Michael didn’t think the wind had done anything. If Matt and Kara had been sitting at the table eating breakfast and drinking champagne when they were shot with the darts, one of them could have dropped the glass. Or when the kidnapper put them in the cart, he or she could have knocked it over.
“Did you see anyone—either a stranger or someone you knew—while you were in or around the cottage?”
Beth shook her head. “I already told you we didn’t. We were busy, we had many rooms to turn over.”
Neither woman recognized the individual in the photo.
After Beth and Anna, Michael spoke with the head of Maintenance, Carlos Rodriguez, a straight-talking man in his sixties. Michael and Matt had both spoken to him on Friday after Reid’s arrest. He had been crushed; he’d personally hired Reid last fall and said he was the smartest employee he had, that he could fix anything and did it with a good attitude, no matter what the job. Now his mood changed from shock and sorrow to anger.
“A partner. He has a fucking partner,” Carlos said shaking his head. “Dammit, I still can’t wrap my head around all this. Killing people. Women! I told my wife—she met him!—and she didn’t believe it, either.”
“Killers are rarely what we expect,” Michael said. He showed Carlos the photo. “We need to talk to this person. Do you know who it is?”
Carlos frowned. “Brian already asked me—I said no. That’s our uniform, but this person doesn’t work for me.”
“Are you certain?”
He narrowed his eyes at Michael. “Damn straight I’m certain.I know every man and woman on my staff, and this girl doesn’t work for me.”
Girl.“Do you recognize the individual? Maybe another staff member, or someone you’ve seen around?”
“No,” he said, then looked at the photo again, shook his head. “No. It’s not a good picture, I mean I can’t even see her hair color or anything. If you get something better, show me. If I know, I’ll tell you.”
“How easy is it to steal a maintenance uniform?”
He shrugged. “I couldn’t say. Everyone is issued two uniform shirts, one set of overalls, and they’re responsible for them. They can wear their own khaki pants or shorts in neutral colors, or buy additional shirts or overalls at a discount.”
“Order through the resort?”
He shook his head. “A company we contract with—a lot of the companies use them.”
Michael slid over a notepad and pen. “Can you write down their name and contact information if you have it?”
Carlos looked it up on his phone, wrote everything down for Michael. Michael thanked him, then when he left, sent the information to Ryder with a message:
Anyone can order uniforms from this site.
If anyone could order, they wouldn’t find much—they could potentially have thousands of orders to go through in northern Florida alone. But if Garrett Reid ordered an extra uniform, especially one that was too small for him? That would give them a thread to pull.
Michael needed all the threads he could find.
Alena Porter, the manager of the resort, came in a few minutes after Carlos left. Michael had already asked Brian to bring in the woman who’d worked at the gym while Matt and Karawere there, but now he texted that Alena was here and said to ask Ms. Davidson to wait a few minutes.
Alena was a trim, attractive bleached blonde who looked younger than her forty years. Michael had met her several times over the last two weeks, and she was one of the few staff members who had been privy to the undercover operation. She’d worked at the resort for seven years, starting at the front desk, and had been promoted to manager last fall—two months before the first murders.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” Alena said as she sat down, straightening her knee-length skirt over her long legs. Though impeccably dressed in a summer-weight business suit, strands of hair had escaped her slick braid, and her makeup was less than artfully applied.
“You look frazzled,” Michael commented.
“I have hardly slept since you arrested Garrett. The owners’ group had been pleased this was resolved, and then I heard your agents are missing and that Garrett Reid may not be guilty. Monday’s my day off, I was three hours away visiting my sister when Brian called me this morning.”
Michael made note of Alena’s whereabouts, just in case he needed to follow up.
“Reid is involved,” Michael said. “He may be working with a partner.”
She stared at him. “Two killers? Oh, jeez. What do you need? Has Brian been helpful?”
“Yes,” Michael said. He ran through what they determined had happened yesterday and then showed Alena the photo of their suspect. “Do you recognize this person?”
