“I’m Milt,” he said in a booming voice. “This is my wife, Gayle.”

Gayle shook all their hands as well. Also in her forties, she was as immaculate as her husband. Blonde and statuesque with a figure that suggested hours of hard work at the gym, she looked like she could have been Claire’s mother. Jessie forced that uncomfortable thought from her head.

“To what do we owe the honor of the entire Los Angeles law enforcement community?” Jerebko asked after all the handshakes hand concluded.

“Well, Councilman,” Dolan began, “it might be better if we discussed this matter with you privately.”

Jessie noted that he used the man’s formal title rather than just his name, a subtle reminder that the stakes were higher than usual for a public official. But it didn’t seem to faze Jerebko—at least not yet.

“Anything you have to discuss with me, you can discuss in front of my wife,” he said confidently.

Jessie suspected he might regret being so blustery.

“All right,” she said, deciding to test the theory. “We’re here about Claire Stanton.”

“Ah, of course,” he said expectantly. “I had a feeling that might be what this was about. How many other folks has she tried to extort?”

“Excuse me?” Jessie asked, genuinely surprised.

“I’m assuming you’re doing some kind of investigation into her attempts to extort folks she’s been involved with. I can’t be the only one.”

Jessie stared at him in stunned silence. Dolan stepped into the void.

“Are you acknowledging that you had a relationship with Ms. Stanton?”

“I wouldn’t really call it a relationship. But we were involved, yes. That is, until she tried to pressure me to pay her to stay quiet.”

Jessie looked over at Gayle Jerebko, whose tight expression was somewhere between a smile and a grimace. Clearly, she was not loving this.

“You were aware of this relationship?” Jessie asked her.

“I was made aware of it recently,” she said tersely. “After this woman tried to blackmail Milt, he came clean to me rather than pay.”

“And how has that been for you?” Jessie couldn’t help but ask, even though it wasn’t strictly professional.

“I can’t say that the last few days have been the greatest of my life. First, learning your husband has been unfaithful. Then finding out his mistress is trying to extort him. But it was the right course of action. Paying would have just made things worse. This way, her threats have no power.”

“What about with the voters?” Jessie countered. “Even if you don’t hold this against him, they might.”

“My constituents are very understanding,” Jerebko said, shifting effortlessly into politician mode. “This is a pretty forgiving community. In my experience, as long as you are doing the work of the people, folks around here don’t get too exercised about personal peccadilloes. I had been toying with the idea of a press conference to get everything out in the open. Now that it looks like law enforcement is involved, I’m even more certain that I should. It will be hard on Gayle and the kids, who did nothing to bring this about. But it’s the right thing to do. How long do I have? Has she been arrested?”