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They found Carmela visiting with a couple in their sixties as she waited for them to fill out a keno card while they stood in line for the buffet.
When she walked away, Dela caught up to her. “Carmela, when do you have a break?”
The small woman smiled at her and waved the keno tickets like a fan. “Honey, I don’t take breaks because I visit with so many people.”
“We would like to buy you a soda or water and visit with you,” Dela said. “It would be a great help to Enos if you could visit with me about the Benedicts to help us find their boy.”
The woman’s smile drooped. “I heard about that. You know if people these days paid more attention to their children and less about themselves, we would be a much better world.”
“I agree. Could you spare a few minutes, please,” Dela asked, motioning to a padded bench seat along the wall leading to the restaurants.
“For the little boy, I will. But I don’t know what I can tell you.” The petite woman waved the keno tickets in her hand. “I have to take these to the keno room first. I’ll meet you in the deli in five minutes.” She strode away from them, her tower of hair quivering with each step.
“You heard the lady. We’ll meet her in the deli,” Heath said, putting a hand on Dela’s back and directing her to the down escalator.
At the deli, they found an empty table in the corner. They sat with their backs to the wall and Dela waved when Carmela entered the area.
The tiny woman walked over to the counter, talked to the young woman at the cash register, laughed, and walked over to them with a drink. Sitting, Carmela said, “That’s Trina, she’s so fun. Always a happy face.”
Dela had a feeling Carmela would find everyone fun. “We were wondering what you could tell us about Mr. and Mrs. Benedict. How happy was their marriage, who else did they talk to?”
Carmela released the straw and studied Dela. “You want the gossip or what I know?”
“Both. Sometimes gossip does have a touch of truth to it.”
The woman nodded. “True, true. Gossip. They do not get along. He is a bully and she finds other men to make her happy. It’s been said, she only had the little boy to get her way with the husband.” Carmela sipped on her drink and continued. “Truth. He is mean to her. In public, he squeezes her arms and steps on her feet. I have seen this. A man like that, it is hard to say what he will do to her when no one is watching. She is not a woman who sleeps around. But she does use men.”
Dela nodded. This was pretty much what she’d figured out. “Can you tell me which men she’s been using? Especially ones who work here?”
Carmela leaned forward. “I saw with my eyes, her running her fingers over the back of Reuben in security and she was talking quietly in a corner of the restaurant with Enos one night. She also had a man, I saw him in here today, he has longish dark hair that sticks out and cruel eyes, but he was taking in all the sugar that woman was putting out.”
Dela straightened. The description sounded like Ferris. “You saw that man in here today? Where? When?”
“He and Mr. Benedict were having lunch in the buffet about two hours ago. They were deep in discussion and that’s not the only time I’ve seen the two of them together. I thought it odd that the man was also keeping time with Mr. Benedict’s wife.” She sipped her drink.
Dela glanced at Heath. They needed to get their eyes on Hugo and Ferris. But she had one more question. “Did you ever see Reuben being friendly with anyone else who works in the casino?”
“He met the old guy in security a few times down here in the deli. I see everyone who comes to the deli when I come down with tickets to take to the keno room.” She smiled. “Some of my best conversations are by catching someone’s gaze and talking with them.”
“Did you see this older guy hanging out more than once with anyone else?” Dela had to know how this all fit together.
“Only Reuben and Mrs. Benedict,” Carmela said, standing. “I need to get back to work.”
“Go ahead. Thank you and don’t tell anyone you talked with us. It’s for your safety.”
Carmela stared at her for a moment. “Telling the truth is not dangerous. It is the lies that cause harm.” She strode around the water feature to the up escalator and stairs.
“We need someone to see if Ferris is still in the casino,” Heath said.
“I agree. We also need Stedman to send an officer to Dave’s place and make sure he is hiding and not dead.” Dela hoped the old man hadn’t run into whoever was killing people to either hide the kidnapping or to get information about it.
They split up. Heath went to the surveillance room to ask Ray, the older man Dela felt was on the up and up, to find video of Hugo and Ferris together in the buffet.
Dela walked into the security office, and with the help of Fern found Dave’s address. She put it into her phone as she walked out the entrance of the casino and looked toward the Starfish building for Stedman’s vehicle. She couldn’t see it so she called him.
“Detective Stedman,” he answered.
