waiting for the right moment at the right location.”
“But even if they waited for the perfect moment,” Gertie said, “they couldn’t have known the security cameras were broken.”
“Which is why they were probably wearing a hoodie and mask and parked blocks away in a busy area,” Ida Belle said. “Remember, Tiffany told us that was the only figure caught on nearby cameras.”
I nodded. “And an empty parking lot with no occupied buildings at night meant that if it hadn’t been for our lost taxi driver, no one would have found him until the next day. If this was a setup, someone really patient and clever pulled it off.”
“Well, I suppose there was no hurry if it was Tiffany and Liam, right?” Gertie asked. “I mean, there was no ticking time clock on it.”
“There was no time clock as long as Gil intended to remain married to Tiffany,” I said. “But I assume he was smart enough to insist on a prenuptial, especially given the circumstances. So what if their marriage was on the rocks? What if the urgency was because of something Gil was up to?”
“You think Gil was sniffing around other fence posts?” Ida Belle asked.
“Maybe,” I said. “You said he was full of personality and acting mattered to him more than anything else. So what if he joined up with this NOLA group and found someone who was a better fit than someone with no interest in acting and who wanted to stay hidden in her house.”
Ida Belle nodded. “I like it.”
“Me too, except for the part where Liam is involved,” Gertie said. “But it has intrigue and drama and a solid motive if we can prove Gil had his eye on another woman.”
“That shouldn’t be overly difficult to ascertain,” Ida Belle said. “We’ll just head to New Orleans tomorrow and have a word with this acting troupe. You and I can spot a floozy at a hundred paces and Fortune knows a liar before they even speak. If Gil was looking to change up his romantic situation, we’ll know.”
“But it wouldn’t give us proof against Tiffany,” Gertie said.
“No,” I agreed. “That might be harder to come by. But if she and Liam colluded on this, or even if she hired someone to take care of it for her, she’ll slip eventually. Most criminals do, and Tiffany doesn’t strike me as sociopathic. A conscience changes everything.”
Gertie sighed. “I’ve got no particular loyalty to Tiffany, especially after how she treated Liam. But I like Liam. I really hope he’s not involved.”
I nodded. I understood her sentiment. Liam was the wronged party and no one wanted to slide him from victim to perp status. I didn’t either, truth be told. He’d seemed like a nice guy. But if that nice guy had colluded with his former girlfriend to kill his father, then I was going to take him down.
Ida Belle turned off the highway and we headed down a gravel road. A heavy group of trees lined the access road, but after about twenty feet, the woods turned into open pasture with nice pipe fencing. Several horses grazed in the field and even though I knew very little about horses, I suspected they were well bred. They had that muscled and shiny look that you saw with horses on television.
We turned off the gravel road onto another gravel road and then had to stop at a huge iron gate. There was an intercom on a post, so Ida Belle lowered her window and pressed the button.
“Yeah?” A woman’s voice came over the intercom.
“River? This is Ida Belle and Gertie and a friend. We’d like a couple minutes of your time if we could have it. We won’t be long.”
“What about?” River asked.
“A horse,” Ida Belle said.
Hey, it wasn’t a lie. And besides, only Gertie had a rule about not lying on Sunday. I’d never heard Ida Belle make that sort of claim.
The intercom went silent and a couple seconds later, the gate started to swing open. Ida Belle pulled through and we followed the winding drive until it finally ended at a ranch-style house with a huge barn. I could see a bayou in the distance and more horses in paddocks around the barn. As we climbed out of the SUV, a woman walked out of the barn.
Midfifties. Five foot ten. A hundred fifty pounds. Mostly muscle. A tiny limp on the right side—probably an old knee injury. Threat level open, depending on how fast she could draw that gun