kept in a kitchen drawer was still there and my wedding ring was on the dresser along with a couple other good pieces. My purse was on the kitchen counter and all the cash and credit cards were intact. Carter said the stereo equipment and my laptop were in the living room…I don’t get it.”
“Me either,” I said.
A tech popped in the room. “I’m going to take Mrs. Forrest for an MRI. She’ll be back in about an hour. You can wait in the lobby if you’d like.”
“Will you please stay?” Tiffany asked, sounding more like a little girl than a young woman.
“Of course,” Gertie said. “We’re going to drive you home when you’re released.”
Her expression clouded a bit as they rolled her away.
“Well, looks like we’re hanging in the lobby for a while,” I said. “Want to flip a coin to see who goes for coffee and Danish?”
“I’ll go,” Gertie said. “You two never buy enough Danish.”
“I bought six last time,” I said.
“And ate three,” Gertie said.
“I was hungry,” I said. “I ran ten miles that morning.”
“Be that as it may,” Gertie said.
I pushed the door to enter the lobby and it almost smacked Detective Casey right in the face. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of us, then narrowed.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Seeing to Tiffany,” I said. “And when she’s done here, driving her home. Ida Belle and Gertie sorta run the support end of things in town.”
“She doesn’t have any family to do that?” Casey asked.
“No,” Ida Belle said. “And she doesn’t exactly have friends in Sinful given how her marriage came about.”
Casey sighed. “Yeah, I guess she wouldn’t. I keep forgetting that whole small-town dynamics thing. Did you see her?”
I nodded. “She’s got a hell of a good crack on the head. Knocked her out for two hours or better, best I can figure. That’s the only injury though.”
Casey looked relieved. “That’s good. Can she identify her attacker?”
“No,” I said. “She was asleep, heard something and woke up, got cracked on the head before she ever saw the guy. And there’s nothing stolen that she could tell either. Wallet, cash, jewelry all intact.”
Casey frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know,” I agreed. “But she only had time for a cursory review before the ambulance came, so you can’t be sure nothing’s missing.”
“All right,” Casey said, and she straightened. “Well, I best get to the crime scene then. I thought I’d stop and talk to Tiffany on the way there, but it doesn’t sound like she’s going to be able to shed any light on this. You ladies stay out of trouble.”
We all nodded, knowing exactly what she was implying.
“So what do you make of this?” Ida Belle asked as we slumped into chairs in the corner of the lobby.
“Nothing good,” I said. “If nothing was stolen, what was the point? He had hours to take whatever he wanted out of the house. And if the goal was to kill Tiffany, she was out cold and an easy target. So if it isn’t about assault or theft or murder, what the heck do we have left?”
“Maybe something was stolen that she isn’t aware of,” Ida Belle said.
“It’s possible,” I agreed. “But Carter won’t know if anything is missing and Tiffany seemed to cover everything of reasonable value.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait until Tiffany’s up to taking a harder look at everything,” Ida Belle said.
I nodded. Somehow, a robbery didn’t feel right. But then, nothing else did either.
Chapter Nineteen
It was another three hours before the doctor reviewed the MRI and cleared Tiffany to leave. Even then, he hesitated when she asked about release, but since the MRI was clear and even her headache was going away, there wasn’t much he could keep her on. And given the reason she was there in the first place, I figure he knew there was no way she was staying put as long as she was able to walk out on her own.
So we collected the records for the cops, and the three of us drove Tiffany home. Carter was standing on the front porch when we pulled up, looking aggravated, but he tried to hold it in as he asked Tiffany how she was feeling.
“The MRI was clear,” Tiffany said. “So fine, I guess. Are they done in there yet?”
“No,” Carter said and his jaw flexed. “Detective Casey wants her forensic team from New Orleans to do the job and they haven’t arrived yet. I should let you