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Walking into the casino Thursday around noon, Margie, the security guard at the door, practically lunged at her.
“Did you hear what happened?” she asked.
“Here? At the casino?” Dela responded, wondering if she should have come in earlier.
“No. It’s Athena. The tribals found her in her car. Dead.” Margie’s eyes blinked rapidly as if she were holding back tears.
“I’m sorry, was she a friend of yours?” Dela took the woman by the arm, leading her over to a chair and making her sit.
“No. But everyone is wondering since she is a Spotted Pony employee if someone is targeting us.” Margie’s hands shook as she drew a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose.
“I don’t think Athena’s death had anything to do with the casino.” Dela had a pretty good idea who could have caused her death since Margie’s unease meant it wasn’t natural. “How did she die?”
“All I know is someone killed her. No one has said how.”
Dela pulled out her phone and scrolled to Heath’s number. It rang and went to voicemail. Since he was now the interim detective, until he was officially made detective, he was probably working the case. Since she couldn’t butt into that part of the investigation, she’d start asking questions of the casino employees.
“Do you know anything about Athena’s family? Her husband and daughter?” Dela asked, pulling a chair up in front of Margie.
The woman shook her head. “No. She only really ever talked about herself. What she planned to do when she wasn’t working and rarely had anything to do with Alex or Harper.”
“You knew her well enough to know her husband and child’s names.” Dela pushed to see if the woman knew more than she thought.
“Only because my granddaughter is in the same grade in school as Harper. I went to a school event and my daughter pointed out Alex and Harper. She said Alex does everything with Harper because the mom works all the time.” Margie’s back stiffened and her eyes glinted with anger. “I told Viola that she didn’t work that much. That I knew for a fact she wasn’t at work the day of the event. Viola seemed surprised.”
Dela nodded. “Most likely Athena had told her a story about having to work to support her family when in fact Alex has a very good job at Cayuse Technologies.”
Margie stared at her. “Really? That’s where he works? Then why was Athena even working?”
“Exactly.” Dela stood. “I need to get to work.” She walked over to her desk, put her purse in the cabinet beside the desk she shared with Kenny, picked up her radio, snapped it to her belt, clipped the microphone to her shirt, and shoved an earbud in her ear. She turned on the radio and asked if she was coming in clear.
All her officers on duty responded. She smiled and walked out into the color, noise, and chaos of the gaming floor. Slowly, she made her rounds, talking to each employee and easing into asking how well they knew Athena.
Todd Wilde, a security guard, was evasive when Dela asked if he knew Athena.
“What’s her last name?” he asked.
Dela could tell he only asked to stall for time to think about what he wanted to say. “Kindale. Alex Kindale’s wife. She’s a waitress in the Pony from noon to eight.”
The man did a small shake. “No, I can’t help you. Why are you asking about her?”
Dela studied the man. Should she be the one to break the news? According to Margie, the staff knew about the death. Then she wondered how they knew. She pretended she had a call on her phone and walked away with her back to the man and called Margie.
“Dela? Why are you calling on the phone?” Margie answered in the security office.
“How did people learn about Athena’s death?” she asked. “And are you sure everyone who works here knows about it? So far, the guards I’ve talked to don’t seem to know.”
“Rae in housekeeping lives next door. She said she asked the tribal standing guard by the car what was going on. And he said a woman had been killed. She said it was Athena’s car and when she tried to get in the house and talk to Alex, another tribal wouldn’t let her in.”
“And who did you tell about this? And security guards?” Dela was trying to decide how to approach Todd with the news given she could tell he knew the woman and had a reason for saying he didn’t.
“I only told you and Nadine.”
Dela rolled her eyes. Nadine liked to gossip. She’d have the story all messed up. She was good at her job because she wasn’t afraid to approach people and visit with them to find out things, but she liked to reveal everything she heard. Kind of like the telephone game they all played as kids. One person at the front would say something and it would come out completely different by the time it reached the last person.
“Okay. Don’t tell anyone else. I’m sure the police will be around to question the people she worked with, and I don’t want them getting false information and thinking they heard the correct information.”
“Roger.”
Dela ended the call and swung around to find Todd gone.
She raised her phone to call Marty when she spotted Heath and Jacob Red Bear, the brother of her best friend in school, walk through the casino entrance. Shoving her phone back into her pocket, she met them as they strode toward the Pony Bar and Grill.
