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The next morning, Dela dressed while Heath showered. He’d brought her to their room straight from their embrace in the suite bathroom the night before. As he led her out the door, he’d told Quinn they’d decide today what they planned to do with what they knew.
Back in the room, Heath helped her undress, take a long soak in the tub, and go to bed. She’d curled up next to him and fallen asleep, secure knowing he wouldn’t let anyone hurt her.
This morning, she had one thing on her mind. To find the person who killed Rowena. It was apparent the boy and his father were in some country that the FBI couldn’t push around. She and Heath would have to find the murderer and bring all the questionable casino employees to light. All the Feds cared about was getting Benedict. After all, Rowena was a casualty of their cause. She snorted. Cause. It was a vendetta. Quinn wanted Benedict so badly that he would forget everything else that was happening.
A knock on the door brought her out of her angry thoughts.
“I ordered breakfast,” Heath called from the bathroom.
Dela answered the door and found a person dressed in the casino uniform with a plastic bag.
“I brought your order,” the young man said.
“Thank you,” Dela signed the receipt and dug in her pocket for a five-dollar bill. She couldn’t find a five and gave him three ones. “Sorry, it’s all I’ve got in my pocket and I’m not sure where my purse is.”
The young man nodded, but he didn’t look very happy as he left.
Dela carried the bag to the table by the window and pulled out two cups of coffee, and two Styrofoam food containers. One had waffles, eggs, and sausage and the other had pancakes, bacon, and eggs. The meals were their favorites. She decided to split them, putting half a waffle and one pancake with one piece of bacon and half a sausage patty in each container. Then she began eating.
Heath entered the room towel drying his long hair. “Smells good. I didn’t feel like going to a restaurant this morning.” He sat on the end of the bed, brushing his hair.
“Would you like me to braid your hair?” she asked. While he’d been adept at braiding his hair since the age of twelve, she liked the intimacy of running her fingers through his long fine strands and paying homage to his culture.
He smiled. “You know I love it when you braid my hair, but I think you should eat. This only takes a couple of minutes and I’ll join you.”
She nodded and turned her gaze to the ocean waves curling toward the beach. A thought crossed her mind. “Do you think the scuba diver and the boat were Felicity’s dramatic kidnapping but instead of passing him off to Felicity’s man the older gentleman handed him to Hugo’s man?”
“I’ve felt all along that the boy being smuggled out to sea seemed over the top. Especially when all the mom had to do was hand her son over to whoever was going to hide him.” Heath sat at the table and opened the lid on his breakfast. He smiled. “I see you shared.”
“I wasn’t sure which one you wanted and I was hungry.” Dela poured more syrup on her half of the waffle. “That could be what she did instead of saying she was showering for an hour. If Hugo paid Oscar to cut the cameras at the same time as Felicity was taking her son to be scuttled away, how had he known?”
“I think a lot of the answers are with West. As you said yesterday, he is connected to everyone involved.” Heath spread butter on his food as Dela finished off her meal.
“When you get done, we need to get a ride to West’s to get my car. We can do some snooping while we’re there.”
♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
Dela stared at West’s house as the Uber driver drove past. Federal vehicles and agents were going in and out of the house. The Uber driver dropped them off at her car two blocks beyond.
Once she and Heath sat in her car, Dela said, “Did you see all the Feds at West’s?”
“Yeah. Sure you want to go see what’s going on?” Heath asked, starting the car.
“I do. I want to make sure they have Ferris.” Dela studied the commotion as they pulled up at the curb and parked.
Heath met her on her side of the car and they walked up to the house together.
“No one is allowed here,” said a female agent, flashing her badge.
“Call Special Agent Quinn Pierce and tell him Dela and Heath would like to talk to the person in charge here.”
The woman studied them and shook her head. “We were told to keep any reporters or civilians away.”
“We’ve been working this investigation with Special Agent Pierce and Detective Stedman of the Lincoln City Police,” Heath said, showing his tribal badge.
The woman shook her head.
“Did you arrest Ferris? And is West in the house?” Dela asked, trying to get the woman to see that they were in the loop about everything.
