“I am very busy. It’s hard to find time to meet women. So I signed up for this website. It’s not illegal. It’s just a way to introduce people to each other. I didn’t pay my dates for sex. I didn’t promise anything. I don’t know what I did wrong.”

“Are you married, Mr. Stroud?” Jessie asked, already well aware of the answer.

He seemed taken aback, but only briefly.

“My wife is assigned to our London office. We don’t get to see each other often. So we have an understanding. She knows I…go out.”

“I wonder who “assigned’ her to the London office?” Dolan cracked, enjoying amplifying his “bull in a china shop” persona.

“It was a mutual decision,” Stroud said in a clipped tone.

“Do you know a woman named Claire Stanton?” Jessie asked, trying to get things back on track.

He didn’t make any effort to hide his familiarity as his face broke into a pleasant smile at the thought of her.

“Yes, of course. Claire and I dated for several months a while back. She’s a great girl.”

“Why did you break up?” Jessie asked.

“She said she had met someone she felt strongly about and didn’t feel right about continuing to see me.”

“Did she give a name?”

“No,” Stroud scoffed. “That wasn’t her way. She was very discreet.”

“So you believed her about meeting someone else?” Dolan asked, a little surprised.

“I didn’t care. Whether she met someone or was lying, she clearly didn’t want to see me anymore. So I accepted it and moved on. There are many pretty girls in Los Angeles.”

“Where were you last night?” Jessie asked quickly, hoping the random barrage of questions might knock him off guard.

He looked perplexed for a moment before responding confidently.

“I was here.”

“In the office?” she asked.

“Yes, we had a programming bug with our latest update and it was all hands on deck to resolve it. I was up all night working with the tech team.”

“You didn’t leave at any point during the night?” Dolan pressed.

“No. I crashed for a few hours on my couch around four a.m. but I was here the whole time. That’s why I was anxious to leave just now—to go home and sleep.”

“Who can verify your whereabouts last night?” Dolan asked.

Stroud looked at him like he was joking.

“Only about ten software engineers, our marketing and PR leads, our general counsel, and my personal assistant. There was a pizza guy here at one point too.”

Jessie thought she could almost hear the energy leave the room.

“We’ll need all their names,” she said, though she doubted they would. “And we’ll be checking with building security so we can review the security camera footage from last night.”

“No problem,” Stroud said, sensing the pressure on him easing. “My assistant keeps detailed logs. What is this all about anyway?”

“Thank you for your time, Mr. Stroud,” Jessie replied, ignoring his question and handing over a card for Central Station’s detective bureau. “Please have your assistant send those logs to this contact number. And don’t leave town without contacting us first.”