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Dela entered the police station with Sherman. She’d realized they never had a chance to see what was in the folder Stedman asked someone to bring into the conference room when they were there earlier.
She waited until Sherman had been led off to hang out in the conference room with Trent and Enos before she asked, “That folder you asked to have brought to us earlier, can I look at it now?”
Stedman motioned for her to follow him. They walked into a cluttered office. “It’s what was dug up on Ferris and Jude West.” He picked up a folder and handed it to her. “One seems to be an angel and the other a devil. You decide which is which.” He winked.
“Can I take this with me?” she asked, knowing Heath sat out in the car waiting for her.
Stedman shrugged. “I don’t see why not. It’s all been pulled from public records.”
“Thanks.” Dela walked out of the station and had a shiver snake up her spine. Stopping, she glanced around. There wasn’t anyone paying attention to her except Heath waiting patiently in the car.
“What do you have there?” he asked as she slid onto the passenger seat.
“What Stedman dug up on West and Ferris.” She opened the folder and started reading as Heath backed out of the parking slot.
She skimmed the papers, noticing most of the information was what she already knew. Except, the fact that Jude West hadn’t existed, at least not this one, until eight months ago. “Curious.”
“What?” Heath asked, turning off Highway 101 toward the casino.
“It appears the FBI’s informant is completely made up. He didn’t exist before eight months ago.”
Heath glanced at her. “Surely the FBI knows this. They wouldn’t just walk up to someone and talk them into being an informant without investigating them.”
“Unless he has a reason to want to be on the good side of the FBI. But why would he be meeting secretly with Ferris if he knows the FBI are keeping track of him?” She put all the papers in order and closed the folder. “We need to check out Jude West.”
Heath pulled into the casino parking lot. “We need to take a look around in the Benedict suite.”
Dela held up her master keycard. “Remember, the security officer in the office the other day handed me one saying Enos told him to give it to me.”
Heath put the car in park and studied her. “Is that when you knew he was mixed up in the whole business?”
“Yeah, that’s when I began to suspect Enos knew something. Why else would he have left orders to give me the master key? Why did he think I would need it? Did he think Hugo would do what he did to Felicity when the boy went missing?” She’d contemplated Enos’s motives ever since the security officer handed the card to her.
“Let’s go to the Benedicts’ room first,” Heath said, opening his door.
They walked through the parking lot to the entrance of the Starfish building. Dela punched the up button and they stood in silence waiting for the elevator. On the third floor, they strolled down the hallway to the suite. No sense in having someone who might be watching think they were on a mission.
As soon as they turned the corner her hand fisted around her purse. There wasn’t a need to use the card. Quinn and Swanson stood in the hallway outside of the room she and Heath wanted to enter.
“Are you still processing this room?” Dela asked.
Quinn motioned for them to stay where they were. He said something to Swanson who smiled and Quinn walked to them. He stepped between them and put an arm across each of their shoulders, turning them, and walked back toward the elevators.
“We have everything here under control. There’s no need for the two of you to be here.” He stopped at the elevator and smiled.
“What don’t you want us to see?” Dela asked, knowing the man was hiding something. Possibly the fact the FBI was mixed up in this whole mess.
“I don’t want you saying things to Felicity that will make her uncooperative with us. That’s all,” Quinn said, raising one eyebrow. “You have a way of turning people against the
FBI.”
“For good reason,” she said, remembering all the times as a youth that the Feds had swooped onto the reservation, taken down information about someone missing, and then never be seen again, as if they had only come to make them all think something was being done to look for a loved one.
“You are worse than the elders holding a grudge against agents who have long passed. We do care about missing people and we do work our asses off to find them. Even if it’s just to find them shacked up with someone else.”
“There’s no call for that,” Heath said, his color deepening and his eyes sparking with anger.
“I agree.” Dela moved closer to Heath to show solidarity. “We’ll keep our distance. Sherman is at the police station. Has anyone found Ferris?”
“Not yet. But we have agents all over the town looking for him.” Quinn turned to walk away.
“Has anyone looked at Jude West’s?” Dela asked.
Quinn spun around, his narrowed eyes glaring at her. “Why would you think Ferris would be there?”
“Because those two were meeting secretly at the casino the other night and talking about ransom. What if the two of them took the kid and then put the parents against one another?” She hadn’t thought about it until just now. But as she flipped through what she knew trying to find something to goad Quinn, she remembered the meeting between West and Ferris. The two would make out well if they could get Felicity to pay ransom for her son, and West, helping the FBI could catch up Hugo with unlaundered money if he paid a ransom with what he could get his hands on quickly.
“I told you before, West is helping us. He wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize our relationship.” Quinn studied her. “And that’s why you think this whole thing was played out by us. You can stop thinking that, because it wasn’t. Go get some dinner and leave us to do our jobs.” This time he strode down the hallway and disappeared around the corner.
Heath slipped his hand into hers. “Come on. That’s the first right thing Quinn has said all day. Let’s go get some dinner. We can discuss what we know and what we think over a nice salmon dinner.”
Dela let him lead her into the elevator, outside, and over to the restaurant. She was hungry, and yet, she really wanted to go see Jude West.
♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
Dela walked beside Heath out of the restaurant and toward her car. They’d run through everything they, the police, and the FBI knew to this point. Or what the FBI was telling them.
“I think Jude West is the key to this. He is connected to everyone- FBI, Felicity, Ferris, Hugo, and Asher. And you heard him. He even knew Rowena.” That was what had been niggling in her mind. Who had called her to take photos of Mt. Hood at the last minute? And why would she leave this job to take that one?
