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Leaving the forensic team and the deputy at the house, Dela and Quinn headed to speak to Paula Pomroy. Dela found it telling that Quinn ordered Shaffer to take Miss Sommers back to work to get her car and then wanted him to canvass the Pomroy neighborhood and ask about the Pomroys’ relationship and the wife’s movements the last couple of days.
“Even though you and Shaffer are both special agents, are you higher up than he is?” she asked.
Quinn stared at her as he put the car in park. “Why are you asking this?”
She shrugged. “You seem to order him around, but he is the same level as you.”
“We are equals. However, I was given the lead on this investigation. That makes me ask him to gather information.”
She chuckled. “Oh, that is you asking? It sounded more like orders to me.”
“When instructing someone to do specific tasks, it might sound like orders.”
He opened his door. “Car is in the garage. She should be home.”
Dela had noticed the open garage door when they pulled up. The garage had everything neatly boxed and stacked. Except for a small box on the top of two stacked totes. It stuck two inches out beyond the edge of the tote.
They walked up to the door and Quinn rang the doorbell.
Paula arrived with the toddler on her hip. “You again.” She left the door open and spun around.
They followed her into the living room. It looked the same as before, except for the playpen set up in front of the large window. Sun streamed across the structure. Dela wished she could lay down among the blankets and stuffed animals and take a nap.
“Mrs. Pomroy—”
“Paula, please,” she interrupted Quinn.
“Paula, what were you doing at the casino the night your husband was killed?”
The woman’s eyes widened then narrowed. “Friends were passing through. I purchased a gift for them at the gift shop. When they didn’t answer my knock, I left it on the door handle and waited for their return in the sports bar.”
“Did your husband know you were visiting friends at the casino? Is that why he returned that night?”
Her face flushed. “I didn’t know he wasn’t home watching our son. That was where I’d left him. Here, with little Alfie.” She walked over and sat the child in the middle of the playpen. She handed him several small toys and walked back over to them.
Dela opened up the folder and pulled out the photo of Ronald Edmond. “This is the man you met in the sports bar. He’s also the man who called down to maintenance about a plugged toilet.” She handed the photo to Paula.
She glanced at it and handed it back. “Yeah, that’s my friend.”
“What’s his name?” Quinn asked.
“Ronnie. We met in the bar so I could help him come up with a good anniversary gift for my friend, his wife.” She sat down on the couch. “I don’t understand what my visiting with a friend would have to do with my husband’s death.”
“That’s what we are trying to figure out as well,” Dela said, taking a seat on the couch an arm’s length away from the woman. “That night was the only night casino personnel remember seeing you at the casino without your husband. A night when it was clear that he was in the hotel.”
“I didn’t know he was there. Like I said, I thought he was, here, at home with Alfie.”
“But that’s not what you told us when we arrived here Thursday. You made it sound as if you were home all night.” Quinn took a seat on a chair.
“Why are you treating me as if I’m the one who killed my husband? Why would I? I don’t want to raise Alfie by myself. I’m going to have to put him in preschool while I work.”
Dela glanced over at Quinn. Did the woman not know she would be wealthy by her husband’s death or like before was she playing them? Thinking they didn’t know she was about to get a lot of money.
“I think if you don’t go out and purchase expensive things, you’ll find the insurance money will keep a roof over your head and food in your mouths,” Quinn said.
“Insurance? What insurance?” Her eyes were wide and her mouth slightly open as if surprised.
“You didn’t know he took out a quarter-of-a-million life insurance policy?” Dela asked.
The woman shook her head. “No. I had no idea.” She focused on Quinn. “I’m going to get that much?”
“If you aren’t guilty of his death.” The tone Quinn used had Dela fighting her lips from curving into a smile. It suggested the woman had killed her husband.
“I didn’t kill him. I can’t help it my friends came into town the same night.” Paula shifted her attention to Dela. “You work for the casino. How do I go about getting my insurance money?”
