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and out. Santas are getting on and off the elevators,
mixing with the guests and the hotel staff, too. There’s so much traffic they
can’t sort out who’s who, or who’s talking to who... ” I interrupted.
    “Whom.
Who’s talking to whom, Brien?”
    “Whom,
yeah, sure. Anyway, they figure that has to be when Owen went up to the room.
Police are still rechecking the video, so maybe they’ll spot him. How many
Santas wear Rainbows?”
    “What
about the cameras on the floor where they located the crime scene?”
    “That’s
an even bigger problem. Another clue that an insider was involved—the video footage
is missing.”
    “No
way!”
    “Way!
Somebody wiped it from the video storage. There’s a big chunk missing.”
    “Doesn’t
that mean the inside person has to be a member of the security team?” Brien
grew quiet for a moment, pondering my question.
    “It
makes it more likely, but it doesn’t have to be, Kim. A member of management could
have access to the video storage equipment, for sure. I doubt others on staff,
like guys in maintenance or at the front desk would have too much trouble
getting into the central control room either. Especially as late as it was when
Santa took that dive off the balcony. Whoever called the cops could have dumped
the video footage first then called the cops. Or the culprit could have done it
while the rest of hotel security and the cops were fishing Owen out of the pool.
It would have been easier for a member of the security team who not only had
access, but was already familiar with the equipment.”
    “Eek,
Brien, that’s not good. That means you could have been playing twenty questions
with one of Santa’s assassins.” I came to an abrupt stop as that revelation hit
me.
    “I’ve
been thinking about that. I didn’t tell them I was investigating the crime or
anything like that. I just said I was curious since I’m in the security
business myself and came so close to having Santa drop in on me.”
    “Could
you tell if they believed you?” Brien stared at me without blinking. I could
almost see his brain processing thoughts in those big browneyes of his.
    “Yes,
I think so. They seemed totally cool about the whole thing—not suspicious or
shifty or anything like that.”
    “Let’s
hope if the word gets around about your questions they add the part about you
just being curious.”
    “Good
point. What about you Kim, what did you find out?” Moving again, I filled him
in on what I had learned.
    “The
local news has already released information about a dead man being found in the
pool at the resort. No name yet. They’re using that line about ‘the victim’s
name being withheld pending notification of next of kin’. The media’s making
merry with the dead Santa bit, if you can believe that! More salacious than
humorous, but it’s still sad. That got out there real quick. A hotel spokesman
has already gone on camera making the same point Barbie made—that the dead
Santa is not one of their Santas. It still has to be a PR nightmare.”
    “Yeah,
Kim, resort management must be seriously interested in finding out who killed
Santa. I bet they’ve put the screws to Detective Mitchum to get to the bottom
of this fast.”
    “Except
for the fact that a member of the hotel staff must have been involved. Getting
to the bottom of it means outing one or more of their own employees as a
homicidal maniac or an accomplice. They can’t be happy about that.”
    The
whirring of a golf cart suddenly came into earshot. It was moving at a good
clip, too. We had been walking along the winding cart path almost down the
middle of it. The two of us scooted to one side, trying to get out of the way.
None too soon, either, as the cart bore down on us fast.
    The
Santa at the wheel made no effort to warn us or avoid us. In fact, he veered in
our direction! Brien grabbed me and dove, pulling us completely off the cart
path. We rolled a couple times through the rough between the cart