How? Was he mad? Were they all mad? She’d just given them a list of dangerous criminals associated with Sunshine, and they weresetting a trap?
Was Jax involved, too? Surely not. She texted him.where r u?
savannah. u ok?
My word, they’d all lost their minds. Reluctantly, she answered,ok
She was very definitely not OK. Setting her phone aside, forgetting her calming numbers research, she plunged down the rabbit hole she’d discovered last night after Roark had shown her his databases. She knew his passwords. She knew how to find the link to his private website. And from there, she could follow him anywhere.
First, though, she checked the security camera link he’d sent. This appeared to be to the main security center of the retirement apartments that they’d been investigating. It opened on a screen of square blocks similar to a Zoom meeting. Each block contained a different scene. She could see the front desk, the entrance to the elevator, the halls of all five floors from above the elevator doors and also the stairway exits.
She was very bad at recognizing faces, so she memorized the movements of various hairstyles and clothing. A number of men in business suits or informal blazers entered from the rear of the lobby and continued off to an unseen corridor on their right. The board of directors must be gathering.
She looked, but the security cameras didn’t cover the office wing. How odd. Wouldn’t that be where the company kept its valuable files?
If Sunshine really was run by criminals... They might not want security watching them.
After verifying that she couldn’t find Evie or Roark or anyone she recognized in the parts that she could see, she closed that link and opened the other one he’d sent.
It focused on the boardroom. R&R had set up four cameras, one in each corner so she could view the entire room.Thatwas the way security cameras ought to be set up.
Remembering that Reuben had been keeping documents on the various board members, she called up that file on her laptop and began comparing photos and names. Sometimes Reuben had added question marks, so she understood that he wasn’t certain that image went with that file.
She could hear rustling papers, murmuring voices, and she shivered. It was almost like being in the boardroom—and she didn’t want to be there. Surely, Reuben was following this from his van.
She was just back-up insurance, she supposed. She felt a little let-down at that realization.
But where was everyone? If Reuben was monitoring cameras from the van, where had Evie, Jax, and Roark gone?
For that, she dived into Roark’s website and started digging.
Thirty
Too aware of the earbuds,mic, and camera Roark had made her wear, Evie scratched at her bugged ear while trying to round up her guests in Marlene’s apartment.
Granny was bouncing off walls, as usual, and not quite as coherent as Evie would like. She turned her focus on the residents filtering in, drawn by the phone tree they apparently activated when anything entertaining was happening. All the people who had been in here after Stacey was robbed were present. Most of them were Granny’s immediate neighbors.
The people who had brought food when Marlene was sick arrived, although Ursula was probably at the board meeting. Lucy wasn’t high enough on the executive tree. She probably had to be present at the front desk so the board could see she was at work. Evie shivered when Mr. Charles arrived. She’d read his file—Bernard Barouche’sfile. He’d spent his early years in prison for gang activity, weapons assault, and car theft—of an entire fleet of cars. Murder wasn’t on the list, but then, he’d not been caught again. He’d smartened up in prison and learned new tricks.
Since then, he’d only left a few sticky fingerprints connected to various high-end cons, swindling everyone from corporate executives with investment scams, to hospitals with miracle drugs and fake research under one alias or another. Would a man that worldly-wise risk killing a neighbor?
A man who knew how to steal identities was standing right there in a nest of blue-haired old ladies.
Well, to be fair, a few balding men and silver foxes joined them. Bottles of wine and other alcohol miraculously appeared. Evie felt as if she ought to be on the stage at Las Vegas pulling rabbits out of hats. “People, please, I don’t think alcohol is conducive to our spiritual journey. If you’d set your glasses and bottles aside until later...”
Without furniture, they didn’t have a lot of choice for disposal. The kitchen counter filled up. More bottles lined up along the newly painted walls. A few people suggested they should all repair to their better equipped apartments. Evie corrected that thinking. “We’re here to speak with Marlene Gump. I don’t believe she inhabits any other apartment but this one.”
Although she suspected Granny could, if she wished. Evie just didn’t want to walk into a trap.
She knew Roark was sneaking into offices, while listening for Reuben’s warnings from the van. Jax had driven the Subaru and was out there attempting to reach Professor Gump to see if he’d received the files Ariel had compiled—and probably hoping for a raid before anything happened. As a lawyer, Jax had to distance himself from any illegal activity, and Evie was pretty certain everything they were doing was illegal as it got.
It took a crook to catch a crook?
“Please, folks, this is far more than I’d hoped would be here. I thank everyone for your eagerness to discover Marlene’s killer, but you must understand that there are limitations on our communication. Do not expect television drama. If I could just have half a dozen or so of Marlene’s closest friends or neighbors...” She gestured to where she stood in the center of the living area.
Letitia of the hot dish and Mary Smith of the brownies stepped up, as did Mr. Charles/Barouche and half a dozen other people. Evie sorted through to choose others Marlene suggested and had the others step back for now.
She really wanted the nurse and Lucy and Ursula here, but she had to leave them to the men.For now.She had plans.