Her husband’s death hadn’t been fully investigated and she was ready to grab the money. “You’ll have to talk to the personnel department to find out that information. I’m here to discover what happened to your husband.”
“Then go talk to his friends at work.” The woman’s hand waved like she was swatting at a fly.
“Who were his friends at work?” Dela asked.
“He said he talked to the guy who he shared his office with, a woman at the deli. Rose, I think it was. And lately he’d been talking to someone else, but he didn’t mention them by name. I think whoever it was worked with you.” She pointed at Dela.
“Security or surveillance?” That could solve how the cameras were turned off at the right time on the correct floor. Had someone watching the monitors discovered what Tristan had been up to and wanted in on it? “Man or woman?”
“I don’t know. He kept it all secretive. Just like he did every time he thought he’d found someone on a wanted poster. He’d get excited then get secretive until he realized he’d been wrong. Then he’d hide out in his den for days before he’d be back to himself again.”
“Do you remember seeing a small book your husband carried?” Quinn asked.
“His surveillance book? He kept all his sightings and information on the wanted people he called the FBI about.”
“That’s all he kept in the book?” Dela asked.
The woman stared at her. “What do you think was in the book?”
“We don’t know. However, the book has disappeared since your husband’s death and another person, who we believe had possession of the book, is now dead as well.” Quinn put the information out there in a monotone, non-committal way.
Dela wished she could stay so disconnected to the two lives that had been taken too early.
“Someone else has been murdered! Who?”
“We aren’t at liberty to say at the moment. You’re sure the only information your husband kept in that book had to do with wanted people?” Quinn persisted.
“That’s what he always told me when I’d see him looking or writing in it.”
“He’s called the FBI enough times that his book should have been full and in need of another one if he was keeping surveillance on people he suspected.” Quinn stared at the woman.
Dela wondered about that. If he had been keeping surveillance, why had he been watching Jeff? Had he spent time walking around the casino studying the people who came there looking for wanted people? How had they not known this about him? Maybe they needed to speak with Luis again. The sums of money that stopped showing up in Jeff’s bank account looked like blackmail. But wouldn’t someone who was wanted by the FBI keep a lower profile than a dealer? And, who was the woman he had helping him skim money from the casino? There were too many questions.
Quinn stood, drawing Dela’s mind from the thoughts whirling around. She stood, not realizing he’d finished his questioning.
“We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions,” he said to Paula, and headed to the front door.
Dela followed behind. She turned at the door and peered into Paula’s eyes. “Did you really think your husband was here watching his son when you met up with Ronald Edmond?”
Paula’s eyes widened. “Who is Ronald Edmond?”
“The man you called Ronnie and met with in the sports bar.” Dela studied her closely. The woman appeared stunned to know that was the man’s last name.
“Oh, that’s right. I always just think of him as Ronnie. My friend still goes by her maiden name.”
The comment came so quick it sounded authentic, but Dela wondered.
Out in the car, Quinn faced her as she settled into the passenger side. “How much of what she told us do you think is the truth?”
“Maybe fifty percent. That woman is good at lying.” Dela wasn’t ready to rule her out as a person of interest in her husband’s death.
“That’s what I was thinking. I don’t buy that he used the one small book to keep surveillance on people. She knows what’s in the book.”
“But does she want it enough to kill another person? And what was that about not knowing Ronald Edmond’s last name? How is that possible if they are working together?” Dela didn’t like any of it. Least of all that there was a security guard or surveillance member who knew more than they were saying.
♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
After stopping at a store for Dela to pick up two bags of dog food and a couple of dog toys, they parked in front of Molly’s vet clinic.
“I’ll get Travis to come out and help you with those bags,” Dela said, exiting the car quickly to get a conversation with Molly without Quinn present. She didn’t wait for a response, just hurried into the building.
Travis glanced up from the desk.
“Can you go help Special Agent Peirce bring in both bags of dog food?” She carried the bag with dog toys.
