friends aren't just individually awful. They have an alleged history of possibly drugging and assaulting multiple women at parties on their boats."

“That’s not great news, Hunt,” Parker said, sounding deflated. “I don’t know how closely you’ve been paying attention to the media of late.”

“Not at all in the last few hours,” Jessie conceded.

“Well the press recently made the connection between our two victims—that they’re both members of this yacht club. The late local news has started reporting on it. There are vans from several stations camped out there now. This thing is about to turn into a circus.”

“I hadn’t heard any of that,” Jessie said.

“Well, in light of what you just told me, as unpleasant as it may be, I think it’s time we put the remaining members of this boys’ club under police protection, don’t you?”

"I do," Jessie agreed. "But I'm hoping we can do more than that. Now that we have allegations of possible criminal activity on their part, I think that we can insist that they come in for interviews. If they refuse, we have grounds to arrest them. I know that might ruffle some feathers, but I think we're past worrying about that at this point. Then they're safe in police custody, and maybe we can finally get some answers."

“You want to arrest the potential targets of a serial killer?” Parker said, sounding equal parts troubled and intrigued.

“Yes, Captain,” Jessie said. “It’s for their own good, after all. And if we turn the screws on them a little about these claims of impropriety, maybe they’ll provide the names of women who might want to come after them.”

“But that would mean implicating themselves in crimes,” Parker countered. “Do you really think they would do that, no matter how scared they are?”

“Probably not,” Jessie conceded, “especially with their attorneys there too. But maybe there’s a middle ground. They could still assert that all these encounters were consensual while giving the names of women who might have ‘misinterpreted’ the encounters. We could frame it that way to get their buy-in. Then hopefully, once we catch this person, we can circle back around and see about charging these guys with what has been alleged.”

Parker was quiet for a moment.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll read in Chief Decker, and he’ll get the Sheriff on board. But as distasteful as it is, right now I want to you to keep your eye on the prize: catching a murderer before they take out another victim. That’s why we have to get these guys off the street ASAP. The last thing we need is one of them to get killed when it was preventable.”

“I understand, Captain,” Jessie said. “And maybe now that we have a witness, we’ll have more luck.”

“From your lips,” Parker said.

“Right, Jessie agreed. “And please let me know as soon as we can start sending out those arrest warrants. The sooner that happens, the sooner we can keep these guys safe and finally start to get our arms around who might be behind this.”

“I’ll keep you posted,” Parker said, then hung up without another word.

Jessie turned around to find Riddell walking her way.

“I had a deputy take over getting the contact names for Dawson’s alibi,” he said. “I figured that whatever was going on out here would be more interesting.”

Jessie wasn’t sure where to start. Should she tell him about the media frenzy that was already starting to occur? About Captain Parker’s insistence that they put the yacht club bros under protection? Or about her plan to kill two birds with one stone by arresting the men to keep them safe while interrogating them about the misdeeds that may have led to someone hunting them down? Before she picked any option, a deputy called out to Riddell from a nearby desk.

“A call just came in,” he said. “Some guy on a yacht in the bay said he just saw someone kill another guy.”

Jessie and Riddell exchanged looks. Even without having the details, she knew he was thinking the same thing as her. They were too late. Another yacht club bro had been murdered.