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“You’re sure the FBI are in on this?” Stedman asked Dela when she told him she wanted P.I. Peter Ferris and surveillance personnel Oscar Xaviar brought into the Lincoln City Police Station for questioning. And she would like to be present when it happened because she knew all the things to say to get at least Oscar talking.
“Special Agent Pierce all but told me they knew Oscar had turned off the cameras during the kidnapping and that his contact who told him to do it was Peter Ferris. He is the vagrant that has been hanging around the entrance of the casino for several weeks.” Dela had a feeling once Oscar and Ferris started talking, she and Heath would be going home.
“I’ll send two patrolmen over to pick up Xaviar and see if we can find this Ferris. But what if the FBI gets wind of this?” Stedman asked.
“Tell them you had it on good authority that these men were part of the Benedict kidnapping and you are trying to get the boy back unharmed.” She smiled at Sidney who chewed on pizza and watched her during the conversation.
“Ok. But if the Chief gets wind that I’m ruffling FBI feathers he’s not going to like my doing this without asking.”
“If you find the child and a murderer, isn’t that what matters the most?” Dela persisted.
“He would like to have both of these matters cleared up as quickly as possible,” Stedman agreed.
“There you go. Let me know when you have both men in custody. I’ll come right down.”
“I’ll keep you posted.”
The call ended and Dela shoved her phone in her pocket. “Let’s hope they can get both men today. I’m sure we can get the truth out of Oscar fairly easily, but Ferris will be harder and he’s dangerous.”
Sidney stood. “Do you want me to keep an eye on Oscar?”
“No. It’ll be easy for the police to walk in here and escort him to the police station for questioning. It’s Ferris I’m more worried about them finding. He seems to be able to change his appearance and blend in. And he’s dangerous. I don’t want him to get wind of this and go after Sherman’s family.”
Dela studied Sidney. “That’s who you should keep an eye on. You know who all I suspect. If you see one of them going near Sherman’s house or a family member, call me and the police.”
Sidney stood, grabbed her purse, and headed for the door. “I’ll let you know what I see when I get there.”
“I’m glad I can count on a few people who work at this casino,” Dela said as Sidney unlocked the door and disappeared.
Dela sank onto the chair in front of the computer and picked up the paper with the times, dates, and cameras that were shut down during the kidnapping. They’d need this when they talked to Oscar. She folded it and put it in her pants pocket.
They would need Sherman’s statement about getting beat up by Ferris when the police brought him in. Did she ask Sidney to get it? Dela doubted Sherman would hand it to anyone but her. She didn’t have a car to drive there and didn’t want to compromise Sidney.
She’d wait until they had Ferris in custody and then ask Sherman to bring the statement to the police station.
Gathering up all the printed-out information, Dela folded it in half and stuffed it into her shoulder bag. When she stepped out of the back room, two uniformed police officers were talking to Oscar.
His gaze landed on her.
Dela kept a neutral expression and waited to see what happened. The man was arguing he couldn’t leave his station.
Ray, the older man on the monitors next to Oscar’s, said, “Don’t worry, we’ll split up your cameras until they get someone in to take over.”
Walking over to Ray, Dela asked, “Who’s in charge of scheduling the surveillance personnel?”
“Enos has been in charge of both the security and surveillance personnel,” Ray said.
No wonder Enos had wanted her to come clean out his team. He was too spread out to make heads or tails of what was going on. “Okay, and I know Trent, who is sick, and Sherman, who has the day off are under him. Is Reuben the next person in line with the highest authority?” She didn’t like the idea of that man having that much control of the casino security.
Ray shook his head. “Sidney, having worked both positions would be the next person.”
Dela did a mental slap and pulled out her phone. “Reuben was only in charge because it was Sidney’s day off?” She asked, scrolling and touching Sidney’s name in her contacts.
“Yeah. As soon as Reuben saw that no one was in charge, he took over.”
“I’m almost to Sherman’s, what’s up?” Sidney answered.
“You need to come back to the casino. I just found out you are the person who should be here running security and surveillance, even if it is your day off.” Dela kept her tone light. Why hadn’t the woman mentioned it earlier?”
A whoosh of air rushed through the speaker of her phone.
“I forgot. It is a newly appointed position. But it’s my day off, like Sherman,” she reasoned. “If anyone should be called in, it’s Trent. He sure became sick all of a sudden after Sherman was beat up.”
A light went off in Dela’s brain. “You’re right, it is suspicious that Trent called in sick today. Go home, put on your uniform, and get back here. You need to take care of things. The police took Oscar away and they are one person down on the surveillance team. You need to call someone in and get the security staff realigned.” She added, “When you get here, I’d like to borrow your car to check on Trent.”
“Okay. Luckily my place is between where I’m at and the casino. I’ll be there in twenty.”
The call ended and Dela glanced around at all the people watching her.
“Sidney will be here in thirty minutes to bring in a replacement for Oscar. Do any of you have any questions for me?”
One woman raised a hand.
Dela nodded at her.
“Have they found the boy yet?”
