THE FBI AGENT WAS OBVIOUSLY shaken. “Looks like that prowler was for real. My room’s been turned upside down.”
Joe grabbed his phone. “I’m calling it in right now. Can you tell if anything else is missing?”
“No. As soon as I saw the lock had been jimmied I went in, saw the mess, and looked for my gun. When I saw it was missing, I backed up and came directly over here. Thank God I had my purse with my badge and ID and credit cards with me.”
“Shauna?” Joe spoke into his phone. “Can you get over here ASAP? We’ve had a break-in at the Surf. No, I don’t want to call it in to dispatch. I’ll explain when you get here.”
Letty wrapped her arms across her chest and looked from Joe to Vikki. “You think it’s Rooney, don’t you?”
“Who else?” Joe said.
“But why break into the smallest unit here?” Vikki asked. “And what’s he looking for?”
“Maybe it’s the loot he was accusing Tanya of stealing that day he showed up at her place in New York,” Letty said.
“We never recovered most of the jewelry or silver or gold from their scam when we arrested Tanya,” Joe reminded Vikki. “At the time of Tanya’s arrest, she claimed Chuck and Rooney took it with them. Now, I’m thinking that loot’s what got Chuck killed.”
“Just how much loot are we talking about?” Vikki asked. “I thought these were a couple of low-rent grifters.”
“It was just a guess, but we estimated around a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. But really there’s no telling. The operation they set up here at the Murmuring Surf was at least the third we know of, after similar operations around the state. But according to Trudi Maples, the watch they bought from her—just for the value of the gold—turns out to have been worth thirty thousand dollars.”
Letty had been pondering the “why” of Rooney tossing the efficiency. “When I first got here, there weren’t any available rooms. But Ava offered to let me clear out the unit that she’d been using for storage. It was full of junk—stuff that the maintenance man was supposed to have thrown out or had hauled away, but instead he just shoved it in the efficiency.”
“And the alleged maintenance man was Chuck Sheppard?” Vikki guessed.
“Yeah.” Joe’s phone dinged and he looked down. “Shauna just pulled in.”
Letty paced around her living room. She could see the open door of the efficiency if she stood in the breezeway. She saw Joe and Shauna and Vikki standing outside the unit, saw the patrol officer crouch down and examine the doorknob with her flashlight. She saw the flashlight beam sweeping over the roof of the unit, nodded silently as Joe and Shauna walked past, speaking in low voices. She heard Shauna speaking into her radio.
Eventually, she went inside, and after checking on Maya, and re-latching the patio door, she fixed herself a cup of tea. She opened her laptop and rewatched the video clip with the amplified sound that Sierra had sent her, hoping to find some clue she’d overlooked.
Shortly after two, she heard a discreet tap at the door. She unlocked it and Joe walked inside and flopped wearily onto the sofa.
“Anything?”
“No. If it’s Rooney, the guy’s a damn Houdini. I even got a ladder and went up on the roof. We walked the beach, thinking maybe he’s camping in the dunes or something, but there’s no sign of him.”
Joe’s dark hair was damp with sweat and his eyes were ringed with dark circles. “Jesus! I can’t stand the idea that creep could still be prowling around here. And now he’s got Vikki’s gun. I went up to Mom’s and told her about the break-in at the efficiency.”
Letty curled up next to him on the sofa. “Was she freaked out?”
He shrugged. “Honestly? She’s got that loaded pistol on her nightstand and I think she thinks she’s Annie Oakley. Whatever.”
“What about Vikki? Where’d she go? She’s surely not staying in the efficiency tonight, right?”
“Hell, no. We rigged up a temporary padlock on her room and she’s bunking in Isabelle’s room tonight.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Although, given what we’ve got on our plates for tomorrow, I don’t know how much sleep any of us will get tonight.” He looked at her hopefully. “Okay if I crash on your sofa tonight? I promise to keep my clothes on.”
“Of course.” She kissed him, then got up to fetch a pillow and blanket from the bedroom.
“I just had a thought. Maybe Rooney found what he was looking for when he trashed the efficiency. Maybe he found the loot and he’s long gone. Right?”
“Let’s hope so.”
While she was in the bedroom, Letty checked the window locks. She found a folded blanket on the top shelf of the closet, along with an extra pillow. By the time she returned to the living room, Joe was slumped sideways on the sofa, softly snoring. She slipped the pillow under his head, swung his legs onto the sofa, covered him with a blanket, and tiptoed out of the room, turning off the lights as she went.