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Oh, but he had connections. “My brother can do it. I’ll call him.”
This was exactly what his brother did.
“No, you won’t get involved,” Elisa countered. “This is official. I’ll call him and see if we can afford his services.”
Jake would never make Nate Wright pay for a simple search. He might only be up here for parts of the year, but his brother considered himself a member of the community. Besides, they’d worked with Cameron Briggs on several occasions. “You’ll find your fellow deputy has an in with my brother and Adam. He’s a pretty spectacular coder himself.”
“I’ll look into it, but I have to be the one to talk to him. You can make the introduction, but then you’re out of it. You can’t be involved in the investigation as anything but a witness,” she murmured, her eyes still on the screen. “Let’s get it moving again. I want to see who she talks to. If she knows someone in the area, he might be helpful in finding her.”
“You’re going to be disappointed because I did not catch his face.” Frank started the video up again. “There he is. He was waiting for her at the front of the lobby. I think he’s involved in whatever she was doing. You see the way he keeps his head down?”
The man was wearing a ball cap, pulled low over his eyes. The woman joined him, a hand on her bag as though protecting the information. She said something to him, and he pointed her way. She shrugged.
“She’s working for him.” He could read the body language. He’d spent an entire childhood studying the people around him because his parents thought he could make decisions about people on his own. There had been very little protection from them. The years of bartending hadn’t hurt either. “He’s the one who wants the information, but she won’t give it to him.”
“And he is pissed,” Elisa agreed. “He’s also aware of where that camera is, and he doesn’t want to be picked up on it. I would bet they’re arguing about payment.”
Then the blonde turned and walked off, the man following behind her, still trying to make his point. The man had a heavy jacket on, like he’d come in from the cold. It looked odd on him, like it didn’t fit properly over his shoulders.
“No one remembers an argument in the lobby?” Elisa straightened up, a frustrated look on her face.
“We’re not supposed to notice things like that.” He remembered well all the lectures on how employees were supposed to act. “Unless we feel someone is in danger, we’re supposed to look the other way and pretend nothing’s happening. Besides, that was nothing. You should see what happens when Rachel Harper finds out Max is cheating on his diet with a bucket of chicken wings. She is serious about his cholesterol. That is a confrontation you can’t avoid watching.”
But no one would have noted the man and the woman arguing quietly and briefly in the lobby before they both left. If they couldn’t pull a plate off the car they’d driven away in, Jake and his group were their best bet.
He wanted to know who that man was. There was something familiar about him, but Van couldn’t put his finger on it.
“Thank you for your help, Frank.” Elisa nodded the security chief’s way. “If you don’t mind printing out that good shot we have of her, I would appreciate it. Maybe capture it and send it to me digitally, too.”
“And send one of the guy. Even from the back. There’s something about him. I know you said I can’t be involved, but this is witness stuff,” Van argued. “I think I might know him. I don’t know why.”
Elisa put a hand on his shoulder. “Sure.”
Within minutes they were walking out of the lodge, heading toward her big SUV.
“Please sit in the front with me,” she said as she opened the driver’s side door.
“Well, I don’t want to sit in the back.” He hadn’t thought about the fact that she drove a county vehicle now even though it was parked across the street from them every night. “I know I have a reputation, but I haven’t actually been in the back of one of these. I’ve never been arrested in Bliss. Though I’ve heard it’s nice. Like real nice.” He glanced around the luxurious interior. “This is the nicest police car I’ve ever seen.”
Elisa smiled as she settled in and turned the car on. “According to Gemma, these were a gift from one of the town’s really rich people.”
“Yeah, we’ve got a couple of people in town who have more money than they know what to do with. I’ve heard Stef Talbot is building the schoolhouse and plans to gift it to the town.” They’d recently broken ground with plans for the small but high-tech school to open in time for the next academic year.
