“What were you doing last night?” Laura asked, cutting to the chase. If they could come at this from a different angle, maybe he would realize that he was caught and admit this too.
“Last night?” Wendell looked around, his head spinning across to her so fast it looked like it might fall off his neck. “I thought this was about Elias Makks. What happened last night?”
Laura narrowed her eyes. Was he playing dumb? “Answer the question, please.”
“I was in Augusta,” Wendell said. “I had a funeral to attend. We all stayed late at the wake, and I got a hotel. I only just got back in town about two hours ago.”
Laura looked at Nate. That sounded like an alibi.
“I’ll need the name of the hotel and your room number,” Nate said, picking up his pen.
“It’s the Atlantis Augusta Inn and Breakfast,” he said. “I was in room two-oh-three. I was in the bar there until early—like three in the morning.”
“We’ll be checking out the details with them to make sure you’re telling the truth,” Nate said, which Laura recognized as a little extra pressure to make him admit it if he was making it up to waste their time.
“Of course,” Wendell said. “But you’ll find me on the cameras, and you’ll see that I checked in using my credit card. I ordered room service at like half past three in the morning. They’ll remember that I bet.”
“What about the night Elias Makks was killed?” Laura asked, because it was always worth checking.
“That night, I was at home,” he said. “With my girlfriend. Maybe you won’t consider her a good enough witness, but we were together all night. And yes, she would have noticed if I got up. She’s a very light sleeper.”
Maybe he was protesting too much, but on the other hand, maybe he was just stressing the details because he was telling the truth and wanted to prove his innocence. With the warrant being a good enough reason for him to run, Laura had a terrible feeling that it was the second option.
He wasn’t the killer.
Which left them in a difficult position—without any leads at all.
“Alright,” Nate said, closing the file he was holding. “We’ll need you to remain in custody here while we chase up that alibi of yours and make sure it’s legit. If it is, you’ll be released. And if it isn’t, we’ll be charging you formally. Understood?”
“I understand,” Wendell said, ducking his head. “But I’m innocent. There isn’t any chance you can let me go back and run my tour? I sold some tickets already.”
“I’m sorry, but we can’t let you go until we’ve completed our enquiries,” Nate said, standing up. Laura followed him, with one last glance behind at Wendell who was sinking his head into his hands.
“I think he’s telling the truth,” she said as they walked around the corner into the observation room again.
“Hmm,” Nate hummed. “So do I, unfortunately. We should still follow up on that footage.”
“I agree, but I think we’ll find it corroborates his story.” Laura sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. A dead end, again.
“We should get some rest,” Nate said.
“What about the footage?” Laura asked.
“We’ll send a deputy to get it,” Nate said. “Seriously, it’s late. I doubt we’ll be able to get the footage, watch it, and get him released before dawn anyway. Let’s let someone else take care of it and get some sleep so we can tackle this better in the morning.”
Laura sighed again. “I guess we don’t exactly have any new leads to go on right now.”
“Exactly,” Nate said. “So, let’s go to a motel, check-in, and do what we need to do. I know we don’t trust the locals, but we can at least expect them to be able to obtain and watch footage properly.”
Laura nodded. “Let’s go, then.”
***
Laura looked at her cell phone, biting one of her fingernails as she thought. It was late. Lacey would be in bed already. She’d wanted to give her daughter a call, but she’d missed the chance.
It was a real shame. The sound of her little girl’s voice would have cheered her up a lot right then.
She scrolled through her phone’s gallery, looking for videos. She found one where Lacey was playing and laughing and loaded it up, watching it with a smile. Her daughter’s laughter, even if recorded in the past, was a good enough tonic for now.