CHAPTER TEN

Jessie stewed quietly.

She was still annoyed about how the Elaine Podemski interview had gone off the rails so quickly. It was all the more frustrating, considering that the woman was never the most likely suspect. Would she have been more forthcoming with helpful information if Ryan hadn't attacked her right out of the gate? Maybe not, but it sure didn't help.

Her phone buzzed, and she looked down to find a text from Beth Ryerson.

"Beth says that Elaine"s alibi looks like it"s going to hold up," she told him, paraphrasing the message. "They"ve already confirmed her attendance at that event with three bigwigs from the Pasadena Women"s Society. And the hotel will have video footage for them to review within the hour. Also, she says Jamil reviewed the messages that Erin Podemski received on social media. He couldn"t find anything that leaped out as threatening."

Ryan didn't respond as they made their way through the winding Hollywood Hills streets leading up to Sydney Ashe's home, which was only a few minutes from Erin Podemski's. Jessie noted that Ryan drove much slower this time.

"Maybe I pushed a little hard," he muttered, as if replying to an accusation she'd made only moments ago, instead of as they were leaving Elaine's Pasadena mansion thirty-five minutes earlier.

Jessie was tempted to agree but worried that it would seem like she was rubbing salt in the wound. Instead, she merely nodded in appreciation at his concession. Any further comment was interrupted by their shared ringing phones.

"It's Sergeant Cutter," she said. "I'll answer it."

"Hello Sergeant, she said. "You're on speaker with me and Detective Hernandez. What's up?"

"I just spoke with the coroner, and he gave me an update that you might find valuable."

"We're all ears," Ryan told him.

"He thinks that the weapon used to strangle Erin Podemski was made of leather," Cutter said. "There were fibers found in her neck tissue that suggest as much. He's guessing a belt, though it's too early to confirm that."

"That's interesting," Ryan said. "Did he find similar fibers when he looked at Sydney Ashe's injuries?"

"Unfortunately, she was wearing a turtleneck when she was attacked," Cutter explained. "Dr. Roone said that the only fibers embedded in her skin were from the material of her sweater. He"s going back and testing the exterior of the sweater, though, to see if he can find leather fibers there."

"How long does he think that will take?" Jessie asked.

"He was hoping to have results by the end of the day," Cutter replied, "tomorrow at the latest.

"Okay, please stay on him," Ryan asked. "We already have two dead women in less than 24 hours. By tomorrow, we might have another."

***

They sat in the car outside the Ashe home, reviewing what they knew about her death one more time before getting out. The preliminary report from the detectives who had originally been assigned the case were useful, if not as comprehensive as Jessie might have liked.

"So we know Sydney Ashe was killed yesterday morning between ten and eleven-thirty, when the housekeeper was at the store and the nanny took the kids to the park," Ryan double-checked.

"Right," Jessie confirmed. "The son is four, and the daughter just turned one. The park is a quarter mile west of here. The Hollywood detectives already verified the nanny"s alibi with several other people at the park during that time."

"Okay, and the body was found on the main bedroom's balcony, correct?"

"That's what the report says," Jessie said, handing over her phone to show the photos of the scene, which confirmed that fact.

"Let's see if we can learn anything new that might not be in here," Ryan said as he looked over the photos. "You ready to go in?"

Jessie nodded, and they got out of the car. As they approached the house, she noted that the Ashe home, while similar to Erin Podemski"s, was much more ostentatious. It too was built into the side of the cliff, but unlike Erin"s unassuming main floor, this house was already two stories high before it receded into the canyon. It was modernist in the extreme, all glass and steel.

They stopped at the front door and rang the bell. As they waited Jessie took note of the fact that the Ring camera was missing and that there were no other, obvious video cameras on the exterior of the house. She was surprised that the home of a such a successful Hollywood producer was so unprotected.

A pear-shaped, forty-something woman with a dour face answered the door.

"May I help you?" she asked in a vaguely eastern European accent.

"Yes, ma'am," Ryan said, holding up his badge. "We're with the police, doing some additional investigation into Sydney Ashe's death. May we come in?"

The woman seemed briefly hesitant but then nodded and opened the door for them.

"If they're around," Ryan continued, "we were hoping to talk to Mr. Ashe and to the family's nanny, Hayley."

"Mr. Ashe is on a phone call right now and is not to be disturbed, but Hayley is in the back with the children. I will get her. Please follow me."

"What's your name?" Jessie asked.

"I am Marta," she answered. "I'm the Ashe's housekeeper."

She led them through the foyer, past a large dining room that Jessie noted was closed off with child-proof gates, and into a sunken living room that was as large as a tennis court. Like Erin Podemski's, it had floor-to-ceiling windows with expansive views of the city. In this case, because the room was over twice the size of Podemski's, even more of Los Angeles was visible, from East L.A. all the way to Santa Monica and beyond it, the Pacific Ocean.

"What happened to the Ring camera at the front door?" Ryan wanted to know once they came to a stop.

"Oh, that," Marta replied. "The battery died the other day. I was recharging it but had not put it back in place yet. I guess I forgot about it with everything that happened."

