Chapter Nineteen #2
“I get that. I wouldn’t want to stay in a murder inn, either. I’ll find you a new hotel.”
“No, we can do that. Look, I’ve brought you up to speed. You go now. Give your beautiful Josephine Hazel Lambert-Flaherty a kiss from her Auntie Elle.”
Alexis leaned in. “And her Auntie Alexis.”
“I will. Elle, be careful. I know we still need to talk about things, but all I want is for you to be safe, secure, and happy. Tell Alexis that I love her. Love you, too, Ellie. We don’t say that to each other enough.”
No, they didn’t. “And I love you, Mommy Sara.”
Sara laughed joyfully. “I’m going to be Mama. Felicia is Mommy.”
“Then I love you, too, Mama. Bye now.” Elle ended the call and turned to Alexis, stunned but also relieved and calmer. Lighter. The rift between her and Sara had been weighing more heavily on her than she’d realized. “I didn’t think she’d agree to me sharing the body cam downloads.”
“She loves you. She’ll do what’s right to keep you safe.”
Elle leaned her head on Alexis’s shoulder. “I’m so glad you’re my friends.”
“Same, Ellie. Same.”
Fort Bragg, California
Tuesday, February 3, 8:45 p.m.
Ronan was very grateful he’d gotten those four hours’ sleep as he was furiously multitasking at the moment, listening to two separate cell phone conversations while checking for any clues left by the killer of the dead woman at his feet. Howard was in his ear, discussing the newest homicide.
Elle was in the hallway, talking on her cell phone, but not on speaker. It sounded like she was talking to Sara Lambert. Who, it seemed, was now a proud parent.
He’d been actively eavesdropping on her side of the conversation. He was not ashamed, not even a little bit. He needed answers more than she needed privacy at this moment.
“I’ll get someone checking the housekeeper’s finances,” Howard was saying. “What’s her name again?”
“Olive Lavery. She’s only eighteen. Just graduated from high school last spring.”
“How long’s she been dead?” Howard asked.
“Not long. She’s still warm and the blood pooling around her head hasn’t started to dry.
She was shot in the head, low-caliber bullet.
Her killer had to have used a silencer, otherwise someone would have heard the shot.
He left the TV blaring, so that would have covered any sound the silencer made.
” Because they weren’t silent. Not nearly as loud as an unsuppressed shot, but not as quiet as people thought.
“He may have also used the TV to cover up the noise he made stealing the safe from the wall.”
“He stole the safe?”
“It appears to have been bolted down, but not to the wall studs. Only to a piece of thin plywood in the armoire, which is smashed to pieces.”
His ears pricked up when he heard Elle’s voice again.
“I’ve got protection here,” she said. “I’m safe.”
He couldn’t help the pride that filled him. She felt safe with him.
“I’ll send CSU to the scene,” Howard said, dragging back his attention. “We need to do something with the women. Randolph and her lawyer. They need to go into protective custody. A safe house.”
He didn’t think either woman would agree to that. “I don’t know if that’s feasible. Ms. Hellier needs to go to San Francisco tomorrow for court.”
“Ronan,” Howard said, his tone kinder than Ronan was expecting, “I know you like the Randolph woman. I know you want to keep her safe. That’s best done in a safe house.”
“She won’t go,” Ronan said candidly.
“I don’t think you are allowed to, either, Sara,” Elle said in the hallway, making him wonder what Sara Lambert planned to do.
“Then they’re on their own,” Howard said. “We can’t provide a protection detail. We don’t have the resources. I’m already losing a deputy tomorrow so that the lawyer can go to court.”
“And so that we can get the footage from Ms. Randolph’s home security camera,” Ronan reminded him, just as Elle’s volume increased.
She was worried about her parents. But…it seemed like Sara was calming her down.
“True,” Howard conceded. “I wish they’d never come to my county.”
Ronan agreed, from the standpoint of what was now seven local murders. But if she’d never come here, he never would have met her and he didn’t want to think about that.
Then every muscle in his body tensed.
“I’m going to review my body cam footage,” Elle said. “See if this guy has come close to me in the past. It might help us ID him faster.”
What the hell? She had body cam footage? And she hadn’t mentioned that yet?
Anger began to rise within him.
She’d kept something from him that could have cracked this case days ago. Days in which two more people had been killed.
“Ronan?” Howard asked sharply. “Did I lose you?”
Ronan blinked, refocusing. “No. I’m still here.” He dropped his voice. “I’m, um, listening to another conversation. Give me a second.”
