Nina had to think about this. Wish wasn’t presumptuous, so why had he jumped ahead like that? Then she thought, He’s only twenty-five, he’s just gotten his license, and he needs to stay close to us. This conference room was the only office Wish had ever worked in, except for Paul’s in Carmel.
“You should have asked first,” Sandy said.
“It’s fine, Wish,” Nina said. “We just have to stay at arm’s length. We’ll do a written rent agreement and I’ll talk to the Starlake Building landlord.”
“Great! How much shall I pay a month?”
“ Sandy?” Nina said.
“Three-fifty,” Sandy said. Nina’s rent had recently gone up to twelve hundred dollars a month, not bad for a reception room, private office, and conference room in a small town.
“Let’s start at two hundred,” Nina said. “For the first six months.” Wish’s face broke into a big smile, and she saw how nervous he had been about his proposal.
“You’re the best,” he said. “And I’m going to give your work top priority. As soon as I get some other clients.”
“I’ll expect that. So-report.”
“I talked to Sergeant Cheney, South Lake Tahoe Police Department, Sunday. He was surprised the civil case was still pending. He said to say hi. The police report, the autopsy report, the coroner’s findings on the Hanna shooting are all attached.”
“That’ll help a lot. Did you notice anything of interest?”
“There’s plenty in there. Ballistics stuff. It was ruled a homicide by persons unknown. Mrs. Hanna was three months pregnant at the time. The best stuff is witness descriptions. The clerk, Meredith Assawaroj, had checked in this group of students who were the ones robbed. See the witness statement, right here.”
“Got it,” Nina said, thumbing through the pages.
“Meredith indicated that there were three people who checked in. A couple and a young man. The couple had one room and the man had a separate room.”
“Descriptions?”
“Pretty good ones. I think Meredith felt really bad about leaving her post at the desk that night. She still works at the Ace High, though.”
Nina was already reviewing the clerk’s description of the three witnesses.
“Sandy, let’s get this on a separate sheet,” she said. “The single one first. About five feet eleven, weight one-seventy, average build, blond hair, not too long, but hung in his eyes in front. No tattoos or piercings. White oxford shirt, jeans, hiking boots. Glasses. Backpack.”
“Generic kind of guy,” Sandy said. “Not conspicuous at all.”
“Wait till we get to the other two,” Wish said.
“She didn’t talk to the girl or her boyfriend at all, but Meredith heard this individual say something to one of the others. She thinks he said, ‘Professor Brown would love that.’ ”
“‘Professor Brown would love that,’ ” Sandy repeated thoughtfully. “So she decided they were students.”
“We’ll get to that. The couple was pretty conspicuous. Good-looking. The boyfriend did all the talking for the group. He paid cash for the two rooms. Meredith asked for a driver’s license and he gave her a fake ID. So did the other two. Meredith kept the copies and they’re attached.”
“It’s a New York license. The name is Mukul Dev,” Nina read. “Age is twenty-six. Address is-”
“Nonexistent,” Wish said. “Sergeant Cheney had it checked.”
“That’s an Indian name. East Indian, I mean.”
“We know what you mean,” Sandy said.
“Sergeant Cheney says it’s the name of a big star in Bollywood. The police checked him out, but he was in Mumbai working on the set of a musical that day.”
“Mumbai?” Sandy said.
Wish said, “ Bombay, Mom.”
“Then why not say so?”
“But our fake Indian actually was from India. At least, he looked that way to Meredith. I doubt she’s an expert.”
“Medium height, full lips, dark eyes, long eyelashes. Hmm. Gray slacks, black loafers. Blue dress shirt. Smiled a lot. Sort of British accent. She didn’t see his bag.”
“Doesn’t sound like a student to me,” Sandy said. “Now that first one, yes.”
“The Indian’s a standout individual,” Wish said. “He’s going to lead us to the rest of them.”
“And the girl?”
“On the next page. Five-five. Early twenties. Brown hair with a lot of curl. Not a lot of makeup. Trim shape. Wearing a pink tank top and jeans. High-heeled boots. And this one had a different accent,” Nina said, reading.
“Indian?” Sandy asked.
Wish answered, “German. Meredith said they used to get a lot of German tourists in her hometown in Thailand, and she’s pretty sure.”
Nina said, shaking her head, “It’s such a shame Dave Hanna let this drop. The three of them came to Tahoe two years ago. Somebody tried to rob them and they saw a woman get shot. Finding them isn’t going to be easy. They could have come from anywhere. What about the rental car?”
“Same fake ID and cash,” Wish said. “Dropped at the Reno airport Enterprise car-rental place at five A.M. There were several flights out early that morning and the sergeant checked the passenger manifests. United had three last-minute passengers to Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, on its six A.M. flight that morning with the same fake names.”
“What were they up to?” Sandy said. “They sound like crooks. Drug runners or something.”
“They didn’t want to be found after the shooting, that’s for sure,” Wish said. “And nobody did find them. The trail went cold in Boston.”
“I bet airport security would have a film,” Sandy said.
“The airport-security firm stonewalled the sergeant. He couldn’t even find out if there was a film.”
“All right,” Nina said. “You talked to the clerk?”
“Meredith. She really wanted to help. So she saw them when they checked in, and she’s told the police all she knows about that. But-this is good-when she heard the shots-two quick shots-she ran right out the door with the kid behind the counter of the Internet cafe, and across the parking lot toward the office. She said she never thought about getting shot herself.”
“What happened then?”
“It’s all in her statement. She heard yelling. Two of the students, the Indian and the girl, ran right past her, telling her to watch out, toward their rooms. Then the third student came running in the same direction. She looked around the corner of the office toward the vending machines and saw Dave Hanna coming down the steps yelling that his wife was shot. Up on the balcony of his room she saw a woman crumpled in a corner.”
“Do we have photos of the crime scene?”
“The police report has copies of the photos taken. I also went to the Ace High this weekend and took digital photos. They’re in my computer, and I’ll have them printed for you by tomorrow.”
“And the shooter?”
“Gone,” Wish said.
“The gun?”
“She never saw one, and the sergeant says the police haven’t located one. But they have the casings and two bullets, including the one recovered from Sarah Hanna’s body, so the ballistics are really together. It was thirty-eight caliber. That’s it. There’s no description of the shooter or really the robbery except what Mr. Hanna said.”
“Or what the three witnesses could tell us.”
“Correct. It comes back to them. Okay, Nina, you know we decided to check the restaurants. After two years, I was just looking for security films. That’s going to take a while. It’s harder than I thought. I don’t have anything for you on that yet.”
“Fair enough.”
“And now we come to the big news.”
“You have big news?” Nina said.
“You are talking to Whitefeather Investigations,” Wish said. “Remember you asked me to check out the motel owner, James Bova, but not to try to talk to him? Well, I went out to his house at Incline Village this morning and jogged around there.”
“Oh, so that’s why you dug out those gym shorts this morning,” Sandy said.
“And he wasn’t there, but his housecleaner was. Her name is Esther. She cleans his house and his motel.”