Page 124 of Blue Moon

“We’re going to need names.”

“Lucia and, uh, Ellen.”

“Surnames?”

“Lucia Joaquin. And Ellen, I don’t know her last name, but she has two little girls.”

“Which department does she work in?”

“Housekeeping,” she said.

“When and where did this conversation take place?”

“Waiting in line in the cafeteria,” Nola said. “It was last Saturday, and we were on a break.”

“Did you notice anyone else listening?”

“No.” A sob burst out of her. “I don’t know anything.” But I did. I knew that the man behind Luna’s abduction had been in the cafeteria at the Nile Palace last Saturday. And that he hadn’t been working when— “Wait. Wait, there was a guy. He said something like, ‘My mom never used to hire a sitter, and I turned out okay.’”

“Do you know his name?”

“No, but I’ve seen him around. I think he’s on the security team.”

“Describe him.”

“He was big.”

“Big as in tall, or big as in heavy?”

“Both, but not fat.” She turned to point at Priest. “Like that.”

Priest was six feet one and weighed one-eighty. Even his stupid shirts couldn’t hide the strength in his shoulders, and when he took the shirt off… That was probably why so many dumb women were willing to get hitched three hours after meeting him. If our suspect had that kind of muscle, he must spend time working out. Priest did two sets of twenty pull-ups every day before breakfast.

“So he went to the gym a lot?”

She thought for a moment. “Not so much muscles. Just…about the same size.”

“Hair colour?” I asked.

“Brown. Not real light, and not real dark either.”

“Skin colour?”

“White.”

“Glasses?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Any jewellery?”

“I don’t remember.”

Echo would be able to narrow down the employees working a particular shift, and hopefully, Romeo would know the size of his employees.

“You worked the day shift last Saturday?”

Nola nodded. “I work the third shift Monday through Thursday, and the first shift on Saturdays. I like to be there when Kobie gets home from school, and his dad used to watch him on Saturdays before…before…”

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