THE PERFECT HOUSE

by Blake Pierce

  She trailed off, unable to continue. Ryan switched topics quickly in the hopes of keeping her from losing it completely.

  “Did her husband know about the affair?” he asked.

  Eliza managed to pull herself together. Sitting fully upright now, she pushed the bed sheet off her body to reveal she was wearing only a hospital gown. There was an ugly bruise on Eliza’s right knee where she must have hit the kitchen tile after slipping on the blood.

  Jessie couldn’t help but notice that the woman’s body had a toned wiriness to it that suggested yoga wasn’t the only part of her regular workout routine. Penelope Wooten was much taller, but model thin. Eliza was clearly an athlete. It wasn’t hard to picture this smaller but more muscular woman physically overwhelming her.

  “I genuinely don’t know,” Eliza said, sliding her legs over the side of the bed. “A day ago, I would have said she’d tell me everything. But now I don’t know what she kept from whom. Colton is a pretty well-known lawyer. I don’t know if I’m speaking out of school but he was thinking of running for office. I’m sure this would have complicated things. She might have wanted to keep it from him for that reason alone.”

  “But she never hinted at problems in their marriage?” Brady asked.

  “She said they went to counseling and that it helped. But she told me it was for the usual stuff—lack of communication, that kind of thing. She even suggested that Gray and I go because I was complaining that he’d become distant. Of course, now I see that in a different light.”

  “You said Penelope was going to break it off with your husband, that she hadn’t been in contact with him for three days?” Jessie said.

  “That’s what she told me.”

  “Do you know if she actually did that? Broke it off?”

  “Yes. When I confronted Gray that night, he said that she told him it was over and that he’d agreed.”

  “Did he seem angry about that?” Brady asked.

  “Angry that it was over or angry that he’d been found out?”

  “Whichever?” Brady said.

  “He was angry, to the extent that he shows that sort of thing. Gray’s not exactly the ‘scream and shout’ type. He’s very…retiring. But in his own way, he was definitely upset. I don’t know if it was because he was busted, because he didn’t get to nail her anymore, or because I was kicking him out. My guess is that it was a combination of all of it.”

  “Do you know where he went after he left your house?” Jessie asked.

  “To a hotel, I assume. I haven’t talked to him since last night.”

  “Not even to tell him about Penelope’s passing?” Jessie pressed.

  Eliza looked at her in amazement.

  “I’ve been a little busy,” she said.

  Just then the door opened and a nurse walked in.

  “Mrs. Longworth,” she said, clearly perturbed, “please don’t try to get out of bed. You’re medicated and have an IV. We don’t want you falling.”

  “Sorry,” Eliza said absently. She tried to lift her feet back into the bed but struggled so Brady gave her a hand.

  “I know you’re doing an investigation,” the nurse said to the three of them, “but Mrs. Longworth really needs to get as much rest as possible. Do you think you could resume your questioning later?”

  “That’s okay,” Brady said. “I think we’re good for now. However, we may want to speak to speak to you a bit later, Mrs. Longworth. Here’s my card if you think of anything else in the interim.”

  He placed the card on the small table beside the bed and they all shuffled out as the nurse pulled the sheet back over Eliza.

  “Initial thoughts?” Brady asked as they walked down the hall to the elevator.

  “She’s got motive,” Jessie said. “Her best friend betrayed their lifelong friendship by screwing her husband. It doesn’t get much more clear-cut than that.”

  “I don’t know,” Ryan countered. “There’s also a wronged husband, especially one who might be worried that his run for office was about to get derailed by a personal scandal. That strikes me as a fairly compelling motive as well.”

  Brady shook his head.

  “I see you that and raise you the cheating husband who just had his life explode and can’t be enthused with the woman who admitted their fling to his wife.”

  “Yeah, we should maybe talk to that guy,” Ryan agreed. “It sounds like we have a potpourri of credible suspects.”

  “We also need to go back and talk to Wooten,” Brady said. “Either he’s lying or he’s pretty clueless for a guy who used to be a prosecutor. Are we really supposed to believe he had no idea this was going on right under his nose?”

  “You might be surprised,” Jessie cautioned. “Sometimes people can be shockingly blind to the secrets of the people closest to them, the people they love.”

  Neither Brady nor Ryan responded, though both knew what relationship she was referencing. Jessie was grateful for their tact.

  As they rode down in the elevator, an image flashed through her mind of obliviously lying in bed next to her then-husband, Kyle. It was quickly replaced by one of him in a gray jumpsuit, taunting her from behind a glass partition in the prison where he was incarcerated.

  Everybody has secrets. Some of us are just better at hiding them.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Jessie had been outvoted.

  She wanted to interview Gray Longworth first, before he had too much time to formulate answers to questions about Penny’s death. Assuming they were breaking the news to him, she wanted to study his reaction to it. The longer they waited, the more likely he’d be able to prepare for their arrival.

  But Brady was adamant that they needed to go back to Colton Wooten and let him clarify his statement. If he spoke to the press before they had time to confront him about his wife’s affair, the very media circus they were trying to avoid might be inevitable.

