The Perfect Impression by Pierce, Blake (essential reading TXT) 📕

“That’s fantastic news,” she said. “But we still need to talk. Mr. Dooleyand Detective Peters are going to help you to your feet. Then we’ll find a morecomfortable place to chat. Let’s go to the manager’s office.”

As they headed inside, it quickly became clear that Peters and Dooley werehaving trouble keeping Aldridge, who was a big guy, upright.

“Maybe we do this in the bar?” Dooley suggested. Jessie nodded.

They dropped him in a plush chair near the entrance, where heimmediately slumped back, almost becoming a part of the thing. While herecovered, Jessie turned back to Dooley.

“Thanks for your help,” she said. “On your way back up to watch theguests in the ballroom, can you ask Mr. Barksdale to have some coffee and toastbrought in here for Mr. Aldridge?”

Dooley nodded, too exhausted to speak. Peters looked equally beat.

“How do you want to do this?” he asked.

“I think I can handle Mr. Aldridge here,” she replied, trying her bestto fight off the fatigue she too was feeling. “Why don’t you go back to theballroom and finish up with the remaining guests there?”

“Are you sure?” he asked, wiping the sweat from his brow. “This guylooks like he could be a handful.”

“I don’t think Mr. Aldridge is going to give me any trouble, are you?”she asked the human furniture.

“Couldn’t even if I wanted to,” the man grunted, his eyes closed tight.

“See,” Jessie said. “Besides, between my gun and cuffs, it would gopoorly for him if he changed his mind. Thanks though.”

Peters nodded, apparently satisfied that he’d expressed enoughgallantry, and headed for the elevator, even though the single flight of stairswould have been quicker. He looked completely wiped out.

When he was gone, Jessie looked around for a chair that she could movenear Aldridge. As she grabbed one from a nearby cocktail table, she caught theeye of Maura the bartender, who was wiping down some highball glasses.

“What are you still doing here?” Jessie called out across the room.

“I sent the servers home after all the commotion,” Maura said. “Theyseemed pretty freaked out. Unfortunately, I forgot that means I have to do allthe post-close cleaning. It goes slow when you’re on solo duty.”

Jessie looked at her watch. It was 3:54 a.m.

“So you don’t always work this late?”

“I try to avoid it,” Maura replied. “But this is a special occasion. Barksdalewants us to open at the usual time tomorrow, which is nine a.m. And sinceeveryone else is terrified that a murderer might belly up to the bar, he’sworried we’re going to get a lot of late sick calls. So I have to handle theopening. I’m thinking I may just crash in the employee lounge for a few hours.It’s hardly worth going home. You okay over there?”

She looked over at Theo Aldridge.

“I think so,” Jessie said as she placed the chair across from Aldridge.“You got my back if he gets snippy?”

“Me and Chuck both,” the bartender said, holding up a night stick thatJessie assumed was Chuck.

“Thanks. I’ll let you know if I need you two.”

She returned her attention to Theo Aldridge, whose eyes were stillclosed. That afforded her the opportunity to really take him in for the firsttime without having to be clandestine about it.

Everything about the guy was big. She’d noticed when Peters and Dooleywere dragging him over that even while slouching, he was as tall as them. Athis full height, she suspected he was around six foot four. He was thick andbroad shouldered, likely around 225 pounds. He was so muscular that shewondered if he might be a bodybuilder. She guessed that he was her age, if nota little younger. He was tan, with the same sun-bleached blond hair asDetective Peters, a telltale marker that he was an outdoorsy type.

“You ready to talk, Mr. Aldridge?” she asked.

“Sure,” he said. “I’ve been ready for hours.”

“What happened to you?”

“I guess the bathtub’s worth of alcohol I drank tonight finally caughtup with me. Or maybe it was a bad oyster. It could have been those two combinedwith learning that a woman I know got stabbed to death. Take your pick.”

“All solid options,” Jessie said, refusing to be baited by hispurposefully acerbic tone. “So where do you think we should start?”

“I told you I didn’t do it. We can start there.”

“Do you have people who can verify that for me?” Jessie asked.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I don’t think I was alone for more than aminute or two all night up until Melissa started screaming. I can write downthe names of everyone I was with.”

“That would be lovely,” she said. “But before we get into all that, Ihave another question for you.”

“What’s that?” he asked, finally opening his eyes, revealing that theywere a startlingly bright blue.

“Where’s your wife?”

She watched closely for his reaction to the question.

“Oh, that,” he said, seemingly unfazed. “She didn’t do this, if that’swhat you’re thinking.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because she left the island before any of this happened,” he said. “Shetook the afternoon ferry back to L.A.”

Jessie had gotten pretty good at mastering her poker face during theseinterrogations but hearing Aldridge’s words, she felt her jaw drop.

“I’ve been talking to your friends all night,” she said. “Why is thisthe first time I’m hearing of this?”

He shrugged.

“Probably because it’s pretty embarrassing and no one wanted to be theone to mention it.”

Though her head was spinning at the possibilities, Jessie tried not toleap to conclusions.

“I guess that means you get the honor of explaining,” she said, “whichis probably appropriate anyway. What happened?”

Aldridge sighed deeply, grabbed the arms of the chair, and managed topull himself up to a fully seated position.

“We got into a fight,” he confessed. “She got pissed, packed up herstuff, and headed out. I tried to convince her to stay, told her that adisagreement between us shouldn’t ruin the whole weekend. But she said she wasn’thaving a good time and wanted to get back to the baby anyway.”

“What was the fight about?” Jessie asked.

“You know, just couples stuff. I said the wrong thing. She wouldn’t letit go. She said she wanted to leave. I