“Neesa Vincent. Who was supposedly Jazmin’s best friend,” Drue said bitterly. “But after looking at the hotel’s security video for hours earlier tonight, I’d hate to have a friend like her.”

“Why’s that?” Brice asked.

“Neesa was in on Jazmin’s murder,” Drue said. “I’m sure of it.”

Brice signaled for the waitress to bring the coffeepot back around and settled into the corner of the booth. “Okay. I’m listening.”

Drue filled her father in on how she’d tracked down Jazmin’s friend and the revelations she’d made after a night of drinking at Mister B’s.

“Neesa admitted to me that she started trading sex for preferential treatment from Byars, after she got caught stealing from a guest,” Drue said. “The guest complained to management that he’d left eight hundred dollars in cash in the pocket of a bathrobe. Byars lied for Neesa, turned in five hundred, and said the guest was drunk and mistaken about the amount of cash. Afterwards, he kept two hundred and Neesa got to keep a hundred.”

“After you told me that, I pulled up all incident reports mentioning missing or stolen property at that hotel for the past three years,” Hernandez volunteered. “Lots of petty theft going on at that place. Jewelry, cell phones, cash. But not a single arrest was made.”

“You think the head of security was part of the theft ring?” Brice asked.

“We’re looking into that,” Hernandez said. She tapped Drue on the arm. “Don’t leave us hanging here. Let’s hear what you think you figured out from the video.”

“It’d be easier if I actually had it in front of me,” Drue said.

“Hold that thought,” Hernandez said, sliding out from the booth.

A moment later she returned from her minivan with a laptop computer. She pushed away the plates and coffee mugs, raised the lid, tapped some buttons and cued up the video from the hotel’s security cameras.

Drue pointed at the screen as Jazmin’s cab rolled into view.

“I kept going back to that argument Neesa had with Jazmin in the employee locker room that afternoon,” Drue said. “There was a time lag of almost thirty minutes between the time Jazmin arrived at the hotel and when she got to the locker room. Of course, there’s no video to prove it, but doesn’t it stand to reason she had to report first to Byars, and explain why she was late?”

Hernandez paused the video. “Byars told us that when she got to work that day, Jazmin came to him and asked to work a second shift because she needed the money.”