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

to the cart, Peters put Jandro in the rear-facingseat. The second he settled into the passenger side, she grinned and flooredthe accelerator. After all, time was short.

*

Deputy Heck hadn’t been kidding.

Even before Jessie and Peters walked into the bar, where the upsetguests were sequestered, they could hear loud, angry voices. Glancing at herwatch, she suspected why. It was 9:11 a.m. The people who remained were theones who hadn’t been cleared to leave on the first ferry of the morning.

All told, there were ten people in the bar. That included the Ferros,the Landers, Steve Crewe, and Theo Aldridge. The other four were two couples whomPeters had interviewed last night and felt comfortable clearing to leave ifJessie agreed. She decided to talk to them first to clear the decks as much aspossible. But before she could approach them, Marin Lander marched up to her.

“We’ve had just about enough of this, Ms. Hunt,” she huffed fussily. “Ikeep waiting for someone to explain why I’m still here and all I get is therunaround. You should know that we’ve asked our attorney to be on standby. Heassured us that he’s secured a helicopter and can be here in less than an hourif we say the word. So do we need to do that?”

Jessie wanted to come back at her hard, put her in her place. But thiswas a delicate situation. If she pushed too hard, Lander likely would call thelawyer back, as would everyone else. They’d all shut down, refusing to talk atall.

There was still crucial information to be gleaned from these people andas long as they thought they were viewed only as friends of the victim, beingcalled on to help get her justice, they might play ball. The second they suspectedthey were in legal jeopardy, then that would be the end of it. So despite herinstinct to push, Jessie smiled as she let a long, silent breath escape herlips.

“Of course not, Mrs. Lander. We’re almost done here,” she said beforeaddressing the entire group. “I understand your frustration at being stuck herewhile others are leaving. But I would ask for your patience and understandingjust a bit longer. Your willingness to have your Sunday slightly inconveniencedcould be the difference between us solving this murder or not. I know that gettingjustice for Gabby is as important to you as it is to us.”

That silenced Lander briefly. Jessie took advantage of the lull to getDeputy Heck’s attention. When he came over, she whispered to him.

“Take the folks who aren’t part of Gabby’s traveling party to thecorner of the bar. Make it casual.”

He nodded and did as she asked. When that was done, Jessie addressed thosewho remained.

“Let me tell you our plan,” she said to them in a hushed tone thatsuggested she was taking them into her confidence. “Detective Peters and I needto wrap up our interviews with the other four folks over there. Then we plan tospeak with all of you once more. You’ve been incredibly helpful in helping uslock down the timeline of Gabby’s movements last night. But we think that inthe cold light of day, a few hours removed from the haziness of late-nightdrinking, you might able to clarify things even further. I’m asking that yougive us this small window of additional time to figure things out. I know Stevewould appreciate it. He’s lost his wife, the mother of his little boy, Ellis.Let’s not compound his loss by letting her killer escape when you might holdthe keys to preventing it.”

As she expected, no one had the gall to raise a fuss after that. Theyall moved to cocktail tables near the window, where they could see the ocean.Maura the bartender caught her eye and gave a silent golf clap in appreciationof her skills. Apparently her brief employee lounge nap was officially over.

“I’m not sure how long that gives us but we better take advantage ofit,” Jessie muttered to Peters. “Let’s knock out these other interviews beforesomeone changes their mind.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

With the overriding pressure to wrap up the interviews before the nextferry departure weighing down on them, Jessie and Peters worked as fast as theycould. They questioned the other four remaining guests, all of whom werestaying on the same floor as Gabby. It became quickly clear to Jessie that noneof them were credible suspects.

By the time Jessie and Peters gave them permission to catch the nextferry, it was approaching mid-morning. They had Barksdale, who was workingovertime until his boss arrived in another few hours, secretly usher theno-longer-suspects out a side entrance so the swingers crew didn’t see them andget riled up again.

“Time’s running short,” Peters noted once they’d left. “Who do you thinkis our best bet to go at next?”

“I’d like to take another shot at Steve Crewe,” she said. “We can startwith the sympathy bit, and then use the beer mug attack to get under his skin.Once we’ve got him off balance, we can probe a little more. He’s the leastlikely to ask for a lawyer because of how bad it would look. We should takeadvantage of that.”

Peters nodded in agreement. They took Crewe out back to the rosegarden. It was a change of scenery that they hoped would avoid giving him theimpression that he was being interrogated.

“Again,” Peters began as they sat on metal chairs next to a fountain, “weare so sorry for your loss. I spoke to the medical examiner earlier and he’shopeful that you’ll able to take Gabby’s body back with you on the ferry in thecargo hold. They’ll need to do a full autopsy once you return, but at least youcan be with her for this journey.”

“I appreciate that,” Crewe said blankly.

Jessie couldn’t tell if he was in shock or unaffected by the loss.Either way, she aimed to wake him up.

“So, Mr. Crewe,” she said mildly. “In light of this tragedy, we’rehopeful that the incident with the beer mug last night can be handled outsideformal channels. I’m open to that possibility, assuming you are candid with usnow.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked, sounding hurt.

“Some of the questions we have to ask might seem…indelicate,”