Page 74 of Cougar Point

“Why would he do that?” I ask. “He’s just the resort manager. Jack is the owner. Jack’s accountant would have discovered the illegal transactions eventually.”

“The accountant is the one that blew the whistle on the operation. My friends at the FBI said the mob had some dirt on Whiting. Your dad was going to fire him but they convinced him to keep Whiting in place until they could clean up the others. They eventually arrested most of them and Whiting was never charged. Mr. Marsh decided to keep him on.”

I tell Lucas about Missy’s arrest for Assisting a Criminal. Lucas already knew because she had her probation transferred to Whatcom County.

“Anyone else we should know about?” Ronnie asks.

Lucas sips his coffee, grimaces, and puts it down. “Len Thundercloud. He worked at the casino as a blackjack dealer before he got the job as a floor guy at the resort. He was tied to the casino thing but was a very minor player. The FBI thinks he was the one who gave the mob Whiting’s name so they could blackmail Whiting. The FBI couldn’t prove Thundercloud benefited from any of it either so they left him alone.”

Ronnie asks, “What was Roger being blackmailed about?”

Lucas says, “Sex with a minor. It was over thirty years ago. He was eighteen; she was sixteen. The FBI said the girl had two children, a one-year-old and a four-year-old. She reported Whiting because her boyfriend was angry she’d cheated on him. Whiting was charged but it was eventually dismissed when she failed to testify.”

“How would Thundercloud know about a thirty-year-old arrest?”

“He was the four-year-old son. Roger’s son. Small world, isn’t it?”

Or not.

“Is there a connection between Thundercloud and Victoria?” Ronnie asks.

“Nothing I could find.”

Ronnie asks something I never would have thought of. “What does he look like? Thundercloud, I mean.”

Lucas takes out his cell phone and flips through some pictures, stopping at one. He holds the screen toward her. Her eyes narrow.

“Can you send us the files and pictures. We were going to ask for them,” I say. “But that was back when you were pissed at us for being involved.”

“What makes you think I’m not still pissed?” He smiles and just like that we’re all friends. Fellow officers. Band of brothers,or sisters. Whatever. Not quite coworkers because we will still lie to each other but we’re beginning to win him over to our side.

“So how are these people connected to each other?” I ask.

Lucas says, “I was getting to that. Vinnie was arrested with Duke once. Theft of a vehicle. Duke took the car. Vinnie claimed he thought the car belonged to Duke. He was still arrested and went to court. He was found guilty and they both did a year in jail. Thundercloud was in jail during the same time. It’s a big jail. I don’t know if they knew each other but they were trusties at the same time.”

Sheriff Gray had sent the file on Missy’s arrest for harboring a criminal but I hadn’t a chance to read it yet. I hold a finger up to wait and pull the file up. I find what I need near the front of the information, pull up a photo, and show it to Lucas. “Recognize this guy?”

The only change in Lucas’s expression is in his eyes. “He looks familiar. Who is he?”

I hold a napkin over the top of the head of the man in the photo blocking out the bleached hair.

“Thundercloud,” Lucas says.

“According to Jefferson County’s arrest record, his name is Donald Sutherland. Probably made up. Different color and length of hair, no facial hair, but it’s him. I guess he thought it was funny to take a celebrity’s name. He’s the guy Missy was hiding from the police.”

Lucas takes my phone for a closer look. “Well, I’ll be damned. That’s why I couldn’t find any other criminal record on the guy.”

Never trust computers. Given what we now know I wonder if the resort’s video surveillance was accidentally turned off, if Roger and/or Missy might be behind it, or know who was. Someone, primarily Whiting, had two days to erase the video so it might not have been turned off.

I ask Lucas, “Can you get a copy of the resort’s video from Thursday night until Saturday evening?”

“I can. Why? You said it was turned off during those times.”

I explain my idea.

“I’ll have forensics see if they can recover any missing video. They know how to collect it as evidence. If you’re right, we might have our kidnapper on video.”

We leave Lucas to go about his business. He has been doing more than we thought but given time we could have come up with what he finally told us. The investigation has taken a different direction, and we head back to the house. Ronnie is busy tapping keys on her phone.

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