“I have my orders,” she said, though she glanced around nervously.
Dela pulled out her phone and even though she didn’t want to call Quinn, she saw it as the only way to get answers.
“I see you,” he answered.
She scanned the windows of the house. “You’re inside? Tell this agent that we can enter.”
“I don’t see any reason for you to be involved in this case anymore,” Quinn said.
“At least tell me you arrested Ferris and West.” She needed to know the man she was pretty sure killed Rowena was under arrest.
“West is dead. His body was found in the pool shed. And it wasn’t dinner Ferris took to him. It looked like he tortured him.” The control in Quinn’s voice told her he was frustrated and angry.
“He wasn’t in the shed long enough to torture anyone.”
Heath studied her.
“We’ll have a better timeline of when he was killed after the medical examiner takes a look at the body.” Quinn said something that was muffled.
“But you have Ferris?” she asked. He was the one person she didn’t want to run into.
A deep sigh echoed through the phone. “No, we don’t. He was gone when we arrived. There was only the body in the shed. We’re going through the house trying to figure out where he might have gone.”
Dela’s chest squeezed. Where could Ferris be and who was he working for? “We’ll leave you to find the answers.” Dela ended the call and started back toward the car.
“What was that all about?” Heath asked, opening the door for her.
She sat with her feet out the door on the curb.
He crouched in front of her, his hands on her knees.
Dela peered into his eyes. “West was in the pool shed.” She went on to tell Heath everything that Quinn told her.
“Ferris has to be the one who killed Rowena. But why would he torture and kill West?” She glanced over Heath’s shoulder to the house beyond trying to put all the things she knew together in her head and have them make sense.
“You said that he was Mr. Benedict’s private investigator, yet Mrs. Benedict hired him to follow around her husband. I think she’s lying. And I think she does have her son.” Heath rose and motioned for her to put her feet in the car.
When he was seated behind the steering wheel, he asked, “Where to?”
“Let’s talk with Oscar and find out if he turned off the security cameras for Hugo or Felicity,” Dela said, knowing they needed to discover who really had the child. With Ferris torturing West, she believed Felicity had her son and Hugo was trying to find him.
♠ ♣ ♥ ♦
At the Lincoln City police station, Dela asked for Detective Stedman. He came to the lobby and escorted them to his office.
“How is the investigation going?” he asked.
“Another body and Ferris is still on the loose,” Dela said.
Stedman nodded. “I called Special Agent Pierce this morning to see if I could let the three in protective custody go and he told me what happened.” The man shook his head. “We rarely have a murder in this town, let alone two in the same week.”
“I’d like to sit in your interview with Oscar and see who paid him to turn off the cameras. I have a hunch about why West was killed, but I don’t want to say anything until I’m certain.” Dela had another thought. “And I’d like to visit with the three in protective custody.”
“Who do you want to talk to first?” Stedman asked.
“Oscar. I know you have to be present when we talk to him, but I think he’d talk to me easier if I’m the only one in the room with him.” Dela didn’t fear Oscar. The man had shown he was a coward. And that cowardice is what had him keeping his mouth shut.
“I can get the room set up where we can start out with me in the room and I’ll excuse myself and listen from another room.” Stedman rose. “Wait here until I get everything set up and Oscar in the room.”
Dela nodded.
When they were sitting in the office alone, Heath asked, “What are you thinking?”
“We need to find out if Oscar cut the cameras for Hugo or Felicity. If Felicity, then we know she has the boy. If for Hugo, then we know he knew what Felicity was up to and most likely has the boy, but I doubt it. Not with his hired heavy going around killing people for the answer.”
“You’d think Felicity could just play the card of telling the Feds what she knows about the business to keep her son,” Heath said.
“That’s the thing, I’m not sure she knows. I think Hugo has kept her in the dark and that’s why she resorted to kidnapping her son, to get them both away from Hugo and whatever he’s mixed up in.” Dela didn’t think Felicity had the brains to outsmart her husband, but if she did have her son, she was doing a good job of doing just that.