"And there are no other security cameras on the property?" Ryan pressed.

"Mrs. Ashe wanted them, but Mr. Ashe said they were a waste of time and money; that no one could get into the house from the back and any good thief coming from the front would know how to get around them. They disagreed strongly."

"I see," Ryan said. "And just to reconfirm, the detectives' report says that when ‘everything happened,' you were at the grocery store, yes?"

"Yes," Marta said. "I always do the grocery store run on Wednesday mornings. Mrs. Ashe likes—liked to have a full refrigerator for the end of the week and the weekend."

There was a lull that Jessie felt an unexpected need to fill.

"How many stories tall is this house?" she wondered.

"Five," Marta told her. "This is the second from the top. Please wait here, and I will get Hayley for you."

"Before you go," Jessie asked, "how is the family doing?"

Marta paused several seconds before answering.

"It is hard to believe this is real," she replied. "The children do not know what is happening. Alfie thinks his mother is on a trip. Baby Camilla is too young to understand any of it. Mr. Ashe uses his work to keep his thoughts busy. I wish I could do that."

Jessie felt a pang as she imagined these children, who were so very young and whose memories of their mother would likely not survive into adulthood. She knew this from personal experience.

Her own mother had been murdered by her serial killer father when she was just six years old. That was older than either of these kids and yet she only had a few remaining images of her mom in her head. She circulated them on repeat, like home videos on an old VHS tape that had been played too often and was now fuzzy and full of static.

"What was Mrs. Ashe like?" Ryan wondered, snapping her out of thoughts.

Marta paused again before answering.

"She was a wife and a mother," she finally said. "It was important to her to be thought of as good at both. It is sad that she will not be able to continue that journey. I will get Hayley."

Jessie thought that the woman had given an impressively diplomatic answer which inadvertently revealed that Sydney Ashe might not have been great at either job. Once she was gone, Ryan looked at Jessie with raised eyebrows.

"If that's the best she could do as a eulogy, Sydney Ashe must have been a real piece of work."

He stopped talking when they heard Marta talking in the back.

"Hayley, more police are here to see you. I can watch the children while you talk to them."

They heard another woman"s voice whisper something unintelligible, to which Marta replied loudly, "I don"t know."

While Jessie waited for Haley to appear, she glanced at several photos on a nearby table. One was a family portrait on the beach. In the photo, Sydney Ashe, frighteningly skinny, with long black hair, blue eyes and pale skin, offered a pinched smile for the camera.

A moment later, a young woman with brown hair and a pleasant, if bland bearing, stepped into the living room.

"I heard you wanted to talk to me?" she said nervously.

"That"s right, Hayley," Ryan confirmed. "I"m Detective Hernandez. This is Jessie Hunt. We"re taking over Mrs. Ashe"s case from the original detectives, and we had a few questions for you. Have a seat."

Hayley sat on one of the cream-colored couches, and Ryan and Jessie took seats in plush chairs across from her. The nanny shifted uncomfortably for several seconds before sitting still.

"We understand that you found Mrs. Ashe," Ryan began, "is that right?"

"Uh-huh," Hayley answered. "We—me and the kids—came back from the park. We"d been gone about two hours in all. Marta was still at the store. I put Cammie—Camilla—down for her nap. Mrs. Ashe likes to have lunch with Alfie, so I texted her that I was making his PBJ with the crusts cut off and baby carrots. She didn"t answer, and Alfie was really hungry, so I tried calling her. I could hear her phone ringing upstairs, so I told Alfie that he could start on the carrots but to eat slow. Then I went up to tell her."

"Is that typically what you do?" Ryan interrupted.

"No," Hayley admitted. "But I was torn. Mrs. Ashe wouldn't normally like me going up to her bedroom. But the week before she had gotten mad at me because I didn't tell her about lunch in time and Alfie was basically done by the time she got there. That's what she considered one of her ‘connection times.' She was big on special times when she could be with the kids and strengthen their bond. Meals were high on the list. Plus, earlier in the morning she had promised Alfie that they could cut their sandwiches into shapes. He wanted to do hearts with her, and I knew she wouldn't want to miss that, so I risked going up."

"What happened then?" Jessie asked.

"I got to her bedroom door, which was half-open, and called out to her without going in. When she didn"t answer, I called her on the phone again to make sure I had the right room. I could hear it ringing inside, so I poked my head in. That"s when I saw her on the balcony. She was in one of the chairs, and I could tell right away that something was wrong."

"How?" Jessie asked.

"Her neck was bent in a really awkward way that would never happen on its own," Hayley answered, closing her eyes as if to blot out the memory. "I walked out there just to make sure and that's when I saw that her eyes were open, but you know, not right."

Hayley started to whimper softly as she continued.

"I wanted to scream, but I knew that I couldn"t. It would have freaked out Alfie and woken up Cammie. Plus, Mr. Ashe was at his production office at the studio in Burbank and Marta was at the store, so I was alone. I was scared that whoever did this might still be around. So I grabbed Cammie from her crib, went downstairs, told Alfie that we were eating a picnic lunch, and we all went out front. That when I called 911. Marta came back a few minutes later, and the police arrived soon after that."

