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Nolan kept his gaze roving the area as he walked with Mina across the broken concrete toward Tate’s apartment in the rundown complex. She kept her hand on her sidearm and her focus traveling around a litter-filled lot.

Tate lived in a worn and weathered three-story building with cedar-shake siding and lime-green doors. Nolan doubted the place had been updated since the sixties. It looked exactly like an apartment complex fitting the area surrounding them.

He didn’t like leaving Hayden at the car, but they’d promised Mina that he wouldn’t intervene unless things went south with Tate.

Mina stepped up to apartment 112 and planted her feet to look up at him. “Remember, I do the talking, and you keep your eyes open for any situation brewing.”

He gave a sharp nod when his internal tension begged him to joke that she’d simply brought him along as eye candy, but this wasn’t the time for any humor, and their stress would help keep them focused on situational awareness.

She pounded on the door and then stepped to the side, moving him out of the way even more so Tate couldn’t see them through the peephole and choose to ignore them or hit them if he started firing through the door.

The door opened the distance a chain lock allowed, and someone peered out. “Help you?”

Mina held out her credentials and identified herself. “Open the door, Tate. I’d like to have a word with you.”

He closed the door and released the chain to open it a bit more. The guy wore sloppy jogging pants with a stained, gray T-shirt for University of Oregon. But most importantly, if he slicked back his black hair, Nolan could be looking at Smythe. Nolan resisted shooting up a hand in victory and waited for Mina to act.

Tate stared at her. “What could you want with me? I didn’t break any laws.”

He looked over her shoulder at Nolan, and his eyes widened. “It’s you! You’re one of the guys from the mansion. Don’t tell me you reported me for locking the door and taking your phones? I didn’t do anything wrong. It was just part of the script.”

“Actually,” Mina said. “Locking the door on guests is considered kidnapping, and I could bring you up on charges.”

“Wait, what?” Tate shook his head. “It was just a job. I was following the rules. Following the script I was given. I was told everyone was in on it.”

“How about we go inside and discuss this?” Mina asked.

“I don’t know.” He bit his lip. “It sounds maybe like I need a lawyer.”

Nolan had had enough of this punk putting them off. He shoved the door fully open. “How about you let the sheriff in? If not, I’ll be glad to press charges against you.”

“Fine.” Tate stood back.

Nolan waited for Mina to enter, then followed, eyeing Tate all the way. “You answer every question we ask truthfully, or like I said, I can arrange for you to be put behind bars. And it won’t be just one kidnapping charge, it’ll be six. You’ll never see the light of day again.”

Tate swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his scrawny neck. “What do you want from me?”

The small living room smelled like a combination of pizza and old socks. The space held only a cheap vinyl sofa, small television on a stand, and a table lamp sitting on the floor in the corner, casting deep shadows on the walls.

Mina turned to face Tate. “Who hired you to play the part of Smythe the butler?”

“I don’t know. I never met him, and he never told me his name.”

Nolan eyed him. “You expect us to believe you did this for someone you’ve never met?”

“Hey, when you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, you take pretty much any job. This was a high-paying gig, and it didn’t seem like there was anything illegal about it.” Tate dropped onto the sofa, and the cushions squeaked. “Trust me, if I’d known locking you in the room was illegal, I wouldn’t have done it.”

“If you didn’t meet the person who hired you, how did you arrange the gig?” Mina asked.

“It was all done on a site where local actors can be hired for various jobs. Things like birthday parties, singing telegrams. Stuff like that. We started out emailing through the site, and then I signed the agreement with him.”

“How did he pay you?” Nolan asked.

“I got half up front and half after I finished the gig. Payment is arranged outside of the site, and you just notify the site that you received payment as promised or the person hiring you is blackballed to keep them from stiffing other actors.”

“What form of payment did he use?” Mina asked.

“I asked for cash because then none of it would…you know…go to Uncle Sam.”

“Something else we could report you for.” Nolan stared at him.

“But what we’re more interested in,” Mina said, “is finding out how you received payment.”

“We were scheduled to meet in person one day. Before we could, he dropped the money off in my mailbox with a note saying he had to go out of town at the last minute. He also emailed me the details of what I needed to do for a successful performance.”

“Details like what?” Mina asked.

