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Still huddled in Marty’s office, Dela and Quinn were discussing how to get the information they needed to prove what they now believed about Van being the murderer.
“What if Verna told him about questioning her last night?” Dela didn’t want the two getting away.
“Knowing he is a wanted man, I texted Shaffer and told him to pull in agents from Portland and grab Branson . Once we have him in custody, we can question him all we want.” Quinn nodded toward the video monitor. “Can we speed up this process by having each one of us watch different days?”
“Yeah, I can get you each set up with a monitor to watch.” Marty started tapping keys.
Dela’s stomach had been gurgling and gnawing on itself for thirty minutes. “I need to grab something to eat. I’ll be back in twenty.” She stood to leave and Quinn stood.
“I can get something to eat on my own. I’ve been doing it for a long time.” Something about the way he didn’t let her out of his sight was starting to really annoy her.
“I need dinner, too. Remember, we had breakfast at the same time this morning.”
Marty’s eyebrows raised, but Dela ignored his stare.
“Only because you followed me into the café.” She marched out of Marty’s office, across the monitor room, and out onto the casino floor. The coffee shop didn’t appeal to her. She didn’t want as much as the bar and grill would serve, so she headed to the deli. She usually avoided it when Rosie wasn’t working. It was the woman’s presence that made it inviting.
“You really want a hot dog or a sandwich?” Quinn asked, following her to the deli.
“Yeah, I need a change.” She walked up to the counter and ordered a turkey sandwich with chips and an iced tea. The teenager behind the counter smiled and handed over her change. “Auntie Rosie said you are a woman to look up to.”
Dela smiled at the girl. “I think the same of your aunt.”
The young person smiled. “She talks about the people who work here as if they are family. Having worked here the last two weekends, I agree.”
“The board of trustees would be happy to hear you say that.” Which reminded her, she had to give Bernie an update soon. She moved to the side as the girl put her order up and filled a cup with iced tea. Once Dela had her tea, she walked over to a table at the back of the deli seating area.
She was staring at her phone when Quinn sat down across from her.
“Did you get a message?” he asked, raising his cup to take a sip.
“No. Contemplating whether to call Bernie Moon or wait until we know more.”
“I say wait. We know Branson is a fugitive but we don’t have hard evidence against him that he killed Pomroy.”
The teenager arrived with their sandwiches. “Is there anything else I can get you?”
“I think we’re good. Thanks.” Dela smiled and watched the girl walk back to the counter. “Do you think Verna is blonde Betty ninety-seven?”
Quinn put the sandwich down he’d been about to bite. “She is blonde, but Betty? Where would that come from?”
“She left the message about her father. We know Van is her dad.” Her gut wasn’t hungry all of a sudden. The woman had seemed scared and nervous every time they questioned her. Was it because she feared for her father or because of what she’d done to keep her father safe?
“Verna said she’d used the restroom right before Robin turned off the cameras. But she would have known to check for that and could have turned the camera back on.”
“With Robin next to her, probably monitoring if the camera remained off?” Quinn bit into his sandwich.
Dela picked hers up and squeezed it. “I wonder if you can record and keep the camera black?” She put the food down and picked up her phone. Can a camera be black and still record what is happening? She texted to Marty.
This time she bit into her sandwich, chewed, and swallowed. Her stomach accepted the nourishment. Halfway through the sandwich her phone buzzed.
It can be done if it is set up ahead of time and the person knows how to program the camera. Why?
Would Verna know how to program the camera?
Yes.
Thanks. What about Robin Everly. Would she know?
Not as certain there.
Do you know how to find the footage from the time period during the murder from the cameras that were blacked out?
If I can find where it was hidden. He sent her a smiley emoji. You know I love a challenge.
She sent him a thumbs up. “We’ll have an answer to whether or not it can be found soon.” Dela finished off her sandwich and slowly munched on her chips.
“When are you going to start working on your house?” Quinn asked.
“Tomorrow. Travis is going to hire some friends to help him build a fence and dog house for Mugshot. Then we’ll get started on the inside.” She smiled thinking about how it would look when they finished.
“How soon will you be able to move in?” Quinn crumpled up the chip bag and the paper that had been around his sandwich.
“I’m thinking this fall. There is some major work that needs to be done to make it work for me.”
