Peterson rented the van from a U-Haul center on North Irby Street in Charlotte yesterday morning at eight o’clock. He returned it at six p.m. yesterday. Paid by a credit card in his name. He put a hundred thirty-four miles on it and returned it full of gas. I checked his credit card, and he paid for the gas with the same card he used to rent the van. He also bought lunch with that card at a McDonalds in Hickory, North Carolina. And before you ask, Hickory is about sixty miles from Charlotte.”
“You’re a doll,” I said.
“I know. See you later. I gotta go to work.”
“Thanks, Deb.”
I related the conversation to J.D. and Jock.
“Sounds as if young Doug took the Brewsters to Hickory,” Jock said. “Why?”
“We’ll work on that tomorrow,” I said. “Let’s see if the sheriff’s wizards can help us with this video.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
We entered the building, identified ourselves, clipped visitor’s badges to our shirts, and went to the Audio-Visual Department. J.D. knew one of the technicians and she gave her the flash drive and told her what we were looking for. The tech told us to have a seat and she’d see what she could do with the images.
We’d been waiting for about twenty minutes when the technician came through the door with several photos and the flash drive. She had cleaned the images up pretty good. One showed the man in the parking lot clearly. His hair and beard were gray, just like Big Tony and Clyde had said. Based on the height of the car, we guessed the man to be a bit under six feet tall. Maybe 170 pounds.
The car was a late model Pontiac with Florida plates that we could now read. “Got him,” said J.D.
“Unless it’s a rental,” I said.
“Let’s hope not,” she said.
We thanked the technician, and left the operations center. J.D. called the Longboat Key Police Station and asked somebody to run the license plate number. She held. Then, “Okay. See if Hertz has anything. Tell them the renter is a person of interest in a homicide. That might wake them up.”
She hung up. “The car was a rental from the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport. Those guys are pretty cooperative. We might pick up something out there. Let’s go.”
We got in the car. I was in the front passenger seat and Jock was in back, pouring over the pictures the technician had given us. “There’s something off about this guy,” he said. “Look at this picture, Matt. Doesn’t it look like he’s wearing a wig?”
I took the picture and looked more closely at it. The pictures were in black-and-white, and not the best quality, but I could see what Jock was talking about. “I see what you mean. Looks like different colored hair peeking out from under it.”
“If the hair is fake, the beard will be too,” said J.D.
We pulled into the airport and parked in short-term parking, walked to the Hertz desk. J.D. showed the clerk her ID and told him she was interested in who rented the car in the photo she was sliding across the counter.
“Your office just called,” said the clerk. “My manager told me to give you a copy of the contract.” He handed over a sheet of paper. “Do you need anything else?”
“Do you remember this guy?” J.D. asked.
“No. I was working yesterday when he rented the car, but we were pretty busy. All the customers are just a blur.”
J.D. looked at the contract. “Damn,” she said. “Look at this.”
The name of the renter on the contract was John Nguyen.
“That’s Vietnamese,” I said. “Nguyen is about as common in Vietnam as Smith is in this country.”
J.D. turned to the clerk. “Do you remember an Asian man renting a car yesterday?”
“Vaguely. I couldn’t describe him, though.”
J.D. said, “Let’s go find the security chief. The airport has more security cameras than almost anywhere. Maybe we’ll get a hit.”
J.D. led us to an office off the main terminal area. She introduced herself to the Sarasota police lieutenant who was the chief of the airport security detail. She explained what we were looking for and why.
“What time did your guy rent the car?” asked the lieutenant.
J.D. looked at the copy of the rental contract. “One p.m. yesterday.”
“Do you know if he came in on a flight?”
“No idea.”
The officer typed onto his keyboard and a schedule popped up on his monitor. “There were only two flights that came in around the time he would have rented the car. His name is