“He thought of everything and didn’t cheap out on the things. I had to buy a custom tuxedo from a specific shop in Portland so he could be sure I looked like a professional butler. I got the feeling that the shop owner was going to report back to tell him I’d ordered it.”

“Did the shop owner give you the name of the person who paid for it?” Mina asked.

“Nah, but I asked him a couple of times. He just clammed up, and I finally gave up.”

“What’s the name of that shop?” Nolan asked.

“Suited Elegance.” Tate pinched his nose. “Kind of snooty sounding, am I right?”

Nolan ignored him. “What else did the man who hired you require of you?”

“He described how he wanted me to wear my hair slicked back and made a special point of saying that I had to wear white gloves all the stinking time, even before the performance began.”

“He say why?” Mina asked.

“Yeah, get this. He wanted the night to be perfect and didn’t want me to leave prints on anything, marring their pristine nature.” Tate shook his head. “It made sense for the crystal and dishes, but not the food containers. Still, he was paying me a lot, so I did what he said.”

Something about this didn’t sit well with Nolan, but he would continue until he figured it out. “How did you get the food?”

“He had me rent a van to pick the meal up at the caterers. I had to do it on my credit card, but he gave me enough cash to reimburse me. Tide and Thyme is run out of some chick’s house. At the mansion, I had to take the food trays and put them in the kitchen. Then I had to make sure the food was either kept cold or warm and would be ready to serve on time.”

“And then, of course,” Nolan said, “you had to greet us at the door and take our phones.”

He nodded, but a sheepish look crossed his face.

“Didn’t you find that odd about the cell phones?” Mina asked.

“No, the guy explained everything. He said all of you were in on the event and were going to be playing roles you’d agreed to play. He said that none of you wanted the performance to be interrupted by a phone call.”

“And the fact that we all complained about giving you our phones didn’t tell you otherwise?” Nolan asked.

Tate shook his head. “I figured that’s what your role was so I improvised, as he instructed me to do.”

“Did you clone or otherwise mess with our phones?”

“Nah, they just sat in the bag so you could find them when you were ready to leave.”

“And when you gave in and told us the night was courtesy of one of our clients,” Nolan said. “Was that part of the script?”

He laughed, then quickly hid his humor and nodded. “I figured you would know that, since it was part of my script and all.”

“Did you interact with Harmony Vance while you were there?” Mina asked.

“Yeah, she met me when I arrived, told me she would be upstairs watching television if I needed anything, and then she went upstairs. I felt bad for her being stuck there all night and went off script. Gave her a snack in the afternoon and took her a dinner meal, but then I never saw her again.”

“So you locked us in the room after dinner, and then you cleaned up,” Nolan said. “What did you do with the caterer’s trays?”

“I loaded it all into the van and dropped things in a dumpster here at the complex before returning the van.”

Nolan didn’t much like this guy, but he didn’t think he was lying. “And how did you get your final payment?”

“It was in my mailbox when I got home.” He shook his head. “I sure wouldn’t have left that much cash in this neighborhood. Not even in my locked mailbox, but that’s the way this guy wanted to deal.”

“How much did he pay you for the night?” Mina asked.

“Two grand.” He clasped his hands together. “So you can see why I did it, even if some things were a bit sketchy.”

“Did you help set up the escape room?” Nolan asked.

“Me? No. No way.” He shook his head hard. “It was that way when I got there.”

“We’ll need you to send the emails that you shared with each other at the beginning,” Mina said.

“Yeah, sure, I can do that.” He bobbed his knee and let his gaze travel between them.

“Forward them to this email address.” Mina handed him her business card and eyed him. “I’m not going to take you in tonight, but if I find out you lied about anything, I’ll bring you up on charges. Don’t leave the area.”

“Hey, no way. I didn’t lie. Besides, does it look like I can afford to go anywhere?” He stood and held out his hands. “No need to arrest me.”

They left the apartment, and Mina turned to Nolan. “At least we got one thing out of that conversation we can follow up on.”

Nolan nodded. “The minute we get back to the inn, we can look into that tailor shop. Maybe then, we can find a connection to the night and finally wrap up the murder investigation.”

And hope that led to Becca’s whereabouts, but he wouldn’t say that aloud, in case he was wrong.

