“Are those Jewel’s brothers?” Jonathan asked. “They used her card.”
“It doesn’t mean it was the boys.” His words didn’t even ring true to himself.
He felt his mother’s hand on his arm. “True. We are having Harry look at the other tapes to see if the boys can be spotted anywhere else on the grounds of The Mystic. But we haven’t had any luck so far.”
Clearing his throat, Jonathan spoke. “It looks bad, Joseph, but we want to be sure before we make any accusations. But seeing all three on tape at both places looks suspicious. Do you think you can find out who this other man is? If he is involved we can follow him, or do some digging into his activities.”
Joseph’s mind was spinning. Running his hands through his coarse dark hair, he spoke. “I’ll try. Yeah, I’ll find out.” He’d point blank ask Jewel who the guy was that she nodded at. She didn’t know he hadn’t seen the exchange at the Mohegan. If she seemed suspicious, he’d mention he’d seen the young man several times with her brothers, and just wanted to have a name with the face. His mind worked a mile a minute. He wanted, no needed, answers.
“Can I see the tapes from The Mohegan’s again?” he asked Harry. Harry quickly cued them up, as his mother and Joseph stepped back to speak with Tom.
He watched the tape closely. The one showing the female and male breaking into two rooms came on. He was sure it was a woman. His stomach rolled. He just hoped Lesley and Wesley weren’t involved. And he hoped to God that wasn’t Jewel dressed all in black. She had on a pink sweater that evening, but had worn black leggings with it.
Lesley and Wesley were supposed to be studying for an AP exam after the fights. He knew they didn’t do the break in at the Mohegan’s, but they sure did match the height of the break in at The Mystic. And they had an employee key card with them. It was Jewel’s. What were they doing with it? Did Jewel know they borrowed it?
God, if she were involved, he knew it would break him. He had gotten too close. He had let her seep into his heart.
As he turned to face his mother and brother, he masked his own emotions. This was about business and family. The casino’s reputation for safety and security was on the line, and if things like this kept recurring then that reputation would be tarnished, and the whole reservation would lose. These thieves had to be caught. No matter who they were and why they were doing it.
Joining the threesome in the corner, he asked Tom, “What’s the next step? Where do we go from here?”
“Once we ID the guy, we do a little digging. I have a friend in Tampa, a guy I went to the police academy with, name is Gio, he does PI work now and I put in a call to him. We can get him to look into bank accounts, do some tracking. Your mom doesn’t want this to leak here with the exception of the reservation PD that have been helping us so far, so we thought using outsiders might help.”
Joseph nodded his agreement.
“And . . .,” Tom paused before continuing. He saw his mother nod her approval before he spoke. “We think we should tail the twins to be sure . . .” Tom let his words trail off. Joseph looked ill.
Joseph’s head was spinning. But he knew it was the right call. Glumly, he nodded his assent. One way or the other, the truth had to come out, and the criminals exposed.
His heart told him not to believe she was involved, but his eyes, and brain, and everything he saw tonight, coupled with his earlier suspicions about her brothers, told him something wasn’t right. He couldn’t wrap his mind around it all.
His instincts about people had betrayed him before. He just hoped this time it wasn’t true.
“Jewel and I are going out tomorrow. I’ll get you the information you need. Keep me informed. I’ll text you where the boys are so you can put a tail on them.”
“When I put in that call to Gio, he offered to come up. He is bringing up one of his brother’s to help with the investigation. We can use them without getting any higher ups in the police department involved. Although we did file the reports so the guests can have that for insurance purposes. But the police won’t be able to do the digging we can with these outside sources.”
The police would need warrants, but these guys, well, it sounded like had methods of their own. “When will they be here, this Gio and his brother?”
“They should be here early tomorrow morning.”
“Good, I’ll come in early to meet them. Then I’ll head over to Jewel’s.”
He turned on his heel and left. Heading to the elevators, and instead of going home, he headed up. He needed to be here if any more Intel came in. But he also needed to think. And going home, with the scent of Jewel still on his sheets, he knew he wouldn’t have a clear head. And he needed that tonight.