Chapter 25 #2
“Nothing here. Whoever interviewed her put a sticky note that she had a lapse in employment because she was caring for her
sick mother.” Sloane snorted.
“You don’t believe that?”
“Not really. Maybe she did have a sick mother, but I think she didn’t want her résumé to match up exactly with Garrett’s when
they both applied to work here. That’s why the small cheat on the fitness place in Nashville.”
Playing devil’s advocate, he said, “She started here at the beginning of the year, months after Garrett.”
“I think that was intentional. I think we can prove it.”
Sloane picked up the phone. A minute later, she asked for the human resources manager of the New Orleans hotel where Garrett
had worked. Five minutes later, she ended the call and said with a thin smile, “Hope Davidson worked for the hotel as a cocktail
waitress. She simply didn’t put it on her résumé.”
“Let’s go ask her about that,” Michael said and motioned for Sloane to follow him back to the gym. “And find whoever she was
training on Sunday to see if they saw or heard anything.” He hadn’t followed up with the individual because there hadn’t been
a need at the time. He glanced at his notes. “His name is Will. I didn’t get his last name.”
Hope wasn’t behind the counter. Another woman was there, “Jane” according to her badge. Michael had only spoken to her briefly
because she didn’t work weekends.
“We were here speaking with Hope earlier,” Michael said. “Can you let her know we have a couple more questions?”
Jane said, “She left.”
“Do you know where she went? Did she leave the grounds?”
Jane shrugged. “She said she had an appointment. It’s slow, so I said whatev.”
“Is Will here?”
“Will?”
“A new hire she was training on Sunday.”
“Oh, Will Kirk. He’s not really a new hire. He’s a lifeguard and wanted to pick up some extra hours so I guess he’s helping
out in the gym on the weekends.”
“Where can I find him?”
“If he’s working, he’s at the pool.”
As they walked toward the resort pool, Michael called Catherine. “Hope Davidson lied on her employment application.”
“How?” she asked.
“She worked at the same New Orleans hotel as Garrett Reid during almost identical times, and they also overlapped at the resort
in Nashville. There’s no way they didn’t know each other.”
“Did you ask her about it?”
“She’s already gone for the day. But I may have something more—I’m going to interview the staff member she was training on
Sunday when Matt and Kara were in the gym. There was no reason to verify her alibi, but now?”
“As soon as you know, call me. If we can find just one discrepancy in her statement, I can get a warrant.”
Michael ended the call and found the very tanned Will Kirk in board shorts and a staff T-shirt. He sat on a tall chair under
an adjustable umbrella where he could easily see the entire vast pool.
They both showed their badges and said, “We have a couple questions.”
“Fine, but I can’t leave. I can get someone to relieve me and meet you in like fifteen or twenty minutes. Management told us to cooperate.”
“We can talk here,” Michael said. He didn’t want to wait; they needed to jump on this immediately.
“Sure,” Will said. “What do you need?”
“Were you going through staff training on Sunday morning in the gym?”
“Sort of, I guess?”
“Specifics.”
“I’m going back to college in the fall, so I’m trying to make some extra money this summer. My boss said they could use extra
help in the gym on weekends if I wanted to pick up some more hours. Hope was showing me the equipment, most of which I knew
how to use because I work out there after my shift. And you know, basic jobs like refilling the water, checking the locker
rooms, scheduling classes, things like that. I was just there for a couple hours for the walk-through.”
“When was that?”
“I was supposed to be there from nine to noon, because I start my lifeguard shift at noon. But she, like, disappeared on me.
I thought she was in the women’s locker room, so I called in there, but she didn’t answer. I waited around, but I had to go—I
was already late.”
“What time did you leave?”
“Well, at 12:15 I went into the locker room to change—” he motioned to his shirt and board shorts “—and when I came out she
was behind the counter. I said, hey where’d you go? I’m late for my shift. And she said she never left, that she was in the
women’s locker room.” He shrugged. “Maybe she was and didn’t hear me.”
Michael didn’t believe that.
“What time did she disappear?”
“I don’t know.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
He thought. “Around 11:20. I don’t know the exact time, but about then. She had fresh towels we’d just folded, and she said
she was going to restock the women’s locker room and check supplies. She told me to wipe down the equipment, so I did.”
If she left the gym at 11:20, that would give her plenty of time to change, grab a laundry cart, and go to Matt and Kara’s
cottage. It would give her enough time to tranquilize them but not remove them from the resort property.
“It wasn’t the first time,” Will grumbled.
“What do you mean?”
“Right when I got there, she said she had to run to the office and left me. We had people in racquetball, people coming in
for classes, people asking about the equipment, and she was gone for twenty minutes.”
Michael remembered what room service said—Kara was drinking coffee out of one of the blue room mugs. Forensics had found a
narcotic in the base of the remaining mugs. There were no cameras around the cottage, but there were cameras right outside
of the gym. If they could get Hope coming or going around nine Sunday morning, that would give them one more small piece that
fit the evidence. She could have entered their room and poisoned the coffee mugs, then returned to the gym.
“Thank you, Will. We may have more questions.”
“Is Hope in trouble?”
“We have questions for her,” Michael said. “How long have you known her?”
“Just the last month. This is my third summer working here. I think she started in January or something. I don’t really know
her. The first time I actually talked to her was on Sunday.”
Michael and Sloane went back to Brian’s security office to review videos outside the gym Sunday morning. He texted Catherine with what they had learned, but he wanted something more—something that would guarantee no judge would deny them a warrant.
“Bingo,” Sloane said. “She left at 9:03 a.m. and returned at 9:20 a.m. And there’s no sign that she went to the hotel office.”
Not a smoking gun, but they were getting closer.
“What about at 11:20?” Michael said.
“She didn’t leave the gym,” Sloane said, sounding defeated.
“But,” Brian said, “each locker room has an exit into the pool area and there are no cameras on those doors.”
Michael and Sloane both looked at him, surprised. Michael asked, “Can she get back in through the locker room?”
“Yes. The locker rooms are accessible from both the gym and the pool. We don’t have security cameras for privacy reasons.”
“That’s how she did it,” Sloane said. “She could change in the locker room, incapacitate Matt and Kara, then return the same
way and no one would know.”
“But she didn’t leave the resort,” Michael said. “If she didn’t leave the property, where were Matt and Kara until her shift
was over?”
“Whichever vehicle she used to transport them,” Sloane said. “If they were unconscious, she could have left them for an hour,
easy.”
“A van,” Michael said. “It would have to be a van because nowhere on camera did we find the same disguised maintenance person
returning toward the resort pushing a laundry cart. But a cart could be rolled into a van.”
Brian said, “Security keeps a log of all vehicles in the lot, makes sure they have either an employee sticker or guest pass.
Every vehicle was accounted for on Sunday, as I told your team.”
“You still have a list of license plates?”
“License, make, and model.”
“I need that list. We’ll go through it again,” Michael said. “Is there another parking area? One that isn’t monitored?”
“Not on the property—though there’s a beach lot adjacent to ours, open to the public.”
“How close?”
“Separated by a walkway. We use it for event overflow parking.”
“That’s it,” Sloane said.
Michael agreed. “And can I assume there are no cameras on that lot?”
Brian shook his head. “Not ours, and not the county. Do you still want the list?”
“Yes,” Michael said. “For every day this week. Maybe they slipped up.”
He wasn’t holding his breath, but it was a small chance.
Michael called Catherine and filled her in on everything they’d learned.