Frustrated, Mina didn’t want to take time to eat, but Reece had arranged a dinner delivery from the local Italian restaurant. The food rested on a table near the wall. Most of the LLL team members were seated with plates in front of them. The smell of garlic and oregano wrapped around Mina, and her stomach rumbled.

“See,” Nolan said. “I told you we needed to eat.”

She might want to get straight to work, but they could kill two birds with one stone. “I guess we can eat and do an update at the same time.”

“Indeed.” He took the files and laptop from her hands. “Fix yourself a plate, and I’ll put these down.”

She really didn’t need his help in putting files on the table, and she was just cranky enough that she almost snapped at him, but instead smiled up at him for his kindness. If they were to start dating after this was all over, she would have to get used to having someone in her life and not be so independent all the time. That would be a huge adjustment.

At the table, she picked up a large plate and scooped out ravioli, her mouth watering at the sight of the rich red sauce and thick noodle pillows.

Reece stepped in line behind her and retrieved a plate.

“Thanks for organizing the meal,” Mina said. “We had a big lunch, and I didn’t think I was hungry until I caught a whiff of the garlic.”

“No thanks needed.” Reece picked up a crusty slice of garlic bread. “It’s kind of my thing on the team. We often get so involved in our investigations that we don’t always remember to eat, and one thing I know for sure is, you have to maintain your own strength if you’re going to be able to help someone else.”

What she said made sense, and it helped Mina relax a bit and load her plate with spaghetti.

“It seems like you and Nolan have patched things up.” Reece eased closer to reach the spoon in the ravioli.

Mina glanced back at Nolan who was heading to the table, and he gave her a sweet smile. “I guess so.”

“Well, he seems far more relaxed and not tense with you, so it seems like from his point of view, things must be better.” She looked over her shoulder. “Case in point, that smile meant just for you.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” There had been more of an easiness between them, but Mina had been too wrapped up in the investigation to give it much thought.

“You know it nearly killed him when you didn’t respond to his note.” Reece narrowed her eyes. “He basically lost interest in everything, including the job he loved, and was lucky he didn’t get fired. He stopped eating and lost a lot of weight. When we all met in Portland for Christmas that year, we had to stage an intervention to get him to start eating properly. It’s hard to imagine him that way now, but it happened.”

She had no idea he’d reacted that badly or she’d had such an impact on him. She’d suffered too, but not to that extreme.

“If you’re not serious, let him know now before he falls hard again,” Reece warned. “Because I think this time it would kill him.”

She walked away with her plate, and Mina watched her move to the table.

Nolan stepped into place next to Mina. “You two look like you were having a serious conversation.”

“You know how it goes,” she said and grabbed some bread, then spun for the table before he asked additional questions.

By the time he joined her, she’d gotten out her folder and was sharing with the team the conversation with Smythe. “Has anyone run across information on Suited Elegance?”

“Not me,” Reece said.

The other team members murmured their nos.

“I’ll dig into the shop to see what I can find,” Hayden said. “Maybe even access their customer list.”

“Sometimes the old-fashioned way of doing things is the easiest,” Abby said. “We could interview the owner. If he’s an upright guy, and he hears a woman is missing and someone’s been murdered, he’s more likely than not to cooperate.”

Nolan reached for his water. “Are you volunteering to go?”

“Sure,” she said. “I’ve got all the files in order until we get any evidence files from Veritas, and I do have the best interview skills of the team.”

“Modest too.” Jude laughed.

“I’m only speaking the truth.”

“She’s right,” Gabe said. “You don’t suffer as many years as a sheriff as she did without learning how to ask the right questions and probe when you don’t get the answers you want.”

She shot Gabe a shocked look. “Suffer?”

“Admit it,” he said. “If we polled everyone here but Mina, they would agree. Being a sheriff isn’t the easiest job in the world and can be filled with more politics than policing.”

“I wish I could say you’re wrong, but you’re not.” Abby looked at Nolan. “I’ll head out right after we finish this update. I can stay with a friend of mine in Portland tonight.”

“Would that be Lauren?” Jude asked.

“It would.” Abby grilled Jude with a gaze that Mina thought many a suspect had been treated to. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason.”

“Hah!” Gabe said. “He’s had a thing for her ever since he worked with her at the Bureau but was too chicken to ask her out. Why do you think it didn’t work out with Becca?”