Her heart sank as she admitted that they hadn’t been able to find out anything about the child. “We’re hoping that Oscar can help. He turned off the cameras that allowed the kidnapper to get into and out of the building without being seen.”
Ray nodded. “I had a feeling he’d done something. He’s been jumpy ever since the kidnapping happened.”
Dela shifted her attention to the older man. “Do you happen to know who was supposed to be watching the cameras outside of the Otter building the night my friend died?”
“Not Oscar. He always watches the hallways and entrances. But I think he was watching them that night.” Ray swiveled in his chair and made eye contact with everyone in the room. “Did one of you trade with Oscar?” They all shook their heads.
“You’re the mid-day shift. It would have been the night shift.” Again, Dela stopped as a thought came to her. “Is this normally Oscar’s shift?”
“Yeah, but he takes over the night shift if someone can’t make it in. He lives with his mom and hates going home.” Ray shrugged.
She made a note to find out which person didn’t come to work the night Oscar took their shift and allowed someone into Rowena’s room to kill her.
♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
Heath arrived five minutes before Sidney walked into the security office with her uniform on. Dela had just been getting ready to tell Reuben to go back to his regular position when Sidney swooped in.
“What is she doing here?” Reuben asked with disdain.
“I understand she is the next person in line to be in charge with Enos, Trent, and Sherman gone.” Dela glared at him. “Not you. She should have been called in as soon as Trent called in sick.”
“I suggested it,” the security officer at the radio desk said.
Reuben shot him a piercing glare.
“Joe, call in Shirley Moat to take over the rest of Oscar’s shift. I believe she is on the night shift so she can come in early,” Sidney said. Then she stopped in front of Reuben. “I believe your shift ended about three hours ago. Go home so you can rest up for tomorrow.”
Reuben glared at her, pivoted, and walked through the door leading to the employee’s lunch room.
“I’d be careful talking to him like that. He has the look of someone wound up too tight,” Heath said.
“He doesn’t like women being in authority positions,” Sidney said. “He was the first to start bad-mouthing Dela before she even showed up. Just because he didn’t think a woman was qualified to make judgments on how our staff performed.”
“I’m putting in my notes that he should be one of the first to be let go. Other than the ones that are caught up in the kidnapping and murder,” Dela added.
She studied Sidney. “Go do what you need to do, then find us in the coffee shop and I’ll catch you up to date with what I’ve learned since you left.”
Dela led Heath out of the security office and back out to the casino. They headed to the coffee shop and once they were seated with ice teas, she leaned toward him. “What did you find out?”
“The jail and all the records did burn down. However, Theodore Thunder had been transferred to a different jail right before the fire and his records went with him.” Heath leaned back, picked up his tea, and drank half the glass.
Dela studied him. “Where was he moved to?”
“There had been so much anger over the reason he was in jail that they had moved him because someone had threatened to burn down the jail if he wasn’t executed.” Heath reached across the table and took her hand.
Dela felt all the air squeeze out of her lungs hearing that there was that much hatred for her father. When she could breathe, she asked, “When and where was he executed?”
Heath shook his head. “He wasn’t. He was sentenced to twenty-five years.”
“Then he’s been out of jail and hasn’t been seen?” She couldn’t wrap her head around why he hadn’t come back to Nixyáawii and why his family wouldn’t talk about him.
Heath shook his head. “He escaped during a transfer to prison. They never caught him, though there were sightings of him across the West and Midwest at colleges. They believe he was a serial rapist.” He squeezed her hand.
She shook her head. “No, I don’t believe that of him. Wouldn’t I have more desire in that way, if...” She couldn’t wrap her head around being the child of a rape victim. Her mom had never treated her as if she were dirty or caused her pain.
“He was identified by several of the women. I have copies of the trial manuscript in the car. They would only let me copy a limited amount of it. I tried to get what I thought would give you the most information.” He moved to sit in the seat next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Your mom was one of the women who testified against him.”
Dela swallowed, unsure if the bile burning her throat would stay down. She couldn’t talk, couldn’t think, for the images crashing around in her mind.
Sidney strode over to their table. Her smile wavered and concern wrinkled her brow as she sat across from them. “What’s wrong?”
“Personal stuff,” Heath said.
Dela thanked him by squeezing the top of his thigh where her hand rested. She took several minutes to compartmentalize what she’d just learned and get back to the kidnapping and murder. “Is everything under control now?” she asked.
“As good as it can be with the real boss gone,” Sidney said.
“True.” Dela nodded. “Heath and I are going to check on Trent. The City Police picked up Oscar, but I haven’t heard anything from Stedman about them catching Ferris. Once we check on Trent, we’ll go see Sherman and pick up his statement about last night. Then I’d like to go to Jude West’s place and see if we can learn any more from him.”
Heath nodded.
Sidney asked, “What do you want me to do?”
“Keep things running here and if you see Ferris, send two officers out to detain him for the City Police.” Dela rose. “Do not go after him yourself. Sherman is a big guy and Ferris got the better of him.”
Sidney’s eyes widened as she nodded. “You two be careful, too. We don’t need any more kidnappings or murders.”