“Hi, it’s Dela. Are you still at the casino?” she asked.
“No. What’s up?”
“An officer needs to go to the home of Dave Wheeler. I’ll text you the address. He’s an employee who didn’t show up today and has been seen with Reuben on multiple occasions.” She opened the app on her phone, copied the address, and sent it to the detective.
“You think something might have happened to him?” Stedman asked.
“He could just have been told to stay home by Reuben or he could have been tortured for information since he is on the Felicity team.” She continued scanning the parking area. “When you were at the suite, did anyone see Mr. Benedict? He was here having lunch with Ferris according to a keno runner. Do you happen to know if the Benedicts have a place around here? That could be where Ferris has been staying. Other than under the FBI’s nose by being in the casino while they are hunkered down in the Benedict suite.” She found it both funny and asinine that the man the FBI was supposedly hunting for was right within arresting range.
“Hugo hasn’t been to the suite since the FBI took over. I heard he is renting a place at Road’s End. At least that’s what he told the FBI.” Stedman sighed. “This investigation has had so many twists and turns, that I’m not sure what I’m investigating anymore.”
Dela had to agree with him, but she wanted Rowena’s killer. “I’ll wander over to the FBI suite and fill them in on what I know and see if they have anything.”
“I’ll go check on Wheeler.” The call ended.
Dela texted Heath to let him know she was headed to the suite in the Starfish that the FBI had taken over. As she crossed through the parking lot, a vehicle started up. Using more caution than normal, she strode to the sidewalk and continued on it until she came to the laundry building and swimming pool. The hum of an engine still lingered in the air.
She surveyed the parking lot back the way she’d walked and then the area between her and the Starfish building. Several vehicles were moving around in the lot but none were pointed in her direction.
Dela stepped off the sidewalk and started across the parking lot. She spotted Quinn standing by an SUV talking to someone. She headed toward him when spinning tires squealed.
She couldn’t move fast enough to get out of the way of the car barreling in her direction. Hoping she survived, she concentrated on the license plate.
Something hit her from the side, throwing her to the asphalt, smashing the air from her lungs, and holding her down.
“Get them!” a voice shouted from above her. “Are you okay?” Quinn’s voice registered as the weight on her disappeared and a hand moved to sit her up.
She stared into Quinn’s concerned eyes. “W-what happened?”
“Did you hit your head?” he asked, grasping her head and parting her shoulder-length hair.
“Get your hands out of my hair,” she said, shaking off the shock and fear. She batted at his arms, getting him to stop touching her.
“That’s more like it,” Quinn said, standing and holding a hand down to help her up. “Who did you tick off this time?”
She scowled at him as he pulled her to her feet. “The same as usual, the bad guys.” Pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose she recited the letters she’d read on the car license plate.
“What gibberish is that?” Quinn asked, walking beside her to the sidewalk in front of the Starfish.
“That is the vehicle’s license.” She stopped and took a minute to assess. The shoulder that hit the ground ached, but she figured it would be sore and bruised from the force in which it hit the pavement. And it was the hip and upper leg attached to the prosthesis that took the brunt of being smashed to the asphalt from Quinn’s weight. Her neck hurt from instinctively holding her head away from the hard surface as her body was flung to the ground. But she only had a small area of her temple and cheek that burned from being scraped.
Quinn was on the phone reciting the license to whomever he was talking with. He ended the call and studied her for a minute. “Any idea who that might have been?”
“That’s for you to find out with the letters I gave you.” The car coming at her flashed in her mind and she envisioned the person had unruly hair. That wasn’t Dave. She glanced at the doors to the building. “I was coming over to see if you’d learned anything more about the deaths, Ferris, Reuben, the Benedicts. And to let you know the FBI killer was under your noses. A good source saw Ferris in the buffet with Benedict having lunch.”
Quinn stared at her. “He was here? On the premises?”
“Yep. Heath went up to surveillance to see if they could catch him on a camera.” She bent, wiping the sand off her pant leg, and said, “Thanks. I figured if I survived the hit, I could at least give you the license plate.” She sobered. “I knew I couldn’t move fast enough to get away from the car.”
He grasped her arm, standing her to look at him. “As usual, you thought you would survive to give us evidence. Dela, when are you going to believe in yourself enough to know you can get out of anything?” He stood close, staring down into her eyes.
