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Marian scrunchedup her brow at that question, trying to recall.
“That name doesn’timmediately ring a bell,” she conceded, “which makes me think we neverofficially had her as a client. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t meet withMitch at some point. I keep records of all meetings in our office files, so ifthere was any engagement, it would be in there.”
“We might havesomeone accompany you back to the office to look into that momentarily,” Ryantold her.
“Of course,”Marian said, then hesitated briefly before adding, “Can I ask what this isabout?”
“Mitch is asuspect in four murders,” Jessie said flatly, watching Marian’s responseclosely. “Does that surprise you?”
The way thewoman’s eyes widened suggested that it did.
“I mean, he’sdefinitely had some legal issues, but nothing like that. When you guys firstcame into the office earlier, I thought it was going to be related to gamblingstuff.”
“What do youmean?” Ryan asked.
Marian offered awry smile.
“Why do you thinkthat his office is so run down?” she asked. “We used to have space in anupscale shopping plaza in Brentwood. But Mitch started paring everything downlately. The only things he spends money on now are his personal look and hiscar—so clients are impressed—and the games he bets on.”
“You’re saying hehas a problem?” Jessie asked.
“Only if youconsider being $120,000 in debt a problem,” Marian replied. “Why do you thinkthe guy is so aggressive in targeting other realtors? Why has he had multipleharassment incidents and restraining orders? He’s under constant pressure tosecure as many clients and make as many home sales as possible.”
“I’m assumingthese aren’t legitimate bookmakers?” Ryan said.
“He’s never toldme that specifically,” Marian, “but in the last six months, he’s ‘broken’ bothpinkie fingers and ‘lost’ a tooth. So you tell me. To be honest, when you saidyou were a cop, I thought you might have come to arrest him for robbing a bank orsomething.”
Jessie sighed.Vaughn obviously had serious issues, but it wasn’t clear to her how they mightbe connected to Avery Sinclair’s murder.
“Do you know wherehe was today around noon?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Mariansaid, “he came into the office late. I think he might have gone on a bit of abender last night. There was this big realty awards gala and I saw that he loston the big award to Avery Sinclair. He considers her his nemesis, if you canbelieve it. When I saw that news, I knew he’d take it hard and that today wouldbe ugly. So I wasn’t stunned when he didn’t show up until lunchtime. I didn’tbother calling him to check in. When he finally arrived, he walked straightback to his office without a word and slammed the door. I think he might havebeen napping when you got here. You probably woke him up.”
“What time wasthat?” Ryan asked.
“12:19.”
“Are you sure?”Jessie pressed. “That’s so specific.”
“Yeah, I’mpositive,” Marian said.
“How?” Jessieasked.
“Because when heslammed the door, the clock on the wall fell and broke. The time read 12:19, soI have a permanent reminder of when he came in today.”
Jessie shared alook with Ryan and saw that he was making the same calculation that she was. Ithad taken them fifteen minutes to get from Sinclair’s Pacific Palisades mansionto Vaughn’s Santa Monica office and they weren’t driving slow. They knew that Sinclair’s911 call occurred at 12:06 p.m. And according to Marian, Vaughn arrived at hisoffice at 12:19.
That meant that hewould have had to beat Avery Sinclair to death, go downstairs, get out of herhouse, into his car, and drive to his office in thirteen minutes. That was anincredibly tight window, if not technically impossible.
“We should checkin with the team that impounded his car,” Ryan said. “If he did this, hewouldn’t have much time to clean up. Maybe there’s blood splatter in thevehicle.”
“Or possibly a gasmask,” Jessie added. “If he was planting a poison canister in Sinclair’s home,he would have probably wanted to take precautions. Hell, maybe there’s acanister in the trunk.”
“Wait,” Marianinterrupted. “Are you saying that Avery Sinclair is dead?”
“She is,” Ryanreplied.
“And you thinkthat Mitch killed her? Using some kind of poison?”