“Dude,” Hayden said. “Lauren’s way out of your league.”

“I know.” Jude honestly looked heartbroken.

Mina felt bad for the teasing, and she could help by redirecting them back to the investigation. “We do have other things outstanding.”

“I ruled out the mayor having to pay for his medical treatments himself,” Reece said, twirling her fork in her spaghetti.

“How did you manage that?” Gabe asked.

Reece put her fingers to her ear and mouth as if on the phone. “Hello, this is Betty Lou from plan services, and I surely hope you can help me today. We received a complaint about outstanding invoices and would like to confirm they’ve been paid.”

Gabe rolled his eyes. “Good old Betty Lou rises to live another day.”

The group laughed, and Mina assumed this was a character Reece used often.

She was all for lightening the tension, but maybe they needed tension to get them moving in the right direction. “We still don’t know what the mayor’s will contains. It’s possible that it all goes to Becca, and his brother-in-law Wade, a sketchy guy, didn’t think that was right. He was seen arguing with the mayor frequently. Could be about that.”

“And could be motive for murder,” Reece said.

“Would also explain abducting Becca,” Nolan said. “If she was set to inherit everything, he couldn’t let her live.”

“I sure don’t like that option,” Reece said. “Because that means she’s likely dead, and we have to keep hoping she’s alive. If you need some help, I’d be happy to find the guy tonight and talk to him.”

“Thanks,” Nolan said. “Dylan’s running background on Wade, so let me check in with him first to see if he located anything suspicious.”

“Hold up,” Hayden called out. “You might want to hang around here. I should be able to access the shop’s financial records soon. We could get us a list of customers’ names and narrow it down to who paid for the tuxedo.”

“Good.” Nolan smiled at his teammate. “In that case we’ll wait here for Hayden’s list, and Wade is all yours, Reece.”

“I’m on it.” She shoved her empty plate away.

Abby stacked her plate with Reece’s. “You still want me to head to the tux shop?”

Nolan nodded. “It’ll take several hours to get there, so it would be good if you were there first thing in the morning to question the owner in case we don’t locate the information we need.”

Abby stood and glanced at Jude. “Want to ride shotgun with me?”

Jude blushed. “If you seriously think you need someone with you, then yes. If you’re just harassing me about coming to stay with Lauren, then no.”

She ruffled his hair. “Sorry, I got this. Just making fun.”

He stared up at her. “Do not mention anything about me to her when you get to Portland.”

“Since you served together, she’s bound to ask how you’re doing.”

“You can tell her I’m great, but keep it at that.”

“Not a word about your crush.” Abby mocked zipping her lips and turned toward the door. “Call me if anything comes up or if you need me to do anything else in Portland.”

Nolan nodded. “Let’s get this table cleared so we’re ready to act on the list Hayden provides.”

Mina grabbed her plate and Nolan’s too, then took them to a bin Reece had set up for dirty dishes. She didn’t stop to talk to anyone but did her job and returned to her seat to open her laptop.

Her phone rang. “It’s Sierra.”

She answered the video call and set the phone between her and Nolan. Sierra smiled. “Glad I caught you before we took off.”

“Please tell us you have something for us,” Mina said.

Sierra’s smile evaporated. “Not any conclusions yet, but I wanted to let you know we’re finished with the scenes and leaving town. Emory has already started DNA running from the samples that Grady took back last night, and she should have profiles in the morning.”

Morning. That might be the time they finally had something concrete to act on. If, and it was a big if, they located DNA with a profile that returned a match from CODIS.

“I’ll get started on fingerprints and other trace evidence in the morning,” she said. “And Grady will finish his ballistics report then too.”

“Did you locate anything at Mayor Sutton’s place?” Mina asked.

She shook her head. “No. That is definitely not your crime scene. No blood evidence at all. Not even a trace left behind after any cleanup. Same goes for the escape room.”

“You’re sure?” Mina asked, and hoped she didn’t take offense at it.

“Positive.”

“Sorry to question you.”

“No worries.” Sierra gave a sweet smile. “I know the pressure you’re under. It’s stressful enough to have to locate a killer. Another to have to find a missing woman at the same time.”

Mina was thankful this woman understood her plight. Sierra would do everything she could to provide a lead, but only God knew if the lead would come in time to save Becca’s life.