Sleight of Hand

CHAPTER FOUR

  A LAB TEST WOULD determine for sure, but Jonah suspected the feather had been fabricated and dyed. On the other hand, if the feather fell from a living creature that would mean Harper had come in contact with the creature recently, either on his own or by transference. Perhaps the bird was a pet, maybe belonging to Harper. He made a mental note to ask Mrs. Harper if they owned a pet bird. If the bird came from a retail outlet, he could easily enough follow up on it. Excluding Animal Rescue, there were only a few pet shops in the Springs. Of course, that would mean the pet was purchased locally. The twiddles in this case as they were, he doubted he would get that lucky.

  What Jonah had thus far was a male or possibly female perp who could be a neat freak who might have or at least come in contact with a bird, perhaps an exotic bird, at some point before Harper's demise.

  Wonderful.

  Sounded like another open and shut case.

  Jonah huffed.

  The EMTs showed up with a stretcher and a body bag to take the deceased to the morgue where the Doc would conduct a post mortem. He promised Jonah he'd have a formal report to him within the next few days and his verbal within the next several hours.

  One was as good to Jonah as the other. They went way back and if he knew anything about the Doc, it was that he never said anything he couldn't back up or prove within one hundred percent surety.

  "What did you want to do with Mrs. Harper?" Doug asked. "Cut her loose?"

  "Not yet. I have a few questions to ask her. Where's the video surveillance?"

  Doug looked at his watch. "The manager said he'd have it to us in ten."

  When Jonah noticed Doug's frown, he asked, "What's the matter?"

  "That was twenty minutes ago."

  "Let's find out what the hold-up is." With Doug following behind, Jonah took off toward the stairwell.

  Jumping the stairs two at a time, they made it to the lobby in record time. Jonah stopped at the main desk, identified himself and Doug to the clerk, whose nametag read, Carrie. From her smile, she remembered him from earlier when he registered.

  Jonah inquired about the manager.

  "Mr. Carson left about twenty minutes ago," Carrie said.

  Jonah gave Doug the eye, wordlessly reminding him that was when the manager said he'd have the surveillance tape ready for them. This case was on the fast track to waste disposal. "He didn't, by chance, leave a surveillance tape with you for us?"

  She shook her head.

  "No, of course not." Jonah shook his head. That would have been too efficient. "Where's his office?"

  She pointed to the right. "Round the corner, first one on the left. But that isn't where the surveillance cameras are, if that's what you're thinking."

  Jonah was thinking that perhaps the surveillance tape was in the manager's office and he was called out before he could deliver it to them. He decided on a different tack. "Who's in charge when he's away?"

  "That would be the assistant manager, Wilbur Free."

  "Get him for me, please." Jonah's patience was hard on empty.

  "I can't."

  "Why not?"

  "Because Mr. Free left with Mr. Carson."

  "Do either of them have cells?"

  "Yes, sir." She placed two cell phones on the counter. "This one's Mr. — "

  Jonah held a hand in the air and closed his eyes. "Don't say it." He silently counted to ten and when he opened his eyes, his outlook seemed brighter. "Why are their phones here and not with them?"

  "Because Misters Carson and Free want the staff to think they're off the premises." She exaggerated a wink.

  Jonah surmised the obvious. "The cells are the property of The Spartacus and are strictly used for the purpose of hotel business and since their phones are here, for all intents and purposes, they aren't." He also understood something else — the men were lovers.

  Carrie nodded, her tongue poking her cheek. "They never leave together, always a minute or two apart, and always through the front entrance, then they travel around the building and re-enter the hotel through a rear or side entrance. From there, they sneak to a supply closet or an empty office. They like each other, you see."

  Yes, Jonah saw. "Could you check your records and tell me when Darrin Harper in room 1414 checked in?" He waited patiently while her fingernails clicked on the keyboard.

  "Five-o-five."

  "Okay, Carrie, here's what's going to happen. In the interim, you're acting manager and as such are empowered to show me the surveillance tapes for the fourth floor."

  "I can't leave the desk untended."

  "Yes, you can, Carrie. The building has been locked down and no one is leaving or entering." She still appeared undecided to Jonah. He grabbed a pen and a sheet of blank paper from behind the counter and wrote, 'Back in two minutes, by order of the Berrywell Springs Police Department'. He folded the note in two and propped it on the desk.

  "How's that?" he asked.

  "Great. I'll put the telephone lines on hold." A moment later, Carrie was all smiles as she walked around the counter. "This way, Detectives."

  Jonah and Doug followed the petite brunette through the hallway to a door marked, 'Private'.

  She used a master key to unlock the door. They entered behind her.

  "There are the recorders," she said, pointing to a panel on the wall. "The cameras are motion activated. The tapes have a six-hour recording time. Aside from the cleaning staff, the gentleman in room 1414 and yourself, there hasn't been any activity on that floor, at least any I know about. So you might be in luck with those tapes, Detectives. The present Mr. Spartacus, Ewen Spartacus the Fourth, wants to bring the hotel into this century by updating its security and installing keyless entry on the doors, and things like that, but the board wants to keep the hotel the way it is. Personally, not that anyone would ask my opinion, I agree with the board. Keep the beauty and charm of this old structure intact, I say." She turned and walked to the door. "If I can be of further service...."

