| |
Dela sat beside her mom as they drove to the realty office in Pendleton.
“I can’t believe you are actually buying a house. One I haven’t even seen,” Mom had been talking nonstop since she pulled up to the casino entrance and Dela slid in the passenger seat. After talking to Wallace and asking him to pull up all of Tristan’s emails and anything else where he would have received a message, she’d called the realtor to let her know she was running late, and then called her mom.
“Molly went with me. She agrees it is a great buy.”
“But an acre and a half? How will you take care of it?” Mom glanced over at her.
“Molly and Travis are helping me figure it out. Travis will do all the remodeling for half the cost of a licensed carpenter and he’ll do a better job because he is a friend.” She loved that her friend’s son was excited to help her.
“It sounds like your mind is made up,” Mom parked the car in front of the realty.
“It is. Come on. You’ll like Cathryn.” Dela exited her mom’s car and walked up to the door of the building. Mom joined her and they walked in together.
“I’m here to sign papers with Cathryn,” Dela said, to the receptionist.
“Right this way.”
They followed the young woman down a short hall and into a conference room. Papers were spread out across the table. Cathryn sat at the long side away from the door.
“Come in, Dela. And who did you bring with you?” Cathryn stood and reached out a hand across the table.
“This is my mom, Debra Bolden.” Dela made introductions.
The two did hit it off talking about everything as Dela browsed the contracts and signed.
“My bank should have sent the check for the amount to you this morning,” she told Cathryn. “Did it arrive, or do I have to wait until then to get the keys?”
“Your check arrived about five minutes before you did. You’ll find the keys in here.” Cathryn handed her an envelope. “The envelope also has the name of the contractor who built the house, the information about the parcel, and how to get the utilities turned on.”
“Thank you. That’s all good to know. I’ll send you photos when we get it fixed up.” She shook hands and motioned for her mom to head to the door.
Out in the car, she stared at the envelope.
“Are you sorry you bought the house?” her mom asked.
“No. I’m just thinking of all the possibilities.” She smiled. “I need to set up an account at the lumber store. Would you please take me there, then I’ll buy you lunch and we can go see my new home.”
Mom smiled. “It does my heart good to see you happy. Maybe getting your own place and something to look after is a good idea.”
“Thanks. Oh, and we need to swing by Molly’s and I’ll introduce you to Mugshot.”
“Mugshot?”
♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
By the time Dela returned to the casino, her car stood in a parking slot and Quinn had returned and stood just inside the entrance waiting for her.
“Did your mom approve of your new project?” he asked, falling in step beside her.
“As a matter of fact, she did. Thinks it’s a good idea I have a project outside of work. What did you find in the phone records?” She continued across the casino floor, past the water feature, and into the security office.
“I know you said you weren’t leaving until you caught the killer but you really need to get a life,” Kenny said, standing up from a desk in the security office.
“I did. I bought a house this morning. Now I need to talk to Wallace.” She motioned for Quinn to follow her. She kind of liked him following her orders. It had been the complete opposite in Iraq.
Dela, with Quinn on her heels, left the security office and entered the hallway leading to all the internal casino offices. She stepped into the tech offices.
Wallace glanced up, then motioned them over. “You said you wanted to see all the messages he received or sent. Here is a list of his emails for a week before his death. He also belonged to a Facebook group for people who kept an eye out for ‘Most Wanted’ fugitives. That is full of weirdos.” The tech supervisor raised his eyebrows and twirled a finger beside his head.
Dela took the pages of messages. Some were between Tristan and his boss. Nothing unusual with them. Someone with the email address of blondebetty97 suggested he meet her at their usual spot at midnight. Dela glanced up at Quinn. “He had been rendezvousing with someone named blonde Betty ninety-seven. What do you want to bet it was on the tenth floor?”
She pulled out her phone and dialed Marty.
“Yo,” he answered.
“Can you pull up video of the tenth floor on the evenings that Tristan was in the casino?” She knew it was a huge task. “We need to see if he was meeting a blonde on ten.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks.” She handed the pages she’d read to Quinn and continued down the next page. And found another email from blondebetty97. It read, What do I have to do to keep you from turning my father in?
Dela read the man’s response. Her blood boiled. “That little perverted weasel.”
Quinn grabbed the paper from her hand and Wallace nodded.
“He had sex with a young woman in payment for not turning her father in? That is low. And we have another suspect.” Anger hardened Quinn’s face.
“If we don’t think Paula killed her husband.” Dela scanned the next page. Blondebetty97 wasn’t sending or receiving any more emails. She waved the papers in her hand toward the computer. “Can you figure out who blonde Betty ninety-seven is?”
“I’m working on it. I have to go through servers and link up with other servers but I should have it by the end of the day.” Wallace sat back down at his computer.
Dela motioned for Quinn to exit the room. Out in the hall she faced him. “What did you find in the phone records?”
“The couple, Paula and Pomroy, texted back and forth about eleven that night. Paula said something about I know what you’ve been doing. Let’s meet up and make things right. She suggested the tenth floor, room ten-ten right by the fire stairs.” Quinn looked up from his notes.
“She took the stairs when she left eight-thirty-four. But why pretend to have sex with Ronald and then go meet her husband naked in room ten-ten unless she’d planned on killing him?” Dela wasn’t getting anywhere with what they knew. “And how did she get his body from ten-ten into the laundry room and shoved in the chute without leaving a mess?”