“Sure. He’s helping you out a lot lately.” The young man grinned. “Mom is in the back cleaning a dog’s teeth.”
Dela walked through the waiting room and into the first exam room.
“Hey, good to see you. Give me a minute. I have to finish this.” She nodded to the room with the cages. “You can go in and scratch Eats a Lot while you wait.”
Dela nodded and continued to the room where the dog lay in the large cage. “Hi, Eats a Lot. Remember me?”
His big fluffy tail moved up and down, thumping the blanket under him.
“I brought you something to do.” She pulled out a squeaky chew toy, pulled the tags off of it, and opened the door, placing it in front of him.
His big brown eyes peered at her, ignoring the toy. She put a hand on the wide space between his ears. He was a large dog and would only get larger. Could she take care of him? Now she was allowing her mother’s and Quinn’s doubts to enter her head.
She continued to stare into his eyes and worked her hand down to scratch his neck. Her fingers curled into his thick fur. He kind of reminded her of a wolf. His long snout and coloring were kind of wolfish. But his floppy ears and brown kind eyes, showed he was a lover, not a fighter. He was a survivor, just like her.
“I don’t know where you’ll come to when you get out of here, but if I can make it happen, it will be at our own place.” She scratched him and stared into his eyes. “We have to change your name. Is that why you ran away? You didn’t like the name.”
Footsteps behind her ended her conversation with the dog.
“He’s healing nicely. He will be ready to leave here by the end of next week.” Molly held out an arm to help her stand.
Dela let few people help her, but her friend had been one of the first to let her know she didn’t think for one minute that Dela was any weaker than she’d been before losing her foot. She glanced around to make sure Quinn wasn’t watching and used the offered arm to grasp and pull herself to her feet.
“Thank you.”
“I’m always here for you. Just like you have always been here for me.”
She knew Molly didn’t mean literally. However, while she’d been in the army, she and Molly had stayed in touch and it had been Dela’s letters to Molly that had given her friend strength to leave an abusive relationship and head off to college to become a veterinarian. Even with a small child in tow.
“I doubt this dog will eat two bags of dog food while he’s here, even if his name is Eats a Lot,” Quinn said, entering the room.
Dela glared at Quinn. “Molly and Travis also take in strays and find homes for them.”
“Then why don’t you have them find a home for that brute and you take a smaller dog if you want one?” His gaze was on the dog, studying Quinn from the cage.
His comment didn’t help her attitude. “Because this dog came into my life for a reason. I will keep him.”
The scowl on Quinn’s face said he didn’t understand. But Molly and Travis’s smiles confirmed what she’d come to see. The dog had been run over in front of her for a reason. Only the powers that be knew why.
“I need to settle my bill and then we have to get my car.” Dela walked out to the reception area. The others followed her.
While Travis printed out the sheets summarizing the costs, Dela watched Quinn looking at his phone. She wondered if the forensics report had come in yet on their first body.
Her phone rang. Mom. She sighed heavily and answered.
“Hello, Mom.”
“How are you?” she asked.
“I’m fine. I’ll be coming by in the next thirty minutes to pick up some more clothes and my car.”
“I’ll have lunch ready for you. Is Quinn coming with you? I want to make sure I have enough iced tea made.”
Dela glanced at Quinn. “He will be bringing me but I don’t know if he’ll be able to stay.”
“Stay for what?” Quinn asked, walking over next to her.
“Lunch.”
“I can always make time to eat,” he said.
The shit-eating grin on his face made her wince. He was only accepting the invitation to dig into her past and irritate her.
“I guess he’ll be staying for lunch.” Maybe she could come up with a reason to load up her car and leave. But then she didn’t know what her mom would tell Quinn. If she stayed, she could manipulate the conversation.
“Good. See you then!”
Dela ended the call and glared at him. “You made my mom’s day.” She took the papers Travis held out to her, and walked out of the building.