“We need access to Rowena’s phone,” Dela said, pulling her cell from her pocket. She dialed Detective Stedman.
“We’re still looking for Ferris,” Stedman answered.
“Good. What I’m calling about is do you have Rowena’s phone or does the FBI?” Dela hoped she didn’t have to ask for it from Quinn.
“We have all the evidence that forensics didn’t find. Why?”
“I’d like to come by and check out the calls made to her.” Dela glanced at her watch. “We can be there in fifteen minutes.”
“Don’t break any speed limits. I’ll be here until late. We’re trying to figure out what to do with the three men who need protection and keep Oscar from learning anything. Can’t put them all in the cells together.”
Dela hadn’t thought about that dilemma. “Sorry to have given you so much trouble.”
He sighed. “It’s all part of the job. I’ll grab the phone and have it in my office.”
“Thanks.” Dela ended the call.
“Head to the police station?” Heath asked.
“Yeah. I want to see who the last phone call was from.” Dela settled back in the seat but the worry didn’t ease in her gut. Something about all of this wasn’t adding up. Had the husband kidnapped the son from the wife, or had the wife kidnapped the son and the husband found him? But what about the ransom note? Would Felicity have sent one if all she wanted was the child? Or would she send one to make Hugo think it was one of his business acquaintances who had taken their son? And where was the boy? Was he safe or hidden in some nasty place?
Her head started to pound as Heath turned the car into the police parking lot.
“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, facing her and massaging her shoulder closest to him.
“Just have a headache coming on. Stress.” Saying the word started her stub aching and feeling like it had when the foot and calf were torn from the rest of her leg. She grimaced.
“That’s more than your head,” Heath whispered, leaning closer and kissing her. “Do I need to massage your leg? You have been putting a lot of hours on it and you heard more bad news today than any person should hear.” He kissed her again.
He had a way of taking her mind off stress and therefore relieving the phantom pains that came with it.
“I’ll think about you massaging my leg when we get back to the room and that should keep things at bay,” she said, kissing him back and moving her hand to the door handle.
“I’ll look forward to it,” he said, winking.
It was times like this that Heath made her feel like the teenager who fell hard for him in high school. But she was older, more cynical, and too world-wise to let her emotions override her need to find justice for Asher and Rowena.
They exited the car and walked up to the police station door together. Heath held the door and she walked in. A different officer sat behind the glass window.
“We’re here to see Detective Stedman,” she said.
“Are you Dela Alvaro?”
She peered at his name tag. “Yes, Officer Talen, I am.”
“Do you have some I.D.?”
She glanced at Heath who shrugged. Dela dug in her purse and pulled out her driver’s license and her Head of Security card for the Spotted Pony Casino.
The officer studied them and nodded. “Go down the hall, second door on the left. I’ll bring the evidence in to you.” Officer Talen stood and walked out of the dispatch office.
Dela led the way down the hall to the room the officer had mentioned. Inside they found two chairs and a table. The click of hard soles on the flooring in the hallway grew closer and the officer walked through the door with an evidence bag on the top of a clipboard.
“Sign here,” Officer Talen said, holding the clipboard toward Dela.
“Where is Detective Stedman? He said he’d be here,” she asked.
“He was called out. But he told me you would be in to look at this piece of evidence.” Officer Talen unsealed the evidence bag and slid the phone out on top of the clipboard.
Dela reached for the phone, but Talen stopped her. “Put these on,” he said, holding out a pair of latex gloves.
She did as requested and then picked the phone up. She turned it on and spent nearly twenty minutes figuring out what the pin could be to open the phone. Finally using the date Rowena had left the Army. Dela knew it well because it was the same day she was shipped to Iraq.
The screen came alive with a gorgeous photo that she was sure her friend had taken. Dela
scrolled for recent calls. The last call after her call at 10:18 was a voicemail at 10:45. Rowena must have left her phone in her room when she’d brought the cheesecake over. Her hands had been full with the dessert and hot chocolate. Tears burned the back of Dela’s eyes. She blinked to clear them. Her friend had been so thoughtful and vibrant. Why would anyone want to kill her?
“Want me to do that?” Heath asked quietly.
“No. She received a voicemail while she was in the room with me. She must have left her phone in her room.” Dela hoped it would be a clue. She hit play and speaker.
“Ro, my love. I’ll be at Timberline until Wednesday. Come join me.” The male voice had warm husky undertones. He sounded like a lover. But she’d said there wasn’t anyone special in her life.
Dela raised her gaze to Heath’s. “We need to find out who this number belongs to. If for no other reason than to let him know what happened.”
Heath put his hands on hers and released the phone onto the clipboard. “Think about it.” He nodded toward the phone. “She didn’t call him back to tell him she was coming. She must have been going to surprise him. But he didn’t try calling her again. You would think if it was a tryst, he would have called to see why she didn’t come. I think that call was used to get her to leave her room.”
A sob caught in her throat. She couldn’t talk as she thought about how Rowena had lied to her in the note, saying she was going to take photos. Dela slowly drew the gloves off her hands as she composed herself. “She had to know his voice and his phone number.” She studied Officer Talen. “Can you run this number and see who it belongs to?”
“I can try.” He wrote the number down on a tablet, put the phone back in the bag, resealed the bag, and wrote on the clipboard before walking out of the room.
Heath pulled out his phone and typed in numbers. The phone dialed and rang.
“Hello? Who’s this?” a voice Dela had heard before asked.
She grabbed the phone. “Mr. West, this is Dela Alvaro, I’d like to come by this evening and visit with you.”
“You must have the wrong number.” The line went silent.
Dela smiled. “He is messed up in this clear to the wrinkles around his eyes.”