Page 86 of Lost Hours
Something about this didn’t sit well with Nolan, but he would continue until he figured it out. “How did you get the food?”
“He had me rent a van to pick the meal up at the caterers. I had to do it on my credit card, but he gave me enough cash to reimburse me. Tide and Thyme is run out of some chick’s house. At the mansion, I had to take the food trays and put them in the kitchen. Then I had to make sure the food was either kept cold or warm and would be ready to serve on time.”
“And then, of course,” Nolan said, “you had to greet us at the door and take our phones.”
He nodded, but a sheepish look crossed his face.
“Didn’t you find that odd about the cell phones?” Mina asked.
“No, the guy explained everything. He said all of you were in on the event and were going to be playing roles you’d agreed to play. He said that none of you wanted the performance to be interrupted by a phone call.”
“And the fact that we all complained about giving you our phones didn’t tell you otherwise?” Nolan asked.
Tate shook his head. “I figured that’s what your role was so I improvised, as he instructed me to do.”
“Did you clone or otherwise mess with our phones?”
“Nah, they just sat in the bag so you could find them when you were ready to leave.”
“And when you gave in and told us the night was courtesy of one of our clients,” Nolan said. “Was that part of the script?”
He laughed, then quickly hid his humor and nodded. “I figured you would know that, since it was part of my script and all.”
“Did you interact with Harmony Vance while you were there?” Mina asked.
“Yeah, she met me when I arrived, told me she would be upstairs watching television if I needed anything, and then she went upstairs. I felt bad for her being stuck there all night and went off script. Gave her a snack in the afternoon and took her a dinner meal, but then I never saw her again.”
“So you locked us in the room after dinner, and then you cleaned up,” Nolan said. “What did you do with the caterer’s trays?”
“I loaded it all into the van and dropped things in a dumpster here at the complex before returning the van.”
Nolan didn’t much like this guy, but he didn’t think he was lying. “And how did you get your final payment?”
“It was in my mailbox when I got home.” He shook his head. “I sure wouldn’t have left that much cash in this neighborhood. Not even in my locked mailbox, but that’s the way this guy wanted to deal.”
“How much did he pay you for the night?” Mina asked.
“Two grand.” He clasped his hands together. “So you can see why I did it, even if some things were a bit sketchy.”
“Did you help set up the escape room?” Nolan asked.
“Me? No. No way.” He shook his head hard. “It was that way when I got there.”
“We’ll need you to send the emails that you shared with each other at the beginning,” Mina said.
“Yeah, sure, I can do that.” He bobbed his knee and let his gaze travel between them.
“Forward them to this email address.” Mina handed him her business card and eyed him. “I’m not going to take you in tonight, but if I find out you lied about anything, I’ll bring you up on charges. Don’t leave the area.”
“Hey, no way. I didn’t lie. Besides, does it look like I can afford to go anywhere?” He stood and held out his hands. “No need to arrest me.”
They left the apartment, and Mina turned to Nolan. “At least we got one thing out of that conversation we can follow up on.”
Nolan nodded. “The minute we get back to the inn, we can look into that tailor shop. Maybe then, we can find a connection to the night and finally wrap up the murder investigation.”
And hope that led to Becca’s whereabouts, but he wouldn’t say that aloud, in case he was wrong.
Frustrated, Mina didn’t want to take time to eat, but Reece had arranged a dinner delivery from the local Italian restaurant. The food rested on a table near the wall. Most of the LLL team members were seated with plates in front of them. The smell of garlic and oregano wrapped around Mina, and her stomach rumbled.
