Jessie and Trembley wheeled to their right, unholstering their guns and pointing them at a man who had suddenly appeared near the door leading to the bedrooms. He was unarmed.
“Raise your hands above your head and don’t take another step,” Jessie ordered.
The man did as instructed, though he looked like he wanted to run over.
“Please,” he pleaded, “Will’s innocent. He didn’t do a thing, I swear.”
“You got Struce covered?” Jessie asked Trembley as she approached the stranger, keeping her gun trained on him.
Trembley nodded. She moved closer to the man, who was younger than he first seemed. Short and muscular, with dyed blond hair and a deep tan, Jessie guessed he was no older than twenty-five. He wore tight black jeans and an even tighter white T-shirt.
“Get on your knees!” she demanded. “Who are you?”
“Owen Mulaney,” he said as he knelt down. “I’m a close friend of Will’s. I’m telling you, he didn’t hurt Corinne.”
“How do you know that?”
Owen looked over at Struce, who had a pained expression on his face, then turned back to Jessie.
“Because he was with me. We were together at my place most of the evening.”
“Where do you live?” Jessie asked, now directly in front of him as she scanned for any hidden weapons.
“At the Las Palmas Apartments just off Santa Monica Boulevard,” he said.
“Extend your hands,” Jessie instructed, then cuffed his exposed wrists. “What evidence do you have to confirm that?”
“I don’t know lady,” Owen said. “I think the building has cameras.”
“We’ve already learned that your friend can manipulate that sort of thing,” Trembley pointed out.
“Okay then. I ordered from Pink Dot while he was there. You could check with them?”
“Did the delivery person see him?” Jessie asked.
Owen strained to recall.
“I think Will was in the kitchen at the time. But we might have been talking. Maybe the guy heard him?”
“Put yourself in our shoes, Owen,” Jessie told him. “Nothing you’re telling us clears him. You’re his alibi but no one other than you saw him. When the delivery guy arrived, you spoke to a man out of sight who could have been anyone. You live within walking distance of the studio, eliminating the need for a cab or rideshare. Or he could have taken your car to get there, or used your phone to hail a ride.”
Owen shook his head vigorously.
“Check for cameras at my place. Check the cameras at the studio. Those will prove I’m telling the truth because Will was with me until close to midnight. I swear. He was just covering because he was protecting Corinne’s memory. He didn’t want it to get out that her marriage was not the beauty and the beast story the media created.”
To her left, Jessie heard an unnatural moan. She looked over to see that Willem Struce had slumped back down in the rocking chair. He was sobbing and his whole body was heaving in sudden, irregular bursts.
“Go sit next to him,” Jessie said quietly to Owen, who rushed over, moved Struce from the rocking chair to the couch, and wrapped his cuffed arms around the older man.
Jessie followed, standing beside Trembley. They gave the men a bit of space.
“What do we do now?” he whispered.
“I don’t know,” she admitted quietly. “On paper, he looks good for it: questionable alibi, he was clearly hiding a big secret, maybe not from her but from others. I’d be curious to see what she left him in her will. And yet, I don’t feel solid about him.”
“I get that,” Trembley said. “And I have some doubts too. But the guy had the mental clarity, only hours after she died, to modify footage from his surveillance cameras. He was in the area of the murder when it happened. He had easy access to the back lot. We should definitely check the footage from the studio and Owen’s place. But for now, I think we have to take him in. He’s our strongest suspect.”
Jessie nodded. Trembley was right. They had to arrest him. Too often, she’d let her gut take precedence over evidence. And the evidence pointed to Willem Struce, even if every fiber of her being told her they had it wrong.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Kat hung up the phone.
Hannah looked at her hesitantly.
“What did she say?” she asked.
“She said she’s going to be late tonight and that we should eat without her. They have a suspect in custody but she doesn’t feel good about him and wants to follow up on a lead.”
“You didn’t mention anything about our outing today,