  Ryan saw the merits of both arguments but ultimately deferred to Brady, who was the lead detective on the case. He was the one who would face the heat from his superiors if things went sideways so it seemed only fair that he should make the final call.

  Since they all agreed that they shouldn’t split up, that meant their next stop was to the offices of Wooten & Camby, LLC, where Colton was apparently hunkered down. They parked in the garage below the gleaming Santa Monica tower where his practice was headquartered. As they rode up to the twenty-second-floor office in a glass elevator, Brady got a call.

  “It’s the station,” he said as he answered. “I’ll put it on speaker.”

  “Detective Bowen?” asked the young-sounding female voice on the phone.

  “Yes,” he answered with a smile as he mouthed the word “rookie” to them. “Is this Officer Mueller?”

  “Yes sir. I have a few updates in regard to the issues you wanted pursued.”

  “Go ahead, Mueller.”

  “We have the GPS data for Colton Wooten’s phone as well as the Ring footage from this morning.”

  “What about the location data on Eliza and Gray Longworth?” he asked.

  “We’re still waiting for that,” she said. “It should be available within the hour. Would you like me to send you the camera footage now?”

  “That would be great, Mueller,” he said as the elevator door opened and the three of them stepped out into the hallway of the twenty-second floor. “In the meantime, what did the GPS show?”

  “According to the location data, Mr. Wooten left his home at six forty-three a.m. He stopped at the Palisades Friends Preschool at six fifty-two and left again at seven oh-one. His next stop was Mendocino School for Strivers at seven thirteen. And that’s it.”

  “What do you mean, ‘that’s it’?” Brady demanded.

  “After that, the signal disappears. There’s no way to know if the phone died or was turned off intentionally. It was activated again at eight twenty-two a.m.”

  “Where was he then?”

  “At his Santa Monica office,�
� Mueller said.

  “So his whereabouts are unknown for over an hour?”

  “It would seem so.”

  “What about the GPS in his car?” Jessie asked.

  “We’re working on that. But that requires jumping through a few hoops and the chief wants us to be…delicate in how we handle the requests.”

  “Understood,” Bowen said. “I see the Ring footage just came in. Thanks, Mueller. We have to go but keep me apprised of any updates.”

  “Yes, sir,” Mueller said, sounding relieved that she wasn’t being personally blamed for the car location data delay.

  After hanging up, Brady was just about to play the doorbell video footage when a young man in a fancy suit walked past them.

  “You know,” he said after the man had passed them, “maybe we go somewhere a little more private to look at this.”

  They all went to the opposite end of the hall from Wooten’s office, and around the corner near the emergency exit. Jessie and Ryan crowded around him as he hit play.

  The motion-activated footage showed Eliza Longworth at the front door of the house.

  “Penny!” they heard her yell. “Beth’s here. Are we still on for yoga?”

  She rang the doorbell and tried again. The footage wasn’t the best quality but to Jessie at least, she didn’t seem to be acting suspiciously. Maybe a little nervous, but that could be easily explained by the nature of the situation. She was there, after all, to discuss moving on after her best friend slept with her husband.

  “Penny, can I come in? We should talk for a sec before Beth arrives.”

  After waiting a few more seconds, Eliza tried the front door, which was unlocked.

  “Penny,” they heard her shout from somewhere inside, her voice getting more distant with each second. “You left the door unlocked. Beth’s pulling up. Did you get my text? Can we talk privately for a minute before we start?”

  A few seconds later Beth walked through the open door, calling out, “Ladies, I’m here!”

  The two women spoke briefly and, though it was hard to catch the actual content of their conversation, neither sounded especially distressed.

  About thirty seconds later the screaming began.

  “Well,” Brady said when it ended, “I don’t know how helpful that was other than to confirm everything we already suspected.”

  “We did get clarity on one thing,” Ryan noted. “This shows that Eliza was going into the house, not coming out, when Beth arrived. It doesn’t completely absolve her but at least her story is holding up so far.”

  “Yeah, but she knew that camera was on the doorbell. That whole thing could have been for show,” Jessie countered, though it was becoming increasingly hard to make the case.

  “You really have it in for this woman,” Brady said. “Why?”

  “I’m just covering all the bases,” Jessie replied, ignoring the skeptical look she saw Ryan give her out of the corner of his eye.

  “Let’s set that aside for the time being,” Ryan said, not commenting on the veracity of her assertion. “For now, let’s focus on the man we came here to see. He’s got some explaining to do himself.”

  Brady seemed satisfied with that plan and headed down the hall toward Wooten & Camby. As Jessie started to follow, Ryan put his hand on her shoulder and gently pulled her aside.

  “When we get some private time, you are going to tell me what the hell is going on with you.”

  And before she could reply, he was halfway down the hall.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Wooten made them wait twenty minutes.

  Jessie thought it was odd that he would keep the people investigating his wife’s murder cooling their heels. But she kept that to herself when they were finally ushered into his office. Along the way down the hall, she noticed several very familiar-looking pieces of artwork behind heavy glass. She wondered if they were the originals and briefly regretted not paying closer attention in her art history class.