He was tempted to stomp into the hallway and confront her, but he forced himself to stop and think. He’d learned a few things about Elle Randolph over the past few weeks. She had ethics and she was loyal.
And she’d had a shock, finding out that the man who’d been stalking her had actually approached her.
She was saying something about the break-in and how her computer was gone. Along with a hard drive. Sara must have said something to reassure her once again, because she sounded relieved.
And then his tense muscles relaxed.
“If I find him, I’m planning to make a clip and send it to Ronan,” she said, her tone going a little defiant. Like she expected Sara to balk.
And honestly? That was very fair. Sara Lambert didn’t like cops.
Relief swamped him. Elle had behaved as he’d hoped.
“Okay?” Elle asked, sounding surprised.
So Sara had agreed. That surprised Ronan, too.
He moved farther into the room, away from the door so that they couldn’t hear him. “She’s got body cam footage,” he whispered to Howard. “She wants to see if he’s been any of the places she’s had cases.”
“What the fuck?” Howard blustered loudly, making Ronan wince. “She has footage she hasn’t shown us? What the fucking hell is her game?”
“She’s going to give it to us,” he continued, still whispering. “She just cleared it with her boss, but I got the impression she would give it to us regardless.”
“Oh.” Howard harrumphed. “Well. Then okay. Stick close to her. Don’t let anything happen to that footage.”
“Of course.”
Aw. Now they were all saying “I love you” to each other, Alexis included, and he was reminded that they were a tight circle of friends who had years of shared history. Sounded like Elle and Sara had made up.
He hoped that didn’t mean that Elle would go back to working for Sara.
I need her safe.
I need her to stay here.
With me.
“I have to go,” he said at normal volume.
“I’ve already called the coroner. Now I need to go downstairs and tell Carrie that another of her people is dead.
” He wasn’t relishing that task. “And then I’ll question the other staff members.
I’m going to show the photo from the store’s surveillance, see if anyone saw him or knows him. ”
“Sounds like you’ve got it under control,” Howard said. “I’ll call CSU and send them to your location and then I’m heading home. Call me if anything happens. I mean anything, Ronan.”
“I will.” Ronan ended the call and pocketed his phone. By the time he got to the hallway, Elle had ended her call.
She and Alexis sat on the floor, their backs against the wall. Elle’s head rested on her friend’s shoulder.
The two women looked up when his shadow fell over them. “You okay?” he asked.
Elle shrugged. “I mean, I’m better than Olive and ten other dead people, but no. Not really. Are you okay? Did you know her?”
“Only through my daughter. Penny knew her from high school.”
“Dammit,” Elle said, slumping. “Poor Penny. What happens next, Ronan? What can we do?”
“I have to process this body. I called the coroner and my boss is calling CSU. It will take a while for the coroner and CSU to get here. Then I have to notify Olive’s next of kin.” He grimaced. “You can pack a bag, but your room is now a crime scene.”
“We figured that,” Alexis said. “I’ll get us a room at a different inn for tonight. I don’t think anyone’s going to want us here any longer.”
That was definitely true as well.
“When can we leave?” Elle asked.
“Not for a while. Come with me and I’ll find you a place to sit downstairs in the lobby. I don’t want the two of you alone. I’ve called for backup and I’ll send one of the officers up here to guard the scene and another to watch over you two.”
The two women scrambled to their feet. “How was she killed?” Elle asked.
“Gunshot wound.”
Alexis shuddered. “Like the others.”
Ronan nodded. “Except for Dianne, yes.” He wondered why that was, but then he knew.
The killer had been listening to Elle talk to Dianne and had heard her comment on the trophy when she’d picked it up—the trophy that was used to murder Dianne.
Elle’s fingerprints were all over it. “You ready to go back downstairs?”
Elle visibly braced herself. “Sure. Let the warm welcome begin.”
He pulled the door closed, made sure it was locked, then led them down the stairs, bracing himself much as Elle had done.
It was time for a hard conversation with Carrie.
Carrie was manning the front desk when they got to the lobby and she started to smile at them, but the smile fell away.
“What?” she asked, her hands balling into fists on the countertop. “What’s happened?”
Ronan gestured for Elle and Alexis to take a seat on the sofa nearest the front entrance and approached the desk.
He leaned in, lowering his voice once again. “Olive’s dead. We found her body in their room. She was shot.”
Carrie’s face drained of color. “No,” she whispered. “She was just a kid.”
“Did you have someone fix the camera at the employee entrance?”
She nodded numbly. “But not until about five o’clock.”
“That should still help. She wasn’t killed that long ago. Can you lock all the exits so that no one can leave until we’ve finished our interviews?”