Major John Andre faded. Mo put on her deadpan expression and made her first circle around “her” mausoleum.
It was a long night. She kept an eye out for Major Andre as it went on.
He did not reappear.
*
With Van Camp and Voorhaven at the hotel watching the cameras, Aidan felt free to make use of his entire Krewe. They drove out to the convention center.
Aidan walked them through what he knew of the events of the day, showing Will, Logan, Jane and Sloan where each person had claimed to be when Richard was last seen.
“Was Bari Macaby certain she heard someone answer her from the restroom?” Logan asked.
“She’s convinced she heard someone, yes,” Aidan said. “And assumed it was Richard.”
“Let’s play it out. I’ll be Jillian. I was supposedly here—and then onstage with the sound people,” Jane said.
“I’ll take Taylor Branch,” Sloan offered. “And, Aidan, you should be Richard Highsmith. You knew him. You can never tell when something you know about a person might kick in,” Logan said.
“That means Will or Logan gets to be Bari Macaby,” Jane told him, grinning.
“I’ll be Bari,” Logan said. “Will can supervise and make sure we’ll all where we—or rather, they—claimed to be.”
“We’ll go through it once with the assumption that Jillian was involved, and once assuming it was Taylor Branch. We’ll even do a version figuring that Bari Macaby might have been the one,” Aidan said.
As planned, they began going through the scenario three times.
“All right,” Aidan eventually said. “Let’s see if this works. Richard, Taylor and Jillian are all in the greenroom. Bari stops by to see what Richard would like to eat. As soon as she’s gone, either Taylor or Jillian leaves the room. He’s left with just one of them. Say the accomplice arrived by a delivery truck. Bari would be in the kitchen then, arranging for the snack Richard requested. That would leave one of them several minutes with Richard—either to knock him out and carry him, or trick him into accompanying him or her.”
“Via Bari’s emergency exit to her secret smoking nook,” Jane said.
“I think he was tricked into going out with whomever,” Aidan said thoughtfully. “It would be easier to get him out if he was moving under his own steam, voluntarily. He wasn’t a small man. He was fit and well-muscled. So let’s go with the scenario that he was tricked. But if the person in question knew everyone else’s timing, he could conceivably knock him out, throw him over a shoulder and carry him out.” He paused. “That does suggest a man rather than a woman.”
“But there’s an alarm on the door,” Sloan pointed out.
“And the code number to bypass the alarm is 5421,” Aidan said dryly. “Anyone could have gotten that code. I was with Bari Macaby when she used it. Not hard to watch someone and memorize a four-digit code.”
“Maybe Richard was tricked into going outside. What would’ve made him do that?” Jane asked.
“The belief that he was needed,” Aidan said decisively.
“Let’s keep walking through this,” Logan suggested.
“Okay. Will, watch everyone. We’ll begin with the three of us in the greenroom,” Aidan said.
“So here we are, the three of us. And I’m Bari,” Logan murmured. “Mr. Highsmith, what would you like? Ah, yes, tea and some cheese and crackers. Okay, I’ll be in the kitchen.” They went through the motions twice. Both times it took Logan thirteen minutes to walk out of the room, make his way to the kitchen, wait three minutes for a tray to be set up, and return. In each simulation one or the other—Taylor or Jillian—had time to leave while the other urged ‘Richard’ out of the greenroom and down the hall to the emergency exit.
“Four minutes before Jillian had to be back in the stage area so she could be seen by everyone,” Jane noted.
“So, the moment Richard is outside, a vehicle’s ready to take him,” Jane mused. “Probably some kind of delivery truck. Someone, an accomplice, is there and either knocks him out and whisks him away or grabs his unconscious body and whisks that away.”
“And, of course,” Aidan said, “the way we’ve figured it...there are a few minutes in there where anyone might’ve gotten into the greenroom. If, that is, Taylor Branch and Jillian Durfey both prove to be innocent.”
“We’ll look into the security men and the sound-system people, and check out records related to every name that was collected when Highsmith disappeared,” Logan added.
Aidan nodded. “And we’ll need to find out who delivered what on the day of the murders.”
“I’ll get on that research immediately,” Jane said. “We’ll send the info to the home office on everyone questioned when Richard first disappeared.”
“We need more on Wendy Appleby, too. What was her real connection to Richard?” Aidan asked.
“That could be the key,” Logan agreed.