She stopped talking, and her whimpers turned into quiet sobs. Jessie tried to redirect her with an unemotional question.

"Hayley, the police got a list of all the service providers for the house from Marta yesterday but under the circumstances, they weren't able to confirm its accuracy with Mr. Ashe. We were hoping you could look at it and see if she might have left anyone off."

"Okay," the nanny said, wiping away her tears.

Jessie pulled out her phone and showed it to Hayley.

"All of these are right as far as I know," she said. "I've seen them all come and go at various times. I recognize the names of the gardener, the dog walker, the masseuse, the personal trainer, the yoga instructor, and the hypnotherapist. I've talked to most of them at one point or another. But I know she also has a manicurist come in regularly, and an acupuncturist too. They aren't on your list. I don't remember their names but either Marta or Mr. Ashe might. Other folks, like the internet or utilities people listed on here, don't come by as often, so I couldn't help you there."

"That's all right," Jessie said. "I think there's another area where you might be able to help more though."

"What's that?" Hayley asked, sounding eager to please.

"We"re trying to get a sense of Mrs. Ashe"s relationships," Jessie explained. "The kind of stuff that outsiders wouldn"t know but that you do. For example, did she mention any conflicts with any of the service providers on that list, or maybe recent arguments with friends, or even with Mr. Ashe?"

Hayley smiled ruefully. "If you knew Mrs. Ashe at all, you'd learn pretty quickly that she was always in one fight or another. I don't say that to speak ill of her. She was just a really challenging personality. She'd have friends over for afternoon cocktails and half the time, she'd end up storming off because of some little disagreement. Mrs. Ashe was very dramatic."

"Even with people who worked for her?" Ryan pressed.

"She was very demanding with us," Hayley said carefully. "If people didn't do things the way she liked, she let them know in very direct terms. She crushed me more than a few times. But eventually you get calloused to it, or at least I did. Maybe some guy who came in to fix a toilet and got screamed at might not, but if someone worked for her regularly, they knew it came with the territory."

"What about Mr. Ashe?" Jessie wanted to know, "was her relationship with him volatile too?"

"For sure," Hayley said. "He's just as—difficult to please—as she was, so they would really go at it sometimes, butting heads. They didn't care who was there or how awkward it was for everyone else. But after a while I realized that it was just their communication style. They'd have a blow up and then most of the time, it was forgotten twenty minutes later."

"Did their fights ever get violent?" Ryan asked.

Hayley shook her head. "Not that I ever saw."

Jessie wanted to revisit another point.

"You said that ‘most of the time' their fights were forgotten twenty minutes later. Were there times that someone held onto something?"

Hayley shifted on the couch again, and Jessie knew there was something there.

"I guess," she finally said. "Mr. Ashe was always getting upset about how much money she spent, and she was always calling him a cheapskate. She's bring home a Prada bag and he'd be mad because she already had two others. She got angry because he wouldn't pay for a decent home security system. She complained that he made millions but wouldn't shell out a few hundred dollars for some cameras."

"Anything else?" Jessie pressed, sensing that Hayley was holding back.

The nanny glanced down at the floor when she answered that question.

"He also didn't like her going out to clubs and bars so much."

"Did she do that a lot?" Jessie asked.

"Some," Hayley conceded, as if she was the one in trouble. "I think it bothered him that she would always go to this one particular bar and stay out real late."

Jessie had another question but before she could ask it, a door off the living room shot open, slamming hard against the wall as a man stepped out. Jessie recognized him from the research materials that Beth had sent. It was Gabriel Ashe.

He looked very little like the official photos she"d seen. In those, he was always in a suit and tie, shaved, with his curly, Brillo pad-like hair coiffed as if he"d just been to the stylist. But today, he was in sweatpants and a t-shirt that hugged his ample belly. He had 24 hours" worth of stubble, and his hair was sticking up as if he"d rubbed it against a balloon earlier.

"Marta!" he bellowed, looking in the direction of the kitchen, "I need something to eat, I can feel my blood sugar dropping as I speak. Get me some of those chicken tenders that Alfie is always going on about."

His demeanor didn"t suggest a man who was in mourning, and if Jessie hadn"t already known that he had an alibi—he was in a film pre-production meeting yesterday from 9 a.m. until noon—she would have set her sights directly on him. Jamil was currently checking whether the man had made any unusual payments lately that might correspond to a murder-for-hire plot, but for now, he appeared to be in the clear legally, if not morally.

Ashe seemed to sense that there were people watching him and turned in the direction of Jessie, Ryan, and Hayley. His eyes immediately narrowed, and his face turned bright red.

"Anyone want to tell me why there are two goddamn strangers sitting in my goddamn living room like they own the place?"

He stormed over as they got to their feet. Hayley started to explain, but he shut her down.

"Not you, nanny!" he spat before turning his attention to Ryan and Jessie. "Who the hell are you?"