Rue and I headed to the lower level, where our precinct jail was located. When we got there, Nancy was already sitting inside the first interview room. She looked up at us with a scowl.
“You tricked me.”
“How so?” I took a seat across from her.
“I’m in jail, that’s how. You were just going to ask me questions.”
“That’s what we did.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Because you possessed and were using a Schedule 1 drug. That qualifies you for prison time, Nancy. So you’re lucky you’re just in jail right now. When it’s time for your arraignment, we’ll let the judge know that you cooperated with us. He may give you a lighter sentence. Anyway, we’re here to confirm what you said about the vehicle that tall man was in the other day.”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Was he alone?”
She contorted her face. “How the hell would I know? I didn’t even see him until he was in the middle of the street.”
I pulled back. “Then how did you see the green truck?”
“Like I said, he caught my eye when he came out hobbling with his shoe in hand. I stuck my head out the door to see where he was going. That’s when he climbed into the green truck.”
“And he climbed into the driver’s seat?”
“Uh-huh.”
“So you only saw the vehicle from the front end?” Rue asked.
“Yep, and it was nice and shiny. The sun reflected off the hood.”
“You’re sure it was a truck? Not a van or an SUV?”
She shrugged. “I thought it was a truck, so that’s what I said.”
“So, there’s the chance it could have been something else?” I asked.
“There’s always the chance that what you think you saw isn’t actually what you really saw.”
I groaned.
“What the hell? I told you what I saw, and I saw a truck.”
“Did it drive past you?”
“Maybe, but I went to the bedroom after he climbed into the vehicle.”
She emphasized the word vehicle, and her recollection made me question what she’d told us yesterday. The sun’s reflection off the hood could have given a different color than what she’d actually seen. There was a chance that the truck wasn’t shiny and new at all. It was possible that the glistening sun only made it look that way.
With less confidence in her than I’d had when we entered the interview room, Rue and I returned to our office. I felt deflated. We needed to get something off the video footage since it was all we had left to work with.
With a head tip to the guys when we walked in, I asked if they’d seen anything of interest yet. The men sat side by side, fixated on my computer screen—as they should be.
Lawrence spoke up first. “We did, but it was a false alarm. A couple got out of a truck at the office right around dusk, checked in, and then parked at the end of the building. That’s it so far, but we’re only at the nine thirty mark on Tuesday night.”
I groaned in frustration. “Nobody said apprehending killers would be easy, but come on! Since Abraham is out of the picture for obvious reasons, we need to find his accomplice or at least the person who knew him and where he was staying.”
“Or that so-called green truck,” Rue said.
“We have no choice but to continue watching the footage. Something has to break, or the killings might continue. Whoever our other mystery person is may pick up where Abraham left off,” I said.
“That would put you in the middle of his crosshairs, Mitch,” Bentley said.
“Yeah, don’t remind me.” I had to shake off those concerns and focus on what we could control. “Has anyone checked out if John and Brandon knew each other or had acquaintances in common?”
“Not yet,” Bentley said. “All we know is that you said they didn’t have people in common on their contact lists.”
“Okay, you guys work on learning more, and we’ll get back to watching the footage.”
We hadn’t learned shit from Nancy other than the fact that she was less reliable than I’d originally thought and that the green truck might not be green or a truck at all. Now we had to account for every vehicle that turned in at the motel’s driveway. The killer could be driving anything.
Bentley and Lawrence walked out and back to their office. I made a quick call to Royce to let him know that I questioned the accuracy of Nancy’s account.
“We’ve learned after talking to her again that the sun was glistening off the hood of the truck. That could have distorted what she actually thought the color and the condition of the vehicle was. It could be silver, brown, or dark blue for all we know.”
“Okay, just focus on the videos, then. It’s all we have definitively to work with. Somebody dumped Abraham there, and they didn’t do it through the motel’s back window.”
“Roger that.”
Rue went to grab a couple of coffees while I picked up where Bentley and Lawrence left off—at the nine thirty mark. I gave my watch a glance. Our night shift would start in less than an hour. It would be nice if Rue and I could find that vehicle on the footage before their shift began. That way, they would have all night to try to figure out the make and model of the vehicle in question. At night, the color would be impossible to see, especially from a distance.
We plowed along and sipped our coffee as our eyes were glued to the screen. I would speed up the footage until I saw headlights turn in at the motel, then I planned to switch it back to normal speed. It seemed to make a difference. There was no reason to stare at a screen that showed nothing but blackness at the motel’s parking lot.
I caught headlights at eleven o’clock, but it was only somebody turning around in the driveway. I stretched, let out a groan, and fisted my eyes before focusing on the screen again.
“The shift change briefing is going to start in ten minutes, partner. It looks like the night crew will have to take over.”
“Five more minutes. The footage just turned over to Wednesday.” With my chin propped on my hand, I pushed on. “There!”
Rue jerked upright and leaned in. “Back it up. What did you see?”
I frowned. “We’re both supposed to be watching this.”
“Yeah, yeah, so I blanked out for a second. Back it up.”
I did until I saw the flash of headlights, then I paused it, noted the time, then hit Play but at a slower speed. “Watch. A vehicle is going to turn in, drive past the office, and slow down in the middle of the lot.”
We put our eyes on the vehicle and watched its every move. It pulled in, made a wide turn halfway down the parking lot, then backed up to a door at the center of the building. The distance from the camera to the motel was too great to see the room number, but by counting doors, we knew the driver had backed up to room seven.
After backing up the footage again, I paused it when we had a good view of the shape of the vehicle. It definitely wasn’t a truck.
I punched the desk with my fist. “Damn that Nancy. We wasted two days looking for a green truck when it isn’t a truck at all.”
Rue huffed. “I guess drug addicts don’t make good eyewitnesses.”
“You can say that again. Okay, I guess we better get to the meeting.” I noted the time stamp on the video, shut down my laptop, and walked out. I was excited and wanted to determine the vehicle’s identity and figure out who the driver was, but Homicide was a team, and our efforts needed to be shared like a team. I would have to let the night shift take over where I’d left off. I would forward the video to Prentice and let him and Bloom pick up where I stopped. At least I would have information, and hopefully good information, to share with the group.