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.
