“No. He gave me these tacky rings with some kind of magic dye in them. The people who were going to be playing at mytable had contact lenses or glasses to allow them to see the marks.”
That fucking explains the mysterious chemical we found in Hartley’s fake air conditioning vent.
“You still have the rings, right? We’ll need them for evidence.”
“Yes. At home. You can have them. Now that you know about this, there’s no reason for me to keep marking the cards.”
Although I put some of the pieces together on my own, I need to ensure clarity. “Sounds like you continued marking cards after Kenzie was released. Why is that?”
She validates my assumption without missing a beat. “I wanted to stop. I thought I was done. Freaking Silas said they had enough evidence of my involvement that if I stopped or tried to turn them in, they’d take me down with them.”
Classic intimidation technique.
It’s a tale as old as time. The players have changed, but the game remains the same.
The only unexpected aspect of her story is that Kenzie was released instead of killed. That’s a rare conclusion to a kidnapping of this nature.
If they had killed my sister, would it have been as grizzly of a scene as the Hartley murder?
My breakfast threatens to make a reappearance at the morbid thought. I shake it off so it doesn’t distract me. There are still more missing pieces to the puzzle I need to solve before I can ask her to help us find Silas.
Ignoring the boulder swelling in my gut, I press on. “What about Elliott Riddick? How did he factor in?”
“Oh him?” She straightens in my arms, her posture stiffening as her confidence returns. “I was honest when I said we’d never spoken. I didn’t even know his name until you told me. On the night you noticed him, I assumed Silas sent him to my table tointimidate me.” She shudders. “That creep was leering at me for my entire shift.”
“Cameras didn’t catch him hovering near you any other time. Was that the only night he appeared?”
“Yeah.”
“Why then? After weeks of marking cards for them, what do you think brought him to your table on that particular night?”
“Before my shift that day, I told Silas I wasout. He could go to the cops or not.Either way,I was done.”
“So Riddick was a visual threat to scare you into complying,” I summarize.
“Yep.” She pops thePsound, then sighs. “His message came through loud and clear. That man promises pain.” Her face perks up, not with happiness but with a sudden blast of fear. “Ishethe one you think is after me?”
“Don’t worry, baby. He’s in custody. I arrested him last night.”
Lila exhales, her frame visibly relaxing with that news.
I bite my tongue to stop from rattling off the story of how it all unfolded, and that his arrest was for that heinous murder. Lila doesn’t need to be burdened with those details.
Then again, it might give her some comfort to know one thing. “You don’t need to worry about him anymore. He’ll be denied bail when he sees the judge today, since he was arrested with a gun. As a felon, he isn’t allowed to carry.”
Another surge of relieved air whooshes from her.
My mind runs through the details of the investigation as I give Lila a little break to process everything.
Riddick’s formal homicide charges are already in the works. Later, whatever we uncover about his role in the casino ring will be tacked on. For now, he’s off the streets. Most likely, he’ll never see the light of day as a free man.
His drinking buddy, Ginny Lawrence, refused to cooperate last night. She denied any involvement and gave no explanation for how she went from inconsolable grieving girlfriend to drinking and watching the game a few hours later in a bar on the other side of the state. She kept saying she pled thesixth. We got the feeling her head is a desert wasteland.
Since we didn’t have anything concrete to detain her with, she was released in the wee hours of the morning. Until we know more about her involvement, Carson’s keeping tabs on her phone’s GPS and digital tracks.
For the next few minutes, Lila tells me more about Silas. Unfortunately, she never went to his house or met any of his friends. They weren’t together long. The only phone number she has for him is the burner phone she’s been texting with. Naturally, she had no idea it was a burner number.
Every last word is believable.