He stared at her. “What do you mean by that? Do you have a hobby that requires something special?”
She’d flapped her gums too much. There was no way she would tell him they needed to put handicapped bars in the master bath and widen a couple of doors so her crutches would fit through them easily. “There is just a lot of work that needs to be done. The house has sat empty for several years and it was built in the eighties. So, there are some updates I want done.”
“Eighties. At least you missed the era of the green shag carpet and avocado green bathroom sink, toilet, and tub.”
She studied him. “Is that what’s in your house?”
“Yeah. As soon as I get the leaky parlor fixed, the bathroom is being gutted.”
“Sounds like you have things all figured out.” She stood, grabbed her trash, and threw it in the garbage can. “Time to go stare at videos, unless Marty has worked miracles already.”
♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
Several hours later, Dela stood and stretched. They, she and Quinn, had been watching video from the last six months looking for connections between any of the people on their suspect list. As well as the victims. So far, all they had found were meetings they already knew about from Marty’s previous scans.
The head of surveillance was still working on finding the feed that was hidden by a blacked-out camera.
“I’m surprised you haven’t heard anything from Shaffer about picking up Van,” Dela said, walking toward the door. “I’m going to get a cup of coffee, anyone else want anything?”
Quinn pulled his phone out of his suitcoat. “I’m surprised too. I’ll see what Shaffer has to say. Bring me back an iced tea, please.”
“Marty, you want anything?” she asked.
“A large cola slurpy, please.” He glanced up long enough to grin and then was back tapping at the keyboard.
She walked out of Marty’s office and crossed the room with all the monitors. Lionel sat at the one on the end again. They weren’t having any luck finding what they needed to prove anything. All they had were suspicions. They couldn’t get a warrant for anyone’s arrest with that.
“Would you look at that?” Lionel pointed to the middle monitor on the top row of the section he watched. “You’d think someone who sits here all day and night watching other people do stupid things would have better sense than to prance around in here with someone other than her husband.”
Dela took a peek. One of the night surveillance team was squeezed up against a man Dela knew wasn’t her husband. And they were headed to the elevators connected to the rooms.
Hmmm. That would mean anyone who wanted to commit a murder and worked surveillance would never meet up with the intended victim here.
“Thanks, Lionel!” Dela headed back into the office.
“That was quick,” Marty said.
Quinn was scowling as he listened to his phone.
“If Van or Verna had anything to do with the murder of Tristan, they would make sure they were never caught on video here at the casino. And the one time that we do have Van and Tristan, we only have Van’s word for what they’d talked about.”
Dela texted Wallace. I need the addresses of Van, Jeff Twigg, and Robin Everly.
Quinn ended his call and turned a dark, pinched face her direction. “Shaffer said Van and Verna’s apartments are cleaned out. They must have taken off right after we questioned her.”
“Send your Fed buddies after them. We have neighbors to talk to.” She opened the door. “Marty, I’ll send that slurpy in with a guard. Come on Quinn. We have a lot of people to talk to.”
She stopped long enough on the casino floor to ask Ross to get a slurpy for Marty. Then she headed to the casino entrance. Dela didn’t look back to see if Quinn followed. She could hear his footsteps behind her. Once they were out in the parking lot, she slowed her pace. “Your car or mine?”
“Want to tell me what this is about? We spent hours staring at video and now you want to go talk to neighbors?” Quinn walked toward his SUV.
Dela grinned. She’d figured he’d want to drive. “With so many of our suspects knowledgeable about the surveillance cameras at the casino they aren’t going to have a meeting with Tristan or Paula where it would be caught on video. My thoughts are they met at either their homes or the Pomroy’s. We need to speak to the neighbors and see if any of the neighbors have cameras that might have caught who came and went at Van, Verna, Robin, and Paula’s. Possibly Jeff Twigg’s house, too. I’m not ruling him out. He was the first to run when Tristan’s blackmailing all came out.”
They were seated in the SUV and Quinn was headed toward Pendleton on the freeway. “Where do you suggest first?”
“Paula is at the center of all of this. Let’s go visit with her other neighbors and the one we already questioned.” Dela had a feeling that whoever had visited the Pomroys the most would be the killer. The person had to have been blackmailed and then pulled into Paula’s scheme to get rid of her husband. But who would have been desperate enough?