“I heard Athena was killed,” she said in a low voice for only the two tribal officers to hear.
“That’s where we just came from. Alex is upset, but...”
“Not torn up,” Dela added.
“Yeah. However, it isn’t very likely he would have killed her in their driveway.”
“Unless he was sitting in the car with her and she said something that angered him and he lashed out,” Jacob said.
Dela stopped and swung her body to force both men to also stop. “How did she die?”
Heath peered at her. “This is a tribal investigation. I can’t give you all the details.”
She smiled and waved a hand at Jacob. “Come on. Jacob isn’t going to say you broke any rules. He knows I’m only trying to help solve the murder.” She crossed her arms. “Besides, didn’t we see a suspect last night?”
Jacob’s eyebrows rose. He glanced from Dela to Heath and back to Dela. “Did you two have her under surveillance last night?”
“No. We happened to be having a drink in the bar where she sidelines when not working at the Spotted Pony,” Heath said, stepping to the side and evading Dela.
“He’s just angry that he almost got in a fight and I had to save him.” Dela didn’t have time to count before Heath swung back around.
“We shouldn’t have been in that bar last night. I told you that. And I wasn’t going to get in a fight with an out-of-town biker. You did not save me. You shoved a man and could have put us both in the county jail overnight.” He crossed his arms and glared at her.
Jacob whistled softly. “You two sure know how to have fun. Ays? Let’s go talk to the bartender.” He strode away.
Dela followed, knowing Heath wouldn’t remain without someone to glare at.
At the bar, Dexter was restocking. Natalie was wiping down tables and filling salt and pepper shakers. There were only two patrons sitting at the bar.
Dexter looked up and spotted them in the mirror. He slowly turned toward the bar at their approach. “What brings the Tribal Police to the Pony?”
“Do you notice you are one waitress short?” Dela asked.
Dexter nodded. “It’s rare she comes in on time.”
“She won’t be coming in. Athena Kindale is a homicide victim,” Heath said.
Dexter’s eyes widened and he took a step back as if Heath had slugged him in the chest. “Victim? Homicide?” The bartender’s gaze flashed from face to face as if he expected them to say it was a joke.
“What’s going on?” Natalie asked, walking behind the bar and standing next to Dexter.
“Athena Kindale’s body was found in her vehicle this morning,” Heath said. “We’d like to know if she had any confrontations with anyone while here at work.”
Jacob pulled out his notebook, his pen poised over the fresh sheet of paper.
Dela sat on a bar stool. “The only way the police can find who did this is if you tell them everything you know. Including the days she left here early, and you...” Dela nodded to Natalie, “punched her time card when you left.”
Dexter let out a whoosh of air. “Athena didn’t cause trouble. She smiled and chatted with everyone. Sometimes too much.”
“What do you mean by that?” Heath asked.
“She’d spend so much time talking to specific customers, I’d have to work half of her tables and mine,” Natalie said in an irritated tone.
Dela latched onto that. “The people she’d spend lots of time with, were they men or women?”
Natalie looked up as if thinking and then said, “Mostly older, well-dressed men.”
“Was she flirting?” Dela asked. She’d seen how the woman had been with Gus Sanders at Harry’s the night before. She seemed to be a tease.
“Not really flirting. But she’d smile and talk nice, ask them if they were here alone. That sort of thing.” Natalie shrugged. “I just thought she was making small talk to not have to do as much work.”
“And yet you let her talk you into clocking her out when she left early,” Heath jumped into the conversation.
Natalie folded the towel still in her hands from wiping down the tables and didn’t say anything.
“What about you?” Heath turned his attention to Dexter. “Did you see her flirting or conversing more than other waitresses?”
“Only when it wasn’t busy. That’s the only time I have to watch the waitresses. Usually, I’m busy back here putting out drinks for them to deliver and pouring for people at the bar.” Dexter flicked a sideways glance at Natalie.
“Did Athena ever flirt with you?” Dela asked.
He shook his head. “I’m not her type.”
Jacob cleared his throat and said, “You have a lot of similarities to her husband, Alex.”
Dexter shrugged.
Dela tucked this away. From what Rosie had said and now this observation by Jacob, she was beginning to think that Athena married Alex for a reason other than love.