She and Paul left first. Hot Rod and Tutti were next, followed by the others, leaving Luigi, Dernice, Carlita, Mercedes and Elvira alone in the parking lot.
“Well?” Elvira asked. “Was the milkshake incident a bust?”
“We confirmed Reyna has a tattoo identical to the one the hooded visitor in the hospital’s surveillance camera recording had.” Mercedes showed them the photo she’d taken. “Ma and I have a theory.”
“I think Sonny was collecting cash under the table in exchange for not putting people’s properties up for auction for unpaid taxes,” Carlita said. “It’s time to head home and regroup. If Reyna owes back taxes, I have a hunch we’ve identified Sonny’s killer.”
*****
Reaching Walton Square, the group made a beeline for Elvira’s office.
Call the cops. Thugs are here,Snitch screeched.
“You can be such a pain,” Elvira said. “We’re not thugs.”
“You let her watch way too many reruns of Walker, Texas Ranger,” Dernice said.
“Snitch loves Gunner.”
“Gunner loves you too,” Carlita said. “We need to schedule a bird date soon.”
“Let’s get to it.” Elvira plopped down at her desk. Within seconds, she accessed the county tax commissioner's office. She clicked on the tax sale list while the others gathered around behind her.
“I don’t see anything for Reyna Osmond,” Dernice said.
“Hold up.” Carlita made a timeout with her hands. “If Sonny was taking money from Reyna to avoid a tax sale, she wouldn’t be on here.”
“No doubt. However, you could find her if you searched property records.” Elvira opened a new search screen, pulled up the site and typed Reyna Osmond in the owner’s database.
“Here we go.” She scrolled down to the tax section, listed by most recent year followed by preceding years. Sure enough, Reyna owed back taxes.
Carlita let out a low whistle. “Will you look at that? Reyna owes back taxes. She could very well have been Sonny’s victim. He used extortion to keep her property from being auctioned.”
“I don’t believe in killing someone,” Dernice said. “But this would definitely give her a motive.”
“The big question is…how are we going to prove Reyna took him out?”
“We have evidence. Tell the cops our theory and let them handle it.”
“Again, there’s no smoking gun, no solid proof.” A sudden thought popped into Carlita’s head. “Cyclone Courtney.”
“What about her?”
“What is Courtney’s last name?”
“Zank. Z-A-N-K.”
Elvira cleared Reyna from the search prompt and entered Courtney Zank. “Crud. Courtney doesn’t own property in our county.” She started to click away.
Carlita stopped her. “Hang on. It’s not too common of a last name. There is a Zank. Stephen Zank.”
Dernice’s eyes grew round as saucers. “Stephen is Courtney’s brother. She talks about him all the time.”
“Let’s see what Mr. Zank owns.” Carlita held her breath, watching as Elvira clicked on his name.
“Stephen Zank owes back taxes too. Based on how long they’ve been owed, I’m gonna guess he was on the list to have his property go to auction.”
“Courtney. We need to question Courtney,” Carlita said.
