“Every cop in town knows him,” Hernandez said. “My husband worked with him at the St. Pete PD, before Zee retired.”

Drue chose her words carefully. “We work together. He’s training me to do investigative work.”

She made a sour face. “Just be sure you don’t take any ethics lessons from him.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Drue asked.

“Zee has a fast and loose relationship with the finer points of the law,” Hernandez said. “But he knows people, so he gets away with stuff.”

“I talked to Lutrisha Smallwood,” Drue said eagerly.

“The gal who found the body? Not exactly the most helpful witness.”

“She was afraid of repercussions from hotel management, I think. She still is. Did you know she’d gone back to work there?”

“That’s news,” Rae said. “I thought she was working in the bakery at Publix.”

“She told me she couldn’t get enough hours there,” Drue said. “She also said that the hotel manager called all the housekeepers into a meeting not long after Jazmin’s murder, to tell them that Yvonne’s lawsuit against the hotel could force the hotel into bankruptcy. Which spooked everybody more than they already were.”

“Those bastards,” Rae said. “They stonewalled our investigation every way they could. I can’t prove they destroyed crime scene evidence before we got there, but I’ve always believed somebody did. What else did Lutrisha tell you?”

“For starters, she admitted that she and Jazmin were closer than she originally let on when she was interviewed by the police.”

“Big surprise,” Rae said.

“She told me that she’d sometimes cover for Jazmin, when she was going on a date. Instead of going home to shower, she’d shower and change in a vacant room at the hotel, which was a firing offense. She said Jazmin’s boyfriend had once worked at the hotel, but left to take a job at another motel. Have you talked to him?”

“Jorge? Yeah. But he had an alibi for the night of the murder. He works at the front desk at the Silver Sands.”

“The big motel on St. Pete Beach?”

“Yeah. It’s a good twenty minutes south of Sunset Beach. His manager vouched for him, said he’s a good guy. And he’s got no police record. I interviewed him myself. He was really torn up about his girlfriend’s death.”

“Does he still work at the Silver Sands?” Drue asked.

“As far as I know, but remember, it’s going on two years now since all this happened.”

“Did Jorge know anything about a coworker sexually harassing Jazmin?”

Rae shook her head, but her eyes were fixed on the baseball diamond, where her son was now shagging balls in left field.