Quinn parked in the Pomroy’s driveway. It looked as quiet and empty as it had the last time they were here.
“You know interrupting people’s dinner is not a good way to get them to cooperate,” Quinn said as they remained seated in the vehicle.
“I forgot what time it was.” She studied the houses on either side and across the street. There were more cars in driveways and the street, proving there were people home at all of the residences. “Let’s start with the neighbor we visited before. Chances are we can get her to call the others over to her house at seven-thirty. That would give them time to eat, and we could do a quick look at Van and Verna’s apartments.” Dela exited the SUV feeling confident this plan would work.
They walked up to the door and rang the doorbell.
The dog barked, children hollered, and a man cursed.
“I don’t think it will be that easy,” Quinn said under his breath as the door opened and a man in slacks and a button-down shirt scowled at them.
Dela hoped this was an omen. She stepped forward and held out her hand. “Sergeant Lockland, I didn’t expect to see you here.”
The man shook hands, his face contorting as he worked to figure out how he knew her.
“Lockland.” Quinn held out his hand to shake with the Pendleton City Sergeant.
“Quinn, you I recognize. What are you doing coming by at dinner time?” Lockland didn’t even flit his gaze back at Dela.
He’d decided she was an FBI peon. Anger built in her chest as she listened to Quinn explain how they had been by and talked to his wife earlier and wondered if the couple would help them round up the neighbors around the Pomroy house later this evening.
“Sure, anything to help the FBI. So you’re the one looking into the murder at the casino. Terrible thing to happen to Tristan.” Lockland made as if he cared for the man.
Before Dela could say, she was looking into the murder, Quinn cut her off by placing a hand on her shoulder.
“This is Dela Alvaro, head of security at the casino. She and I are working on the murder. In fact, her observations and interrogations have been more helpful than my FBI connections.”
She wanted to give him a smile, but he was spreading too much flattery into his words for the lieutenant to take the comment seriously.
“We’ll get the neighbors over here, around seven-thirty, you say?”
“Dinner’s getting cold!” Ms. Gray called from somewhere down the hall.
“We’ll be back. Thank you.” Quinn nudged her to step away from the door.
“Think you poured it on a little too thick,” she said, stomping back to the vehicle.
“He was ignoring you and showing disrespect. I wanted him to see you are an asset to your job.” Quinn started the vehicle and backed out of the driveway.
“You could have just said, I had been influential in digging up evidence, not all that sappy ‘her observations and interrogations have been more helpful than my FBI connections.’” She slumped back in her seat and rubbed her leg above the socket.
The silence in the vehicle, drew her gaze from the street ahead to the man sitting beside her. He stared at her hands, kneading her leg. She instantly pulled her hands away and stared out the side window.
“What are you trying to hide from me?” he asked. “I know you left the army on a medical discharge after you and your team had an IED blow up under your jeep. But I can’t find any other information. Your mother made a comment about she didn’t want you living alone because you could be lying on the floor for days before anyone found you. When I pressed her with questions, she changed the subject.” He pulled over and twisted his whole body to look at her.
Dela shrank away from his inquisitive gaze. She hadn’t planned to have anyone other than her mom, Molly, and several close friends ever find out she wasn’t whole. Marty knew. That’s why he kept the box under his table for her to prop her foot up on.
“You know, I can dig deeper if I want to. But I’d prefer to hear the truth from you.” He reached out toward her and pulled his hand back. “Had you fallen this morning and that’s why you didn’t want to let me in, or couldn’t let me in?”
That sparked her anger. “I thought you had the impression I was with someone I didn’t want you to see?”
He shook his head and grinned. “I knew that would get you talking. At first, I did. What else did you think would have pop in my mind, that you wouldn’t want me to come in?”
She shook her head. “Typical male. I say I’m not dressed and you think, no matter, I can come in anyway. Then I say, no, and you think it’s because I’m entertaining. No means No, nothing else.”
He tipped his chin down and dropped his gaze to her leg. “What happened?”
“I’m not ready to tell you. Let’s get to Van and Verna’s apartment building. We want to get back to the Lockland’s on time.” She stared forward and clenched her hands together on her lap to keep from rubbing the ache in her thigh and down her non-existent leg.