Page 7 of Night Prey
“Sal Sutherland,” Malone called out. “Call Sal.”
She expected a dirty look from Ian. Sutherland was the top criminal defense attorney in the city and not popular with detectives. But Ian just ended the call with Reed and stowed his phone. “Yeager will take you in.”
He glanced at Officer Yeager, who was still guarding her. His smooth face and apple-red cheeks made him look fresh out of high school.
“Ms. Rice is all yours,” Ian said, his tone devoid of emotion.
“Stand, please,” Yeager said.
She complied but kept her gaze pinned to Ian. “You know how humiliating this is?”
“I’m sorry. I have no choice.”
“Can you at least take me out the back way? I’d prefer not to be perp-walked in front of our whole graduating class.”
“That would be up to Officer Yeager.”
“I can do that,” Yeager said. “But I won’t take any shortcuts that could jeopardize the investigation.”
Exactly like when he’d searched her earlier. Another humiliating experience. Yeager was thorough and by the book. At least it hadn’t been Ian searching her like a common criminal. That would’ve been worse.
And now she barely controlled her tears while Ian read her rights. Didn’t he see how much seeing Junior gunned down cut her to the core?
She locked gazes with him, remembering the night he’d come to her rescue, unlike tonight. Wishing that guy were here instead of this one.
“You believe me, don’t you?” she asked. At the tightening of his jaw, she felt vulnerable and wished she hadn’t needed to ask.
“Doesn’t matter what I believe,” he said. “It’s what I can prove in my investigation that will decide your future.”
Ian watched Officer Yeager lead Malone away, and Ian swallowed hard. His job required him to put his feelings in check and do what he was called to do. Look at the leads. Forensic and otherwise, and find Junior’s killer. Be it Malone or the masked man she claimed had been there. And to do that, Ian had to dig deep to put on a mask of impartiality with her. He knew he’d hurt her, and he hoped if she was cleared of charges, she would understand.
Shaking his head, he headed for the manager’s office and spotted a sign by the door that named Arden Vandyke as the operations manager. Ian poked his head inside the small room containing a desk, credenza, and two chairs. Vandyke, who’d been wringing his hands outside the ballroom earlier while he’d waited to talk to Ian, was sitting behind his desk and had his hand plunged into sandy-brown curly hair. On seeing Ian, Vandyke shot to his feet.
Ian held up a hand to encourage the guy to relax. “I need to see any video footage for the staff hallway outside Ballroom D and for the main entrance too.”
Vandyke plopped back down on his chair. “We only have cameras in the lobby and at all the exits. None in the hallways.”
“Then I’d like a copy of the footage for the lobby and the exits for the last twenty-four hours.”
Vandyke frowned. “I’ll need to have security pull that together for you.”
“I also assume you have a camera on the front desk, and we have classmates from out of town who are staying here.”
“Yes and yes.”
“I would like that footage as well.”
“Um, well, there’s a problem with that if you want to catch everyone. We did recent lock upgrades, and not all guests will have stopped at the front desk to check in.”
“Upgrades?” Ian asked.
“We’ve installed door locks for our rooms which use Near Field Communications. A guest can use their smartphone with NFC enabled to check in and check out without ever stopping at our front desk.”
Ian had heard something about the technology being used but hadn’t encountered it and didn’t know the details. “How does that work?”
“When a guest is due to check in, our hotel sends a code to the guest’s smartphone that will unlock their room door and any of the outside doors that we keep secured.”
Ian shoved his hands into his pockets. His murder had to have occurred in a hotel with upgraded features that made his job even harder. “Do you have a list of guests who are here for the reunion?”
