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“What happened?” Heath asked as soon as Dela stepped into the surveillance room. Several heads turned in her direction.
“Someone tried to run me down in the parking lot.” She nodded to the monitor above Ray who Heath stood behind. “Did you find anything else interesting?”
“No, but the three in the back room have a lot of information,” Heath said. He thanked Ray for his help and motioned for Dela to go before him into the back room.
“Hey, Dela, I found the car that tried to run you over,” Dede said, waving her hand.
Dela pivoted and walked over to the woman. “Can you see who was driving? I think I saw Ferris, but the FBI said Wheeler was driving when they caught up to the car.”
The woman clicked on the keyboard, backing the video up.
“Why didn’t you see this when it happened?” Heath asked, his tone accusing.
“We don’t watch the parking lot on monitors, but we can pull it up if someone says their car was broken into.” Dede stopped clicking when the car was parked and two men walked toward the vehicle. It was Ferris and Wheeler.
Dela pointed. “That’s what I thought. I could have sworn I saw Ferris behind the wheel, but there was no sense trying to tell Quinn that. I was able to give him the license plate and an FBI agent took off after the car since he and Quinn were standing outside of the Starfish talking when it happened.”
Dede ran the video forward.
“My God!” Heath exclaimed when Quinn shoved her out of the way just before the vehicle hit her.
Seeing it from this direction sent a shiver up her spine and quickened her heart.
“Quinn saved you,” Heath said, putting an arm around her. “I’m going to owe him a steak dinner.”
“That’s all I’m worth,” she said teasing.
“No, you are worth a whole lot more,” he said, peering into her eyes.
She saw the fear and love shining in his dark brown eyes. If they hadn’t been in the middle of a room of people, she would have sunk into his arms. “Let’s go see what the guys in back have come up with. We have to get the killer before he strikes again.”
Once inside the room, Heath pulled her into his arms and whispered in her ear, “Don’t go anywhere without me until this is solved.”
She nodded and he released her with a kiss on her left cheek.
Trent turned from the monitor in front of him and studied her. “Did you get in a fight?”
“Yeah, with a car. But it was a draw. What have you found?” Dela sat on the left side of Trent in the chair Heath placed behind her. He stood behind the chair with his hands on her shoulders.
“From the footage I went over the days before and after the dates Oscar gave you, the only person other than the employees with lockers on either side of Oscar’s who went near his, was Reuben.”
“Then it’s safe to say, Reuben was the one who placed the money in Oscar’s locker,” Dela said.
Trent nodded.
“Okay. Sherman, have you seen any pattern in the people Reuben talked to?” Dela asked, standing and Heath moved the chair to the far side of Sherman.
“Yes, he did have several visits with Oscar and Dave. They all looked as if he were threatening them rather than saying, here’s money to do this.”
“I don’t think Reuben knows any other way to talk to people. Which makes me wonder how he came to be an item with Felicity. I would think after being with her brute of a husband she wouldn’t fall for a man who bossed her around.” Dela thought on that a bit. Felicity had acted like an airhead, but from everything the woman had pulled off, she was anything but.
Dela glanced up at Heath and then said to Sherman, “Did you watch any of the interactions between Reuben and Felicity?”
“I remember seeing something. I’ll dig it up.” The man reached for a small notebook where he had dates and times written down along with initials. “It will only take me a minute.”
“While he’s digging that up, here’s what I discovered,” Enos said, motioning to his monitor.
Dela stood and moved between Sherman and Enos to watch the middle monitor.
“Nothing conclusive, but Felicity and the boy left the Starfish at the time she said she was showering. She came back at one-forty-five. The cameras came back on and it showed her at the door calling for the boy. I think it’s pretty clear she took the boy to someone who waited down by the beach before taking the boy elsewhere.”
Dela snapped her head around to look at Heath. “We need someone who knows what the boy looks like to take a look at Rowena’s photos. They could have used a different boy with Asher’s dog to wait around and make it look like he was taken to the boat. This was a very elaborate sleight of hand.”
“I can call Quinn and get a photo,” Heath said, pulling out his phone.
“We’ll talk to him,” she said to keep Heath from calling.
“I can get the disk you gave me of the photos,” Trent said.
Dela couldn’t hide the sly grin. His disk was useless. “Heath and I will get the photo. But first, what else did you learn?” she asked Enos. “Anything from cameras during Rowena’s death?”
He nodded. “That’s a toss-up. Cameras in the Otter lobby caught Ferris, Reuben, and Hugo going up the elevator. Ferris and Hugo got off on the third floor and Reuben got off on the second floor.” Enos peered over his shoulder at her.
“There was a sandy print on her balcony. Whoever strangled her came from below the balcony. What were the times you saw the three go up in the elevator?” Dela asked.
“All after she’d checked out,” Enos said.
“How long after she’d checked out?” Dela knew from what she’d witnessed at the crime scene, Rowena had come back from delivering her note and checking out to start packing. There had only been a few items in the suitcase before she was strangled.
“Twenty minutes for Ferris and Hugo and fifteen for Reuben.” Enos spun his chair. “I’d say it was Reuben who strangled her and the other two found her already dead and unable to answer their questions.”
Dela pulled out her phone and punched photos. She scrolled to the photo of Rowena. “She’s facing the door. She wouldn’t know Reuben, why would she let him in and then him come at her from behind clear across the room?” She shook her head. “I think the killer is the one who left the sand print on the balcony. Someone who came up from the outside. I know when I am getting ready to leave my room the last thing I do is lock the balcony door. My guess is either the killer was already on the balcony waiting when Rowena came back or they somehow made it up with a rope or some climbing apparatus and killed her from behind after coming through the sliding door.”
“That makes sense,” Heath said.
“But who else could it have been?” Enos asked. “We’ve been suspecting Ferris and Hugo all along. And then Reuben.”
“West,” Dela said. “He was part of the equation until someone killed him. And he was alive when Rowena was killed.”
Heath huffed out a breath. “I don’t like it. That means there are two murderers. Because West didn’t kill himself. And he didn’t kill the other agent.”
Dela nodded. “True.” Her mind spun with thoughts.
“Then there has to be another person we don’t know about,” Enos said.
“One that has been using all the others to hide their tracks.” Dela walked to the door. “Come on Heath. Let’s get that photo.”
“I have the video of two of Mrs. Benedict’s visits with Reuben,” Sherman said.
Dela spun back around and strode over to Sherman. “Show me.”
The monitor in front of him showed Felicity and Reuben standing in a corner of the casino. She was backed into a corner of a wall and a slot machine. The only reason Dela could tell it was Felicity was her head leaned out toward Reuben. She only saw the security officer's profile.
Felicity’s hand appeared and she stabbed a long fingernail in Reuben’s chest. It was clear she was giving all the orders. Rueben said something and she fisted her hand in the front of his shirt and pulled him close. The slot machine hid whatever they were doing, but Dela imagined they were playing tonsil hockey.
“Okay, the next one,” she said.
Sherman brought up the other video.
Again, it was a dark corner of the casino. “How did you find these, they wouldn’t stand out just looking through videos,” Dela said.
“You had me following Rueben and this is where he ended up several times.”
Dela realized it was the same bank of machines and the same corner.
Nicely done. This time there wasn’t any kissing going on. Felicity was upset. She didn’t hide as deep in the corner and did a lot more fingernail poking to Reuben’s chest.
“A lover’s spat?” Heath said, in an amused tone.
“When was this?” Dela asked.
“The day you put Sidney in charge and told Reuben to go home.”
Dela had an idea they’d been looking in the wrong direction all along.