Smoke and Mirrors

23

After Brad cleared the room, Winter said, “Close-up skills. These doors lock when they close. Scotoni said Beals closed it when he came in. The guy who came in picked the lock.”

“Maybe Beals left it cracked open so a partner could come in behind him,” Brad suggested.

“I doubt that. The guy cut Beals’s throat. Then he left the toothpick, took the gun, and slipped off without looking for the cash, because either he didn’t know about it, or it wasn’t part of his plan. He knew Scotoni would call the cops.”

“Maybe the toothpick was Beals’s,” Brad said.

“I think the guy who killed him left it to make an obvious connection between Beals and Sherry Adams.” Winter was convinced that Styer had done this and he could read the message loud and clear: We’ll always have New Orleans.

“Why did the killer want Beals found fast? Usually it’s the opposite.”

“The killer knew I’d come here, and he wanted to make the connection obvious to me.”

“I wish he’d just leave notes,” Brad said. “His address and phone number.”

“You knew this Beals guy. How?” Winter asked.

“He was a deputy who went to work for the Roundtable casino after I won the election. Most people in the department seemed glad he was gone.”

“Why?”

“He was the kind of smartass who sets people against each other for his own entertainment. He made inappropriate comments to female deputies. There were lots of complaints about him. After the election, he told me a casino had offered him a better job and I told him to take the offer. Truth was, I didn’t want troublemakers around undermining me.”

“Maybe the casino sent Beals to get the money back,” Winter suggested.

“Maybe Beals targeted the kid because he won and took it in cash. No legit casino would send Beals here to get their money back. Winners draw in losers. If someone cheats, they call us to arrest them. They ask counters to leave.”

“But it’s possible that someone at the casino did send him after Scotoni to teach him a lesson.”

“Casinos don’t operate that way because it would result in the loss of their gaming license and criminal charges. There’s too much at stake. Losing future millions over some chump change is stupid.”

“It isn’t chump change to a guy like Beals,” Winter said.

Brad slipped on surgical gloves, knelt, and gently rolled Beals’s body sideways. He retrieved a leather badge case from the corpse’s back pocket and flipped it open to reveal a Tunica County deputy sheriff badge and the ID. “Bastard kept his star.” Beals’s coat pockets yielded a large folding knife, a loaded.380 magazine, a cell phone, and three red toothpicks.

“We can see who he’s been talking to,” Brad said. He looked at the numbers Beals had called. “Last call was made about an hour ago. Just a number, no name listed.”

“My question is, if this is Styer’s work, how did he pick Beals out, and why Beals?” Winter said, realizing too late that he’d slipped up. “I wonder if my guy has a connection to the Roundtable or to Beals personally.”

“Styer is your guy’s name?”

“Yes, that’s his name. Let’s keep it to ourselves.”

Winter figured that the casino was the direction Styer wanted him to head in. For the present, like it or not, all he could do was dance to the psychopath’s tune.