“I know it’s been days, but has anyone checked on that room?” Quinn shoved his notepad in the inside pocket of his suitcoat and walked toward the service elevator.
“I’ll see if anyone has stayed in that room since last Wednesday.” She pulled out her phone and dialed the main desk.
“Faith speaking.”
“Hi Faith, it’s Dela. Can you check and see if anyone has stayed in room ten-ten since last Wednesday?”
“Sure. This have anything to do with what happened?” She tapped keys as she talked.
“Maybe. Won’t know until we check it out.” The elevator they’d rode up in stopped on the tenth floor. Dela stepped out and headed down the hall following the exit signs. She found room 1010 right next to the fire escape stairs.
“It doesn’t look like it’s been used for a month. That’s a room that is saved for overflow because people complain about smoke seeping in the hallway from employees smoking in the stairway.”
“We might need to do something about that. Thanks.” Dela ended the call and faced Quinn. “It hasn’t been used in a month.” She pulled out the master keycard that was part of her head of security tools and opened the door.
The room had the stale air of an unused room. There was an indention on the end of the bed closest to the door as if someone had sat there. She checked the bathroom as Quinn looked under the beds and around the room.
“I can’t find anything that might tie anyone to the murder.” She leaned against the wall by the bathroom. “Maybe Tristan never made it to this room? Paula sat here waiting and when he didn’t show, she left.”
“Who else would have known he’d be up here?” Quinn crossed his arms and stared at her.
“Someone could have seen him getting in the elevator and when he came out on the tenth floor...” Dela shook her head. “But who would they call who could be up here quick enough to kill him and stuff him in the chute? Especially if they didn’t know about Paula having the cameras blacked?”
She exited the room and glanced down the hall. “The supply room is down the hall behind the elevators. Someone coming up in the service elevator would have gotten off inside the supply room. Would they have walked out into the hall, lured Tristan into the room, and then killed him?”
“How did they get the corkscrew?” Quinn asked.
“Maybe Paula dropped it on the stairs? But then who picked it up? Was it random or on purpose?” Dela put her hands on her hips. “This doesn’t make any sense.”
“We know Van was on the stairs when Paula was also on the stairs. What if he didn’t walk down two flights, instead went up two flights? And maybe she handed him the corkscrew when she told him the toilet wasn’t plugged?” Quinn looked pleased with himself.
“Plausible. Guess we better take another look at that video.” Dela walked down the hall glancing at the floor and walls for any signs of blood.
Standing at the elevator, Dela said, “The killer could have been waiting for Tristan when he stepped out of the elevator. Either grabbed him and dragged him to the supply room or lured him there.”
“It would have been within the time frame the camera was blacked out.” Quinn’s phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen. His forehead wrinkled as his eyes scanned the device.
“What’s wrong?” Dela didn’t want to move closer to him but was curious what had him confused.
“The corkscrew that killed Tristan didn’t kill Mattie, but they believe it was another corkscrew with a shorter shaft or a different person, not as strong, plunged it into her neck.”
“That means it could be two different people.” Dela stepped into the elevator when the doors opened.
Quinn followed. “That or the same person didn’t have the same anger against Mattie as they had against Tristan.”
“Like Paula. She was mad and upset with her husband, but Mattie was just someone trying to get hold of her money,” Dela said as the elevator settled and the doors opened. She stopped after taking three steps and faced Quinn. “And if she knew about blonde Betty ninety-seven, there was even more incentive for her to bury that corkscrew in her husband’s neck.” Yes, she was liking Paula for the murders more and more.
“But how do we prove it?” Quinn asked, walking beside her to the surveillance door.
She held her ID up to the lock and the door swung open. “By carefully piecing together her movements that we can see and that of the other suspects.” They walked through the monitor room and into Marty’s office.
“Didn’t expect to see you back here so soon,” Marty said, leaning back in his chair, watching surveillance footage of Van Branson .
“Have you seen any video where he and Paula Pomroy talk?” Dela asked, taking a seat next to Marty.
“Not so far. I’m going backwards. I didn’t find any footage of Verna and Van together for the last two months.” Marty took a bite of sandwich and tapped a couple keys.
Dela’s phone rang. It was Wallace.
“What have you learned?” she asked.
“You must be the right person for head of security,” he said.
She chuckled. “Why do you say that?”
“Van Branson is Verna’s father. Her mother and Van weren’t married so she has her mother’s last name.”
“Were they ever at Big Muddy?” she asked.
“It’s hard to find records of who was there if they hadn’t signed up as a voter.”
She could hear keys tapping. “What else are you digging up?”
“His real name isn’t Van Branson . That’s an alias he’s used off and on over the years. If you shave his face and head, he looks a lot like the guy Tristan called the Feds about a week before he was killed. Vladimer Chernoff.”
Dela stared at the video playing on the monitor. She’d known the person in the sketch had looked familiar. It was the eyes. “Thanks. If you come up with anything else let me know.”
She motioned for Marty to stop the video. Then she repeated everything that Wallace had told her.
Marty whistled and Quinn pulled out his phone.
“We may have just found our murderer,” Dela said, wondering how they could connect him and Paula. Because somewhere along the way, she had to have given the corkscrew to him to kill her husband.