deputy and a PI who is former CIA. Yeah, that relationship isn’t going to have any bumps. But don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me unless I have to go on record with any of it.”
“Thanks,” I said and she left.
“What do you think?” Gertie asked.
“I think Detective Casey is one smart cookie,” I said. “And if she doesn’t like the feel of this then there’s probably something to it.”
It was evening before we arrived back home. I took pity on Carter and had a box of pralines in tow. The movie had been a good action flick and we’d all enjoyed it, but I was glad it hadn’t required much concentration since I couldn’t stop my thoughts from wandering back around to the carjacking, the headless chicken, the stunt at the festival, and the conversation between Liam and Tiffany. It must all tie together but I just couldn’t figure out how. I needed more information and I was hoping the acting troupe could fill in some gaps.
Carter swung by my house shortly after I got home. I was heating up some of the food he’d brought over when he called out from the front door. I yelled him back and he trudged into the kitchen and sank into a chair, looking mentally and physically exhausted.
“A person really shouldn’t look that bad on his day off,” I said and grabbed him a beer.
“I shouldn’t feel this bad either.”
“You look like you’ve been on a CIA mission. All of this is not over a headless chicken.”
“That was just the start of my fun day. After the headless chicken, I got a call from two fishermen whose boat was stuck on something submerged in one of the bayous. Deputy Breaux and I set out in the sheriff’s department boat because it has the biggest engine, figuring we might be able to pull them off whatever they were hung on.”
“But you couldn’t?”
He shook his head. “By the time we got there, the tide had been going out for an hour and they were even more stuck than before. I told them to tie off their boat and we were going to give them a ride home and then address it again when the tide was in tomorrow morning. But then Deputy Breaux poked an oar into the water below the boat and said it wasn’t something natural, like a tree.”
“Another boat?”
“I wish. I looked over at the bank and a little ways upstream, I saw tire tracks leading down the embankment.”
“If the tire tracks were still visible in the marsh grass, they were fairly fresh.”
He nodded. “I got a bad feeling about the whole thing so I called for a recovery vessel. And you’ll never guess what we hoisted out of the bayou.”
“Gil Forrest’s car.”
He stared at me for a moment, then shook his head. “You don’t think his death was a carjacking, do you?”
“Let’s just say it sounded sketchy before and now I don’t buy it at all.”
“Just once, I’d like someone to die normally in this town.”
“There was that guy who had a heart attack last week.”
“While walking down the road wearing his granddaughter’s tank top—and that’s it—and carrying a toilet plunger like an Olympic torch.”
“Okay, so not exactly normal but it was natural causes. That might be as good as you get.”
He sighed.
“You want me to heat you up some of this food?” I asked. “I was just about to eat.”
“No. I’ve got plenty more at home and after being in the bayou all afternoon, I really want a shower more than anything else.”
I grabbed the box of pralines off the counter and set them in front of him.
“So I guess Tiffany and Liam just topped the suspect list,” I said.
“You know I can’t talk about it.”
“Whatever. I’m not an idiot. Young wife who married for money. Son who got thrown over by the young wife and his own father. It’s not exactly a Hallmark movie. And if that carjacking was even remotely legit, that car stolen in NOLA wouldn’t have wound up in a bayou in Sinful.”
He rose from the table. “I’ll leave you to your speculation. I shouldn’t have even told you about the car, but the recovery guys are regulars at the Swamp Bar, so it will be all over by tomorrow morning.”
My cell phone rang and I showed Carter the display. Ida Belle.
“You’re underestimating the Sinful grapevine,” I said.
He leaned over to kiss me, then headed down the hallway. “I don’t know anything about that