files?”
“No, I gave that to the officer who came to interview me.”
“Damn it!” He slammed his fist down on the desk.
“But I saved it on my hard drive.”
He took a deep breath. “Thank you, Dixie Miller. Send it to this secure address, please.”
He gave her his new email address and hung up.
The file arrived within minutes.
There was nothing obvious in the file folder. But he found a “mislabeled” hidden file in which Pitt had recorded an agreement to work with Sanders to take over the Greek. Pitt had been afraid of Sanders—and the trick with the filename and security opened a new question. Who was helping Pitt? As far as Calvin knew, no friend of Pitt was clever with computers.
Since Dixie had given the USB to the cops, he knew they had the same information and had to see Sanders as a suspect.
Why weren’t they acting on that?
Returning to his desk, Dale logged onto the KVVU FOX5 Vegas website to see the press conference with Sanders, staged in the parking lot of the Greek. Dale turned up the volume as Linda Grant, to massive applause, approached a cluster of microphones set up on a podium.
“It is my great pleasure to announce a new member of our team.” She read from a prepared statement. ”’Because of the passing of my husband and my lack of experience in casino operations, I have decided it is in everyone’s best interest for me to sell my share of the casino to someone with experience, someone who can make a real contribution to running the great Greek Hotel and Casino. He is already the owner of two major casinos in our wonderful city and I have the utmost confidence in his future success. My husband would be very proud today. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present to you the new part owner and team member of the Greek Hotel and Casino—Mr. Ace Sanders.’”
Dale watched as the camera focused on Sanders, who had been seated at a table next to Shawn Grant, the majority shareholder of the casino. Grant’s face showed displeasure and a fake smile. Dale didn’t see Melanie or her mother.
Sanders approached the microphones—to what Dale considered mixed reviews from the gallery—and shook Linda’s hand. Dale thought that Sanders had been born for the spotlight. “Now that’s motive,” Dale muttered.
“Thank you, Mrs. Grant,” Sanders said. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am more than honored to be a new member of the team and I look forward to working with Shawn Grant. I think that together we can create an ever brighter future for the Greek Hotel and Casino.”
He smiled, pausing for dramatic effect and waiting for the applause to die down. “I am thrilled that the Grant family has accepted my bid and welcomed me into their family. I hope to do even more for the community now that I’m involved with three casinos. I just wish to do the Grant family justice and make them proud.”
Sanders and Linda stood together, hands clasped. Shawn seemed in no hurry to join them, but he finally did. The three members raised their hands in unison as the cameras flashed and reporters yelled questions.
Dale read the article that complemented the video.
There was no public record about the deal, but “informed sources” said that Sanders purchased his share of the casino for an estimated $40 million.
He closed the report and removed the coroner report folders from a drawer.
A single powerful slice from a strong killer, maybe known to the victim, had killed Pitt in seconds, just like Grant. No damage had been done to Pitt’s front-door lock, so either the door was unlocked or the killer had a key. But when Dale had arrived at the scene, all the doors had been locked.
This still didn’t rule out Watters, an employee, who could have had a key. Sanders could also have had a key if he and Pitt were such tight associates.
Why would Watters kill his boss? To cover up the Grant murder, or, if Dale’s assumption was correct, the fact that Pitt had framed Watters? Maybe it was payback.
Dale still wondered about the anonymous phone call. The detective couldn’t figure out who would call or why. Why was some of the information right and some wrong? Misinformation to hide the source? Who could have known so much about exactly what Watters was doing that morning, disguised and on his way to Grant’s private office?
He had already found nothing in the office or business paper trail. That had only worn down Dale and his team.
How much was he being played by the department heads, who only seemed interested in Watters? Who did Grant, or Sanders, have in his pocket?
He moved on to the death of the prostitute. Her street name was Amber, real name unknown. They had searched the database but no description on an active missing person case had been found. No one seemed to want her—living or dead—except for sex. She was not the killer’s target.
Wait.
The slice on Amber’s throat had come from right to left. The predator had been behind the victim. That would mean that the killer had held the weapon in his left hand. But Pitt’s throat slash had come from left to right, same as Grant’s. That killer had been right handed.
Dale called Edgar Perkins at home.
When the medical examiner answered his phone, Dale spoke. “Hey, Edgar, it’s Dale. I need some information.”
“You want to know about your DOAs from the bookie’s shop?”
“Tell me about the throat slash on Amber.”
Perkins had been the chief pathologist for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Crime Lab for over twenty-five years.
“Well, since we determined there was only one killer, I originally thought that the murderer had been left handed, because of the direction of the wound on Amber’s throat. But after a second check on Pitt’s wound and substantial consideration, I’d say that the killer is ambidextrous. The slash on Pitt’s neck, like Grant’s, almost decapitated both victims. But the other one, the woman’s wound, was a little more sloppy. The woman had considerable bruising and an abrasion from the pressure of being held, which indicated that the man’s right arm was his stronger side. The knife was held in the left hand, but the killer could be trying to throw us off. In my opinion, this attacker can use his left and right hand with the same degree of accuracy.”
“Thanks, Edgar.”
“No problem, Dale. How’s your—”
Dale hung up before Perkins could keep him long. An ambidextrous killer, that had to narrow down the field. He turned the page and read on.
Pitt and Grant were killed with the right hand but the prostitute was not. Dale suspected the rear angle of the attack made it difficult for the killer to control the woman with his left arm and kill with his right, as he’d done twice before. She was weaker than either man, so the killer didn’t need the same strength. He controlled her with his right arm, which is why he was scratched.
He assumed that if it had not been for the happenstance of the prostitute, the killer would have slashed both times with his right hand and all the evidence would indicate that the killer was right-handed. But as life happens, she was there and that revealed the ambidexterity of the killer.
They already knew that skin under the prostitute’s nails, from fighting her killer, was Caucasian and therefore not from Watters. Even though there had been no scratch marks on Pitt, the trace was still being compared with his DNA.
Dale slid the two medical reports to the side of his desk. He opened up Grant’s file and set the report beside the other folders. It made no sense to have more than one killer with wounds this similar.
Sanders was so obviously the person with the strength and will to kill all three. He killed Grant for the Greek. He killed Pitt for cover up. But Dale’s sergeant had already put Sanders “off limits.” The casino owner was practically untouchable.
Dale compared the wounds. The MO was the same for all three murders, even though two different knives had been used. Any smart killer would change weapons after each killing and destroy the ones used.
Craig’s death, shot in the head, was the only wild card. There was a second killer who used a gun.
