“I thought it was a carjacking,” Ida Belle said. “Sounded like standard fare for New Orleans.”
“It did,” Judith agreed. “But the last time I saw Gil, he was worried about something. I thought it had to do with Liam but when I asked, he dismissed it completely and I could tell he was telling the truth, at least about that. But something was bothering him. Then he asked me to recommend a good pistol and I knew for sure something was up.”
“Gil didn’t own a gun?” I asked. “I thought everyone in Sinful owned a gun.”
“He had a shotgun for home defense,” Judith said. “But he never was much for local sort of pastimes. Didn’t like to hunt or fish. Mostly he was into his acting and not a lot else.”
“Did you ask him why he wanted a pistol?” Gertie asked.
“Of course!” Judith said. “When a man you’ve known your whole life, who’s never shown an interest in guns, is suddenly asking you for advice on acquiring one, you take notice. But he just said that he figured it was smart to have one with all the late hours he kept with rehearsal in New Orleans. And they traveled to different cities. It’s not like I could argue with him in theory, especially now. Maybe if he’d followed through with the purchase, he wouldn’t be dead.”
“But you don’t think that’s why he wanted it?” I asked, because something in the way Judith delivered the information said that what she heard from Gil wasn’t exactly what she thought was the truth.
She stared at me for a couple seconds then shook her head. “You know, I don’t know that I do. There was an undercurrent—something was going on that Gil wasn’t talking about. Then he turns up dead and I can’t help wondering, even though it seems aboveboard. I mean, as aboveboard as a carjacking can be.”
She blew out a breath. “It’s probably just nerves or me being upset over him being gone. Pay no mind to me. Well, it was good to see you ladies and good to finally meet you, Fortune. But I think I’m going to head home and soak my feet. They did a lot of walking today.”
We said our goodbyes and watched as she crossed the park and disappeared down the dark street. I watched the dark spot where she’d gone from view, then finally looked over at Ida Belle and Gertie.
“Is Judith prone to drama like her good friend Gil was?” I asked.
“Lord no,” Ida Belle said. “She’s a farmer. They’re usually the opposite of drama.”
Gertie nodded. “Farmers kinda own practicality.”
“Then maybe we’re looking at this all wrong,” I said
“What do you mean?” Gertie asked.
“Take the horseman thing out of the equation and what do we have?” I asked.
“A man who was killed in a carjacking,” Gertie said.
“Exactly,” I said. “A man who was killed and a young wife, who used to be in love with his son and who will inherit a lot of money. A man who was recently inquiring about firearms for protection.”
“You think the carjacking could have been staged?” Ida Belle asked.
“Why not?” I asked. “It would push suspicion away from the wife. After all, it happened in another town, not their house. And wives usually go for poison.”
“But surely you don’t think Tiffany drove to New Orleans, killed Gil, and managed to get his car stashed. You met the girl.”
“I don’t think she did it alone,” I said.
They both frowned and I knew they were thinking about the conversation I’d overheard between Tiffany and Liam.
“But then why pull the Headless Horseman thing?” Ida Belle asked.
“That is where my theory departs from logic,” I said. “Unless the car is found.”
“Lots of places to hide a car in this state,” Gertie said.
“I think we need to redirect our focus for a bit and find out everything we can about that carjacking,” I said. “Just to be sure.”
“And apparently about Tiffany and Liam,” Gertie said and frowned.
I nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
“Well, we can’t do it tonight,” Gertie said, “so I vote we head for the maze.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
The maze was in full swing with a line when we arrived. We took our places at the end and waited as we heard the screams of terror and joy and spotted people running out the exit where the monster with the chain saw chased them. That had been Ida Belle’s usual gig.
“Are you missing your role?” I asked when I spotted her wistfully staring at a pair of teens running away from the maze.
“A little bit,” she said. “Removing us from the maze was the smart thing to do after last year—puts some distance on things even though we weren’t responsible.”
“First on the scene always gets the blame,” Gertie said. “But since we weren’t working the maze, I was available to catch another head, so we’re right back in the hot seat. I’m really tired of catching heads.”
“Yes, it does appear that my calculations were wrong,” Ida Belle said. “We wound up front and center for another morbid display.”
“A morbid display of another man already deceased,” I pointed out.
“Good God,” Gertie said. “I hope we don’t have some weird copycat, thinking it’s a lark to put a dead body in the festival every year.”
It was a thought that had already occurred to me, but I wasn’t ready to go there yet. Going down that path left the door wide open, because then the only motive was a twisted mind. There would be no logic behind the act. And twisted minds were harder to pin down than one might think, especially in a place like Sinful where hardly anyone seemed normal.
“Well, the first place that needs to up their game is the funeral home Gil was stolen from,” I said. “Do you have any idea where his body was?”
“No,” Ida Belle said. “But it shouldn’t take much to find out. I can tell you, though, neither of the ones closest to Sinful have security systems. At least not that I’m aware of. Stealing coffins isn’t much of a thing.”
“Much?” I frowned.
“Well, there was an old fisherman who got hacked over the cost to bury his wife,” Gertie said. “He stole a coffin and the body and had a pretty good hole dug in his backyard when Sheriff Lee got there.”
“I have no words,” I said.
“I’ll make some calls,” Ida Belle said. “It won’t take long to find out. Are you going to call the Heberts to get the police report on the carjacking?”
“Yeah, I guess I will,” I said. “Although I doubt it’s going to tell us much short of the exact location and a range of time.”
“Probably not,” Ida Belle agreed. “But you tend to see things that the cops don’t. It wouldn’t hurt to check out where it happened.”
“Definitely,” I agreed.
“We’re up!” Gertie said.
We handed over our tickets and headed into the maze. They’d done a great job, although I sort of missed the guillotine display. It had been replaced with an Anaconda theme, which was done well but wasn’t as scary as the way it was before. But then, no one could lose a head, so there was that. The mummy display was the same but the mummy itself wasn’t nearly as good as Gertie’s. She took one look and shook her head.