Page 28 of The Perfect Deception (Jessie Hunt #40)

Ryan was wrong.

Jessie made sure not to betray an "I told you so" face, but she definitely felt the urge.

It was three hours later, and they still hadn't found Tommy Golden.

It wasn't for a lack of trying. After returning to Central Station, she and Ryan, along with the research team, had pored over every resource at their disposal.

Prager was there too, although she was currently sleeping in the break room.

A unit was sent to Golden's apartment moments after the guy peeled out of the Pinnacle parking lot. But there was no sign of him. The unit sat in place for hours, but Golden didn't show up.

Then, just in the last hour, officers had located Golden's car, abandoned in a parking garage at the eastern edge of downtown, not far from Olvera Street, a popular, open air, pedestrian-only street market.

Jamil checked all the nearby traffic cameras and was able to track him briefly.

But once he entered the market, he disappeared in a sea of Friday morning visitors.

Jamil had activated the facial recognition program, but that had come up empty, too.

“It would have been easy for him to steal a hat from a vendor and then keep out of sight,” Hannah noted from her little corner of research. “Whether he’s a killer or not, your guy has clearly had issues with authorities before and knows how to keep a low profile.”

It was a valid point, borne out not only by the fact that they had found no images of him since Olvera Street, but also that they had yet to uncover any of him using Jamil’s national facial recognition search.

The whole team was frustrated, but that didn’t stop everyone from turning over every rock.

Ryan was calling other personal training clients, trying to learn more about the guy.

Jamil was reviewing the Olvera Street footage again in the hopes of locating Golden, “Where’s Waldo” style.

Beth was studying “Tommy’s” online activity, hoping for clues as to his whereabouts.

And Hannah was focused on his recent purchases, looking for some kind of smoking gun that could lead to his location.

Watching her sister, lost in concentration as her fingers flew across the keyboard, Jessie was filled with pride, along with a little guilt.

She’d been back in L.A. for almost 48 hours now, but because of this case, the two of them still hadn’t had a real chance to catch up.

She wanted to know how Hannah was really doing after these difficult few months, especially in light of the attack on Finn and not having her sister around at all.

A call on her cell phone snapped her back into the moment. When she saw who it was, she couldn’t help but wonder if someone had installed a device in her brain that read her thoughts.

“I’ve got to take this.” She stood up and started for the door. “I’ll be right back.”

Only on the fourth ring, when she was halfway down the hallway and out of earshot of research, did she pick up.

“Hold on a moment,” she whispered to the caller. “I just need to find a private spot.”

She located an unoccupied conference room, closed and locked the door, and lowered the blinds.

“Hey Murph, what’s up?”

Murph was U.S. Marshal Patrick “Murph” Murphy.

Jessie knew him well. Twice he’d put her in safe houses when she was being stalked by serial killers, one of whom was her own father.

After a testy start to their relationship, they’d eventually become friends.

Jessie had even invited the man to her wedding to Ryan.

That’s why she reached out to him for help with the assignment he was almost certainly calling about.

“What’s up with you?” Murph countered. “I know you said I should call once you returned to town this week, but I wanted to give you a little time to get over the jetlag. Then I turn on my TV and see you on the morning news working a case. I guess you decided to jump in with both feet.”

“It wasn’t my choice,” she assured him. “And considering that I’ve been investigating these murders close to thirty-six hours straight, I’m mostly dead on those feet right now.”

“I can call back later.”

“No. I’ve been wanting an update. Now’s as good a time as any.” Even though the door was locked and the blinds were down, Jessie still lowered her voice. “How’s Finn Anderton doing?”

She needed to keep quiet so no one, especially Hannah, uncovered the truth.

Jessie wasn’t proud of her deception, but it was the only way to keep Finn, and therefore Hannah, safe.

Though her sister knew that Jessie had arranged for Finn’s 24-hour protection while at the hospital, she wasn’t aware that Jessie had done a lot more than that.

She was the one who had arranged for Finn to be stealthily removed from the hospital, making sure it happened when Hannah was napping downstairs in the cafeteria.

