“I agree. But for Benton to pull this off, she’d have to defeat facial recognition. That is not easy.”
“I’d bet my pension that she found a way.”
Mark sighed and said nothing for a minute. “Logs indicate Moffit caught a flight back to the mainland. He should be back in Long Beach anytime now,” Mark said finally. “Is Crystal Benton still there?”
“I haven’t seen her lately. I doubt she’s staying under her name, but I’ll check. Are you going to pick Moffit up?”
“Not sure we have enough yet. We need to find Benton and we need a body. I’ll talk to LBPD.”
“I’ll look for Benton here. We’ll talk later.” Ben put down his cell phone and picked up the hotel phone. He asked to be put through to Crystal Benton’s room.
“I’m sorry. No one here by that name.”
She had been here; he knew that. Probably registered with Moffit. But would she still be staying in that room since they started the shark attack story?
Just to be sure, he called back and asked for Stan’s Moffit’s room.
“Mr. Moffit has checked out.”
Ben realized that for Benton, all it would take was her return to the room for people to have questions. No, they must have had two rooms from the beginning.
He remembered Yamada telling him that Detective Jensen doubted the story Stan Moffit gave to police. So she was suspicious. If Benton was involved with Moffit, and Moffit told her that his sister-in-law didn’t believe his story, then it was not a stretch to think Benton saw Jensen’s being here as something of a threat. There were a lot of ifs, but this case was exploding right now, and his gut told him that his hunch was spot-on.
Knowing that Benton was here and concealing her identity gave his theory that she had tried to run over Jensen some credence.
Ben hung up and stood to pace the room. Benton could still be here registered under an assumed name. Mark was right: They needed more evidence. And this wasn’t his case. It needed to go to Long Beach because that was most likely where whatever happened to Evangeline occurred.
What a mess. Efren was missing still, and now an innocent woman was likely dead. And they were no closer to arresting their initial target—Vine.
The hotel phone rang. Ben picked it up. “Hello?”
“Agent Ben Isaacs?”
“Speaking.”
“What on earth does my sister being missing have to do with you?”
CHAPTER 18
“When the story hit about your sister, my boss asked me to come here and verify what happened.”
“Why?”
“It’s complicated. Why don’t you come to my room? I’ll explain what I can.”
She didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “What’s your room number?”
Ben told her.
“I’m on my way.”
He opened the door a few minutes later to an angry and frustrated Elaine Jensen. Her jaw was tight, and an angry red scrape blazed across it. He guessed that was from the car incident. She also looked as if she hadn’t slept in a while, and her hazel-green eyes were on fire.
“Please, Detective Jensen, come in.”
She walked past him and stopped. He stepped around her and pointed to the armchair he’d pulled up next to the desk. “Have a seat.”
She sat, arms folded tightly around her chest.
