And then it hit her. Xander didn’t need to know anything about Claire. He just needed to know how the mind of her killer worked. And he was an expert at that. Then again, so was she.

So what would motivate this killer? What incorrect assumption am I making?

For starters, all the likely suspects were rich men trying to keep these relationships on the down low.

Are they though?

Now that she thought about it, that wasn’t really the case. The three main suspects she’d questioned were all wealthy, powerful men. But none of them would be truly ruined if word of their involvement with Claire got out.

Milton Jerebko had told his wife, Gayle, about the affair before Claire died. And he didn’t seem overly concerned about potential voters finding out. That’s why Claire’s blackmail scheme had failed.

Gunther Stroud had an open relationship with his wife, who didn’t even live in the same country as him. The idea that he could be shamed by the revelation of a relationship with a young hottie seemed absurd.

Even Jett Collison, with his fake actress girlfriend, wasn’t hiding Claire from those closest to him. And having proposed, he had to know that if she said yes, the truth of how they met would get out. He clearly wasn’t overly concerned about it. Besides, he had seemed genuinely distraught over her death. And he just wasn’t that great an actor to be faking it.

The simple truth was that none of those suspects had a reason to kill her. The people in their lives either already knew about Claire or wouldn’t have been shocked to hear about her. None of these guys would have viewed the potential scandal of being associated with her as remotely worth the risk of killing her.

So either the killer was someone they hadn’t found yet who would fear being exposed or there was another motive for the killing. And since Jessie had gone through every text from every suitor on the site, she knew there weren’t any legitimate “fear of exposure” candidates left.

That left the alternate motive theory. And Jessie was fairly confident she knew what that motive was: passion twisted into rage. She’d already theorized that the use of keys as the murder weapon suggested the killing wasn’t premeditated. If it were, the killer would have used a more efficient, less messy implement. The decision to kill was made in the moment, without thought of the consequences. This was a crime born out of passion, not fear.

For the first time in hours, Jessie felt like she was on the right track.

Focus on the passion, find the killer.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

So who had that kind of passion?

Jessie thought again of Matilda, who clearly carried a torch for Jett and might have let her jealousy get out of control. But even she likely would have brought some kind of weapon with her to a confrontation. Besides, she had an unassailable alibi.