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She and Ryan weretaking a lunch break at a café in Marina del Rey. The plan had been to reviewall the leads they had in order to determine who to speak to next, but it hadbeen a slog.
They’d gotten anupdate from Dr. Roone, but it had only confirmed his initial suspicions. LikeClarissa Langley, both Tabitha Reynolds and Naomi Hackett had died from massiveexposure to botulinum toxin.
Jamil and Bethwere working on getting the GPS location data for both Danielle Robertson andLandon Powers, but it would take a few hours. Jessie wasn’t optimistic thateither would pan out, but they didn’t have much else to go on.
Despite Parker’sinsistence that they continue to pursue the professional connection betweenClarissa Langley’s marketing firm and Naomi Hackett’s tech startup, they stillhadn’t uncovered anything that could tie it to Tabitha Reynolds. She had beenso successful promoting herself on social media that she’d never employed anymarketing firm, much less Langley’s. And her work had no connection at all toHackett’s startup. The rest of the news was no better.
“Even afterlooking at the video camera footage from each home in more detail,” Jamil said,“we weren’t able to find anything useful. No one entering or leaving was seenholding a canister and since the devices could have been planted so far inadvance, drawing conclusions about more recent visitors is almost pointlessanyway.”
Beth managed tooffer them one mildly intriguing tidbit.
“When DanielleRobertson reached out to authorize us accessing her GPS data, she did mention afew people that she thought she recalled at multiple houses,” she told themover speaker. “One was a realtor, and another was a gardener, but she didn’tremember any names. She did say that they were both male and that she might beable to identify faces if we showed them to her.”
“These people wereat all three homes?” Ryan asked.
“No,” Jamil said.“That’s why we haven’t prioritized it. She said she couldn’t remember if theywere even at more than one home.”
“Honestly, sheseemed to be grasping at straws,” Beth added. “I think she was just hoping tooffer anything that might help, no matter how uncertain the leads.”
“Still,” Jamilassured them, “we’re going to go through family financials, looking for anyrealtors or gardeners that more than one of them used.”
Jessie was aboutto reply when she heard a commotion on the other end of the line. Then Parker’svoice came through loud and clear.
“Are you on withHernandez and Hunt?” she asked the researchers.
“Yes, Captain,”Jamil told her. “We’re on speaker with them.”
"Hi,Captain," Ryan said, sounding surprisingly pleasant. "What'sup."
“Nothing good,”Parker replied, not matching his tone. “I just got word. There’s been another murder,and they just discovered a canister by the body.”
“Where was this?”Ryan asked, putting down his sandwich.
“PacificPalisades,” Parker told him. “But this one’s different. It looks like thepoison didn’t have time to work. The victim’s head was crushed in.”
“Send us whateveryou have,” Jessie said, grabbing her mostly untouched turkey wrap as she stoodup. “We’re leaving now.”
***
Twenty fiveminutes later, they arrived at the home of Avery Sinclair.
On the way over,they'd gotten the basics on the woman from the research team. She was 41,married, with two children. She worked as a realtor. In fact, according toJamil, she was this year's Westside Realtor of the Year. Jessie looked overphotos of the woman, including from her website. She was strikingly beautiful,statuesque, with long red hair, green eyes, ivory skin, and delicate, angularfacial features.
Jessie looked upfrom her phone screen as they arrived on Sinclair’s street. They could identifyher house by the multiple vehicles in front of it, which included a hazmatvehicle, a fire truck, three police cars, an ambulance, as well as vehiclesfrom CSU and the coroner. They were just getting out of the car when they wereapproached by a tall officer with curly brown hair that Jessie didn’t know.
“Hi,” he said,waving as he approached, “I’m Sergeant Watt, lead officer on the scene. Irecognized you when you were pulling up.”
They introducedthemselves before Ryan launched in. “Let me guess. The hazmat team has sealedoff the house. No investigators are allowed in yet.”
"That'sright," Watt told them. "No one but them is permitted inside untilthey clear the scene. Unfortunately, the first officers to arrive have alreadybeen transported to the hospital."
“Are they okay?”Jessie asked.
“Neither of themshowed any obvious signs of being affected but they were transported to UCLASanta Monica Medical Center anyway as a precaution,” Watt answered.
“How did yourpeople originally learn about the incident?” Jessie asked.
"The firstofficers on the scene were responding to a 911 call," Watt explained."The operator said it sounded over the phone like someone was beingassaulted. When they arrived, it was eight minutes after the call to 911, whichoccurred at 12:06 p.m. No one answered the door, so they forced entry. After aquick search, they found the victim in her bedroom. They called for backup andtook some preliminary photos, including of the victim and the murder weapon,which appears to have been a trophy."