  "We'll be sure to let you know. Thank you, Carrie," Jonah said.

  Jonah watched Doug watch Carrie leave and waited for his question. Doug didn't disappoint.

  "What did she mean when she said 'yourself'?" Doug asked brows burrowed like a gambler placing a long shot.

  "I was having a beer in The Orchid Room and was the first to arrive on the scene, remember?" Jonah could tell his answer didn't satisfy Doug's curiosity, but that was too bad. What he did on his own time was his business and no one else's, not even his partner's. If he could, he'd stop the tape before he and Olivia disembarked the elevator. It would embarrass Olivia if she knew Doug watched her groping Jonah.

  "Let's check those tapes, shall we?" Jonah pointed to a box of unused tapes. "Get one of those, and we'll replace it with the one we want to watch."

  Doug put the tape in a VCR. While it rewound, he turned on the monitor. The tape came to the beginning, and he hit the play button.

  The first hour showed busy hotel workers either freshening up or cleaning rooms and vacuuming the hallway. The following footage showed Darrin Harper coming through the corridor from the elevator.

  "He seems very happy," Doug said. "A regular smiley face."

  "Yeah. That's the face of a man who is about to get lucky. Poor sap. He had no idea those were the last moments of his life."

  The next frame showed a hotel worker wheeling a trolley containing cleaning supplies and linens.

  "Unusual time to clean," Doug said. He moved closer to the screen. "Whoa. That's some looker, and I mean that in a sarcastic, derogatory way." He rubbed his eyes.

  "An unusual cleaning lady," Jonah said, not missing Doug's implication. The woman was painfully homely, but there was something else about her too. "Freeze that frame. Can you get a good image of those calf muscles beneath those tights?"

  Doug canted his head this way and that as he looked at the worker's legs. "She's muscular for a woman and get a load of that sumo wrestler's butt."

  "How about those
broad shoulders?"

  "Could be a man masquerading as a woman."

  "Or a female masquerading as a woman." Doug continued with his appraisal. "The hair must be a wig."

  "Or a really bad hair day."

  "I'll give you that one."

  Jonah decided the figure on the screen could either be a man or woman, an extremely ugly and masculine-looking woman, but a woman, still the same.

  "Could be either," Doug said. "She... or he knows she's on camera. See how careful she is not to show her face?" He pointed at the screen.

  "Hit the play button," Jonah said, willing the cleaner to turn and face the camera, but knowing she wouldn't.

  They watched her knock on the decedent's room door and a second later, her lips moved.

  "Housekeeping, she probably said." Doug bit at a thumbnail.

  "That makes sense and also confirms our theory that Harper didn't consider his killer a threat."

  "That's a matter of opinion. She's one seriously hard-looking woman. She could have given him cardiac arrest." Doug guffawed.

  "If he looked at her. How often do you look at cleaning staff?"

  "That's true."

  Jonah pointed to the screen when the cleaner exited the room. "And the deed is done. How much time elapsed?'

  Doug checked the time display. "Three minutes. Wham, bam, thank-you, ma'am, as they say."

  "Is there anything distinctive about the trolley? Anything that would set it apart from another?" Jonah asked.

  "You're hoping to lift her prints?"

  Jonah didn't allow Doug's incredulous look to deter him. "She isn't wearing gloves. Why not?" Jonah knew it was a long shot, but worth the shot. Never let any stone go unturned. He noticed a damaged brake on a back wheel and pointed it out to Doug. "Find that trolley and have it dusted for prints. Our luck may turn. Can you see anything else that would help us isolate the conveyance?"

  Doug took a closer look. After a moment, he came away shaking his head. "That's it, I guess. No different from any other trolley."

  "Hit the play button. Velma should be making her entrance soon."

  After several blips on the screen, Mrs. Harper walked off the elevator and through the hallway.

  Jonah focused on her deportment. Her behavior puzzled him until he remembered the reason for her visit — she hoped to catch her husband in the act and have it out with him. Or was her conduct attributable to a reason entirely different? Maybe Doug had an opinion. "What's her body language telling you?"

  Doug froze the image. "She seems nervous, but that's understandable given that she expects to catch her husband doing the hokey-pokey with another woman."

  "True. Why does she keep checking her watch?"

  "Maybe she thinks she's too early or too late for the rendezvous." Doug perked up. "Yo," he said, pointing at the screen. "And who do we have here?"

  Jonah watched Olivia and himself disembark the elevator, totally enamored with each other.

  Cut!" he said, but not before Doug slammed a fist against Jonah's shoulder and called him a sly devil. Thankfully the ring of his cell phone precluded a response. He unhooked the phone from his belt and answered the call. "Leedes," he said, noticing from call display that someone from the precinct was calling.

  "This is Wilkins on duty desk, sir. There's been an accident."