Page 60 of Holmes, Margaret and Poe

Sampson held up his badge, and the dude sighed and opened the door.

“I’m Tommy Bowman,” he said. “The owner. What’s this about?”

“John Sampson, DC Metro Homicide on loan to the U.S. attorney here in Virginia.”

“Homicide? Here?”

“No, sir. I just need to take a look at your security tape from last Sunday noon. Check out someone’s alibi.”

Bowman hesitated. “So we — my place and my staff, I mean — have nothing to do with this, whatever it is, right?”

“As far as I know, Mr. Bowman,” Sampson said.

“C’mon in, then,” he said. “Anything for law enforcement.”

Bowman led Sampson to his office, which was spartan and tidy with two desks and two computers. He gestured to one of them.

“I’ll feed the tape to you there, if you don’t mind,” he said. “I’ve got a couple things I have to attend to.”

“No worries,” Sampson said, sitting down.

Bowman went to the other desk and computer, typed instructions on his keyboard, and said, “Coming at you.” He crossed to Sampson, shook the mouse, and accepted an airdrop message he’d sent. A fairly large file downloaded and opened.

“That’s from eleven on,” Bowman said. “We open early on Sundays during football season.”

“Because some fans want to watch the pregame shows with a cold one or a Bloody Mary,” Sampson said.

“As long as someone else drives,” Bowman said. “We watch our patrons. We’re known for it.”

“Good to hear,” Sampson said. “Thank you.”

“Anytime,” Bowman said and went back to his desk.

Sampson thought about what Captain Davis’s assistant coach had said, about Davis being at Bowman’s around one p.m. He called up the feed on the saloon’s front door and fast-forwarded it to 12:45.

He found Coach Penny and Davis on the recording at 12:49 p.m. Sampson switched to the restaurant’s internal security cameras and watched them go to a high table in front of three big screens.

Many people in the bar seemed to know the former NFLplayer; they gave him high fives as they passed. Sampson sped up the feed a little, making sure to keep track of Davis and Penny as the games began and the waitress brought their drinks, beers for both.

Sampson kept waiting for Davis to encounter the mystery woman, which he did at 2:12 that afternoon. Coach Penny was standing at another table talking to two women and a guy when she appeared on the video.

She was as Coach Penny had described her. Or at least she seemed to be; it was hard for Sampson to tell because of the camera’s high, wide-angle perspective, looking down from the ceiling in a corner of the room.

But the woman was wearing a Baltimore Ravens tank top and she was certainly turning heads as she crossed the room. She paused every now and then to scan the bar as if she was looking for someone.

The third time she paused, Davis was no more than five feet away. If she was targeting the football coach, she didn’t show it. Indeed, Davis seemed to initiate conversation with her. After a few moments, she threw her arms wide and hugged him.

They chatted animatedly. Coach Penny kept talking with the three people at the next table as he watched the game, occasionally glancing at Davis. When Penny got up and went to the restroom twenty minutes later, the mystery woman and Captain Davis moved to another table and ordered more drinks.

They partied for a good hour, during which she got up to use the restroom twice and Davis got up once. During his absence, she checked her phone and sipped from a cocktail. At one point, she reached across the table for a napkin, picked it up, dabbed at her cheek with it, then crumpled it and set it aside.

Something about that looked strange, so Sampson rewoundit and replayed the feed a couple of times. He noticed that her hand passed directly over Davis’s glass as she reached for the napkin. The film didn’t have enough resolution for him to see if her fingers had parted as they passed over the glass.

But that could have been a drop, right there. If it was, she’s good at this. She’s played this game before. And she keeps her head tilted down all the time. I haven’t gotten a clear look at her yet.

About fifteen minutes after his return from the restroom, Davis and mystery woman were getting snuggly. She said something to him. He roared with laughter. He threw down cash and they got up. Davis put his arm around her, and she held tight to his waist. Next, Sampson picked them up on the front entrance camera, walking away.

They stopped halfway down the parking lot and kissed. Then they got in a white Jeep Grand Cherokee, the woman at the wheel. The vehicle started, drove forward, turned left, and took the exit farthest from the bar. Sampson rewound the feed from the front door again and used a zoom tool to look at the Jeep as it made the left.

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