CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

Ryan Hernandez had a splitting headache.

Usually when he got one, it made him immediately think of Jessie and wonder when her last migraine had been. But his wife hadn't had any major pain in her head in weeks, so he allowed himself to focus on his own discomfort. He grabbed a couple of ibuprofen from the desk in the research office and popped them, hoping they'd kick in soon.

It was no surprise that his brain would show signs of wear and tear. He looked at the clock on the wall. It was after four already. They'd been at this all day, ever since they'd parted ways with Albert Short, whose alibi had borne out.

They'd cleared one guy but that still left at least a dozen other credible suspects. The job was so daunting that they'd brought in Detectives Susannah Valentine and Sam Goodwin, who had just closed their own case, to help. Even Captain Parker was pitching in, despite having to simultaneously manage the aftermath of the homeless encampment attack yesterday. When she had walked into research an hour ago to check on their progress, they didn't have much to offer.

"Not to put too much pressure on you, but I got another call from Decker," she said. "He's getting questions from the press, especially since it came out that one victim was married to a Hollywood bigwig, and another was the wife of a tech mogul. I told him that you would have already let me know if you had anything new, but I promised I'd check in anyway. So here I am. Anything to share?"

Ryan knew it wasn't Parker's fault. She was getting pressure from above, so she was putting it on them. When he was captain of Central Station, he often did the same thing. But that didn't mean he wasn't irritated. It felt like she always came calling at the most inopportune time. And because she didn't yet have a strong relationship with Homicide Special Section, her check-ins sometimes felt intrusive. He knew it was something he would have to get over, but that didn't make it any easier.

"We've already had a few potential suspects come in for interviews," he told her, making sure to keep the impatience out of his voice. "The hypnotherapist, Claudine Monterey, just left. We're following up on her alibi, but it looks like we may have to cross her off. The dog walker, Charlie Warner is on his way in now. Me and Jessie will talk to him as soon as he arrives."

"We also expect the pet therapist, Cassandra Canine to arrive in the next hour," Jessie added.

"I thought you said she wouldn't share her client list," Parker replied.

"She claims she won't," Jessie confirmed, "but she is willing to talk about Chloe Henshall specifically. We're hoping that once we get her in the room, we can convince her to be more forthcoming."

Ryan knew that if anyone could talk her into a change of heart, it was Jessie. Her ability to empathize with witnesses, and even suspects, was part of what made her such a good profiler.

"Maybe you can put some pressure on her therapeutic aide to spill some personal details about her clients," Parker suggested.

"That"s interesting, actually," Jessie said. "Ms. Canine said she hasn"t been able to get hold of him. The guy"s name is Henry Pogue, and it"s his day off. He was supposedly going hiking today so we"re not jumping to conclusions, since he could just be out of cell range. But Jamil is ready to ping his location if need be."

"Okay," Parker said. "Any other strong contenders?"

"A few," Ryan told her. "You want to fill the captain in, Jamil?"

"Sure," the head researcher said. "We finally got a response from Paolo Asanti, the personal trainer who did regular in-home sessions with both Erin Podemski and Chloe Henshall. He said he's seeing clients at the gym he's affiliated with today and would come in after his last session. Detective Hernandez found that response. . . unacceptable and sent Detective Valentine to have a chat with him."

"Also," Beth added, "other than a perfunctory conversation this morning requesting he come in today, we have yet to hear back from Karl Van Hart, the owner of Hollywood Green Thumb, the gardening service that all three victims used."

"That lead maybe feels like it should be a priority," Parker noted, her eyebrows raised.

"We were going to head over to his office right after talking to the dog walker," Ryan explained, again feeling irked at the captain"s second-guessing.

"Maybe Detective Goodwin could take over that interview," Parker replied, "while you and Ms. Hunt pay a visit to the suspect who has yet to agree to one and who has a connection to all three women."

"We can do that," Jessie said quickly. "We just need to wrap up some odds and ends here first."

Ryan knew his wife had jumped in because she was concerned that he might react poorly to being essentially ordered to change the direction of his investigation. As usual, she was right about how he felt and how he might have responded if she hadn't spoken up.

"Great," Parker said. "I'll fill in here as long as I can while you're gone, at least until I get called to handle some other fresh hell."

Once again, he asked himself why he was letting this get to him so much. Parker was just doing her job, much as he would have. She was a competent professional, just trying to do the best she could.

He thought about the captain in relation to his wife, another strong woman trying to balance her challenging career with a complicated home life, including a husband who was hell-bent on having kids, even when she was far less certain. Maybe he needed to look at himself a little closer and ask if he should be doing a better job at handling not getting his way. Maybe this was his problem, not theirs. That was something he could explore later, perhaps with Dr. Lemmon.

Right now, he apparently had a suspect to question. He turned to Jessie.

"Let's pay a visit to Karl Van Hart."