Page 28 of The Perfect Illusion (Jessie Hunt #39)

Jessie watched as Walters’s face morphed.

To her surprise, it wasn’t into anger, but rather embarrassment.

“I already told you—we were set up,” he said unconvincingly.

“I know,” she replied as gently as she could. “But I think we both know that you’re leaving out a lot. However you first got together, I’m sensing that it was a little untraditional. And that might be important. So I really need you to be honest with us.”

Walters’s gaze dropped so that he was no longer making eye contact with her.

“I’m not sure how this matters,” he said in something close to a whisper, “but if you think it will help catch who did this, I’ll tell you. We met through a matchmaking service.”

Jessie wasn’t entirely surprised. She wondered how a 25-year-old teacher and a 53-year-old heart surgeon would end up in the same social circles. But she got the sense from Walters’s obvious discomfort that this was more than a standard dating service.

“Tell us how that worked,” she said.

He looked up again, clearly trying to figure out how to put the best spin on things. But after a few seconds, he seemed to give up on that idea.

"Look," he said, "my first marriage ended because both of us were workaholics.

After that, I didn't have much time at all for romance.

It didn't matter to me for a long time. But recently, I started feeling the absence of a meaningful connection.

I wanted to be with someone, but I didn't have the time for the standard dating rituals.

I mentioned that to a golfing buddy of mine who is an executive at an oil company, and he told me about this service. "

“What service?” Brady asked.

“It’s called Elite Introductions,” Walters said.

“He told me that’s how he met his wife. They cater to more mature men who know what they want.

I was reluctant to try it but he told me that I could include all my priorities in a woman: understanding that my work took precedence, being okay with my eclectic lifestyle, including travelling for weeks at a time, and so on. So I gave it a shot.”

“And that’s how you found Carrie?” Jessie confirmed.

“Not at first,” he explained. “I went through this involved interview process to give them sort of a profile of myself and my ideal mate. They even came to the house to conduct it in order to give me privacy. Then I went out with a woman they paired me with. It didn’t work out.

She was clearly just looking for a sugar daddy. ”

“So these women are younger?” Jessie said.

“Yes,” he said sheepishly. “That’s the tradeoff, I guess. Older men get matched up with younger, attractive women who theoretically have less baggage than those their own age. And the women get the perks of being with a wealthy man who can take care of their more prosaic financial needs.”

“But it didn’t work out at first?” Jessie prodded.

"Not the first time or the second," he said, the residue of frustration audible in his voice.

"I was about to cut bait on the whole thing when Victoria asked me to give it one more shot.

She said she'd found a woman she thought would be perfect for me, and if I didn't agree, she'd refund half of my membership fee.

Since that fee is considerable, I was intrigued.

The woman she introduced me to was Carrie. That was all she wrote."

“Victoria?” Jessie asked, trying to keep her tone casual.

“Victoria Sterling,” He said. “Elite Introductions is her company. She personally vets every client and every potential match. She's very hands-on. Like I said, she even came here for the interview for the sake of discretion.”

Jessie’s mind was racing. Just like Carrie Walters, the other two victims were much younger than their wealthy husbands. Was it possible that both of those couples also met through Elite Introductions? If so, that opened up a whole new avenue for investigation.

She badly wanted to get up right now so that she could head straight to wherever Elite Introductions was located. But there was a grieving man sitting in front of her, trying to process the fact that, after searching for a soul mate and finally finding one, she’d been brutally torn from him.

“Do you want to go see Carrie now?” Brady asked delicately.

“Yes, please,” Walters said, stifling a sob.

“I’ll take you inside,” Brady said. “Ms. Hunt has to deal with another pressing issue.”

Jessie looked over at her partner. From his expression, it was clear that he had come to the same conclusion about the potential of the dating service as a lead and that he was giving her an escape hatch so that she could start pursuing it immediately.

She smiled in appreciation and did her best not to look anxious as she waited for the two men to enter the house. But the second they were out of sight, she pulled out her phone to call Jamil and hopefully, get some answers.