Brianna was watching the contractor intently. “And that’s it?”
“That’s it,” Samuels told them.
“Thanks for your time,” Brianna told him.
“Hey, wait,” he called out to them. “Now that I think about it, there was this one thing. If you could call it that,” he said, backtracking.
Jackson and Brianna exchanged looks. “Go on,” Jackson said.
“Might just be this kid’s imagination,” Samuels qualified.
Brianna could feel herself growing impatient. “What kid? Damien?”
“No,” Samuels demurred. “I’m talking about one of my guys. Reynaldo.”
“What about him?” Jackson asked. It was obvious that he was growing short on patience as well.
“He was apprenticing with me,” Samuels explained. “I had him prepping the pool’s surface, getting it as smooth as possible.”
“Go on,” Brianna urged.
“Well, he’s working on it, and then, all of a sudden, the kid starts freaking out.”
“Freaking out how?” Brianna pressed.
“Yelling, shaking, you know, freaking out,” Samuels emphasized. “I asked him what’s wrong and he said he saw eyes looking at him. Watching him work.”
“Someone was watching him work?” Jackson repeated, trying to get this straight. “You mean, like inside the hotel?”
“No,” Samuels answered, annoyed. “Inside the pool,” he specified. “The kid swore that he saw someone looking at him from inside the pool.”
Brianna looked at Jackson, but it was impossible to read his expression. “Sounds a little far-fetched. What did you do?”
“I figured he had too much to drink at lunch, told him to stop imagining things and get back to work or I’d get someone else to do it. He finished the job,” Samuels told them proudly, as if he had accomplished something by causing this to happen.
Brianna waited, but there was nothing more. “And you never said anything about it?” she asked the contractor, stunned.
“To who?” he asked. “To the kid? The less said the better.”
“No, to Damien,” Jackson answered. “Since he’s the one who hired you for the job.”
Samuels shook his head. “Didn’t want him to know I look the other way when my guys loosen up a little at lunch. Man’s entitled to a drink now and then,” he added as if he was defending his people. “Anyway, job got finished, we got paid. No harm done. Now I’ve really gotta get back to this,” he said, jerking his thumb at the house that was under construction.
“One last thing,” Brianna called after him. “Could you point Reynaldo out for us?”
Samuels stopped and turned around but made no effort to walk back. “I could. If he were here,” the contractor qualified.
“Do you know where we can find him?” Jackson asked.
Samuels shrugged. “Probably anywhere there’s work.”
“So he doesn’t work for you anymore?” Brianna asked Samuels.
“Nope.”
“Do you have his last name? His address? A phone number where you can reach him?” she asked, getting more and more annoyed at the contractor’s indifference.
“I got a number, but he wasn’t there the last time I tried. Guy who answered the phone said Reynaldo had moved on. Why are you so interested in Reynaldo?” he demanded. “I’ve got any one of a number of guys who can work rings around him.”
Jackson took over, almost growling out the words. “Because we think he might have seen something he shouldn’t have.”
The importance of the whole thing clearly escaped the contractor. “Like what?”
Brianna could see that her partner was close to telling the contractor he was an idiot. “Like those eyes he was so spooked about probably belonged to someone buried under the pool.”
Samuels’s mouth dropped. “You’re putting me on,” the man cried, completely forgetting about the development he was overseeing.
Brianna decided to treat this all lightly before Jackson called the contractor a living brain donor.
“I’m not that kind of girl, Mr. Samuels,” she deadpanned. “And right now, you are going to have to go to your office and get us Reynaldo’s last known address and phone number, not to mention his last name and any ID you have on the man.”
This time the contractor blanched. “You’re not serious.”
Brianna turned toward her partner. “Muldare, tell the man how serious I am.”
“Like a heart attack,” Jackson underscored.
Samuels looked from Brianna to her partner. He gave up trying to argue.
Chapter 16
“‘Reynaldo Reyes’?” Detective Valri Cavanaugh Brody read the name from the photocopy of the green card Brianna had handed her. The one that Samuels had reluctantly copied for them in his office. Valri raised her eyes to look at the two people standing at her desk. “What, you couldn’t find one that said John Smith?”
Brianna was surprised that they had managed to get this much from the contractor. “It’s an employment-based green card. You’ve got a description, a photo and a Social Security number. That’s not enough?” she asked Valri.
Valri pressed her lips together and looked over at the tall, dark and somberly handsome detective standing next to Brianna.
“Your partner’s a babe in the woods, Jackson,” she told the man. She sighed, propping up the photocopy in front of her monitor. “This green card’s probably a fake, but I’ll do what I can to locate the guy. Don’t expect miracles,” she warned. “That’s Brenda’s department, not mine,” Valri told them, referring to the head of the IT division, who also just happened to be the chief of Ds’ daughter-in-law.
Brianna feigned a look of surprise. “When did you get to be so cynical?”
“Comes from on-the-job training,” Valri quipped. And then, switching subjects, she brightened. “Hey, are you coming to the chief’s gathering tomorrow?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Brianna assured the other woman.
Valri’s eyes shifted toward Jackson. “How about you?” she asked. Before he
