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Yeah, that did it. No more dick problems. His inevitable murder was enough to clear that right up.
He moved around the big desk and leaned over to look at the monitor. It showed the security feed from one of the cameras in the lobby. He recognized the young woman they’d met earlier. She was at the front desk in her uniform, talking to a woman in slacks and a blazer. Her back was to the camera at this point, but he could already see a problem. “How tall would you say she is?”
Elisa’s head cocked as she stared at the monitor. “I don’t know. The way the camera’s placed, it’s hard to tell.”
Frank pointed to the screen. “Chelle’s roughly five seven. This woman is definitely shorter than that. The desk itself is about three and a half feet. Given where it hits her, I would say she’s no taller than five four, but I can’t estimate precisely.”
He didn’t need precision. “How did Pilar describe the woman she met?”
Elisa’s brow raised. “Tall. Thin. Damn it. It’s two different women.”
Yep. The woman on the video was short, and while she looked perfectly fit, he wouldn’t call her thin. The mystery deepened, and he had zero clues why one woman would be looking for him, much less two.
“She’s about to turn around,” Frank pointed out. “See, that’s Chelle handing her the address we had for Van and Hale. She should have gotten fired for that. Lucy’s soft.”
Lucy was new to the job, and he was sure firing people during her first few months would be hard for her. They were also deep into the ski season and right before the holidays. Being down even a single worker could make things difficult for the team. “She made a mistake. I don’t think she’ll do it again.”
Frank grimaced and hit a key to stop the video as the woman at the counter turned, her face captured perfectly.
“Do you know her?” Elisa asked.
He had never seen that woman in his life. She was pretty, her light hair up in a ponytail. She looked nothing like the woman Pilar had described. “I do not recognize her. Can we get a printout? I’ll show it to Hale, but I’m almost certain he’s going to say the same thing.”
“Can you play it through, Frank?” Elisa asked. “Chelle told me she noticed that the woman stopped and talked to a guest after she walked away. I’d like to figure out who that is.”
“Sure.” Frank touched the keyboard and the video continued. “I pulled some footage from the other lobby cameras. She moved through and left about five minutes later, but she did talk to someone. She was parked far enough away I couldn’t get a plate number.”
The woman stepped away from the front desk and began walking through the lobby, sliding the contact information into the crossbody bag she wore. When she pulled her hand back, Elisa pointed to the screen.
“Stop it there. Do you see that?” Elisa asked.
Van was pretty sure she wasn’t asking him, which was good because he didn’t see anything.
Frank frowned, staring at the now stopped frame. “Damn it. She’s wearing a holster. I told Cole I thought we should install metal detectors.”
“What?” Van leaned in.
Elisa pointed to the place where the woman’s blazer tipped open and showed a line of something underneath. “It’s a holster. I mean, technically we can’t see the gun, but why else would she have a shoulder holster on?”
It was worse than he’d thought. There was someone looking for him and she had a gun. “But that’s a handgun. We’re pretty sure Hale was shot with a rifle.”
“A lot of people have more than one gun,” Frank pointed out. “She can’t walk through the lobby with a rifle. The handgun is a better bet for daily use. If she knows what she’s doing, she’ll use the right tool for the job.”
“So you think she’s a professional?” It wasn’t even something he’d considered. He’d thought about a pissed-off ex-lover—though none had come to mind. He’d definitely wondered if one of those assholes he’d gotten into fights with was looking for some revenge. He hadn’t considered someone might hire a killer.
Elisa stared for a moment. “I don’t know about that. She walks like a cop.”
“I caught that, too. She’s got an efficiency of movement I would associate with military or police,” Frank agreed. “Which means she should be on record somewhere. I don’t have the means to do it, but the sheriff’s office might be able to put her through some kind of facial recognition and come up with a name.”
“I’m not sure we have a way to do that. We have some computers, but nothing powerful enough to run that kind of software,” Elisa replied. “It’s a small-town operation. I would guess Nate would have to go to the town council to get the budget for us to outsource facial recognition.”