Something reflected in the dark depths but she couldn’t see it clear enough to discover the emotion. “I know my limits physically.” Her voice sounded rough and full of more emotion than she’d planned.
Quinn released her arm and stepped back. “The only person putting those limits on you, is you.”
She stared into his eyes a few more seconds before a woman in a blazer walked out of the building. “Quinn, they caught the person driving the car.”
Dela mentally shook off this exchange and asked, “Who was it?”
The woman glanced at Quinn. He nodded.
“A Dave Wheeler.”
Dela stared at the woman. “You’re sure?” It didn’t make sense. Why would he try to run her down? Unless he was told it was her life or his by Reuben. “We need to find Reuben,” she said.
“Reuben who?” Quinn and the woman said at the same time.
“Reuben Jones. He’s a security officer at the casino but he’s been working with Felicity on the kidnapping and he and Dave Wheeler were seen multiple times talking. If Dave was the one who tried to run me down, he was put up to it by Reuben and probably won’t talk unless you have Reuben in custody.” She faced Quinn. “I can tell you what Heath and I believe, but I need your promise you will act on it and not just go after Hugo Benedict.”
Quinn flicked his gaze to the woman and said, “Go up and see what you can find on this Reuben Jones.”
The agent was hesitant but finally pivoted on her heel and went inside the building.
“Why did you say that in front of one of my colleagues?” Quinn asked in a tone that forgot that just minutes before she was about to be hit by a car.
“Because I want you to be looking for the killer, not trying to get something on a man that will be around doing his dealings and you can get later, but the evidence to the two murders will dissipate with time.” She put her hands on her hips, even though her right shoulder protested the movement.
“Is that what you think? I’m only focusing on a way to get Benedict?” Quinn crossed his arms and stared at her.
“I know how you operate. You want the top dog, always. This time the top dog isn’t the one who needs to be caught. It’s the person who keeps killing.” She crossed her arms and tipped her head. “I’d think that you’d want to find the killer of an FBI agent and informant even if you didn’t know them well.”
His gaze drifted over the parking lot and the tendon over his jaw twitched. He had known one of them well. She’d guess West.
“Did forensics come up with anything to help pin this on someone?” she asked.
“They found fingerprints from everyone we’d expect to find there. West’s, Felicity’s, Asher’s, Morrison...” When she frowned, not knowing the name, he added, “The ‘butler’ I guess you would call him.”
“What about Ferris or unknown sets of prints?” she asked. “Hey, where was Morrison when West was kept in the changing shed and killed?”
Quinn ran a hand across the back of his neck. “We haven’t been able to find him.”
She stared at him. “You mean there could be a second agent who was killed? Man, your butt’s in a wringer.” Dela glanced at the building. “Is that woman you sent away someone who’s here to make sure you avenge the killings?”
Quinn grimaced.
Dela grinned. “Oh, I bet you like having to follow her rules about as much as you like following any rules.”
Her phone buzzed. It was Heath. “Yeah, what have you learned?”
“We found the video of Benedict and Ferris having lunch. They were in an intense conversation. Then we followed them. Benedict went out to his car and drove off. Ferris disappeared out of range of the cameras. He has where he can go undetected down to a science.”
“He isn’t on the premises and you don’t know what he’s driving?” She knew Dave Wheeler had been picked up in the car that nearly hit her, but she could have sworn it was Ferris driving the vehicle when she was studying the license.
“Yes.”
Her shoulders drooped making her right side ache. “I’m coming back over to the casino. The Feds don’t know any more than we do.” Ending the call, Dela studied Quinn and then told him what Heath had said. She debated if she should tell him that she believed it was Ferris driving the car that tried to run her down. Since he’ll insist Wheeler was caught behind the wheel, there wasn’t any sense in wasting her breath.
“Want me to walk you back to the casino?” Quinn asked.
“I’m fine. I’ll keep to the sidewalk in front of the buildings.” She scanned the parking lot. “If Wheeler was picked up, I don’t think I’m in danger at the moment.”
Quinn stepped in front of her. “That’s what worries me. You tend to get on people’s nerves and they do careless things to put a stop to you. Be careful. Don’t go anywhere alone.”
She shrugged, flinched at the sting of pain, and walked away. What she wanted was to be in on the questioning of Wheeler but knew if the female agent Quinn had sent away to talk to her was in charge, there was no way she’d get to sit in on it.