Page 25 of The Guilty Trial

Finally, at 2:04 a.m., Bennett pushed back from the table, gathered his remaining chips, and headed toward the elevators.

“Can you fast-forward to when he comes back down?” Allie asked.

The operator’s fingers moved across the keyboard. The footage jumped ahead, and there was Bennett again, stepping out of the elevator at 9:14 a.m. He looked disheveled but focused, his clothes the same as the night before. He made a beeline for the gaming floor.

Allie’s stomach sank. That left a window of just over seven hours. Thomas Sterling had been murdered sometime between midnight and six a.m. on Saturday morning at his cabin in the Cascade foothills. Bennett would have needed to leave the casino, drive two hours to the cabin, kill Sterling, and return to Tacoma, all without being caught on camera leaving the building. And then there was a matter of a car—Bennett didn’t have one.

She turned to the operator. “Is there any footage showing him leaving the casino between two a.m. and nine a.m. Saturday morning?”

The man shook his head. “Already checked when Mr. Werther told us you were coming. He never left the building. We have cameras on every exit and every floor. If he’d walked out, we would have seen it.”

Kyle mopped his forehead again, looking genuinely distressed. “I wish I had better news for you. Bennett was a mess those last couple of days, but whatever happened Friday night, he was here the whole time.”

Jason met Allie’s eyes, and she saw the same frustration reflected there. Bennett wasn’t their guy.

Allie looked over at Kyle. “We appreciate your cooperation. It was good to see you again.”

Kyle walked them back toward the main floor, his handkerchief making another appearance. “If there’s anything else you need, anything at all, just let me know.” He paused near the doors. “I hope you find him.”

Chapter Thirteen

Mary Ralston Memorial Park

Puyallup, Washington

Disappointment settled over Allie like a weighted blanket as they walked back to the car. Bennett had been their most promising lead, and now that lead had evaporated. She pulled open the passenger door and slid inside, waiting while Jason settled behind the wheel.

He didn't start the engine right away. Instead, he sat with his hands on the steering wheel, staring through the windshield at the casino's massive facade.

“So what does a guy like Bennett do when he's burned through his daughter's money and has nowhere else to go?” Jason asked.

“Nothing good. He violated parole. He knows if he’s caught, that means going back inside.” Allie buckled her seatbelt. “Why? What are you thinking?”

“He’d be desperate. And we know he was angry and blamed Sterling. So he’s definitely got a motive. But he doesn’t have a car, and how would he know Sterling was in that cabin? Everything we’ve heard about Bennett seems like he was focused solely on his gambling habit.”

“Just because he doesn’t own a car doesn’t mean he couldn’t have gotten access to one.”

“Who knows? Maybe he learned how to hotwire when he was in prison.”

Allie snorted. “I know inmates can learn skills, but I doubt that’s one of them.”

“Not officially, of course. What I’m saying is I don’t think we should let that rule him out.”

“But there’s no video of him leaving the casino. He was there all night.” Allie wasn’t buying it.

“Maybe…” Jason finally turned the key, and the Charger rumbled to life. “They checked to see if he’d left the casino, but did anyone see him actually go to his room after he quit for the night? Maybe he snuck out.”

“What, like he put on a disguise and stole a housekeeping uniform or something?” Allie couldn’t hide her incredulity.

Jason shrugged. “I’m just trying to make sure we cover every possibility.”

“I get it. Want to go back in?”

He shook his head. “I’m thinking we head the direction they saw him going when he left.”

Jason drove toward the exit, pulled out of the lot, and began driving north.

Allie watched the landscape slide past her window. They drove in silence for a few minutes, both of them working through the same problem from different angles. Bennett had been erratic and volatile, even going so far as to beg the casino for a loan. Everything they understood about his most recent weeks painted a picture of a man who took no responsibility for his life and blamed all his problems on others.