Exactly, Jessie said. A few months ago, she gets divorced, starts going to parties, traveling in the same circles as Gilliard. She cant avoid him. And she cant avoid the memory of what she didwhatever that may have beento help him escape justice. She starts to feel guilty. And then, according to her phone logs, she has several calls with him last week. What if she was feeling guilty enough that she was considering coming clean? What if she was trying to convince Gilliard to do the same? Maybe he agrees to confess and says he wants to come up with a plan, but not in the office, where he says his presence would be noted. He wants to do it somewhere where no one would notice them having a conversation; no one would draw any conclusions, because of the sheer number of people there. So he says hell be at the Otis party this Saturday and asks her to come there to discuss it.

You think he lured her there to kill her? Karen asked.

Maybe he genuinely wanted to change her mind and got angry when she wouldnt, Jessie said. Maybe he planned it all along. Either way, its murder.

Both Karen and Jamil sat quietly for a moment, pondering the hypothesis. Jessie took it as a good sign that neither had dismissed it out of hand. Finally Karen raised a question.

But why would Jasper Otis cover for him? she asked. Theres no way Gilliard could have covered this up and stayed at the estate this long without Otiss knowledge and consent. Why would he put himself on the line for the guy?

Thats a good question, Jessie conceded. Maybe Otis didnt want the bad press and acted rashly. Maybe he was just trying to be a good friend. Maybe Gilliard had something on him.

She had an idea what that might be but decided to hold off on voicing that suspicion for now. Before she could expound any further, Jamil waved his hand to get their attention.

Got something? Jessie asked.

Yep, he said. I did the search you mentioned about mold remediation. Anything like what you said they claimed was going on in the residential wing requires a clearance inspection before work can be done. The approved clearance has to be filed with the city. No such approval was filed for Otis Estate at any point in the last month.

Well, thats suspicious, Karen said.

Also, Nancy Salter told you the remediation process was underway, correct? Jamil asked.

Jessie nodded.

Well, I reviewed the camera footage for the last week. At no point did I see any van or truck on the property with any name having anything to do with mold cleanup.

So theyre faking it, Karen concluded. There is no mold problem.

Jessie shrugged.