that she was on one of those practical joke shows, but when we all just sat silently, she finally broke her silence.
“Oh my God,” she said. “You’re not making this up.”
“I’m not that creative,” I said.
“That’s one word for it,” she said. “So who hired you to look into this?”
“Technically, no one,” I said. “But since the head literally fell into Gertie’s lap, we’ve been asking why.”
She shook her head. “I would be too. So what do you think that has to do with the carjacking?”
“I don’t know that it has anything to do with it,” I said. “But it got us thinking and we wondered if maybe the carjacking was a cover.”
She frowned. “You think someone intended to kill Forrest and they made it look like a carjacking.”
“Is that a possibility?” I asked.
She shrugged. “As good a one as anything else, I suppose. Unfortunately, I haven’t made much headway. No witnesses. No working security system. No recovery of the car, so no forensics to speak of.”
“What about the car leaving the parking lot?” I asked. “Were you able to track it at all on other streets?”
“Not exactly,” she said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
She glanced around, then leaned in. “Look, I never told you this but the department is really low on staff to review hundreds of hours of camera footage. I collected it but the backlog is bad. Really bad. So…so I have my kid working on it. She’s a criminal justice major and intending to follow in my footsteps, but if the department knew I had a civilian looking at footage…”
I blinked. “You have a kid in college? Holy crap! You don’t look old enough.”
She grinned. “I’m forty. Clean living.”
Gertie snorted. “That explains my wrinkles.”
“So did your daughter find anything?” I asked.
“She found a car same as Gil’s on a couple blocks but the plates didn’t match,” Casey said. “I ran the plates and they belonged to a total loss that went to the junkyard years ago. She lost the car on the highway, though.”
“What about the owner of the total loss?” I asked.
“Died in the car wreck,” she said. “The junkyard claims the plates weren’t on the car when it came there, but who knows. I spotted four sets of plates just standing in the drive. The owner is old and doesn’t seem to care much about what’s going on at his business. Is there anything beside the Headless Horseman thing that makes you think this wasn’t a regular carjacking?”
“Did you do much background work on Gil?” I asked.
“I know his wife’s a lot younger than him,” she said. “She ID’d the body. But she didn’t strike me as someone who had the mind to plot a murder.”
“And maybe she doesn’t,” I said. “But before she married Gil, she’d been dating his son for years. I guess it just calls some things into question.”
Casey whistled. “Yeah, that puts a different light on things. Man, I wish I had something to go on, but I honestly don’t. I mean, except for gut feeling.”
“Gut feeling is good enough for me,” I said. “What’s it telling you?”
“That there’s more to this than what I see,” she said. “I can’t tell you why but it just doesn’t sit right. Never did. And then you tell me about this incident at the festival and the wife and Gil’s son and I have that feeling all over again. But unfortunately, I don’t have an avenue to pursue in that direction.”
I nodded. “I understand and agree. There’s a lot of movement under the surface. I just wish some of it would come up for air.”
She checked her watch and stood. “I’ve got to get back. I’ve got an interview, but here’s my card with my cell number. Let me know if you find anything. You’ve got my mind going in a million directions.”
“Can I ask a favor?” I asked as I gave her one of my cards.
She raised an eyebrow. “Another one?”
“Yeah, well, you see, I’m sorta poking my nose into police business without an actual client and my boyfriend tends to get aggravated when I do that, so if we could just keep this conversation between ourselves, I’d really appreciate it.”
She frowned. “You don’t strike me as the kind of woman who would let a man tell her what to do.”
“Oh, I don’t, which is why we have issues. You see, he’s a deputy in Sinful—kinda runs the place really since the sheriff is a hundred and eighty-two years old.”