She called in the favor from Murph and his team of Marshals, advising them on the timing of the removal, on what they should tell hospital personnel and the security guard on duty, and how to leave the facility without being spotted.

She had also advised them to wipe the security footage from their visit, knowing that Hannah would immediately look at it to check on Finn’s status. Jessie was the reason that Hannah found what she called an information “black hole” when she researched how Finn left the hospital and where he went.

She asked Murph to convince the Anderton family to go along with the “hospice” cover story—even when speaking with Hannah—but instead take him to a Marshal-approved safe house, with a full-time nurse and private security from a firm that Jessie had used in the past. She paid for the whole thing.

It had worked. The general public—and hopefully whoever stabbed Finn—was led to believe that he was at death’s door, slowly withering away in a private hospice.

That way, the attempted killer wouldn’t feel the need to go after Finn, worried that he might be able to identify them.

And since Hannah wasn’t regularly at Finn’s bedside—and didn’t even know where it was—she was no longer a potential inadvertent target.

Unfortunately, to make the hospice transfer story believable, Hannah had to buy it too.

And that meant making her think someone she cared about was near-death, and that she wouldn’t ever be able to say goodbye to him while he was alive.

Jessie felt terrible about it, but she knew it was too big a risk to tell the truth.

Hannah would insist on seeing Finn, and if the killer was watching her, it could put both of them at risk.

There was another plus to keeping her sister in the dark, other than protecting her physically. Until Finn was moved, Hannah had spent all her free time with him at the hospital. Her studies were suffering, and according to Ryan, so was her mental health.

Removing Finn from her presence, even under false pretenses, allowed her a chance to reset, to breathe a little.

It had apparently worked, as her grades rebounded for the last few weeks of the spring quarter and she seemed more upbeat.

Jessie felt bad for “forcing” Hannah’s recovery. But it was better than the alternative.

“Anderton’s condition hasn’t changed much,” Murph said in answer to her question.

“His vitals are all good. The scans show brain activity. But he has yet to regain consciousness. According to the doctors, he’s basically been the same as he was since we removed him from that hospital five weeks ago. ”

“Do they think he’ll ever recover?”

“The doctor who visited him on Tuesday updated me afterward. He said the kid could wake up tomorrow or he could continue to slowly wither away. There’s a chance that our cover story—that he’s in hospice, just waiting to die—could end up being a reality.”

Jessie felt a pang in her chest. She knew that one way or another, Hannah was in for more pain. It could be because her friend finally passed away. Or it might be when she learned that her own sister had been involved in an elaborate plan to keep that friend, and the truth about him, from her.

“Can I ask you a question, Jessie?”

“Yes,” she said apprehensively.

"How long do you intend to keep this going? I can justify the use of the safe house for a while longer because Anderton is still credibly in danger. But how much longer can you justify it? This must be costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars, with both the nursing care and the private security.”

“I can afford it. And it’s worth it to keep both of them safe.”

“I understand that you’re committed at this point.

But I should warn you, one of my guys caught your sister attaching a GPS locator to the car of Finn Anderton’s mom.

Clearly, she was trying to track her movements, hoping to locate Finn’s location.

Of course, we take the family to visit him in Marshal vehicles and use evasive maneuvers, so the locator won’t help.

But my point is, Hannah’s going to figure this out at some point.

She’s just too smart. Maybe you should tell her before she does. ”

“Maybe,” Jessie conceded, though she was too tired and conflicted to think about it now. “Just keep me in the loop, all right? I want to know if there is any notable change in his status, good or bad.”

“Of course I will. But for now, you let me worry about Anderton. You focus on your case. And get some sleep when you can.”

“Thanks Murph.” After Jessie hung up, she was tempted to take his advice right then and there and settle in on the loveseat near the back of the conference room. But before the temptation got too strong, she got a call. It was Ryan.

“Where are you?”

“Why?” she asked, answering his question with one of her own. “What’s going on?”

“We need you back in research. There’s a problem.