  When they were led into Wooten’s corner all-glass office, he was on a call, standing jacket-less with his back to them. His assistant got his attention, pointed out the three law enforcement officials in the room, and left. Wooten spoke for another thirty seconds before hanging up.

  “Any updates?” he asked them without preamble.

  “Some actually,” Brady said. “Care to take a seat?”

  “I prefer to stand.”

  Jessie, vaguely irked by his attitude, decided to take the initiative and sat down in one of the chairs across the desk from him.

  “I was surprised to hear you’d be in the office, Mr. Wooten,” she said. “I’d have thought you would want to take a personal day.”

  “Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that. I have a number of clients in court proceedings today and the justice system doesn’t grind to a halt just because my world is falling apart.”

  “You couldn’t get continuances?”

  “In most cases, yes,” he said. “But one criminal trial is currently with the jury and we had a deposition in a high-profile civil case. Those had to be farmed out to the right people. I don’t know how long I will be gone from work and I want to make sure each client is placed with the appropriate replacement.”

  “Your professional dedication is admirable,” she said with just the tiniest hint of skepticism.

  He either didn’t notice or pretended not to.

  “The truth is,” he said, “there’s not much else I can do right now. And in a weird way, it’s keeping me sane. Focusing on the legal minutiae keeps my mind from going to darker places. Plus, this is my only window to get stuff done. Once I pick up the kids later, everything else will take a back seat. I’m not sure how I’m going to break it to them. Ana will be hard enough. She’s only four. But Colt—I don’t know how that will work. Forget the emotional fallout for a second. His mother is central to his routine. And without that routine, he tends to…struggle.”

  “I’m terribly sorry, Mr. Wooten,” Brady said, sounding genuinely sympathetic. “We’ll do our best to be quick here so you can get back to resolving those matters. We have just a few additional questions for you.”

  “I thought you said you had updates,” Wooten reminded him.

  “Updates and questions,” Brady replied innocuously. “The first thing is, we were a little confused about where you went after you dropped off your children this morning.”

  “I came straight here. Why?”

  “Did you turn off your phone, sir?” Ryan asked, not answering Wooten’s question.

  “No. It died. I didn’t have my charger with me so I couldn’t plug it in until I got here.”

  “But your last stop, your son’s school, is less than twenty minutes from here,” Ryan noted. “And yet your phone was off for over an hour.”

  Wooten looked at him with an air of impatience but forced himself to answer the question.

  “I got pulled into an early meeting and forgot about the phone until I got out. What is this all about?”

  “We’re just trying to establish a timeline for everyone,” Brady said, jumping in.

  “Who else’s timeline are you looking at?” Wooten asked.

  “Well, we just spoke to Eliza Longworth at the hospital and got hers,” Jessie volunteered, knowing what she was about to say could have serious consequences. “While we were there, she also told us your wife was having an affair with her husband. Is there any reason you didn’t volunteer that information to us?”

  Jessie watched him closely, looking for any reaction that might reveal something unintended. Wooten looked back at her with squinty, penetrating eyes. He did not seem shocked by her question.

  “Yes, there is, Ms. Hunt. In addition to being shell-shocked over her death, I was embarrassed. I know that shouldn’t have been my priority this morning. But it played a role. I just found out that my wife had been carrying on an affair with not just someone I knew, not just our neighbor, but her best friend’s husband. It was a lot to process. And I gues
s I didn’t handle it as well as I could have.”

  “You lied to us, Mr. Wooten,” Jessie persisted.

  “No, I said we had a good marriage. I said she wasn’t keeping anything from me, which is true. She had already told me about the affair before this happened—yesterday actually. I didn’t spill my guts to you but I didn’t lie either.”

  “How did you feel when she told you?” Ryan asked.

  “How do you think I felt, Detective? I was devastated. I was pissed off. I felt betrayed. In general, I felt like my whole world was collapsing.”

  “Because this would hurt your attempt to run for district attorney?” Jessie pressed.

  Wooten again glared at her and again remained composed as he answered.

  “I’m not going to deny that was a factor,” he admitted. “But that wasn’t the main thing. Even the cheating itself wasn’t the main thing.”

  “What was?” Ryan asked.

  “It was so…unsettling. Penny is the rock in our family. She pays the bills. She volunteers at both kids’ schools. Hell, as you saw, she even handled the codes for the security cameras. The idea that she would do something so reckless, that she was so unmoored—it really messed with my whole conception of who she is.”

  “But she told you she was ending it?” Brady prompted, apparently trying to get away from feelings and back to hard facts.

  “She didn’t just tell me, she showed me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She texted him while I was with her,” he replied. “I watched her type out the message.”

  “What did it say?” Brady asked.

  “I don’t remember the exact words. You can check her phone for that. But the gist of it was, ‘This is over. I told Colton. I told Eliza. We have to face the consequences of what we’ve done.’”

  “Did he respond?” Jessie asked.

  “Yeah,” Wooten said, shaking his head at the memory of it. “I thought he’d give some milquetoast reply, whether he accepted what she said or tried to change her mind. Gray’s kind of a milquetoast guy.”